Middleman Productions describes the artwork as “spiritual, captivating and haunting” in style and tone.
Hyannis, MA (PRWEB) February 27, 2013
Middleman Productions announces that the thought-provoking exhibit, Icons of the Civil Rights Movement, is now on display at Zion Union Heritage Museum in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks. Emmett Till. The Freedom Riders. Reverend James Reeb. These and dozens of other activists who gave their passion and their lives for the Civil Rights Movement are immortalized by artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy of Harwich Port, Massachusetts in the Icons of the Civil Rights Movement exhibit
Artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy with Little Rock 9, one of the Icons in the series.
With 26 pieces in total, Icons of the Civil Rights Movement depicts persons and events that were crucial to this transformative period in American history. Each Icon is represented in gold leaf on wood panel to suggest the sacred nature of the movement and the sacrifices made by so many in the cause of social justice. Pamela uses found objects, oil painted collage papers, locks, keys and chains, and other objects that best symbolize the person or event represented.
The Icons have been exhibited at more than 25 colleges and universities, galleries, libraries and churches in the US Northeast and Eastern Shore, including Boston University, the State House in Boston and the Methodist Center in Washington, DC for the first inauguration of President Barack Obama. When the show is not traveling, it is on display at Zion Union Heritage Museum in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
“The series emerged out of my own concerns during the Civil Rights era when my husband, David, and I were first married and living in Chicago in the early 1960s,” Pamela comments. “I was hired as an art director by John Johnson, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, and was one of two whites working in a company of 150 employees. So many events were happening at the time: the murder of Medgar Evers, the March on Washington, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist in Birmingham, and the assassination of President John Kennedy. I couldn’t help but get involved in the Civil Rights Movement in some way.”
Pamela and David, a Methodist minister, raised a family of four children: two biological daughters and two adopted sons (one African-American, the other Vietnamese/African-American). Over the years, they experienced the sting of racism. Along with this personal history and having taught art in colleges and public schools, Pamela decided to put her passion about the Civil Rights Movement into her art.
This decision gelled after a trip in 2004 to pivotal places and meeting heroic figures of the Civil Rights Movement. Pamela completed the first 16 of the series in time for the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination in 2008. Originally 16 Icons comprised the first exhibit, but as Pamela and her husband became immersed in research about the era, she discovered more and more individuals who deserved to be honored. The Icons collection has grown to its current 26.
Public response to the Icons has been encouraging, with reviewers commenting: “It is an amazing, moving history in art and narrative about the Civil Rights Movement,” “This exhibit will touch you to the depths of your soul,” and “This socially conscious artist is so impassioned about her work, you could say that racism gets under her skin.”
A full-color, coffee-table-style book of the same name is also available for purchase for $29.95 plus tax and shipping. The book is available through Amazon.com or on the artist’s website, http://www.chatterton-purdyart.com.
If you would like the exhibit to travel to your locale, contact Mark Person, Middleman Productions at 774.487.1427 or Mark@dreamproducer.com.
Pamela is also available for commissioned work. To learn more, visit http://www.chatterton-purdyart.com.
About Middleman Productions:
Mark Person, founder of Middleman Productions, is a publicist, photojournalist, music promoter, artist manager, event planner and author/publishing consultant. The company’s focus is on “artists helping other artists” achieve success. To learn more, visit Dreamproducer.com, where “everyone has a story to tell.”
Pamela Chatterton-Purdy is available for media interviews. To schedule an interview, contact Mark Person at 774.487.1427 or Mark(at)dreamproducer(dot)com
E-photos of Pamela, the Icons and her other work are also available.