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August 31, 2007

Ward participates in prestigious Artport 2007 exhibition

Three Twin Cities artists, including Robert Ward, a University of Louisiana at Monroe professor of art, have been invited to participate in "UP," an exhibition of northern Louisiana painting to be displayed at the Shreveport Regional Airport for a minimum of one calendar year.

This exhibition is sponsored by the Board of Directors of Artport, the Kalmbach Smith Meadows Advertising Agency, and the Shreveport Regional Arts Council. For over 20 years this art consortium and the Shreveport Regional Airport have partnered to mount a particular show, wherein all displayed art adheres to a previously agreed upon theme. The UP exhibition endeavors to explore artistic concepts of a post-Katrina return to relative prosperity in Louisiana.

Local artists invited to participate are Ward with a still life of clustered stepladders referencing an Irish limerick, Linda Ward with a surreal figurative/landscape image of human figures emerging from a grouping of birds nests, and Donna McGee with a highly abstracted landscape image suggested by a Taoist poem. These three artists regularly exhibit together with the Eye Twenty Group.

Over one hundred artists will participate in the Artport 2007 edition. A gala reception will be held in their honor at the Shreveport Regional Airport Thursday, Sept. 13 from 6 ­ 9 p.m. This reception will consist of catered refreshments, a live band and the distribution of a color coffee table book commemorating the collaboration. In addition to the displayed 40" x 30" paintings, each artist created an approximation of his/her UP imagery on a ceramic tile. These tiles, plus a number of celebrity-rendered tiles, will be offered in silent auction at the reception, with proceeds going to the Philadelphia Center.

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