INTRO: Community Selections
Fountain Gallery, Lafayette
As its title suggests, this exhibit serves as a manner of introduction to the local community, as Galleries has recently stepped off the campus footprint and created a new gallery presence in the Perrin building in downtown Lafayette. The INTRO exhibition features artworks from the Purdue Galleries collection that have been selected and commented on by a group of community contributors. Their personal responses are shared alongside the artwork, so visitors get a less formal perspective on these valuable works, based on comments from people in the Lafayette-West Lafayette community.
Purdue Galleries director Craig Martin invited a number of people active in the arts to make selections of their “favorite” works in the collection, or works that had personal appeal to them. They were then asked to write brief statements about the works, emphasizing their honest personal reactions. “How did the work make you feel when you first saw it? What does its subject or message mean to you? And yes, what does your knowledge of the artist or the work’s origin (if you happen to know these) contribute to your appreciation?” Participants were encouraged to speak expressively and even poetically about their choices. The resulting narratives are displayed with the artwork, providing a unique perspective for a visitor that isn’t dependent upon art historical analysis, but rather on personal reflection.