MURFREESBORO
— An international art exhibit, combining the centuries-old art of the tea
ceremony and an ongoing effort to protect the environment, will briefly visit
MTSU’s Todd Art Gallery beginning Monday, Nov. 30.
Seventy artists from around the world, including MTSU
ceramics professor Marisa Recchia, will present their handcrafted Chawan, a
bowl used in traditional Eastern tea ceremonies, in an MTSU Arts Showcase exhibit
in the Todd Gallery through Tuesday, Dec. 8.
“Chawan,
USA” will be
on display during the gallery’s regular hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday
through Friday. The gallery is closed on weekends and state and university holidays.
An
opening reception is set Nov. 30 from 5 to 7 p.m. in Room 224A of Todd Hall. The
exhibit and the reception are free and open to the public.
A searchable campus
parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParking2015-16.
Off-campus visitors to the exhibit should obtain a special one-day permit from
MTSU’s Office of Parking and Transportation at http://www.mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php.
The International Chawan Expo Project began in 2005
to encourage artists that enjoy Chawan to share their work.
“I thought it was time to start a project with the
most simple and useful object, with little commercial value: a tea bowl,” said artist
and exhibit founder Lou Smedts of Mörsdorf, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.
“Nobody was waiting for a tea bowl exhibition in
the museums, the ceramists I contacted told me. So I went to the museums to
convince them that tea bowls are unique art objects. And, surprisingly, the
directors listened and opened their doors.”
Another of the project’s goals is to raise
awareness of recycling and environmentally friendly ways of working and firing
ceramics. Japanese master potter Masakazu
Kusakabe, who guided the 2012 construction at MTSU of one of his
signature eco-friendly and efficient smokeless kilns, is returning to participate in the Todd Gallery Chawan exhibit’s
activities.
The special U.S. exhibit at MTSU comes on the heels
of the 10th anniversary “Project Jubilee Expo 2015” in Vichte, Belgium, which
closed Nov. 1 and drew more than 300 artists from around the world.
Recchia, who also serves as interim chair of the
university’s Department of Art, has been contributing to Chawan exhibits in
recent years and played a key role in bringing this special display to MTSU.
“My involvement with the Chawan Expo began three
years ago, when I participated in the expo in Taiwan,” Recchia said, noting
that the MTSU exhibit is only the second held in the United States.
“What an honor it is to have all these Chawan makers
from around the world exhibiting their wares here. A Chawan may be a simple
object, but there is so much more to a Chawan than meets the eye. A Chawan tea
bowl has a long history connected to the reverence for nature, tea and
ceremony. I hope all that view these Chawan enjoy the honesty of form and
celebrate the international community that brings us all together through the
making of a simple Chawan.”
MTSU graphic design students also have been
involved through instructor Sheri Selph’s Portfolio II class, which designed
posters and a social media campaign for the Chawan display. A catalog also will
be printed to promote this artistic opportunity for the MTSU campus and its
surrounding community.
For more
information about MTSU Arts events on campus, visit http://www.mtsuarts.com.
For more
information about the Todd Art Gallery, including parking and directions,
contact director Eric Snyder at 615-898-5653 or eric.snyder@mtsu.edu or visit http://www.mtsu.edu/art.
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