Artists with Wright State connections awarded grants by Culture Works

Self-portrait by Jeremy Long, associate professor in painting and drawing.

A Wright State University faculty member and two alumni were awarded grants to create new art and build their knowledge and skills through workshops, residencies and apprenticeships.

Jeremy Long, Amy Kollar Anderson and Marsha Pippenger were selected to receive grants from the Artist Opportunity Grant program, which is funded by the Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District and administered by Culture Works, which supports arts and culture in the region.

Grants totaling $37,451 were made to 14 local artists to create immersive art installations, original music, virtual theatre productions and more in the coming year. The recipients were selected through a competitive process by an independent panel of artists, arts administrators, educators and community leaders who evaluated each project’s potential impact on the artist’s career, potential impact on the community and feasibility.

Long is an associate professor in painting and drawing in the Department of Art and Art History at Wright State. His project is to design and print a catalogue for a solo exhibition at the Bowery Gallery in New York City. The local community will be able to experience the work through a special preview exhibition in Dayton.

Long earned his bachelor’s degree from The Kansas City Art Institute and his master’s degree from The American University in Washington, D.C.

He has exhibited widely throughout the United States, most recently at the Bowery Gallery. He has also exhibited at Hoffman LaChance Contemporary in St. Louis, Linda Warren Gallery in Chicago and the Swope Museum of American Art in Terre Haute, Indiana. Since 2007 he has been an active member in the painting collective Midwest Paint Group.

Amy Kollar Anderson

Kollar Anderson’s project is the creation of a large-scale, textured painting on wood panel that will explore various paint layering techniques resulting in a new public art portfolio piece to be installed at the Dayton Big Brothers Big Sisters office.

“The past few years have been focused on playing with materials and combining these experimental techniques with my tightly rendered narrative images,” she said. “Since I spend most days in my home studio, I am thinking more about personal space and my place in the world. I enjoy layering untraditional materials such as glitter, mica and metal foils into newly formed surfaces or investigating complex narratives that explore identity, obsession and transformation.”

Kollar Anderson earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her Master of Humanities with a focus in fine arts from Wright State.

Marsha Pippenger

Pippenger’s project is the creation of a three-dimensional immersive art installation inside a 20-foot shipping container designed to transport viewers to a new metaphysical place.

“With this new work I will be layering together mirrors and mirrors in the shape of trees to create an immersive experience for the viewer,” she said. “…My goal is to expand not only my own artistic practice but to grow the viewer’s experience as well, allowing them a pause from their daily world and a chance to enter another kind of universe.”

Pippenger has been active in Dayton’s arts community for more than 30 years, creating and exhibiting colorful collages and promoting the visual arts. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio Northern University and a Master of Humanities with a concentration in fine arts from Wright State. She is also a Kennedy Center-certified arts integration specialist.