Visiting Artist Karen Carson Featured in Multiple Activities at USU Museum

The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art welcomes and hosts artist Karen Carson to Utah State University as she participates in a variety of events, including a lecture and multiple workshops.

An opening lecture by Carson is Tuesday, Sept. 22, in the Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall. She will share her experience as a professional artist and discuss the creation of her work, including one of the art museum’s most popular pieces, Flowers of Fate, a work familiar to many patrons and is assembled with mirror shards, ticking clocks and painted flowers.

Carson’s lecture begins at 7 p.m. and is free to all.

In addition to the Sept. 22 lecture, Carson will direct various workshops in the Department of Art at USU, in addition to a special teacher’s workshop Friday, Sept. 25, from 4-7 p.m.

The teacher’s workshop is free and open to educators of all grade levels throughout the northern Utah and southern Idaho area and is organized between the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art’s Education Program and the Cache County School District Arts coordinator. The workshop will be held at the Cache County School District Office, 2063 N. 1200 East in North Logan, Utah.

As part of this workshop, teachers will split into grade-level break-out sessions to find connections between mathematics and the visual arts and discuss how these connections can be included in their curriculums. An RSVP is required for each guest to attend this workshop. To RSVP, contact Cache County District Arts Coordinator Jody Treat, by email at jody.treat@cache.k12.ut.us.

To directly address the needs from school administrators, various teachers throughout Cache County have developed new math curriculum based on artwork in the museum’s collection. Flowers of Fate was the most popular piece chosen for the project which is supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The IMLS grant is in its second year and now aims to implement the lesson plans developed last year.

Nadra Haffar, the education curator for the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, explained that the workshop is important due to its involvement with the State-Wide Art Partnership (SWAP). Lesson plans, projects and classroom kits developed by classroom teachers will be shared among all the workshop participants.

“This three-hour workshop will also give re-licensure points to all educators who need them,” said Haffar.

For more information or to schedule a tour of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, call (435) 797-0165. The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art is on the USU campus at 650 N. 1100 East, Logan, Utah, 84322, (435) 797-0163; fax (435) 797-3423. Information is also available at the museum’s Web site.The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum is closed Sundays, Mondays and holidays. Admission is free. The museum is accessible to persons with disabilities.

Parking for the museum is available in the Orange Lot west of the museum. The parking fee in this area is $5. Museum visitors who RSVP will receive free parking, and parking is free after 5 p.m. and on weekends. Two dedicated stalls in the Orange Lot are available for museum members. Call Rachel for reservations: 797-1414. Parking is also available in the Big Blue Terrace, located near the Taggart Student Center, for $1.50/hour ($7.50/day maximum). Free parking after 5 p.m. is available at the Blue Lot, located at the corner of 700 N. and 1200 East (by Aggie Ice Cream).