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‘Mindful’ Exhibition, Workshops Explore Mental Health

“My Other Self Sanctuary,” by Michael Janis; kiln-formed glass, glass powder imagery, steel, 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch.

Offering an opportunity to encounter and understand mental health through the lens of contemporary craft, the first exhibition of The Gallery at Penn College’s 13th season opens Aug. 13 and runs through Oct. 11.

“Mindful: Exploring Mental Health Through Art” studies the impact mental illness has on society, and the role the arts can play in encouraging positive self-expression and guiding effective mental health promotion and treatment.

A reception is set for Thursday, Sept. 6, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. in the gallery, located on the third floor of Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Madigan Library.

In conjunction with the reception, a special lecture will be offered at 5:30 p.m. in the library’s second floor reading loft. Presented by “Mindful” artist Meredith Grimsley, “Trauma: Legacy, Biology and the Path to Healing” will discuss family history, the endurance of the human spirit and the gift of healing.

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Events Gallery

Penn College Gallery Announces New Exhibition Season

The Gallery at Penn College has announced its 2018-19 season of contemporary art exhibitions.

The Gallery at Penn College is celebrating its 13th season with a dynamic roster of programming showcasing a range of artistic mediums addressing diverse social topics, including mental health, human rights, consumerism and compassion.

“The new season offers a series of thought-provoking exhibitions that tackle social justice and human rights issues,” said Penny Griffin Lutz, gallery director. “The first exhibition of the season, ‘Mindful,’ embraces difficult questions regarding our perceptions of mental health and attempts to bring this common illness out in the open to initiate dialogue and understanding. ‘Mindful’ features work by contemporary artists who have either been diagnosed with mental illness or have been affected by it through friends or family.”

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Gallery General Information

Penn College Gallery Receives National Endowment for the Arts Grant

A National Endowment for the Arts grant of $10,000 will support public programming offered by The Gallery at Penn College as part of its upcoming exhibition, “Mindful: Exploring Mental Health Through Art.”

The Challenge America grant is awarded by the NEA to support projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations – those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics or disability.

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Art and Graphic Design Events Faculty & Staff Gallery Sciences, Humanities & Visual Communications

In Any Medium, Campers’ Artistry is Well-Done

A camper delights in her clay creation: an elephant-inspired bee house. When complete, campers can place their bee houses outside their homes to enhance bee habitat.
A camper delights in her clay creation: an elephant-inspired bee house. When complete, campers can place their bee houses outside their homes to enhance bee habitat.
Penn College art studios offer welcoming space for artistic expression and exploration. Here, a young camper adds finishing touches to his creation in a printmaking workshop.
Penn College art studios offer welcoming space for artistic expression and exploration. Here, a young camper adds finishing touches to his creation in a printmaking workshop.
For outdoor fun, Varner adds detergent to a camper’s wet felting project that incorporates wool roving.
For outdoor fun, Varner adds detergent to a camper’s wet felting project that incorporates wool roving.
A tie-dye T-shirt complements a tie-dye wool ball, which was later transformed into a felted bowl.
A tie-dye T-shirt complements a tie-dye wool ball, which was later transformed into a felted bowl.
In a needle felting session, a camper crafts a Brachiosaurus.
In a needle felting session, a camper crafts a Brachiosaurus.

Creative spirits soared this week at Penn College’s Creative Art Camp, held Monday through Thursday, in the Bush Campus Center art studios. About 30 campers, entering fourth through seventh grades, explored a wide range of media and crafted objects from clay bee houses to felted bowls and animals. The day camp, coordinated by Penny Griffin Lutz, director of The Gallery at Penn College, featured three local artists/art educators as camp instructors: Deborah L. Stabley, adjunct art faculty, Penn College; Andrea McDonough Varner, art educator, Williamsport Area High School; and Holley Fuller, a 2018 art education graduate of Lycoming College.

Gallery Nursing Nursing & Health Sciences Students

Inside Look: Nursing Care of Children

With Carra M. Rishel, of Danville, a child learns how IVs work.

Throughout the spring semester, students in the Nursing Care of Children course shared a unique learning opportunity with homeschool students, each group learning from the other.

Over the course of the semester, small groups of nursing students invited small groups of homeschoolers to campus. Each student group developed a short education session – topics included fire safety and tooth care – then engaged the children in checking blood pressures and heart rates, testing hearing, and other activities.

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Events Gallery

Region’s Artistic Bounty Manifest at Exhibit’s Opening Reception

A Sunday afternoon offers artistic adventures.

The Gallery at Penn College filled with around 200 guests on Sunday, celebrating the opening reception of the Regional Juried Exhibition 2018. Forty of the 51 artists featured in the exhibit attended the reception, along with “an incredible outpouring of support from friends, family and art patrons,” according to Gallery Director Penny Griffin Lutz. “We received many positive comments about the quality of the work in the show, as well as the range of media represented,” Lutz added. “We live in an area with many exceptional artists and were happy to feature just a sampling of the creative work happening in our region.” At the reception, six awards were presented: first place and a $750 cash prize to Anna Kell, of Lewisburg, for her painting, “Specimen Bouquet”; second place and a $500 cash prize to Becky McDonah, of Millersville, for her wearable art, “Adorning Implements of Extraction: A Tribute to Tweezers and the Sliver”; third place and a $350 cash prize to Vicki Renn, of Sunbury, for her watercolor, “The Ladies of the Club”; honorable mention and a $250 cash prize to John McKaig, of Williamsport, for his print, “Queer Insomnia II”; the President’s Award and a $200 cash prize to Michael Hower, of Enola, for his photograph, “Lock Ridge”; and the Director’s Award and a $200 cash prize to Joelle Cicak, of Harrisburg, for her sculpture, “The Last of the East Fork Pack.” The exhibition is on display through July 27 in the gallery, on the third floor of the Madigan Library. Summer hours for the gallery are: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays, and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. (The gallery will be closed July 1-4, as well as Saturdays and Mondays.)

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Events Gallery

Exhibition at Penn College Celebrates Regional Art Talent

Exhibit logoA celebration of the diversity and quality of regional art will be hosted by The Gallery at Penn College with its Regional Juried Exhibition 2018, set for May 29 through July 27.

Showcasing 63 creative pieces by 51 artists representing 35 Pennsylvania cities and towns, the exhibition includes a reception set for Sunday, June 3, from 2 to 5 p.m. in the gallery, located on the third floor of Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Madigan Library. Awards will be presented at 3 p.m. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public.

The fine art display features work by emerging and established contemporary artists. An open-themed exhibition, the show highlights recent work in a variety of styles and media by artists residing within 100 miles of Williamsport. Among the mediums included are: metal, stoneware, textile, photography, printmaking, mixed media, and paintings in oil, watercolor, acrylic, and pen and ink.

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Art and Graphic Design Events Gallery Sciences, Humanities & Visual Communications Students

Design Students’ Portfolio Show Opens in College Gallery

A bowtie-accented Jonathan D. Straub, of Williamsport, fronts an array of his design work.
A bowtie-accented Jonathan D. Straub, of Williamsport, fronts an array of his design work.
Fingers and cellphone cameras are pointed at the students' impressive output.
Fingers and cellphone cameras are pointed at the students’ impressive output.
Effective product placement spotlights the creativity of Austin L. Fulton, from Montoursville.
Effective product placement spotlights the creativity of Austin L. Fulton, from Montoursville.
Daniel T. Wrench, of Jersey Shore, engages gallery patrons in a discussion of his work.
Daniel T. Wrench, of Jersey Shore, engages gallery patrons in a discussion of his work.

Artwork by a dozen graphic design seniors is on exhibit in The Gallery at Penn College, the latest incarnation of a yearend campus tradition. A public reception for “Design 2018” was held Friday evening on the third floor of Madigan Library, where the portfolio display continues through May 10.
Photos by J.J. Boettcher, student photographer

Art and Graphic Design Events Gallery Sciences, Humanities & Visual Communications Students

‘Design: 2018’ Showcases Senior Students’ Portfolios

"Design 2018"

Twelve graphic design seniors at Pennsylvania College of Technology will exhibit their work as part of “Design: 2018,” the annual student portfolio exhibition in The Gallery at Penn College.

A public reception for the exhibit’s opening will be held Friday, April 27, from 4 to 6 p.m., in the gallery, located on the third floor of the Madigan Library. The design work will be on display April 27 through May 10.

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Alumni Events Faculty & Staff Gallery Students

Happy Returns of the Day

Time stands still in this Penn's Inn group photo of reunion attendees, representing the college's historic and formative early years.

About 50 alumni of Williamsport Technical Institute returned to campus on Friday for an annual reunion of graduates from the institution that laid the foundation for today’s Pennsylvania College of Technology. Established by the Williamsport School District, WTI developed many innovations in hands-on adult education before becoming the third community college in the state in 1965 and later Penn College. In addition to reminiscing, the alumni – whose graduation years ranged from 1945 to 1966 – heard from current students about the latest advancements in the college’s welding, occupational therapy assistant and mechatronics academic programs. After a morning of nostalgia and student presentations, the group gathered for lunch and toured the college’s art gallery and veterans’ resource center.

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Events Gallery

Artist’s Aim in Exhibit: Invoking Compassion

Entering the gallery to “Hope and History”
Entering the gallery to “Hope and History”
Peck laughs while answering a visitor’s question.
Peck laughs while answering a visitor’s question.
Guests contemplate Peck’s intimate oils.
Guests contemplate Peck’s intimate oils.
The artist points out details during her talk.
The artist points out details during her talk.
“Immemorial” (at right) and other works offer a unique world view.
“Immemorial” (at right) and other works offer a unique world view.

Oil paintings embedded with the intention of stirring compassion were explored by guests at the opening of “Hope and History” Thursday night in The Gallery at Penn College. Artist Judith Peck shared her process and answered questions during the artist’s talk, which drew a sizable crowd of college and community members. Peck’s intimate storytelling on canvas aims to expose our shared humanity, with observations on individual grief and small acts mirroring collective hope and healing. The artist remarked on the beauty of The Gallery space and the welcoming reception she’s received during her visit. “Hope and History” runs through April 18 on the third floor of Madigan Library. The Gallery at Penn College is open 2 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. The gallery is closed Saturdays and Mondays, and will be closed on Easter Sunday, April 1.

Events Gallery

History, Healing Explored in Exhibit’s Oil Paintings

Judith Peck’s “Ripple Effect,” oil and plaster on board, 31 inches by 33 inches

Judith Peck has made it her life’s work to paint about history and healing. She portrays the broken yet beautiful human experience in her oil paintings.

The Gallery at Penn College will host “Hope and History,” a collection of Peck’s work, March 13 through April 18. A Meet the Artist Reception is set for Thursday, March 15, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., featuring an artist’s talk at 5:30 p.m. The reception and exhibit are open to the public and free of charge.

“I look at the things happening in the world today, and what history has taught us about our broken world, and I can’t stop being drawn into the unreason of it all,” Peck says in her artist’s statement. “What I try to express in my art is that we all have the same hopes and dreams as anyone, anywhere at anytime in the present or throughout history. I depict how, despite our rifts, we might experience healing in a broken world, and how that undertaking is universally human.”

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Events Faculty & Staff Gallery Students

‘Old Books/New Lives’ Treats Discards With Distinction

Reborn into "The Butterfly Book," this work by Yousef I. Asiri provides an apt example of metamorphosis. Asiri, of Saudi Arabia, is a plastics and polymer engineering technology student.

The first floor of Madigan Library is overflowing with imaginative creations by Pennsylvania College of Technology students: “Old Books/New Lives: The Art of Upcycling,” an exhibit of “novel” artwork, is on display through Feb. 28.

The library and The Gallery at Penn College invited students, faculty and staff to upcycle a selection of old books into creative art objects. The result is a presentation of more than 50 inventive pieces.

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Events Faculty & Staff Gallery Students

Books as Art Decorate Penn College Library, Gallery

Adele Crawford's “Spinning Lexicon,” dictionary, dowel, found box, 12 inches by 5 inches

Visually stunning reinventions of the printed page will fill the Madigan Library at Pennsylvania College of Technology in two exhibitions in January and February.

“Books Undone: The Art of Altered Books,” a national juried exhibit, will showcase 58 imaginative works in The Gallery at Penn College, located on the third floor of the library, and “Old Books/New Lives: The Art of Upcycling,” a display of student creations, will be presented on the first floor of the library.

The exhibits will run Jan. 11 through Feb. 28, with a gallery reception scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 18, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Awards for “Books Undone” works will be presented at 5:30 p.m. The reception and exhibits are open and free of charge to the public.

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