HAL GOMER GALLERY AND GALLERY 194
Chesapeake Arts Center has two professional gallery spaces — the Hal Gomer Gallery and Gallery 194 — as well as display spaces in hallways and in the Hammonds Lane Theater lobby. Renovated in 2015, Chesapeake Arts Center renamed its gallery closest to the main entrance after the beloved late artist and former Brooklyn Park High School art teacher, Thomas Hal Gomer. The gallery has two adjoining sections; room 1 is 374 square feet and the 2nd room is 363 square feet.
Located adjacent to the Hal Gomer Gallery is Gallery 194 which was constructed in Spring 2022 when CAC office space was renovated into a new 800 square foot gallery space. Funds to create this gallery were provided by the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority. (This Project has been financed in part with State funds from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, an instrumentality of the State of Maryland. However, Project contents or opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority.)
Gallery Hours:
Monday-Thursday 10am-6pm
Saturday: 10am-1pm
*The above hours are subject to change based on Holidays and Closings. Updated information in regards to current Holidays and Closings that would affect available gallery hours can be found at the top banner of our website, Instagram, and Facebook prior to said date(s). Please contact us if there are any questions.
ON VIEW IN GALLERY 194
Free, Fresh, and Forward-2024 MDAA Members Exhibit
A group exhibition by The Maryland Artist Anonymous Members (MDAA)
Gallery 194 I May 1 - June 6, 2024
Opening Reception: May 30, 2024 6- 8 pm
Artists grow together - feeding off the positive energy created through community, collaboration, and shared spirit. In a time where we are all separated by compartmentalized priorities, prepackaged options, and virtual meetings, it is crucial for artists to strive for a real connection to their art practice, their artistic peers, and their art goals. The Maryland Artist Anonymous (MDAA) aims to maintain open and healthy artistic connections. These connections are formed between members, between the artwork and viewers, and between career and the passion to create. This exhibition will showcase the many talents of The Maryland Artist Anonymous group (MDAA).
This exhibition is on view in our Gallery 194 from May 1, 2024 - June 6, 2024.
FEATURED ARTISTS:
Christopher Whitehead - Christopher Ray Whitehead is a classically trained artist who primarily works in painting, illustration and alternative media. He has studied and exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. His work focuses on the human form and the art is used to illustrate personal narratives and concepts. Christopher has a passion for teaching others about art and artmaking. He has taught art in public schools in California and Maryland. Christopher served as Youth Art Manager at the Worcester Art Museum for seven years. Christopher has also served as President Elect, President and Past President for the Massachusetts Art Education Association and the Maryland Art Education Association. Christopher has also designed and built the websites for both Massachusetts and Maryland Associations. He was recognized in 2012 as Massachusetts Museum Art Educator of the Year and in 2013 as Massachusetts Art Educator of the Year and in 2018 Maryland Art Educator of the Year. Christopher is currently the visual arts teacher specialist for Anne Arundel County Public Schools and Executive Artist of Infinity Pond Studios.
Jordyn Roemer - Jordyn Roemer is a mother, artist, and high school Art educator based out of Odenton, Maryland. She is a graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art with BFA and MAT degrees in 2006 and 2007, respectively. This body of work makes a shift from her previous paintings, by incorporating her photography as the basis for each piece. The gold leaf - a personal metaphor for the people and connections we maintain in our lives - continues to play an important role in these works, while suddenly becoming impacted and contorted by the very real environments with which they are being placed. Life is full of incredible - though often unpredictable - twists and turns, and navigating and finding the balance of it all is at the root of these artworks.
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Lauren M. Elfring - Lauren M. Elfring is a watercolorist and embroidery hobbyist. She is exploring methods to combine the two media. She enjoys hiking, camping, and incorporating nature into her art. As an elementary art teacher, Elfring incorporates her love of nature into the classroom.
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Katelyn Smith - Katelyn is a visual artist and educator, who currently resides in Baltimore, MD. She graduated from Towson University in 2011 with a BS in Art Education , and M.S in Curriculum & Instruction from McDaniel College. She is in her 12th year of teaching in Anne Arundel County Public Schools, and finds her true passion is teaching/working with children. Katelyn enjoys experimenting with many different mediums such as mosaics, paint, and ink. She recently has taken up mixed-media working with plants and abstractions with bright and bold colors
Erin Lehrmann - Erin Lehrmann is a maker, teacher and learner who lives and works in Baltimore. Her philosophy of teaching and artistic practice both center an amateur’s mindset-- an openness to exploratory play driven by inquiry and intrinsic motivation. This particular body of work celebrates chance encounters between wanderer and world in the perpetual pursuit of integration, connectedness, and wholeness.
[a Saturday eclipse]
Off I go, grasping at openings;
my chest yawning to engulf
the murmurings of the city.
Flickers that evade—
dancing through windows,
scrawling across the sidewalk,
erupting into confetti,
dappling the concrete,
seasoning the day.
Adrienne Ramey - Adrienne was born in southern DE and attended the University of Delaware. Here, she received her BFA in Painting in 2004 and began exploring the theme of toys which she still focuses on to this day. In 2005 she moved to Maryland to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art. At MICA, she earned her Master of Arts in Teaching in 2007. Adrienne has been teaching in Anne Arundel County for the past 15 years and is now the art department chairperson at her school.
Sherrard Bostwick - Using drawing, painting, photography, collage, print-making, fiber arts, and performance, Sherrard Bostwick offers multi-media perspectives of the many places and experiences of her life. She uses drawing to reveal what is deeply unmovable and enduring in a continuously changing and transforming world. Currently, Bostwick is teaching art in an elementary school helping to develop the joy and expressive abilities of the youngest artists. She has taught art in a variety of settings including colleges, art schools, museums, a youth detention center, and as a community arts developer for Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. She has been given the opportunity to exhibit widely in the many places she has lived as well as been recognized with awards and honors for her art, teaching, and leadership in the arts. Her education includes a B.A. in Studio Art from Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio and a M.F.A in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College, CUNY ( City University of New York.)
ON VIEW IN HAL GOMER GALLERY
Art for All: A Collaboration
An exhibition by AACPS Art Teachers and their loved ones
Hal Gomer Gallery I May 1 - June 6, 2024
Opening Reception: May 30, 2024 6- 8 pm
This exhibition will showcase Anne Arundel Public School art teachers and the way they collaborate with their children, grandchildren, foster children, step children, nieces and nephews, parents, animals, etc. to create meaningful works of art.
This exhibition is on view in our Hal Gomer Gallery from May 1, 2024 - June 6, 2024.
FEATURED ARTISTS AND THEIR LOVED ONES:
Kelly Kuethe and their loved ones - Kelly has a BFA with a painting concentration from Salisbury University and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Goucher College. She has been a teacher with Anne Arundel County Public Schools since 2015 and has been a member of the art department at Annapolis High School since 2020. The transition to high school happened on the heels of having her first child. As she transitioned to virtual learning, getting to spend more time with her daughter at home and teaching through a screen, she realized that she needed to be in a community where she could walk away at the end of the day and focus on her family. She found that community at AHS. A place where she can make a difference in the lives of soon-to-be adults, but still have the energy at the end of the day to run and play with her two kids.
Her work is incredibly important to her. Her goal is to make all students feel successful not only in the classroom but in life. She teaches IB Art, 3D Level 1, Foundations of Art, and Unified Art to our students with disabilities. She is fulfilled everyday with every new challenge that comes her way and teaching brings her so much joy.
But her greatest joy in life is being a mom. It was something she knew she always wanted to do, and she has a wonderful husband that creates a strong parenting team. The skills she learns from being a teacher transfers seamlessly to being a strong parent, and vice versa. She hopes that her children will develop confidence, problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, and perseverance through their art making long into the future.
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Jessica Jackman and their loved one - Jessica Jackman was born in Miami Florida and received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Tufts University, followed by her Masters of Fine Arts from Norfolk State University. She has been a teacher for going on 8 years, mostly teaching in High Schools. Her art has many "themes" that is has gone through throughout the years including both political and realism. Her most recent work is focused on food, and the art of looking at a meal as more of an artistic creation, visually.
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Christopher Whitehead and their loved one - Christopher Ray Whitehead is a classically trained artist who primarily works in painting, illustration and alternative media. He has studied and exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. His work focuses on the human form and the art is used to illustrate personal narratives and concepts. Christopher has a passion for teaching others about art and artmaking. He has taught art in public schools in California and Maryland. Christopher served as Youth Art Manager at the Worcester Art Museum for seven years. Christopher has also served as President Elect, President and Past President for the Massachusetts Art Education Association and the Maryland Art Education Association. Christopher has also designed and built the websites for both Massachusetts and Maryland Associations. He was recognized in 2012 as Massachusetts Museum Art Educator of the Year and in 2013 as Massachusetts Art Educator of the Year and in 2018 Maryland Art Educator of the Year. Christopher is currently the visual arts teacher specialist for Anne Arundel County Public Schools and Executive Artist of Infinity Pond Studios.
Carrie Witham and their loved ones - “Artistically, I tend to be strongly influenced and inspired by the stages of my life, whether painting pictures of the Magathy River or of being a mom. I embraced this opportunity to have a fun, creative experience with my daughter!”
Olivia Daro and their loved one - My name is Olivia Daro and I have been teaching at Meade High School for two years. I always knew I wanted to be an art teacher, ever since my first art class in high school. I teach Foundations, 3D, 2D, and IB Visual arts. I usually like to call myself a jack of all trades because there is no one form of art that I use consistently. My favorite medium tends to be textile based but I use anything from paints to clay. Currently, I am working on a set of seagull based crocheted sweaters for the members of my family.
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Anatasia Pendleton and their loved ones - I am an art educator of 24 years with an ART Education Bachelors of Science degree from The Pennsylvania State University and Master in education from Lesley University. I have always found joy in in making art and being creative in all aspects of my life from cooking to decoration and fashion. I use my hand to create and talk! Watercolor has been one of my go to mediums, the fluidness of the media gives me courage and success. As I began my education journey I was encouraged to change my path from social work to Art Education, I am thankful for my advisor who guiding me to my gift of teaching. Each day I wake up and know that this is my calling and that through my ART classes I am making a positive impact on the students who walk through my classroom. This show was created by my Annapolis High coworker Kelly Kuethe who has given me the courage to create and show my work! Thank you Kelly for creating this family collaboration show.
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Jennifer Kuethe and their loved one - Jennifer Kuethe has been teaching Art at Crofton Middle School since 2009. She currently teaches Digital Palette using Adobe Photoshop but enjoys teaching and creating with many different media.
Outside of teaching, she enjoys painting with both oil and acrylic. She considers portraiture her focus, but has also enjoyed creating a few commissioned pet portraits recently. Her work can be found on her Facebook page, Kuethe Creations.
Visit their Facebook page, Kuethe Creations
Angela Brisbane and their loved ones - Angela Johnson-Brisbane works as a high school art teacher. She also works as a college adjunct teaching visual communication and graphic design at the university level. Trained as a graphic designer, Angela has a MA in Graphic Design from SCAD.
Brisbane’s journey as a visual communicator for the past 30 years includes creating brand identity, marketing & publication design for corporate and non-profit clients. She also has a passion for bridging the gap for underserved youth and using art in a therapeutic way.
Where much of Angela’s professional career has involved using her talents in the professional setting; this art show has allowed me to reintroduce myself back to the expressive part of being an artist. I have found a level of confidence in exploring art as a way for personal expression and something that my four children, husband, can use to learn more about me as an artist.
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Additional Artists include Amy Begg-Marino, Clare Conger, Mimi Torres-Pagan, and their loved ones.
ON VIEW IN CAC HALLWAY
Coming Soon…
Brooklyn Park Middle School Teen Club Spring Exhibit
On display in CAC hallways and display cases I May 2 - June 6, 2024
Reception: May 30, 2024 4 - 6 pm