Montgomery County Community College will host the annual “Scenes of the Schuylkill River Heritage Area” juried art and photography show and sale from Aug. 31 through Oct. 21 at the West Campus Art Gallery, North Hall, 16 High St., Pottstown.
Sponsored by the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, the art show features 82 original pieces of artwork. The artwork highlights the beauty and unique characteristics of the Schuylkill River Heritage Area—a 1.2 million-acre area that includes the Schuylkill River watershed within Schuylkill, Berks, Chester, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.
Artist Helen Mirkil, Lower Gwynedd, won the Best of Show award for her oil painting, “Grazing,” and a $300 prize. North Penn Art, Lansdale, also donated a $1,000 gift for in-kind services for the Best of Show recipient.
Second place with a $200 prize went to Brian Peterson, Lower Gwynedd, for “Water Music #1,” and third place with a $100 prize went to Patrice DeVirgilis, Lansdale, for “Break Through Light.”
The fourth place award and a $100 prize for the best winter scene, a new category this year, was awarded to Susannah Hart Thomer, Plymouth Meeting, for her artwork, “Frozen Flow.” Honorable mentions with $25 prizes went to Bernice Paul, Philadelphia, for “French Creek;” Molly Light, Schwenksville, for “March Madness;” and Doree Loschiavo, Philadelphia, for “Strawberry Mansion Bridge.”
This year’s juror, Mary Teeling, curator of education for public programming at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, selected the winning entries. Teeling holds degrees in studio art from the University of Maryland and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and a master’s degree in art history from the University of Pennsylvania. Passionate about art, Teeling was pleased to jury this annual show.
“What I love about my job is recognizing that people come to love art at different times in their lives and, when they do, they want more and more engagement with art—through making art or wanting to learn more about art by spending time meandering through the galleries of a museum,” Teeling said.
The show is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are: Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-9:30 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. On Saturday, Oct. 8, the gallery will be open from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. during the annual Schuylkill River Festival.
A portion of the proceeds benefits the Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area, a non-profit organization that uses conservation, education, recreation, tourism, and cultural and historic preservation as tools for community revitalization and economic development. For more information about the SRHA visit
www.schuylkillriver.org.
For more information about the art show, contact the Schuylkill River Heritage Area at 484-945-0200 or Montgomery County Community College Galleries Director Holly Cairns at 215-619-7349 or
hcairns@mc3.edu.
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by Diane VanDyke
photo: Artist Helen Mirkil, Lower Gwynedd, won Best in Show for her oil painting, “Grazing.”
