LOWELL, Mass.-  Featuring an ever-evolving gallery exhibition, public artworks and special events of scintillating light-inspired art works, ELECTRIFYING: The Art of Light and Illumination, will be The Revolving Museum’s next featured exhibition.  The show runs from March 3 through Dec. 31, 2007.

The project was inspired by the history of The Revolving Museum building, originally Lowell Gas & Light, built in 1859.  This architectural gem, one of the top 10 historical buildings in the city, once supplied the piped coal gas that lighted Lowell’s mills, businesses, houses and street lamps during the American Industrial Revolution.  

“This location will serve as a powerful metaphor as we continue to generate new creative energies and illuminate a diversity of artistic, educational and community-focused functions,” said Jerry Beck, founder and artistic director of The Revolving Museum.  “All the artworks will feature light as a central part of everyday life, showing how electricity has revolutionized all aspects of daily life.  The collection also captures the metaphorical concept of how illumination can spark ideas, dreams, positive self image and community expression -- all of which highlight the power, symbolism and metaphors of light.”

The majority of artworks in the exhibition will be created by participants in The Revolving Museum’s youth education programs that include the Teen Arts Group (TAG) a youth mentorship program; Visionary School (an experiential project-driven program with Lowell High’s Freshman academy; Artbotics (a collaboration with UMASS Lowell that integrates art, computer science, robotics and new technologies), Gear-Up Lowell workshops (a program funded by UMASS Lowell Gear-Up Program), 8-Weeks Program (part of a city-wide initiative to reduce gang involvement), Lowell Middle Schools, and others that will showcase their electrical inventions that explore a wide-range of ideas, themes and mediums inspired by light, color and movement.

 

Electrifying  unfolds a wide diversity of artworks, including:

• A series of light bulb sculptures in the shapes of people, houses, buildings, animals and even weather conditions.  Developed through The Revolving Museum’s educational programs, these artworks will also integrating drawing, painting, architectural design, robotics and engineering, thus creating a window of new perspective into the future.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student Conor Sheehan, in collaboration with Clark University students Allyson and Ashley Trull, will use stencil art to create an installation entitled "Fight the Power".  This wondrous conceptual artwork uses images of telephone poles, power lines, transformers, flowers and the human figure to offer a critique of the American popular culture and themes of isolation, technology, commercialism and nature.
• Fiber artists Rachel Faller and Juliet Hinely, students at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, are spending their spring 2007 semesters in Baltimore and New York, respectively.  For ELECTRIFYING, they are making a textile installation through the mail.  During this collaboration, they will be communicating exclusively through their images and writing on the fabric.  There resulting work will respond to the walk-through archway in the Museum’s main gallery, and will include a printed fabric mural using text, images and phosphorescent pigments.  With this creation, the artists explore the varying levels of illumination of ideas through language.

Beige: The Universal Color?

Under The Revolving Museum’s new Artist-in-Residence program, nationally-recognized Provincetown, Mass., artist Jay Critchley has installed “Beige Brigade” as part of Electrifying.  This work suggests that the universe may be composed of the color beige based on scientific research.  Employing light as a medium and the color spectrum as a concept, the installation’s operating motif will be 50 flying machines − beige sand-encrusted planes and helicopters made from discarded, disposable flash cameras which will flash on motion sensors.

“I have long been drawn to dune and beach sand,” says Critchley.  “Learning that the average color of the universe is beige − the color of sand − I entered into a dialogue with physicist Karl Glazebrook of Johns Hopkins University, and earth scientist/oceanographer Graham Giese, about color, light, movement and perception. This inspired me to reconstruct and re-imagine this dialogue and its possibilities."

ELECTRIFYING is funded in part by the City of Lowell Community Development Block Grant, Earth Realty, EdVestors, Hunt Alternatives Fund, Lowell Police Department Shannon Community Safety Initiative Program, Lowell Public Schools, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the Museum’s many generous donors and supporters.

About The Revolving Museum

Revolving Museum is an evolving laboratory of creative expression for people of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities who seek to experience the transformative power of art.  Through public art, exhibitions, and educational programs, the Museum promotes artistic exploration and appreciation; encourages community participation and growth; and provides opportunities for empowerment and social change.  The Museum is open, free of charge, Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm.  The Revolving Museum is a 501(c)(3), charitable organization.  For more information visit  www.revolvingmuseum.org.