FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The University of Saint Francis, President Sister M. Elise Kriss OSF and the School of Creative Arts will host the 2018 Presidential Gala on Saturday, September 15, 6-9 p.m., in the Mimi and Ian Rolland Visual Communication Center on the USF Main Campus off Leesburg Road, just south of Spring Street. The gala opens the 2018-2019 gallery season with “Beyond the Sun and Sea: Contemporary Art of Korea and Japan.” This exhibition is a partnership with Andrew Bae Gallery in Chicago.
Featured artists in the exhibition will include Keysook Geum, Tetsuya Noda and Leeah Joo. Geum is a professor of Textile Art and Fashion Design at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea, and also serves as the president of the Korean Society of Costume. She recently designed the opening ceremonial costumes for the Winter Olympics that were held in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Noda, a Japanese master of printmaking, was the first artist to combine traditional Ukiyo-e printmaking with contemporary screen printing and photography. Joo, who was born in South Korea, is a painter based in Connecticut. She holds an MFA in painting from Yale University and currently teaches at the Maryland Institute of Art and Southern Connecticut State University. Other artists include: Jungjin Lee (photography), Kwang Jean Park (mixed media works on paper) and Jae Ko (pigmented paper sculpture).
A gallery talk with artist Leeah Joo and gallery owner Andrew Bae will be presented in the Weatherhead Gallery and precede the gala at 5:30 p.m. Both of these events are free and open to the public. The corporate sponsor for the 2018 Presidential Gala is 3Rivers Federal Credit Union.
The Goldfish Gallery, located at the Rolland Art Center, will feature a selection of original prints by Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) that present a wide range of forms and compositions that define him as a founding figure of Abstract Expressionism and the influence that the culture of Asia had on him as an artist. Prints are on loan from the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and private collections.
Photographs by Chelsea Nix and Mariano Cortez will be on view in the Artist Spotlight Gallery. They have established PROJECT SIMPLE, a non-profit organization devoted to supplying clean water and nutritional food to impoverished communities throughout the world. Their work has been featured in National Geographic and other major publications. Nix will present two lectures at the Rolland Art Center on Wednesday, October 3 at 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. focusing on her photography and their organization.
“Beyond the Sun and Sea” will be on exhibit from September 4 through October 21. USF gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
The University of Saint Francis is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).
Founded in 1890 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition, the University of Saint Francis offers more than 70 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs through the School of Health Sciences, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Keith Busse School of Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership and School of Creative Arts. In addition to its traditional programs, USF designs focused curricula for working adults in Fort Wayne, Crown Point and online. In 2016, the University of Saint Francis expanded its presence to downtown Fort Wayne. USF Downtown houses the university’s business and music technology programs while offering enhanced internship and networking opportunities for students. The University of Saint Francis campus experience includes 16 athletic programs boasting two individual and four team NAIA national championships, and is recognized as an NAIA Five-Star Champion of Character institution. Approximately 2,300 students from a broad geographic region attend USF.