Pryor Art Gallery Hosts American Watercolor Society Annual Traveling Exhibit
Columbia State Community College’s Pryor Art Gallery will feature the Annual Traveling Exhibit of the American Watercolor Society. The exhibit will be open to the public from August 1 until September 30.
“The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is the pre-eminent international watercolor organization,” stated Rusty Summerville, Pryor Art Gallery interim curator. “For more than 150 years, it has been renowned for its art and the artists who have been selected as members. Among those artists who have been members of the society include American impressionist Childe Hassam, regionalists Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield, and one of America's best known and celebrated artists, Andrew Wyeth.”
The American Watercolor Society is a nonprofit membership organization that began in 1866 to promote the art of watercolor painting in America. Each year the prestigious society holds a juried exhibition of watercolors from artists throughout the world.
“The last time the exhibit was hosted by the Pryor Art Gallery was more than two years ago, pre-COVID-19,” Summerville said. “This exhibit signals a ‘return to normal’ in the arts community and the Pryor Gallery at Columbia State.”
To be selected for the annual AWS exhibit, more than 1,100 artists from throughout the U.S. and 32 foreign countries submitted their work to a panel of jurors chosen from Signature Members of the AWS. Of these submissions, 140 paintings were selected for the exhibition. Forty paintings from the show were selected for the Traveling Exhibition, which will tour museums and galleries across the country during the next year. For the schedule of the Traveling Exhibition and to view images of the prize-winning entries, visit www.awsinc.org.
“Columbia State is extremely proud to once again host this important international exhibit in the Pryor Art Gallery,” Summerville said. “We hope that everyone within the Middle Tennessee and northern Alabama area will take the opportunity to visit the Pryor Art Gallery and view these wonderful paintings.”
The exhibit is free and open to the public. The Pryor Art Gallery is in the Waymon L. Hickman Building on the Columbia Campus located at 1665 Hampshire Pike and is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. For additional information about this exhibit, please visit www.ColumbiaState.edu/PryorGallery.
For more information about the Pryor Art Gallery, contact Lisa Hoffman at 931.540.2883 or lhoffman5@ColumbiaState.edu.