Celebrating Artpark

In association with the UB Art Gallery, Artpark will be presenting an exhibition of its most influential years on campus later this month.

Artpark, located in Lewiston, NY high atop the Niagara River Gorge, is a venue for musical concerts and theater productions that celebrate the arts every summer. The venue offers a number of different attractions including free concerts and music as well as cultural festivals in its outdoor amphitheatre.

The exhibition, "Artpark: 1974-1984," will run from Sep. 25 though Dec. 18. The showcase will document over 200 artistic projects, which will feature photographs, models, drawings, video and film from its seminal years.

Pat Oleszko, a participant and major contributor to Artpark in the late 1970s and early 1980s, is overjoyed to have her work on display during the exhibition. Oleszko, who describes herself as a "performance artist," is currently creating her artwork in the trees in front of the Center for the Arts.

The work, entitled "Six Phases of Eve," features what she calls six different ‘eves,' all portrayed by clothing the trees, complete with snakes.

Oleszko's work is reminiscent of one of her past showcases presented in 1976 at Artpark. The project, entitled "Clothe Artpark," included draping clothing amongst trees and a separate artistic performance.

Upon returning to the park in 1978, Oleszko performed another work, "Polish Cornfield," in which she set up rows of scarecrows and eventually set the field ablaze.

"[The outdoor setting at Artpark] allowed artists to experiment on a grand scale with unlimited freedom and the conceptual earth-works," Oleszko said. "[This exhibition] will encourage people to take magnificent risks, [be] more disorganized, and find inspiration."

Running in conjunction with the Artpark exhibition is a conference presented by the UB Art Gallery that runs Oct. 8-9. The conference will feature films and panel discussions on Artpark and is free to students and the public.

According to Sandra Firmin, curator of the exhibition, the UB Art Gallery is an integral part of the history and mission of Artpark.

"The UB Art Gallery is devoted to showing international contemporary art, but highlights work from this region," Firmin said. "The Artpark exhibition is a perfect melding of a cultural venue [that was] dedicated to the region, but featured both highly regarded local artists and established artists of international repute."

The exhibition highlights a history that is unique and essential to the development of art and artists. Firmin, along with the artists on display, hopes the students will gain a new outlook on the artistic process.

"Government can play a positive role in the support of culture and, as Governor Rockefeller would have said in the 1960s, to foster quality of life," Firmin said. "Also, I think there is a tendency now in society to promote final goals or preconceived outcomes, and I believe that the work documented in this exhibition shows the value of experimentation, process, and flexibility by being able to respond to the unexpected."

‘Artpark: 1974-1984' will run from Sep. 25 to Dec. 18. The exhibition will include artwork displayed throughout the UB Art Galleries and the Center for the Arts. The conference in October will hold events at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the UB Art Galleries, the Center for the Arts and the UB Anderson Galleries. There will also be a dinner reception open to the public with an entrance fee of $10.