Edited for Kansan.com on September 21, 2016
Written by Alyssa Hoedl
Twelve Lawrence artists are being showcased in a unique show that's coming to the Lawrence Arts Center later this month.
The exhibit, titled "“Currently Nontraditional,” was curated by Ben Ahlvers, director of exhibitions at the Lawrence Arts Center.
“The art just had to do with 2016,” Ahlvers said. “It didn’t matter if it was a personal narrative or if it was something that had to do with the world. I didn’t prescribe anything beyond that.”
The only constraint for these artists were that the art had to be on a 30x22 sheet of paper.
This specific constraint stems from Elizabeth Layton. Layton was an artist in Kansas that was widely known and applauded for her work. When she died in 1993, the center was given some of her work to preserve, but it didn’t have adequate room to care for these pieces of art.
As a result, the center donated the pieces of art to other museums around the country. Those museums didn’t want the frames her pieces of art came in, so the center decided to reuse the frames for another exhibit, which would eventually become "Currently Nontraditional."
“The frames make the exhibit very uniform and nicely presented,” Ahlvers said. “And it equalizes the different ranges of experience.”
Artists featured in this exhibit are at different points in their careers: one artist is in high school while another lives in an assisted living home. One thing that these artists share, however, is that they all live in Lawrence.
“This is a unique project because the artists are being asked to work with a specific medium and some of them don’t always work on paper,” Ahlvers said.
Lawrence resident Jason Barr is one of the artists featured in “Currently Nontraditional.” His work is about noise and the constant onslaught of media and entertainment.
“That’s my worldview in this piece or any current body of work,” Barr said. “I tend not to to really think about what the theme of any show is.”
Barr, a University graduate, has been in several shows at the center.
“Being able to be in a show with other great local artists is a great feeling,” Barr said. “Being included is not a guarantee anywhere. You have to just work hard and hope others enjoy what you do or hope that your work resonated.”
“Currently Nontraditional” opens at the center on Sept. 30 and continues until Oct. 22. The center will also host an Insight Art Talk about the exhibit at October 10 at 7 p.m.
Notes on this piece: As I do with many of the things I edit, the bulk of my work with this piece was drawing out the important information. The arts writers I work with often write stories starting out with the "when" and "where," so I often end up rewriting the lede to reflect some of the more interesting aspects of an event or exhibit. In this case, I used the lede and headline to emphasize the local aspect of this story and the topic of the artwork.
