Kathy Johnson Bowles, director of the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA), is the latest recipient of the Folk Art Society of America's (FASA) Award of Distinction. Bowles received the award last September.
Bowles helped promote the value of folk art at Longwood University through the LCVA exhibition, "Three-Ring Circus: Highlights from the William and Ann Oppenhimer Folk Art Collection." Including approximately 270 pieces of artwork and featuring over 100 artists, the exhibition ran at LCVA from September 2011 through early January 2012. Bowles wrote an exhibition catalog for the exhibit. "A lot of research went into that," she commented.
FASA is a national organization of collectors, scholars and people who support folk art. As a group that has been active for two dozen years, FASA recognizes an artist and an individual who contributes to the folk art field each year. According to the website, the mission of the FASA is "to advocate the discovery, study, documentation, preservation and exhibition of folk art, folk artists and folk art environments, with an emphasis on the contemporary."
Bowles said the exhibition was "really exciting for Longwood." She said as one of the results, an FASA member contacted her and offered to donate three paintings and 26 drawings from Thornton Dial, a prominent figure among folk artists. She said the gift is valued around $200,000.
Bowles explained that folk art represents a wonderful example of the power of creativity, and it is always "honest" and "authentic." She also said many of folk art pieces have a humor value to them. "They are so touching sometimes; so raw."
As for Bowles' passion for folk art, she said, "I think it's because of the people who make it." She said these people do not do it for the recognition, for the money or for art theory. "It's not for any other reason except for them needing to do so."
Bowles said folk art at the LCVA helps to promote Longwood's mission of the ideal citizen leader. "It shows we value all people, no matter what their experience is."
The community outreach is also one of the largest parts of LCVA's mission. Aside from the hundreds of student volunteers each year, LCVA is able to reach out to Farmville and the surrounding community to affect the lives of school children.
Recently, the LCVA was given a grant to support a school educator's position for surrounding counties. "We're proud to have these connections with the community and [help] school children," said Bowles. "This should be a place where everyone can come and expect to participate in what we're doing."
Bowles has been at the LCVA since 2000 and has seen it grow in great lengths. "It's made a big impact on the community and on campus," she said. Back at the turn of the century, Bowles said there were only a few pieces of art to be found on Longwood's grounds. Now, she estimates over 1,000 pieces of art have been put on campus.
She said this point is important because art changes how we live and learn as well as helps us develop different points of view. "Having art on our campus is everyday life now." Bowles added that finding art used to be difficult. "Now I have so many requests, I can hardly keep up."
Under Bowles' leadership, the LCVA earned accreditation from the American Association of Museums in 2010, a task only 4.5 percent of museums in the nation have achieved.
