A new staffer is on board at Salina Arts and Humanities.
In accordance to the organization, Joan Benefiel has been chosen as the new new Arts Expert services Coordinator.
A Wichita native, Benefiel most not long ago lived and worked in New York Town and in Brooklyn, NY. In the last 17 yrs, Benefiel’s operate as a sculptor has integrated commissions for the Vietnam Veteran’s War Monument in Eisenhower Point out Park in Long Island, NY, and to create a St. Ignatius Memorial for Fairfield College in Fairfield, CT.
Her items have been provided in demonstrates ranging from “Beyond Rodin: Modern day Figurative Sculpture Exhibition” for the Rye Arts Centre, to “The Showcase Collection of Modest Works” at the National Museum of Ladies in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
“I never ever preferred to be an artist who did not have an understanding of every action,” states Benefiel. “I required to do it myself.” In the beginning self-taught, her schooling in dimensional style and design and manufacturing began with Kansas City sculptor Tom Corbin in the course of her decades at KU, then continued in various roles Benefiel held for additional than a 10 years at Excalibur Bronze Fine Artwork Foundry in New York Town.
In 2008, she and partner Jeremy Leichman started off their very own company, Figuration Studio, exactly where they manufactured their own operates and furnished structure and fabrication companies for other artists.
Not too long ago, Benefiel’s is effective have appeared in exhibitions in Palm Desert, CA, Springfield, MO, Colorado Springs, CO, Knoxville, TN, Naples, FL, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and other places. Her operate is at the moment featured in the El Paseo Public Art Sculpture Exhibition in Palm Desert, CA, and in SculptureTour Salina-design and style displays in Gladstone and Springfield, MO, and on the campus of Appalachian Condition University. Her perform has been showcased in two documentaries and in media including Fox News, The New York Moments, and Christian Century.
Benefiel’s lifelong determination to sculpture illustrates how deeply the medium resonates with her. “It’s literal, but not restricting,” she suggests. “I can talk a little something crucial to me when putting something out there that others can carry pieces of them selves to. To have them working experience a piece in the similar bodily area in which I generate it, is unique.”
Benefiel retains a bachelor’s diploma in women’s reports from the University of Kansas and a MFA in figurative sculpture from the New York Academy of Art. She also has analyzed at the Art Pupils League of New York, Parsons School of Design and style, the School of Visible Arts, and at the College of Hull in the United Kingdom.
Her exclusive, hand-tinted, seemingly lit-from-in resin sculpture series entitled “Cast In Light” has been highlighted in quite a few short-term general public-art installations around the U.S., including spanning five blocks of Broadway underneath Occasions Square in NYC’s Fashion District, at L.A. Dwell at Nokia Plaza in Los Angeles, and in Rye Town Park in Rye, NY. In her huge range of sculptural function, Benefiel designed a two-part, 80-panel bronze bas-reduction get the job done depicting a historic railroad, as a focal aspect of the foyer of the well known Helmsley Creating on Park Avenue, the place 1 of the railway stations was at the time situated.
For Salina Arts & Humanities, Benefiel will oversee the Smoky Hill River Festival’s juried art clearly show, demo artists, outdoor Art Installations and the Artwork Patron System. She also will serve as the principal liaison to the Group Art & Structure Program and its advisory committee, and will provide as a regional community art and visible arts resource.