Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Six works created by two Mississippi State art department faculty members are part of the Nov. 1-Jan. 25 Mississippi Museum of Art's 2014 Mississippi Invitational exhibition.
Adrienne and Neil Callander of Starkville each have three separate works that recently were selected for the exhibition annually administered by the Jackson-based cultural institution. Specifically, the program promotes recent developments--including work in diverse media--by contemporary visual artists living and working in Mississippi.
After considering a total of 115 submitted works, guest curator Carla Hanzal spent six days conducting in-person studio visits with 24 applicants. Hanzal ultimately selected 15 of those 24 artists for participation in this year's exhibition.
A trustee for the International Sculpture Center in New Jersey, Hanzal is the former curator of modern and contemporary art at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"This was a unique opportunity for me to become better acquainted with one of the most creative and artistically diverse regions of the country," she said. "Mississippi is surely one of the richest states with respect to art and the making of art. It is astonishing."
Adrienne Callander is in her third year of teaching art appreciation, sculpture and design courses at MSU. Previously, she has taught sculpture, design, art history and contemporary criticism in New Jersey, Indiana, Kentucky and elsewhere in Mississippi.
A New York City native, Adrienne currently serves as adviser to the university's Fiber and Paper Arts Club and recently began duties as the art department's exhibition coordinator. She holds a master of fine arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and a bachelor's in history from Reed College, with additional studies completed at the Maryland Institute College of Art. For more, visit adriennecallander.com.
Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Neil Callander has served as an assistant professor of art at Mississippi State since 2012. He also coordinates the art department's foundations program.
A former University of Louisville assistant professor of painting and drawing, Neil holds a master of fine arts of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, as well as a bachelor of fine arts from Indiana University. For more, visit neilcallander.com.
With a primary mission "to engage Mississippians in the visual arts," the Mississippi Museum of Art is located at 380 South Lamar Street in downtown Jackson. Regular museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday.
Admission to the 2014 Mississippi Invitational is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors; $6 for students, which includes admission to the "Spanish Sojourns: Robert Henri and the Spirit of Spain" exhibition. Museum members and children ages 5 and under are free.
Support for the exhibition is provided in part by a grant from the Mississippi Development Authority's Tourism Division, with additional support from the Hiatt-Ingram Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson/Jane Hiatt and Yates Construction in Jackson.
For more information on current and future MMA exhibits, programs and special events, contact the museum at 601-960-1515 or visit www.msmuseumart.org.
Complete details about MSU's College of Architecture, Art and Design and its art department may be found at www.caad.msstate.edu, www.facebook.com/CAADatMSU and www.twitter.com/CAADatMSU.
Discover more about MSU at www.msstate.edu, www.facebook.com/msstate, www.instagram.com/msstate and www.twitter.com/msstate.