Faculty Exhibition · Johnson County Community College

For the first time since JCCC’s Gallery of Art opened a year ago, works by the visual art faculty will be exhibited. Forty-six pieces ranging from pastel drawings to computer-generated videos are included in the exhibition, showcasing the work of 17 teaching artists. Faculty art shows have been exhibited informally over the years in a space on the second floor level of the JCCC library. A gallery walk is scheduled at 3:30 January 12 with Zigmunds Priede, Tom Tarnowski and George Thompson. 

We are most appreciative of the enthusiastic response that we received from JCCC visual arts faculty for this exhibition. The show represents the first faculty exhibit in the college's new Gallery of Art. As such, it is a unique opportunity for students to view the works of their instructors and for fellow faculty to share in the accomplishments of their colleagues.

We are deeply indebted to Landon Kirchner, assistant dean, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and George Thompson, program director, visual arts, for their invaluable assistance.

– Bruce Hartman, director, Gallery of Art

An exhibit of faculty work is an occasion to note the importance to a college art instructor of making art as well as teaching art. While many people come to teaching from fields where they have gained applied experience, few continue to practice in their fields once they enter the classroom. For teaching artists, this is seldom true. Pursuing their own lines of inquiry through producing art is never viewed as an extracurricular activity. Producing their own art complements the teaching process because it requires the same struggles with vision, form and materials that all art-makers encounter, especially students. It also encourages a currency of aesthetic and "keeps the juices flowing," as it were. More importantly, making art provides the continuity in the lives of teaching artists, since it keeps them in continuous contact with what brought them to pursue art in the first place.

Viewing this exhibit of JCCC faculty work can be instructive as well. Students of these instructors will be fascinated by the style, techniques, materials, subject matter and aesthetics of the works, and they will use the exhibit to gain further understanding of what they are studying in the classroom. Those of us who know the faculty as a group will note the enormous diversity of interests and approaches, and no doubt look for parallels between an instructor's aesthetics and his or her student's work. We will probably be surprised by how different these turn out to be.

For the general exhibition visitor who lacks familiarity with the teaching artists represented here, it is an opportunity to view a very diverse collection of artworks by artists whose only common connection is teaching at the college. This is not an exhibit of a "school" of artists. It does, however, reflect the strength of our art faculty, and while it may not represent their curricular or instructional emphases, it presents a fair picture of what our teaching artists are producing at this moment. Art is not merely an academic field of study for these people; it is a vehicle for inquiry into the profound issues of the form, structure and meaning of reality and visual communication, and an opportunity for creative self-expression.

– Landon Kirchner, assistant dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Artists included

Doug Baker, adjunct instructor, painting and drawing
MFA, University of Kansas
BFA, Kansas City Art Institute 

Stuart Beals, instructor, photography
MA, University of Kansas
BFA, University of Kansas 

Jack Collins, adjunct instructor, painting and drawing
MFA, University of Kansas
BFA, University of Kansas 

Emanuel Cooper Jr., adjunct instructor, commercial art
MA, Rhode Island School of Design
BFA, Kansas City Art Institute 

Lisa Tully Dibble, adjunct instructor, ceramics
MFA, Boston University
BFA, Kansas City Art Institute 

Paul Dunkak, adjunct instructor, painting and drawing
MA, University of Missouri-Columbia
BFA, University of Kansas 

Frank Hamilton, adjunct instructor, photography
MFA, University of Kansas
BFA, Kansas City Art Institute

Ronald D. Hicks, instructor, ceramics
MS, Pittsburg State University
BS, Pittsburg State University

Chris Kilmer, adjunct instructor, photography
MA, San Francisco State University
BA, California State University at Sacramento 

Michael J. Pesselato, adjunct instructor, painting and drawing
MFA, Washington University, St. Louis
BFA, Carnegie-Mellon University 

Peter Pinnell, adjunct instructor, ceramics
MFA, University of Colorado
BFA, Alfred University 

Zigmunds Priede, instructor, painting and drawing
MFA, University of California, Berkeley
BFA, University of Minnesota 

Karen Schory, instructor, commercial art
MFA, Rochester Institute of Technology
BFA, Kutztown University 

Tom Tarnowski, instructor, photography
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design
BA, University of South Florida 

Larry Thomas, instructor, painting and drawing
MFA, University of Iowa
BFA, Southeast Missouri State University 

George Thompson, program director, visual arts
MFA, Kansas State University
BS, Ohio State University 

Nancy Schneider-Wilson, instructor, commercial art
MFA, University of Kansas
BFA, Kansas City Art Institute