This Arts Council-funded grant will support an exhibition of the work of Sheryl Oring and a collaboration between she and UVA’s studio art students to realize a performance of a work. This project was proposed by Professor Dean Dass of the McIntire Department of Art.

With the support of the Arts Council grant, the Studio Art Department will bring to Ruffin Gallery and to the Studio Art programs the work of Sheryl Oring. The centralized Ruffin Gallery on arts grounds will be filled with sculptures as well as other text based work by the artist. The exhibit will also be showcased in front of the Fralin Museum and in front of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. As Ruffin Gallery is the centerpiece of the Studio Art building all students will have every opportunity to experience the work of Sheryl Oring. More specifically, students working in printmaking, sculpture and artist’s books will have the opportunity to collaborate in performance with Ms. Oring.

The exhibition of this work will generate great interest and press throughout the community, as it addresses a kind of collective anxiety present in this historical moment. Furthermore, this exhibition and residency demonstrates the University’s commitment to free speech, to thought itself, to the arts and to the humanities, at a time when all of these basic human rights seem under attack. Oring’s work and surrounding educational encounters with it will demonstrate that both criticality and expression are necessary in art. It will demonstrate that art does not choose sides, but rather, “walks among the wounded” expressing empathy as it goes, to paraphrase late John Berger.

Check back for more information on this Arts Council-funded project’s unfolding timeline.

The Arts Council provides advocacy, advice, and support in the Arts at the University of Virginia. It strives to develop and strengthen the bonds of interest and participation among the Arts Departments, their associated programs,  and their alumni and friends; to advocate on their behalf; to advise and assist with communications; and to help raise funds in support of academic programs, facilities, and special events. Among its multitude of arts advocacy efforts, the Council awards annual Arts Council Grants. These grants have, and continue to play an instrumental role in a number of  residencies, workshops, project and research-based endeavors proposed across Arts Grounds annually. This series of articles will highlight each funded project and serve to inform the UVA community of their unique timelines, progress and outcome reports.