JOHNSON CITY – “John Steele and the Taxpayer's Children” fills all three galleries of East Tennessee State University's B. Carroll Reece Museum from Jan. 17-March 17.
Forty-nine former students have agreed to participate in this “retrospective” of retired ETSU art and design faculty member John Steele. The exhibit is a partial documentary of the cultural history of ETSU and, more specifically, the artistic growth of the former students selected by Steele for inclusion in the exhibit. These former students are a cross-section of the art student population who have two things in common: their interest in continuing to make art and the fact that they have maintained contact with Steele.
“On one level, this exhibition is a selfish venture whose purpose is to produce closure and warm fuzzies for me,” Steele said in a statement introducing the exhibition. “On another level, this exhibition documents not only the cultural growth of ETSU, but, more importantly, the personal artistic and intellectual growth of this group of students.”
The exhibit is free and open to the public. Reece Museum hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday; and 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
For more information or for special assistance for persons with disabilities, contact Blair White, director and curator of Reece Museum, at (423) 439-4392.