Peck School of the Arts Honors Alumni

UW-Milwaukee is honoring 50 years of support for art, dance, design, music and theater by sponsoring the Peck School of the Arts' “Year of the Arts.” To jump-start the celebration, the Union Art Gallery collaborates with the Inova/Arts Center Gallery for “Continuum 2012,” an exhibition highlighting art and design alumni.<br /><br />The two galleries, which have received juried works from more than 100 Peck School alumni from across the country, provide an eclectic retrospective of UWM graduates over the past half-century.<br /><br />Metro-area artists Sally Duback, Charles Kaiser (1939-2011), Jill Sebastian, Jan Serr and Richard Taylor have achieved national prestige through decades of work. The Union Art Gallery features Sebastian's <em>In These I Find My Calling</em>, a projection on drywall and Scotch tape, along with a wall hanging and two free-standing sculptures by Taylor.<br /><br />Pennsylvania's Sean Bodley, a recent BFA graduate, exhibits an oil portrait of his grandmother<em>.</em> MFA alum Gregory Martens features screen prints from his series “The Moment Before Apocalypse,” and Chicago's Melanie Pankau offers abstract wall paintings.<br /><br />Milwaukee's Linda Wervey Vitamvas, an award-winning MFA graduate, merges her art and medical backgrounds into organic ceramic art. For this show, she stages a complex installation, one part of which features small bottles and jars filled with curly, matte-white fired clay<em>.</em><br /><br />“Continuum 2012” opens Aug. 27. There will be a staggered closing reception on Sept. 14 to allow for all of the alumni to be equally appreciated. The Union Art Gallery hosts a 5-7 p.m. reception Sept. 14. The Arts Center Gallery hosts a 6-8 p.m. reception, with remarks from the UWM art chair at 7 p.m.<strong><br /><br />Art Happenings</strong><br /><br />Third Ward Art Festival<br />Historic Third Ward<br /><br />This new juried art festival features more than 150 artists exhibiting affordable artwork in a variety of media. The event, which also features an art scavenger hunt for kids and live music, runs 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sept. 1-2.<br /><br />“Stages of Art”<br />Gallerie M, InterContinental Hotel<br />139 E. Kilbourn Ave.<br /><br />In collaboration with the Community Arts &amp; Funk Festival, this exhibition celebrates arts advocacy in Wisconsin. It opens Aug. 27. A closing reception takes place 6-9 p.m. Sept. 28. For more information, visit www.artsandfunk.com.