Pool Art Center Gallery 2018-2019 Season

October 5 - 26, 2018: Alumni Exhibition

November 2 - 30, 2018: Third Annual Best of the Midwest High School Competitive 

December 7, 2018: Foundations of Design Student Exhibition

Opening Reception: Friday, December 7, 5 - 8 p.m.

February 1 - 22, 2019: State of the Union  - National Juried Exhibition

Opening Reception: Friday, February 1, 5 - 8 p.m. 

Jonathan Thomas, Juror

Most years, in the month of January, the President of the United States delivers the administration’s view of the nation and plans for legislation to Congress.  This national juried exhibition will ask artists to reflect upon and present their views of our nation to gallery patrons.

Juror Jonathan Thomas is the Manager of National and International Advancement at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. With a fundraising goal of over $4 million a year, Thomas oversees the management of three of the Center’s committees, including a presidentially appointed constituent group created by President Eisenhower called the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts. Thomas works with members to support the Kennedy Center with significant contributions to arts education, international programming, as well as other major projects of the busiest performing arts center in the United States. In addition to cultivating relationships and fundraising, Thomas coordinates and executes major cultural exchanges around the world each year. Past sites include Johannesburg and Cape Town, Milan, Chicago, and Prague.

Thomas holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Administration and Fine Arts from Drury University.

March 1 - 19, 2019: Stranger Fruit

Featuring works by: Jon Henry

Opening Reception: Friday, March 1, 5 - 8 p.m.

Stranger Fruit was created in response to the senseless murders of black men across the nation by police violence. Even with smart phones and dash cams recording the actions, more lives get cut short due to unnecessary and excessive violence.

Who is next? Me? My brother? My friends? How do we protect these men?

Lost in the furor of media coverage, lawsuits and protests is the plight of the mother. Who, regardless of the legal outcome, must carry on without her child. Henry set out to photograph mothers with their sons in their environment, reenacting what it must feel like to endure this pain. The mothers in the photographs have not lost their sons, but understand the reality, that this could happen to their family. The mother is also photographed in isolation, reflecting on the absence. When the trials are over, the protesters have gone home and the news cameras gone, it is the mother left. Left to mourn, to survive. The title of the project is a reference to the song “Strange Fruit.” Instead of black bodies hanging from the Poplar Tree, these fruits of our families, our communities, are being killed in the street.

May 3 - 10, 2019: APEX Senior Exhibition

Opening Reception: Friday, May 3, 5 - 8 p.m.