Ohio Wesleyan's Ross Art Museum Launches New Exhibition Series
‘Inside/Outside’ Also Expands Museum’s Role as Community Resource, Director Says
DELAWARE, Ohio – Ohio Wesleyan University’s Richard M. Ross Art Museum is pleased to announce “With Radical Love & Fierce Resistance” by artist Sam Gould, the first installation of the museum’s new “Inside/Outside” exhibition series.
“Radical Love” will open Feb. 21 and run through June 2 at the Ross, 60 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. The exhibit was developed in collaboration with Gould and his Minneapolis print shop, Beyond Repair. Museum Director Erin Fletcher said “Radical Love” rebrands the Ross as a site for generative questioning, social cooperation, and bridge-building in response to the social division following the recent U.S. election.
“I believe in the museum as a gathering place and a forum,” Fletcher said. “This project is an invitation to students and faculty to bring the conversations they are having in class, socially, and in their extracurricular activities to the museum. I hope this project will also encourage generative dialogue between the people of Delaware, the surrounding cities, and the campus community.”
New exterior banners and a flag will be on display to signify the activation of the project. Throughout its run, campus and community members are invited to participate in several ways. Visitors may take a free booklet explaining the artist’s vision of the project, which were designed and printed at Beyond Repair. Blank posters and markers are available for participants to share current questions with other visitors by posting them directly on the museum walls.
On-campus and community groups also are invited to reserve space in the museum and hold conversations in regard to the current social and political landscape. Finally, Fletcher said, groups may opt to share these conversations with other community groups across the nation via “With Radical Love & Fierce Resistance Radio” – a streaming and FM free-form radio platform broadcasting conversations, music, and more to build a network of ideas across a divided social landscape.
Individual visitors and small groups are welcome at the museum at any time. To schedule a larger group meeting, please contact elfletch@owu.edu, tpwallac@owu.edu, or call (740) 368-3606. Groups wishing to hold conversations in relation to this project will not be charged for use of the museum.
Artist Gould describes the drive behind the project by saying: “At their most elemental, sites of learning are ground zero for critical consideration of how past creates present, how theory becomes social form. These truths are always vital towards our engagement of civic life, but now they seem – and are – more urgent than I’ve ever encountered. To bring geographically, and ideologically, disparate publics together in conversation and consideration across experience through these simple tools (radio, printed matter) with our project at the Ross Museum, seems to me, not simply a good idea, but a necessity.”
Gould will visit the OWU campus in late spring at a date and time to be announced. To learn more about his work, visit: http://red76.com/main.
Each “Inside/Outside” exhibition, curated by Fletcher, will seek to extend traditional boundaries of art at the Ross and create new ways of engaging with audiences. There will be one exhibit each semester in spring 2017, fall 2017, and spring 2018.
During the academic year, the Ross Art Museum is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is handicap-accessible and admission is always free. Call (740) 368-3606 or visit www.owu.edu/ross for more information.
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers nearly 90 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Through Ohio Wesleyan’s signature OWU Connection program, students integrate knowledge across disciplines, build a diverse and global perspective, and apply their knowledge in real-world settings. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.