Press Release
For Immediate Release
January 9, 2017
For media inquiries, please contact:
Megan Flowers, University YMCA Communications Director
[217-337-1500; megan@universityymca.org]
Art @ the Y presents
“Bed Shoe Home: Poverty and Homelessness In Champaign-Urbana"
On view in Murphy Gallery of the University YMCA
from January 26, 2017 through March 17, 2017
Champaign-Urbana is facing a crisis in housing for low-income families and the under-sheltered. To bring this issue into sharper focus, the University YMCA’s Art @ the Y program, in collaboration with the School of Art + Design and the School of Social Work, initiated “Bed Shoe Home,” a community-based art action organized by artist Jane Gilmor. Gilmor was in residence in Champaign-Urbana for a month this past fall working in community organizations serving the homeless: the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen, Courage Connection, and the Phoenix Center. BED SHOE HOME culminates in a large installation at the University Y from January 26 through March 17, 2017, including a walk-in book covered with notes and images on metal foil created by those in area shelters, residencies programs, soup kitchens and drop-in sites. The “Bed Shoe Home” exhibition series is dedicated to all those in Champaign-Urbana without affordable housing.
The University YMCA invites community and campus members to attend Jane Gilmor’s talk as the George A. Miller Visiting Artist at the University of Illinois on Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 4:00p at the Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 South Gregory, Urbana, Illinois. The Y encourages people to attend the exhibition opening of “Bed Shoe Home” the following day on Thursday, January 26, 2017 from 5:00pm-7:00pm at Murphy Gallery of the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street, Champaign, Illinois. Viewing will begin at 5:00pm follow by Jane Gilmor’s gallery talk at 5:30pm. All Art @ the Y events are free and open to the public.
“It’s important to go see this work and understand it as a weaving together of artmaking and personal stories that work to uplift the voices of the homeless and the under sheltered. When you see the work in person, you are in touch with the lines of the work and have a connection with the ferocious intensity of the artist’s hand,” said Julia Kellman, member of the Art @ the Y committee.
Special Thanks To: Center for Advanced Study, UIUC; George A Miller Endowment; School of Art + Design; School of Social Work; Daily Bread Soup Kitchen; Courage Connection; The Phoenix Center
About Jane Gilmor: As a visual artist Jane Gilmor has maintained a socially involved art practice working with the disenfranchised in the US and abroad since the late 80s. Her cooperative projects involve working in shelters, along side local experts, students, and volunteers, to create large installations with walk-in structures covered in metal notes and images. Workshops in metal embossing, journaling, handmade books, as well as video and audio interviewing and transcription are part of a number of activities involved in these dialog-oriented processes. Learn more about Jane Gilmor's work at: http://janegilmor.com/
About Art @ the Y: “Bed Shoe Home” is part of the Art @ the Y program, a cause-driven, public arts initiative of the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street, Champaign. Art @ the Y seeks to engage issues of social justice, international understanding, environmental activism, faith and cultural understanding through quality arts programming. Art @ the Y includes a revolving exhibition space in Murphy Gallery on the first floor of the University YMCA. Murphy Gallery Hours at the University YMCA are from Mondays-Fridays from 9am-9pm. Website: universityymca.org/art
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