Burlington City Arts Opens Fall 2020 Exhibitions, Hosts Press Event

A press event featuring select exhibiting artists, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, BCA Executive Director Doreen Kraft, and the Curator/Director of Exhibitions, Heather Ferrell, will be held Wednesday, October 28 at 11 am in the newly renovated City Hall Park, on the back patio of the BCA Center.

Is a global pandemic and the fight for racial justice truly Unprecedented?

In BCA’s first-floor gallery, Unprecedented? explores the psychological, social, and cultural impact of the extraordinary events of 2020 since the pandemic and intensifying demand for racial justice that has reshaped our world. Unprecedented? invites us to examine our divergent experiences within the shared, expressive framework of grief, hope, anger, containment, uncertainty, and release. Featuring a diversity of media, including ceramics, large-scale photography, digital illustration, sculpture, and video, Unprecedented? encourages us to reenvision what is possible for us as a society while emphasizing the power of art to speak to a pivotal moment in history.

Participating artists include Jeremy Ayers, Becci Davis, Lillie Harris, Akiko Jackson, Brielle Rovito, EveNSteve (Eve and Steve Schaub), Dan Siegel, and Sarah Camille Wilson.

For Unprecedented? BCA has invited five Vermont community members to contribute text that responds to key emotional and psychological states conveyed by an artist’s work. Each participant shares their personal connection to a theme or idea, reflecting on their personal experience and understanding of loss, fear, containment, or uncertainty within the context of this critical, cultural moment. Through the inclusion of community voices, BCA seeks to invite others to reflect, question, or reframe their understanding of local and national current events through the lens of visual art.

Reflection-text contributors include: Tyeastia Green (Director of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, City of Burlington); Dr. Elizabeth Goldstein (Clinical Psychologist); Carmen Jackson (VP Board of Trustees, Orleans County Historical Society); Milton Rosa-Ortiz (RN, UVM Medical Center); and Dr. Tamara Waraschinski (Company Manager, JAG Productions).

Experience the intersection of art, technology, and meditation.

Clay Mohrman: Radiant Thought was created in collaboration with Brittany Langdon and George Philbrick, and is part of BCA’s ongoing series, Project Vermont, dedicated to experimentation by providing a setting for contemporary Vermont artists to push their artistic practice while creating new work.

Unprecedented? and Radiant Thought are presented as part of 2020 Vision: Reflecting on a World-Changing Year, a statewide exhibition initiative of the Vermont Curators Group.

BCA ensures the health and safety of our visitors, staff, and community, including mandatory masks when entering the building; enhanced cleaning and disinfecting protocols; a limited of up to 25 visitors and hand sanitizing stations throughout the building.

Visitors are also encouraged to engage with BCA exhibitions online through an array of virtual tours, programs, interpretive brochures, and videos for both current exhibitions and past exhibitions at bcahomestudio.org.

BCA Exhibitions are funded in part by a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Vermont Arts Council.

BCA’s 2020 exhibition year is presented by Mascoma Bank.