Harrisburg, PA – The State Museum of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation remind artists and craftspeople to submit applications to exhibit their work in the annual Art of the State. Now in its 57th year, this acclaimed juried exhibition boasts a tradition of presenting highly creative art by Pennsylvanians, chosen by a distinguished panel of jurors.
Art of the State is open to Pennsylvania residents who are at least 18 years of age. Artists will compete in five categories: painting, work on paper, sculpture, craft, and photography/digital media. Entries to Art of the State must be submitted online. Additional information and the link to enter are available at https://statemuseumpa.org/artofthestate/. The application deadline is 11:59 PM on Friday, May 3, 2024.
Art of the State is scheduled to open to the public at The State Museum on Sunday, September 8, 2024, and close on Sunday, January 5, 2025.
More than $5,000 in cash awards will be presented. A first-place award of $500, second-place award of $300, and a third-place award of $200 will be selected in each of the five categories. The William D. Davis Memorial Award for Drawing in the amount of $250 and the Art Docents’ Choice Award of $300 will also be presented.
Selection jurors will review and assign a numeric score to all work submitted. Those artists with the highest ratings in each category will be featured in the exhibition.
This year’s selection jurors are:
Marc Jacobson, Professor Emeritus, Herron School of Art + Design, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis
A Wisconsin native, Jacobson studied painting and drawing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UW-M). After graduating with a BFA, he took classes in Reims, France, then returned to UW-M for graduate study. In 1990 he moved to Indianapolis for a position at Herron School of Art + Design, where his teaching received several awards.
Jacobson’s paintings have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions over the past 40 years, including in solo shows at StorageSpace Gallery, Indianapolis; Allen Sheppard Gallery, New York; Columbia College, Columbia, Missouri; and Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago. Group exhibitions include the Museum of Fine Arts of Florida State University; Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago; and DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana. His work is in many collections, including the Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis; Cummins, Columbus, Indiana; and Fidelity Investments.
Jennifer-Navva Milliken, Executive Director and Chief Curator, Museum for Art in Wood
At the helm of the Museum for Art in Wood, Milliken works to enfold contemporary issues into the museum’s wood-focused approach, balancing traditional craft practices with contemporary artistic concepts. She studied for her B.A. in art history at Western Washington University and her M.A. in art history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Throughout her international career, she has curated dozens of exhibitions for museums, galleries, and unconventional spaces. Before joining the Museum for Art in Wood in 2018, she worked as an independent curator and consultant, as well as an embedded staff curator at several cultural institutions and museums in the U.S. and abroad.
Eric Sung, Artist and Professor of Art/Photography, Providence College
Eric Sung is an artist-scholar and cultural worker. His creative vision has materialized multiple interdisciplinary ideas into action with a diverse group of stakeholders. Sung’s experiential scholarship and companion works have appeared internationally in peer-reviewed and juried conferences and venues, including the Society for Photographic Education, International Visual Literacy Association, and Imagining America. His artworks have been showcased in internationally renowned exhibition venues and public spaces. His art and community empowerment projects were supported by the National Endowment for the Arts; the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities; Providence Department of Art, Culture, and Tourism; and Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
Sung is a full professor at Providence College and was appointed as the founding director of a cutting-edge program in business and innovation in 2018. Currently, he is a member of the WARP Collective Artists Group and serves on the board of directors of the Society for Photographic Education.
An awards juror will select recipients in each of the categories:
Jim Toia, Artist; Executive Director and Curator, Karl Stirner Arts Trail; and Director, Community Based Teaching, Lafayette College
Jim Toia generates work by exploring environments around the world, but his primary studios are in northwestern New Jersey and the Florida Keys. He sought the hills, valleys, and river basins of New Jersey as both refuge from the metropolitan area and its proximity to the New York art world where he exhibited with the Kim Foster Gallery for more than two decades. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1984 and MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1993.
Toia’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East. The many collections that include his work are the Yale Museum of Art, the New Jersey State Museum, the AT&T Collection, the Dallas Museum of Art, and Stanford University to name a few. He is the recipient of many grants and awards including a 2000 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship and a Geraldine Dodge Foundation Grant.
Along with his art-making process, Toia has been an active curator since his early years as an artist. He is currently cocurating the traveling exhibition Post-Post Human, which will be on view in Manhattan at Bravin Lee Projects space in March 2024.
ABOUT THE STATE MUSEUM OF PENNSYLVANIA
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, adjacent to the State Capitol in Harrisburg, is one of 23 historic sites and museums administered by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission as part of the Pennsylvania Trails of History. The State Museum offers expansive collections interpreting Pennsylvania’s fascinating heritage. With exhibits examining the dawn of geologic time, the Native American experience, the colonial and revolutionary eras, a pivotal Civil War battleground, and the commonwealth’s vast industrial age, The State Museum demonstrates that Pennsylvania’s story is America’s story.
ABOUT THE PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE FOUNDATION
The Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation is the nonprofit partner of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, the state agency charged with collecting, preserving, researching, and interpreting the treasures of Pennsylvania. Through private contributions, PHF supports PHMC in protecting and providing access to 23 historic sites and museums, approximately 9 million objects, and more than 250 million archival items.
For more information about the museum, visit The State Museum online or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Media Contact: Howard Pollman, 717-705-8639, hpollman@pa.gov
# # #