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Eco Byway

Eco Byway - Regional Juried Show
June 1- September 10, 2011
Benedicta Arts Center & Saint John's Art Center

Listen to the KVSC podcast about Eco Byway here!

Eco Byway Jurors' Statement

Interstate 94, which spans Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana is considered primarily a route of transportation and commerce. This regional juried exhibition asks us to re-imagine this stretch of highway as part of an ecological corridor.  We have gathered artists connected by this asphalt artery in a wide range of media, materials, and conceptual perspectives.

As jurors, we were struck by the variety of responses and visions, as well as the inventive use of recycled and re-purposed materials. As a result, there was not a single criteria that could be applied to all the submissions.  The artists we selected for the exhibition stood out in their ability to inventively engage with the land through the strength of their ideas, choice of materials, technical approaches and, ultimately, an ability to effectively communicate their message.

It was heartening to see a group of artists that recognized, in different ways, a complex and at times problematic relationship with the land that face us as a society. The work does not provide easy solutions to our current environmental dilemmas. As a whole, the exhibition challenges each of us to reconsider the way we relate to the earth as well as our responsibility to the places we call home.

Jurors:
Christine Baeumler - Associate Professor, University of Minnesota
Peter L. Johnson - Working Artist, M.F.A., University of Minnesota

Eco Byway Award Winners: