The Sears Museum Gallery will be celebrating 26 years of the Sears Dixie Invitational.
The Sears Dixie Invitational was originally started by Bob and Peggy Sears to help fund the Eccles Fine Art Center along with the gallery, which puts on exhibits for the community and students. Also, the show was and still is meant to bring quality art into peoples’ homes.
The show will include art called traditional realism, which puts an emphasis on skill and a representation of nature. Different styles and media such as bronze, watercolor, oil and ceramics, will be on display.
DSC Curator Kathy Cieselwicz said not only will diversity and quality be shown in the art work but in the artists as well.
“It’s always been a very high quality show,” Cieselwicz said. “We have artists in [the show] that sell all over the country and are very well known.”
Artists wanting to be in the invitational must send images of their work and an artist’s statement as well as a résumé and bio. The artists are then selected to be in a rotation.
Cieselwicz said the goal of the Sears Dixie Invitational is to sell art to community members and collectors as well as educate students and community about quality art.
DSC alumnus Al Rounds aid he was first introduced to painting at the college, and the show helped him make his decision to further his art career. He said he returns to the invitational yearly in order to show his improvements. Rounds has one piece in this year’s exhibit.
“It’s important for people to see the progression of my work,” Rounds said.
L’Deane Trueblood, who has two sculptures in the exhibit, said she still returns to this show despite her work being sold in seven galleries around the country.
Trueblood said she does the show out of loyalty to the college and to the community.
Jeremy Winborg, last year’s Purchase Award winner, has two pieces in this year’s invitational and said this exhibit gives his work a lot of exposure.
“It’s one of our favorite shows that we do every year,” Winborg said.
Winborg will also be doing a symposium Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. in the Eccles Concert Hall. He will be giving detailed talks about his work and the process he went through to create them. It is free to the public.
This year’s Sears Dixie Invitational will also be featuring a gala on Feb. 15. There will be an art preview at 4 p.m. The art preview will be followed by a reception at 5 p.m. and a dinner at 6 p.m. Tickets are $75 per person and can be purchased by calling Susan Taysom at 435-652-7903 or by email at [email protected].
The gallery will open to the public on Feb. 16 with special hours Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
