WILSON, N.C. — October 5, 2016 — Photography and documentary filmmaking will be showcased through a series of events as Barton College welcomes artist-in-residence Richard Knox Robinson to the Barton Art Galleries in October. His new exhibition, “Notes from Atlantis,” opens on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and runs through Wednesday, Nov. 23.
On Thursday, Oct. 13, Barton College Friends of Visual Arts will host its annual FOVA Fall Lecture and Dinner. A wine and cheese reception with the artist will begin in the Barton Art Galleries at 5 p.m., followed by Robinson’s lecture at 6 p.m. Guests are then invited to Kennedy Family Theatre for dinner at 7 p.m. Reservations are required. Tickets for the dinner event are $35 per person, and reservations and payments must be received by Tuesday, Oct. 11. FOVA members may reserve tickets for $25 per person. For more information, contact Maureen O’Neill, Director of Exhibitions and Educational Programming at the Barton Art Galleries, at 252-399-6477 or email@example.com.
Robinson is an award winning photographer and filmmaker based near Charlottesville, Va. His first film, “The Beekeepers,” premiered at Sundance in 2009 in the New Frontiers Shorts Program and went on to screen at Hot Docs and Vancouver International Film Festival, winning “Best Short Documentary” at The Atlanta Film Festival. His first feature film, “Rothstein’s First Assignment,” was nominated for the special jury prize at Seattle’s International Film Festival in 2011 and was featured in Time’s LightBox. In 2012, Robinson was awarded the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship.
His photography work has been published and exhibited widely, appearing in numerous publications including “Time,” “Smithsonian,” and “National Geographic Traveler” magazines, as well as the photography annuals of “Communication Arts” and “American Photography.”
Robinson earned his MFA in Photography and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he teaches as an adjunct professor. Previously, he has taught at the University of Virginia, Washington and Lee University, and Randolph College. In Italy, he has taught at Monserrat College of Art’s Summer Italian Residency Program.
Additional events include an informal gallery talk scheduled for Wednesday, Oct.19, at 6 p.m. in the Virginia Thompson Graves Gallery in Case Art Building. Robinson will introduce guests to his photographic series, “Notes from Atlantis,” photographs in which Robinson investigates the intersection of myth and science. He will also introduce guests to a series of photographic stills and audio from his second film, “Rothstein’s First Assignment” (2011), on exhibit in the Lula E. Rackley Gallery.
“This work began as a re-photographic project of Arthur Rothstein, one of America’s premier photojournalists,” he explains. “I discovered, through interviews, photo archives and court documents, that the then Resettlement Administration’s relocation project of a community in the Appalachian Mountains was a falsehood. The people Rothstein was so diligently photographing and recording were, in fact, part of an experimental eugenics program.”
While serving as artist-in-residence at Barton, October 13 – 30, Robinson will also work with a group of Barton students from various departments, engaging them in the documentary film process from beginning to end. The students will assist Robinson with the production, editing, and post-production of a short film.
The screening of this collaborative film endeavor is scheduled to premiere on Thursday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. in the Barton Art Galleries. It will be followed by a Q&A with Robinson and the Barton students.
Also to be screened will be Robinson’s award winning documentary shorts, “The Beekeepers” and “Song of the Cicadas,” each will be presented in the Barton Art Galleries, followed by a Q&A with Robinson. “I really didn’t expect beekeeping to be political,” he says about “The Beekeepers,” (2009) his entry into the filmmaking world. He added that the project began with his interest in beekeeping, but it became more about the fate of bees and the consequences of pesticides.
“Song of the Cicadas,” his third film, was a collaborative project. Robinson shares, “It started with an idea from David Rothenberg’s book, ‘Bug Music.’ It compares the incarceration of a political prisoner (Timothy Blunk) with that of time spent underground of a periodical cicada. It explores the metaphors that are evoked through this conjunction. Though not an overly conceptual piece, it does create a critique on the politics of incarceration.”
With the exception of the dinner, which requires reservations, these events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Maureen O’Neill, Director of Exhibitions and Educational Programming at the Barton Art Galleries at 252-399-6477 or firstname.lastname@example.org.