Artists show global perspective through local lens

This year’s closing Richmond Art Museum exhibition challenged participants to submit work that channeled global perspectives through their own unique lens. The result was an array of pieces rich in diverse viewpoints. 

Ten local artists of varying disciplines are featured in RAM’s 127th Annual Exhibition of Indiana and Ohio Artists. For more than a century, the exhibit has cultivated a space to celebrate area artists and educate the community.

Richmond’s Kathryn Girten received the Robin D. Henry Merit and Chad and Rebecca Gilliam Purchase awards for her “Maasai Women” piece and a $500 prize. Amateur Award recipients included Richmond’s Jane Angelucci (“Rollercoaster Road”), Matthew Rodriguez (“Shaker Home Spiraled”) and Shirley Wise (“Firefly”), and Greens Fork’s Jenelle Burris (“Garden of the Gods”). Rodriguez’s other piece, “Shaker Home Quietude,” won the Greg and Donna Reising Purchase Award.  

Other participants included Judy G. Buchholz, Bennett Arthur Ritchie, Lawrence Sexton and Mark Van Buskirk, all of Richmond, and David Samuels of Centerville. 

This year’s lead juror, Herron School of Art + Design professor, Orna Tsultem, shared how important it is to connect one’s art to a larger conversation that extends beyond East Central Indiana.

“By embracing globalization not as a homogenizing force but as an opportunity for dialogue and innovation, this exhibition affirms the importance of regional artists in shaping the future of art,” Tsultem said in a news release. Additional jurors were Indiana University associate professor Malcolm Mobutu Smith and Art Academy of Cincinnati educator Brad Davis.  

Beyond the gallery, the exhibit focuses on bringing the arts to the next generation of visionaries. Yearslong partnerships with local schools allow RAM to impact the lives of 2,200 elementary and 1,100 Richmond High students through hands-on experiences. Grade school students in Wayne and Randolph counties participated in the “Art is…Africa” program, an initiative that teaches culture through art. And with its Experience RAM program, high school students created a mural project using similar techniques to professional artists. 

The exhibition runs through Jan. 10. RAM will be closed from Dec. 21 through Jan. 1 due to Richmond Community Schools’ winter break.