April 20, 2015
For Immediate Release

By Jordan Snider, student news writer

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Campbellsville University will be hosting “A Day in the Visual Arts” for high school students and the community of the Campbellsville/Taylor County area on Friday, May 1.

The day will begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT with a breakfast for student artists from surrounding counties, tour of the campus that highlights the art facilities, a presentation and a special screening of “Herb & Dorothy 50×50” at 11 a.m. EDT for the high school students with their day ending at 12:30 p.m. EDT.

However, other events, of which the public is invited as well as the students, will take place on the CU campus on May 1. All events are free.

The Pence-Chowning Art Gallery, the Turner Log Cabin and the Chowning Art Shop will be open from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. and also again from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. EDT. The Pence-Chowning Art Gallery will be presenting Campbellsville University's Annual Student Juried Show, and the Turner Log Cabin will be showing works by area high school students in the university's first Area High School Juried Show that is sponsored by the Patrons of the Visual Arts.

All junior and senior art students who attend participating schools are eligible to submit original artwork for the juried show.

Students may submit two 2D and one 3D artwork for competition. There are no size restrictions. Artwork created by students at any time during the 2014-15 academic year may be submitted; there are no fees for submission.

Teachers must submit the artwork Friday, April 24 or Monday, April 27 at the Turner Log Cabin at 503 N. Columbia Ave., Campbellsville. Contact Cora Renfro, adjunct instructor in art and vice chair of the academic committee of the Patrons of the Visual Arts, at (270) 403-2678 to make arrangements for drop -off and pick-up of artwork and with any questions regarding the High School Juried Show.

The Chowning Art Shop will have artwork for sale by alumni, faculty, staff and students with proceeds going back to the Art and Design Department.

There will be a screening of “Herb and Dorothy 50×50” starting at 7:30 p.m. EDT on the lawn of the future site of the next art building beside the Susan Kirkland Tesseneer Art Studio. In case of inclement weather the screening will be held in The Gheens Recital Hall in Gosser Fine Arts Center. The Art Club will have concessions available.

Developed as the follow-up film to Megumi Sasaki's award-winning documentary “Herb & Dorothy” in 2008, that moved millions of art-lovers worldwide, “Herb & Dorothy 50/50” captures the last chapter of the Herb and Dorothy Vogel's extraordinary life and their gift to the nation, raising various questions on art, and what it takes to support art in today's society.

In 2008, legendary art collectors, Herb and Dorothy Vogel, made an announcement that stunned the art world. Known and loved as a retired postal worker (Herb) and librarian (Dorothy) who built a world-class art collection on their humble salaries, the Vogels launched a national gift project with the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., that would constitute one of the largest gifts in the history of American art: to give a total of 2,500 artworks to museums in all 50 states.

This came 16 years after the Vogels had transferred their entire collection to NGA, the majority as a gift, making headlines in 1992. During those years at the NGA, the collection had grown to nearly 5,000 pieces, too large for any one museum to contain.

As a solution, a national gift project titled “The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States” was conceived. Though their collection was now worth millions of dollars, the couple did not sell a single piece.  Having worked their whole lives as civil servants, their wish was to give back to the people of the United States. The Speed Art Museum in Louisville was the recipient of the 50 pieces from the Vogel's collection for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and is seen in the film.

Mrs. Vogel works today to create a living tribute to her late husband and their partnership, the collection they created together, and the overwhelmingly positive legacy they have left on the American art world for generations to come.

For questions about the Day in the Visual Arts at Campbellsville University, contact Susie Trejo Williams, CU's artist-in-residence, who is vice chair of the academic committee of the Patrons of the Visual Arts, at (254) 368-5325 or at azucenatrejo@hotmail.com.

Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 3,500 students offering 63 undergraduate options, 17 master's degrees, five postgraduate areas and eight pre-professional programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.