Press Release
For Immediate Release: August 28, 2018
Contact: Susan Strano, Marketing Director
sstrano@benningtonmuseum.org
802-447-1571 ext. 204
Image:
Bill Botzow (b. 1945)
Cube, 2018
Maple, metal screws
Courtesy of the artist
Working Out, a Conversation with the Artist and the Curator
In conjunction with his current exhibition CAMBIUM (Into the Woods): Works by Bill Botzow, artist and sculptor Bill Botzow and Bennington Museum’s curator Jamie Franklin present Working Out, a conversation about Botzow’s outdoor sculptural installations, his traveling drawing projects, and his way of working. Audience participation in the conversation is encouraged. This program is on Saturday, September 15 at 2 pm in the Ada Paresky Education Center of the Bennington Museum. It is free, but does not include admission to the galleries except for the Regional Artists Gallery where many of Botzow’s works are on view.
The featured projects to be discussed were completed over the last twenty five years. They offer reflections and thoughts on specific places and aim to communicate an appreciation of natural order. Several address environmental threats. The sculptural installations are largely site specific and use ordinary natural materials, sourced locally, such as ragweed stalks, pine needles, maple stems, wood chips, and shrubbery. These temporary installations were created in forests, rivers, fields, and town greens as well as museums and galleries. Many are collaborations with other artists.
The drawing projects are two explorations of watersheds, specifically the Hudson River and a journey to and from the Continental Divide along the Allegheny, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte rivers during the great floods of 1993. Images of selected works will be included in the discussion.
An artist and politician, Botzow was born in New York City in 1945, and became a resident of Pownal, VT in 1982. He is a visual artist who has combined a career in the arts with public service, serving as a state representative. He currently chairs the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. Botzow is a Trustee of the University of Vermont, and has served on the boards of the Vermont Arts Council, Governor’s Institutes of Vermont, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, New England Foundation for the Arts, and River Network. After receiving his BA in 1968 from Princeton University, he ran an after-school tutoring program in East Harlem, NYC, from 1968-70 before working in rural West Virginia, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, and Vermont.
About the Museum
Bennington Museum is located at 75 Main Street (Route 9), Bennington, in The Shires of Vermont. The museum is open 10 am to 5 pm daily through October. It is wheelchair accessible. Regular admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and students over 18. Admission is never charged for younger students, museum members, or to visit the museum shop. Visit the museum’s website www.benningtonmuseum.org or call 802-447-1571 for more information.
Bennington Museum is a member of ArtCountry, a consortium of notable art and performance destinations in the scenic northern Berkshires of Massachusetts and southern Green Mountains of Vermont, including The Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art , Williamstown Theatre Festival (20 minutes away); and MASS MoCA (25minutes away). Visit ArtCountry.org for more information on these five great cultural centers.