Photos: Evening Reception & Earth Week Artist Talk
Thursday, April 21, 2022

Nearly 150 guests mingled with friends while listening to artist Robert Dash discuss his 36 spectacular large-scale photographs on view in our Bendel Mansion galleries.

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On View: February 18 - June 5, 2022

Sunflowers are highly resistant to drought, increased heat, and    disease. They're seen as a key species by researchers looking to support healthy crops in the future.

Food is life. In a sane world, the current threats to our food supply would hijack our attention and rally our action. This traveling exhibition series extols the artistic beauty of food–mostly of the plant variety. It names food’s climate-related threats, celebrates regenerative agriculture, and makes a plea for sanity to prevail.” –Robert Dash

Images: Sunflower Petals, Pollen, Floret, 2019 and Azolla, Floating Fern (detail), 2019

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT Micro Views of Sustenance: Threats & Prospects offers a micro perspective on how one part of nature—our food—is connected to climate change.

Using photomontage to create a surreal conversation between everyday foods and microscopic parts of themselves, this work ponders threats to our staple foods from: crop loss due to droughts, floods, soil loss, pests, deforestation; loss of crop nutrient value, and stresses on developing nations; the wasting of 30% of the food we produce; the shifting ranges of many crops; the shift of seasons and implications for syncing with pollinators; and the crash of insect (bee and other) populations.

At the same time, a great deal of work is underway to make agriculture a net carbon sink rather than a net carbon emitter. These images reference prospects: regenerative agriculture, carbon farming, permaculture, forest gardens; rebuilding soil through cover crops, perennials, agroforestry, no-till, plants such as azolla which have balanced atmospheric CO2 over millions of years; and small-scale efforts to develop locally viable, backyard grains. The goal of this exhibition is to use dramatic art to engage visitors in complex issues and possibilities surrounding the state of food on our dinner plates and planet.

Dash’s arresting photographs engage visitors in complex issues surrounding the state of food on our dinner plates and the future of our planet.

Blueberry Rise, 2019 <br>
Archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination
40 x 40 inches
© Robert Dash
Blueberry Rise, 2019
Archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination 40 x 40 inches © Robert Dash
Requiem for Pollinators, 2020 <br>
Archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination
40 x 40 inches
© Robert Dash
Requiem for Pollinators, 2020
Archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination 40 x 40 inches © Robert Dash
Azolla, Floating Fern, 2019 <br>
Archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination
40 x 40 inches
© Robert Dash
Azolla, Floating Fern, 2019
Archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination 40 x 40 inches © Robert Dash
Buckwheat Cliffs, 2019 <br> Archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination
40 x 40 inches
© Robert Dash
Buckwheat Cliffs, 2019
Archival c-print on aluminum with protective lamination 40 x 40 inches © Robert Dash

Curatorial Programs & Events

Honey Tasting & The Fragile Bee

By Kristin Sinatra | March 10, 2023
May 31 @ 5:30 pm7:30 pm

Taking inspiration from our current gallery exhibition on view, Nancy Macko: The Fragile Bee, this program will center around the great significance of honey bees in our ecosystem. Our own Lisa Monachelli, Director of Education & Heckscher Farm, will provide participants with a fascinating view of the importance of honey…

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Encaustic Art for Kids

By Kristin Sinatra | March 10, 2023
June 4 @ 3:00 pm4:30 pm

Encaustic art is painting with wax. We’ll discover how important bees are by touring our newest exhibition, Nancy Macko: The Fragile Bee, learn how honeybees produce wax, and then use wax to create our own paintings to take home! Although encaustics are typically made with hot wax, we’ll be using…

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Opening Reception: “Nancy Macko: The Fragile Bee”

By Kristin Sinatra | March 20, 2023
April 13 @ 5:00 pm7:00 pm

Please join us for the Opening Reception of Nancy Macko: The Fragile Bee. Since the early nineties, Nancy Macko has drawn upon images of the honeybee society to explore the relationships between art, science, technology, and ancient matriarchal cultures. In The Fragile Bee, Macko combines painting, printmaking, digital media, photography,…

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