Explore the shared inspiration between Barrie Kaufman, Sarah Bassingthwaighte and
Maurice Cohn
Join us this Wednesday from 6–8 PM in the Juliet Art Museum for a special collaborative event with the West Virginia Symphony!
Artist Barrie Kaufman, composer Sarah Bassingthwaighte, and WV Symphony Music Director Maurice Cohn come together for a lively, in-depth conversation exploring the inspiration behind Svalbard Symphony and the artwork featured in Barrie Kaufman: Life Leading to the Arctic. The exhibition brings together works spanning Kaufman’s career alongside a significant new body of work inspired by her time in the Arctic and her firsthand observations of its rapidly changing environment.
Kaufman and Bassingthwaighte met while both attending the Arctic Circle expeditionary residency program which invites international artists, scientists, educators and innovators to live and work aboard an Arctic-class expedition ship while sailing the waters of the international territory of Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago just 10 degrees latitude from the North Pole. It was there that Kaufman began developing the ideas for her newest body of work and formed a connection with Bassingthwaighte that would eventually lead to bringing her Svalbard Symphony to Charleston.
This collaboration brings together two internationally recognized artists and two cornerstone West Virginia arts institutions through a shared exploration of art, music, place, and the environmental changes shaping the world around us.
This event is free to the public.
This exhibition is presented with support from the Bernard H. & Blanche E. Jacobson Foundation, Daywood Foundation, The Elliot Family Foundation, Herscher Foundation, Inc., and Friends of Clay Center. The Clay Center’s performing and visual arts offerings are presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts.