Assistant Professor of Art Alicia Eggert recently received the Maine Art’s Commission 2014 Visual Arts Fellowship. This $13,000 award is the Commision’s largest unrestricted grant, awarded based on artistic excellence and merit.
Eggert has been on sabbatical this semester, and just completed a two-month artist residency in New York City through Sculpture Space.
The Maine Arts Commission, whose mission is to “encourage and stimulate public interest and cultural heritage of the state and assist freedom of public expression,” hosts an open round of applications for this fellowship, with different categories in including visual arts and performing/media arts.
“My work is interdisciplinary, but it primarily takes the form of electronic and kinetic sculpture. Every project begins as an idea, and the materials I work with are chosen to communicate that idea as clearly as possible,” said Eggert. “So sometimes projects take the form of photography, drawing, installation, video or performance.”
Through her residency, Eggert focused on creating new pieces for her solo exhibition in Washington, D.C. The exhibition explores the aesthetics of time, and opened yesterday at the Terrace Gallery.
“One kinetic sculpture creates and destroys the word ‘now’ every second, and another piece uses clock hands to spell out the word ‘eternity’ every 12 hours,” she said.
In conjunction with the opening, Eggert will be mounting a neon sign that says “you are on an island” on the back of a flatbed truck and driving it through the streets of Northern Virginia and D.C. This vehicle will be parked outside the gallery on opening night.
Before she left for sabbatical, Eggert worked with the visual arts faculty to contribute ideas for the construction of the Edwards Center for Arts and Dance building.
“We were excited about repurposing an old elementary school and taking advantage of what the original architecture had to offer. And because this is the first time all the various art disciplines are under one roof, we wanted to highlight the assortment of exciting things that students are up to,” said Eggert. “How can a student in print inspire a student in sculpture? How can these disciplines feed off of one another and overlap? We hoped this building would spark collaboration and curiosity.”