News…

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the Stifel Fine Arts Center at Oglebay Institute in Wheeling will celebrate the opening of the West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2011 with an awards ceremony and reception on Friday, Sept. 30. West Virginia artists and craftspeople will be presented with 18 awards totaling $33,000 in a ceremony that begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Stifel Fine Arts Center.

The exhibit features 72 works in the areas of painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography, mixed media and crafts by 60 artists from 23 West Virginia counties. The biennial exhibition will remain on display through Jan. 2, 2012.

Many of the works on display are for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition. The Stifel Fine Arts Center at Oglebay Institute is located at 1330 National Road in Wheeling. It is open from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday. It is closed Sundays.

A release listing the award winners, with photographs of artwork and all the artists in the show, will be distributed on Friday, Sept. 30.

For more information about the West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2011, contact Betty Gay, exhibits coordinator for the Division, at (304) 558-0220, ext. 128, or Brad Johnson, director of exhibitions at the Stifel Fine Arts Center, at (304) 242-7700.

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Culture Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Culture Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

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