By: Shane Bagot, Follow South Jersey Intern
Perkins Center for the Arts celebrates the 250th anniversary of America with a special exhibition. Kathy Anne English’s “Paint America” is on display from July 6 to August 14 at the Moorestown location.
Perkins Center for the Arts is an art center that also provides education classes in ceramics, glass painting, and mosaics. They also have a music conservatory that offers lessons in piano, guitar, drums, and more.
The curator of this exhibition and others is Sharon Kiefer. Her job is to provide exhibits for both the Moorestown and Collingswood locations. Kiefer switches out shows every two months, from either a group or solo exhibition. Like the 250th anniversary, she tries to curate the shows by special events.
“I try to hit all art mediums in my curations. I visit museums. I visit art galleries. I visit other art receptions. Artists invite me to see their work. I have a catalog of artists, and I plug them in where I see fit,” said Kiefer.
Kiefer got involved with the solo artist English when she visited this same collection two years ago. She kept it in her mind all this time for this moment.
Kathy Anne English is a self taught water color artist. English has been at her craft since she was young. It grew from her father’s blindness and from explaining to him what the world looked like. Whether that be the shades of green on a tree or the ladybug’s shadow on the windowsill. That transitioned into her being supported by her grandparents to put that thought onto the canvas.
The craft and ambition developed more over time, alongside her love for teaching. She was able to combine them and work in both worlds for 20 years.
“I’m sitting at the tables now, where I teach, and there’s always joy and laughter and a lot of art therapy. I worked with a lot of cancer patients, gave them free art classes as they were going through discovering they had cancer, through treatments, and had jubilation after recovering and being cancer-free. That was really amazing for me. I just loved working with people so that you could get their minds away from the suffering and all the fear that they were going through,” said English.
English first got the idea for “Paint America” when she was 20 years old and pregnant with her first child. The idea was to get an RV and travel the country, painting a landscape or a place in each state. To really tell a story about what she saw in each state.
It wouldn’t be until 2005 that English would set off on her first cross-country trip with her husband. COVID would halt progress, but they were able to get back on track and complete four more trips. She would start her first painting in February 2021 and finish her last on April 25, 2024.
English would have the first “Paint America” exhibit in the Millville River Renaissance Gallery, which is where Kiefer would first hear of her. English felt very honored and special to be able to represent the anniversary in this way.
An important aspect of this exhibition is the educational side of it. Kiefer tries to incorporate that when looking out for exhibitions. This one works so well as its education is more concrete as opposed to a more abstract concept with other artists’ stories.
“It’s visually beautiful to look at, but you also learn about each state, what the landscape looks like in each state, and what animals might live in that setting as well,” said Kiefer.
English hopes people can come and enjoy seeing the exhibit. Recognize the beauty in all 50 states.
“Part of it was to inspire people to respect, enjoy, and see the country. You know, life is short, and you need to get out there. If you love your country, it’s so diverse. Every state and states I thought years ago, ‘why would I go to Iowa? Why would I go to North Dakota?’ We found beauty in every single state,” said English.
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