GENTRY: And now Great Arts at Eastern, from the Portales campus of Eastern New Mexico University. I'm Jeff Gentry, Dean of the College of Fine Arts here on KENW, Your Public Radio Network. Today Bryan Hahn, manager of the Runnels Gallery, is my guest. He is also ENMUs coordinator of creative services. Brian, thank you for joining me today.
HAHN: It's always a pleasure to be here.
GENTRY: So, tell me a little bit about the current art exhibition K through ENMU.
HAHN: Oh, this is one of my favorites. It's it's our 12th annual, and the show features artwork from student artists and kindergarten through their senior year in college. We actually have- gosh, just over 140 selections in the show this year from across the state of New Mexico and West Texas.
GENTRY: Wow, that's a tremendous turnout.
HAHN: Yes.
GENTRY: And then so for the Gallery show that we see it's really the cream of the crop.
HAHN: Yes, and we had- we had just over 300 entries this year. And that was during a pandemic where many of our New Mexico schools were operating remotely. So we've got some amazing educators out there that are committed to teaching art and making sure that their students have the opportunity to have the work seen. So, we are so pleased.
GENTRY: And this exhibition has never been stopped by COVID-19, right?
HAHN: No. well, you know it doesn't matter whether you are dealing with an illness, art is always there, and it's a great way to, I think, deal with things that are stressful. So I imagine, although I can't speak for all of our artists. Perhaps for some of them, the opportunity to create work was a great stress reliever during some difficult times.
GENTRY: Great, can you name some of the artists and artworks?
HAHN: Oh goodness, well, there is a digital illustration by a young man named Devin Sierra, and he is just doing fascinating things that almost have a throwback to the 80s. We have another artist, Renee- excuse me, Raven Lente, and she is doing some beautiful watercolor illustrations. As well as there's a young lady in kindergarten, Isabella Hauser, who did this beautiful piece called Llama Love, and it's got this great drawing of a llama. As well as a brother and sister pair, the Shulers who've done some really kind of abstracted work with markers and watercolor with their art teachers Susie Perez. I mean, it's just something for everyone in the show.
GENTRY: Right, I notice that Eleanor and Beatrice Shulers were in there. I recognize those things.
HAHN: Yeah.
GENTRY: And what are some of the area schools that had good turnout?
HAHN: Oh Goodness, well, you know we had a really- really good turnout from our- West Texas actually this year. Denver City, Texas; Amarillo, we had a high school there. We actually had entries this year from Santa Fe, which is new for us. So, and then we had sprinklings all along the way from like Portales High School, all the elementarys in Portales, New Mexico. We had some from the Clovis schools. So, you know, sometimes some schools enter a lot and then other schools as a sprinkling. Actually, Fort Sumner schools is probably one of our strongest schools in New Mexico. That art teacher Cathy Craig is she's brilliant, she's on top of it, and her kids do phenomenal things.
GENTRY: Wonderful, and will you have a live stream awards presentation as you did last time?
HAHN: We sure will; that's actually tomorrow at 6:00 PM mountain time. If you go to enmu.edu\KENMUlive, it will actually take you to the event page on Facebook; because it is a Facebook live event, you'll need an account. If you haven't got one, get signed up. And you'll be able to see it. We will do a tour of the Gallery to start with, and then we'll announce all of the award winners.
GENTRY: Great, so everything will be seen?
HAHN: Yes.
GENTRY: And then we'll celebrate the top folks. and so how will the show be juried? Will they receive constructive notes or just the awards?
HAHN: You know that's actually a really good question. Up to this point, we have just given out the award plate placements. Of course, that the accolades of being in a juried show. But I think that as we move toward the future, that is something that we will work to get to the place where we can give some sort of feedback. This year, we made some changes where we automated our process, which is very modern for entry work into a juried show. So that's really simulated what you would find in the professional world. So, the next thing is to work on possibly giving some feedback.
GENTRY: Great. for the campus community; K through ENMU runs through tomorrow in the Runnels Gallery. And everyone can watch the awards and virtual tour via Facebook at 6:00 PM tomorrow, that's Friday. See enmu.edu/KENMUlive for that Facebook event. Thank you, Brian Hahn, for joining us today.
HAHN: Thank you for having me.
GENTRY: So, and thank you for maintaining our great Fine Arts calendar, which folks can find at enmu.edu/fineartsevents. And thanks to all of our listeners here on KENW, Your Public Radio Network.
12 Annual K through ENMU Juried Art Exhibition
Open exclusively to ENMU students, faculty and staff
Exhibition runs April 12–30, 2021
Runnels Gallery, Golden Student Success Center
Virtual tour and Awards Presentation
Friday, April 30, 2021 | 6 p.m.
Facebook access required