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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Finlandia's Reflection Gallery hosts Traveling Journal Project

HANCOCK -- The Finlandia University Reflection Gallery will exhibit the National Young Women’s Caucus’ "Traveling Journal Project" through Jan. 30, 2011.

Traveling Journal artwork. (Photos courtesy Finlandia University)

An opening reception and artist talk will take place from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, at the Reflection Gallery. The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Led by local artist Melissa Hronkin, a head officer of the Young Women’s Caucus and a Finlandia BFA alumna, along with a group of current Finlandia Art and Design students, the Traveling Journal Project is a collaborative art experiment with an online component. The journal project began Sept. 15, 2010, and continued until Dec. 15, 2010.

Traveling Journal artwork.

Each of the more than 14 physical journals included in the exhibit was originated by one artist and passed to five to seven additional artists. Any media could be used, as long as the journals could be closed into a relatively flat book and transported safely.

The journals have traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast, and internationally. Participants include several Copper Country artists, a number of Finlandia University students and graduates, and others. Journal themes and topics include intrinsic battles, war, music and games, and gifts.

The friends and family of each participant were also invited to add pages to the traveling journal. So while a book might only have traveled to seven addresses, at each address, the number of people making pages was potentially unlimited.

Members of the Young Women's Caucus -- from left, Finlandia students Amanda Moyer, Susie Danielson, and Dawn Hiltz -- offer information to visitors at the Poor Artists' Sale in Calumet last December. The Young Women's Caucus is an internal caucus of the National Women's Caucus for Art. Their goal is to provide opportunities, resources and support to young women artists. (Photo by Keweenaw Now)

The artist originators also kept a blog to pass information along to their journal collaborators and the public. As new entries were added to the journals, the blog was updated. The blogs can be viewed at www.travellingjournalproject.blogspot.com.

In addition to the traveling journals, some participants did additional collaborative projects and journal-related artworks that round out the show.

Traveling Journal artwork.

The National Young Women’s Caucus is an internal caucus of the National Women’s Caucus for Art (www.nationalwca.org).

The Reflection Gallery is located on the second level of Finlandia’ s Jutila Center campus, Hancock.

For additional information, please contact studio arts professor Yueh-mei Cheng at 906-487-7375 or e-mail FinlandiaReflectionGallery@gmail.com.

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