#GildTheDelta: Recent Works by Norwood Creech

Curator, Dr. Lenore Shoults

Norwood Creech’s exhibition, #GildTheDelta, opens January 18, 2018 at the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff. Through paint and pastel, Norwood captures the Delta agricultural landscape and elevates the miles of crops into gilded works of art. Each painting depicts a specific place from Native American burial mounds to exact roadside locations, farmer’s pivots in the field to Johnny Cash’s childhood home. 

Creech describes the impulse to gild as “an ultimate gesture when one finds themselves in love, enchanted, or captivated with a person or thing. Raise its value even more, by preserving it with a precious metal, much like sealing a relationship with that band of gold; dipping the baby shoes in sterling; or living amongst the gilded Louis XVI furnishings trappings of your average authoritarian. In this series of work, #GildTheDelta, I have incorporated gold and metallics, in my plein air and studio landscape paintings, heightening the symbolic glorification, and my love, of Arkansas’ delta.”  

“Norwood’s exuberant use of line makes the artwork leap off the canvas, utterly engaging the viewer in the experience” says curator, Dr. Lenore Shoults. Celebrating the Arts & Science Center’s 50th anniversary in 2018 Shoults explained, “one aspect of our collecting and exhibition scope is Art of the Delta and this exhibition focuses our gaze on the beauty of the Delta, its history of farming and Native American culture, and the inherent life waiting to spring forth from the soil—in other words, the perfect artist to celebrate the Delta.”

The opening night reception, on January 18, includes an artist’s talk and reception with hors d’ouevres, wine and beer from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Everyone is invited to this free reception. The exhibition will run through April 21, 2018 with free admission to the art galleries and free hands-on activities for school tours and groups which can be arranged by calling 870-536-3375.

The exhibition and hands-on activities are possible thanks to Simmons Bank generous sponsorship.

Current ASC exhibitions include How People Make Things, an exhibition that offers hands-on activities using real factory tools and machines to create objects with four manufacturing processes: molding, cutting, deforming and assembly; Creative Construction Zone, a tinkering studio that features Imagination Playground Big Blue Blocks and interactive construction-influenced play sets; and UAPB & ASC: Five Decades of Collaboration The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is a historically Black college that has been in existence for over 140 years, and the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas (ASC) celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2018. This exhibition features artwork from ASC’s Permanent Collection by UAPB faculty and students and celebrates the decades of collaboration that these organizations have enjoyed. 

The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas’s mission is to serve as a cultural crossroad: engaging, educating, and entertaining through the arts and sciences. We are located at 701 S. Main St. in Pine Bluff, is open Tuesday–Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., NEW Saturday hours: 10–4 p.m., and closed on Sunday and Monday. Gallery admission is free. Support for ASC is provided in part by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Hands-on science exhibitions are offered through ASC’s partnership with Arkansas Discovery Network, a consortium of museums in Arkansas funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. For additional information about the ASC and sign up for upcoming event announcements, visit www.asc701.org.