At every turn we are bombarded with commentaries regarding the current affairs of social and political issues affecting the world. Especially in art, it doesn’t stop now.
The 2017 5th Annual “FL3TCH3R EXHIBIT” taking place at ETSU’s Reece Museum and opening Monday, Oct. 9, seeks to join in on these important conversations by hosting and collaborating with various talented artists whose works focus on socially and politically engaged art.
The “FL3TCH3R Exhibit: Social and Politically Engaged Art” was initially launched in 2013 by art professor Wayne Dyer along with Barbara Dyer and Carrie Dyer in memory of their son and brother, Fletcher Hancock Dyer.
Fletcher was a former student at ETSU pursuing a concentration in graphic design under a Bachelor of Fine Arts program who died in a tragic motorcycle accident in Johnson City in 2009 and is remembered as a passionate artist who used his art to mirror his concern for social and political issues.
In an essay, he wrote as a high school senior and said, “I dream of making a difference in some way with my art. I might attempt to right political, social and religious wrongs by showing the rest of society a glimpse of how I feel about serious issues in the world…Hopefully the awareness that I can help create will spark an interest in a movement that others will follow.”
“This exhibition is to honor Fletcher and honor the type of artwork that he really loved,” said Anita DeAngelis, Director of the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts. “But it also serves as a way to raise money for a scholarship in his name for art students.”
This year’s exhibition welcomes Anita Kunz, an internationally acclaimed artist and illustrator whose publications include cover art featured on Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine and the New York Times Magazine, as exhibit juror. The event also boasts 76 pieces of artwork by 55 different artists hailing from 21 states in the U.S. as well as from 5 other countries and is sure to provoke the necessary conversation concerning the myriad of issues our world currently faces.
For more information about Fletcher Dyer or the exhibit, visit http://fletcherdyer.com/about.html or http://www.FL3TCH3Rexhibit.com. For more information on Mary B. Martin School of the Arts and other upcoming events, visit www.etsu.edu/martin.
