In This Issue…
• Jenne Glover – “Weighing In” on the cover of the Journal of the National Medical Association (May – June 2012)
• Editor’s Perspective: The Olympic Summer Games Golden Experience
• Eric Key: Arts Program Director, University of Maryland University College (UMUC)
• Mark Your Calendars!!!
Eric Key Hosting “Artist Talk” with Jenne Glover, Artist-in-Residence at The Gallery at IONA
Wednesday, August 29, 2012 @ 6:30 pm
4125 Albemarle Street, NW (at the Tenleytown Metro)
Washington, DC 20016
Weighing In Mixed Media 6”x6”
Editor’s Perspective: The Olympic Summer Games Golden Experience
I’ve been hooked on the Olympics since childhood. And, every four years, I watch as much as I can. Swimming, track and gymnastics are my favorites, but I’ll watch almost anything.
Seeing the athletes perform and hearing their stories is a testament to the hard work, sacrifice, and team effort required to compete on this level.
They remind us of what the human body can physically achieve when tuned in on self-development and mastering a skill.
Even though I enjoy watching the competitions, it is a relief to know the 2012 games have come to a close, and I can finally walk away from the television.
It’s too bad we don’t settle all conflicts in the sand.
Peace!
Eric Key: Arts Program Director, University of Maryland University College
Photograph by Steven Halperson, Tisara Photography
Building
Sharing
Protecting the Legacy
It only takes a few minutes with Eric Key to understand how much he loves his work. As the Arts Program Director at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC), he is responsible for the program’s overall management, with an annual budget of $560,000, which includes salaries, insurance, programming, and catalogue production. Tasked with creating six major exhibitions a year, Eric works closely with his staff to make the most of their resources, while also attracting additional dollars and diverse audiences. But in spite of the challenges, he finds that the university community is always more than willing to help.
Eric joined the UMUC staff in October 2008, just in time to work with Joseph Holston on his exhibition “Color in Freedom: Journey Along the Underground Railroad.” Since then, he has orchestrated a number of other, unique exhibits, including his latest, featuring the whimsical work of Noi Volkov, a Russian painter and ceramic artist, who endured years of Soviet repression before immigrating to the United States.
Noi Volkov
Mona Lisa in Pop Art – front
Photograph by Genna Gurvich
Eric found his true passion as soon as he stepped on to the campus of Hampton University, a traditionally black institution, with a rich cultural legacy. As his first real exposure to African American art and history, college marked the beginning of Eric’s long and ardent love affair with both.
A self-described country boy, Eric grew up in Smithfield, Virginia, on a farm in a sharecropping community. He didn’t know he was poor because his family had food on the table every night. Still, farm life was demanding. He rose at 5 am to feed the hogs, got ready for school, caught the bus at 8, and was back home by 4:30, just in time to watch his favorite television show. Evenings were spent picking vegetables and doing homework.
Besides raising and slaughtering chickens and hogs, his family grew all sorts of produce, which they preserved and canned. My mouth watered as he recalled his great-great grandmother’s spoon bread, his grandmother’s homemade ice cream, and the juicy peaches and apples he picked from the trees in their yard.
Noi Volkov
Napoleon and Picasso
Photograph by Genna Gurvich
Not surprisingly, Eric’s high school curriculum did not include African American history. Although he did know something about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, along with both the American Revolution and the Civil War, he had no real sense of his own cultural heritage as a black American. But that all changed at Hampton, where his very first English course included a lesson on “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the “Negro National Anthem.”
It was in this environment of self-discovery that Eric decided to major in political science and minor in history. He also came to understand the wisdom behind his great-grandmother’s assertion that a college education was the one thing no one could ever take away from him.
So after earning his undergraduate degree at Hampton, Eric continued to feed his passion for black art and history, by completing a graduate program there, in, of all things, museum studies. (To this day, he remembers what he now considers his most valuable lesson in graduate school – learning how to transport fragile artwork, by packing a raw egg for safe shipping.)
Eric landed his first job out of graduate school, as an intern with the African American Museum in Dallas, Texas, which eventually turned into a full-time curatorial position. His first solo exhibition featured a collection of African masks. And after researching the artifacts; writing and producing a catalog; and presenting a series of educational programs, Eric figured out that while he wasn’t going to get rich doing what he liked, he certainly loved what he was doing.
Noi Volkov
Two Knights – front
Photograph by Genna Gurvich
Today, he is responsible for exhibiting, maintaining, and preserving UMUC’s permanent art collections, which include more than 1,800 pieces. For Eric, it is a source of great pride to keep this art out of storage and on the walls for students, staff, and visitors to enjoy at the university’s Inn and Conference Center, as well as its Administration Building and its Academic Center at Largo.
Noi Volkov
New Look
Photograph by Genna Gurvich
As the Arts Program continues to grow, Eric has also laid the groundwork for a new and more cohesive acquisitions policy, which includes an annual acquisitions budget and a standing subcommittee on UMUC’s Art Advisory Board. This group considers each piece separately with respect to both quality and suitability, while carefully vetting the artist’s career, including his/her track record in community outreach and education. Moreover, Eric has developed an exceptional network of art lovers and patrons, who help him identify and secure the work of up and coming artists.
Noi Volkov
Duchamp Conception
Photograph by Genna Gurvich
Because Eric believes in art as an educational tool, he has pushed to incorporate the Arts Program as an integral part of UMUC’s curriculum. Likewise, he encourages students not only to use these collections for research, but to publicly disseminate their findings, as well. Eric and his staff are also reaching out to local educators in an effort to put art and artists into the schools, wherever possible.
In fact, he likes nothing better than to promote the Arts Program as a resource for artists of all ages and stages in their careers. His wish list includes an unlimited budget for sponsoring community workshops and underwriting grants for travel and study. Eric also relishes the idea of having artists become more involved in teaching for UMUC overseas, as well as online; and thinks it would be great if there was a special arts program scholarship fund. But for now, he is making the most of the university’s exhibit schedule (which is mapped out several years in advance) to showcase artists who exemplify UMUC’s enormous diversity as a global institution.
As a historian, Eric believes good exhibitions should tell extraordinary stories that are factual, rather than embellished, because that’s the only way we are truly able to learn from our experience.
Take his own story, for example. Growing up on a farm, in a multi-generational family of farmers, provided him with a unique perspective into the many ways history defines and shapes our future endeavors. So accordingly, going from farmer to fine art administrator is not really a huge leap when you consider that cultivating a field of crops is a lot like nurturing and preserving an art collection. Because, of course, one feeds the body, while the other feeds the spirit.
You may reach Eric Key at 301-985-7937 or at ekey1@umuc.edu. See more art at http://www.umuc.edu/visitors/events/art/index.cfm.
