The Shortcut - Events in Oregon

The Maude Kerns Art Center is proud to present two exhibits opening Friday, April 3 with a free public Reception, and on view through April 24. In the Main Gallery is “Witness: Earth & Sky,” featuring the work of Rich Bergeman and Amanda Thomas. Both artists focus on landscape, with Bergeman emphasizing the appropriation of the land and Thomas its despoliation.

In the Salon Gallery is “Consume & Dispose,” showcasing the work of Jennifer Bucheit and Ralf Huber. Bucheit comments through her art on American consumerism, while Huber poignantly illustrates the human cost of child labor.

Two Artist Talks will be held, one on Saturday, April 4, from 1 – 2 pm, for “Witness: Earth & Sky,” and the second on Saturday, April 18, from 1 – 2 pm, for “Consume & Dispose.” The public is invited to hear the artists share their visions at these free events.

Corvallis artist Rich Bergeman has been exhibiting his fine art photography throughout the Northwest and beyond for 40 years. His current work is inspired by the land acknowledgement movement, and particularly the traveling exhibit, “This IS Kalapuya Land.” Through infrared photography, Bergeman explores the Willamette Valley’s tribal homelands to transport viewers to a land devoid of post-colonial marks. He hopes his infrared photography “imbues the work with a sense of disquiet and other worldliness … suggesting a presence beyond the present.”

Mt. Shasta, California artist Amanda Thomas works in a variety of visual media and teaches at the College of the Siskiyous. In “Witness: Earth & Sky,” she documents abandoned mining sites, displaying both 2- and 3-dimensional art. Her sculptures, which are glazed with acid mine drainage and soil samples from mining sites, call to mind rock formations and ancient artifacts, and her black and white photographs support the ceramic pieces by providing a sense of place. She says of her work: “I hope to spark conversations about mining’s environmental impact, the role of mining in society, and our overarching issues of consumption, profit, and waste.”

Eugene artist Jennifer Bucheit, has shown her work throughout the US, including at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Bucheit uses post-consumer waste materials to comment on American consumerism, intertwining habitual consumer behavior with the everyday human condition. She collects paper packaging and photographs it in a still life setting. The resulting images are then printed directly on the interior side of the original packaging. Bucheit says that her work is intended to be “both aesthetically engaging and socially revealing, challenging conventional ideas of what [is] considered art and what [is] considered expendable.”

Springfield artist Ralf Huber was born in Switzerland and moved from Europe to the US in 2003. After 25 years of designing commemorative coins, Huber turned to making his own art in 2020. His work has been displayed in various West Coast venues. Huber addresses social issues, especially the horrors of child labor, using worn, weathered, and repurposed found objects in his mixed media creations. He hopes his work serves as a “reminder of the collective responsibility we bear to protect the innocence … of our youth” so their future is not sacrificed for the sake of economic expediency.

Farmers Market Pavilion Highlight: Youth Art! 5:30pm-8:00pm
Celebrate the vibrancy and enthusiasm of young local artists! The Artist Marketplace will feature young visual artists from 5-20 years old exhibiting and selling original works of art. Live entertainment will feature local youth performers showcasing talent in dance, music, theatre, and spoken word poetry. Even more resources and experiences will be on hand, like community partners from youth-serving organizations, a face painter, food vendors, hands-on activities, and more. Bring the whole family for a great time!

This month's ArtWalk is sponsored in a part by a grant from City of Eugene Cultural Services Downtown Program Fund.

ArtWalk is supported by funds from the Oregon Arts Commission, a policy-making and advisory body within the Oregon Business Development Department, funded by the State of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Eight-year-old Katsi and her friends are not oblivious to the news and protests. They’ve all had questions about ICE. They wanted to do something to help. So they made butterflies. Using the symbol of the butterfly to represent the beauty inherent in migration, 5 to 9 year olds will be selling their art to raise money to help fund legal services for immigrants trying to stay in the U.S. This is happening as part of the Youth Art Takeover of April’s First Friday ArtWalk in the Farmer’s Market Pavilion. All money raised will go to RISP- the Refugee and Immigrant Services Program through CCSLC.

An Artist Talk for the artists featured in Maude Kerns Art Center's exhibit "Witness: Earth & Sky" will be held on Saturday, April 4, from 1 – 2 pm. The public is invited to hear the artists share their visions at this free event.

“Witness: Earth & Sky,” which is in the Art Center's Main Gallery, features the work of Rich Bergeman and Amanda Thomas. Both artists focus on landscape, with Bergeman emphasizing the appropriation of the land and Thomas its despoliation.

Corvallis artist Rich Bergeman has been exhibiting his fine art photography throughout the Northwest and beyond for 40 years. His current work is inspired by the land acknowledgement movement, and particularly the traveling exhibit, “This IS Kalapuya Land.” Through infrared photography, Bergeman explores the Willamette Valley’s tribal homelands to transport viewers to a land devoid of post-colonial marks. He hopes his infrared photography “imbues the work with a sense of disquiet and other worldliness … suggesting a presence beyond the present.”

Mt. Shasta, California artist Amanda Thomas works in a variety of visual media and teaches at the College of the Siskiyous. In “Witness: Earth & Sky,” she documents abandoned mining sites, displaying both 2- and 3-dimensional art. Her sculptures, which are glazed with acid mine drainage and soil samples from mining sites, call to mind rock formations and ancient artifacts, and her black and white photographs support the ceramic pieces by providing a sense of place. She says of her work: “I hope to spark conversations about mining’s environmental impact, the role of mining in society, and our overarching issues of consumption, profit, and waste.”

University of Oregon 2025-26 Visiting Artist Lecture Series
Presented by the Department of Art and Center for Art Research

Cerny’s sculptures and work on paper start with the idea that “furniture” and “mother” are figures that secure a value (to others) for their potential to hold, display, or be absent-mindedly left with things. Putting form and color to work and entrusting no small part to contingency, these works behave as something like gestural understudies for a play about the day-to-day grinding weariness and joyful slapstick absurdity of human relationships—about trying to Work It Out…or not. The shelf, the rack, the hook, the slot, the vessel: all stand at the ready to be occupied temporarily, until something better comes along. These objects “hold,” literally and metaphorically. A pattern played out over and over in the work is one of holding as the creation of intimacy and belonging, for pleasure, and for self-preservation.

Fine art photographers Kim Cuc Tran and Ted Crego will share their extensive knowledge of travel photography during this month's Coastal Arts Guild Talk About Art, Thursday, April 16 from 2:00-3:30 p.m. at the Newport Visual Arts Center, 2nd Floor Classroom. This presentation, entitled "Travel Photography," will focus on criteria for creating compelling photos and how to evaluate them, post-processing enhancements, latest software advancements, details about their travels and a slide show of award winning photos. This event is free and all are welcome! For more information contact coastalartsguild@gmail.com.

April 17, 18, 24, 25, 26*, May 1, 2, 3*

by D. W. Gregory
Directed by Willow Jade Norton Zolan
Held in the Hope Theatre
In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage—until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease.

Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees.

As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. Written with warmth and humor, Radium Girls is a fast-moving, highly theatrical ensemble piece for 9 to 10 actors, who play more than 30 parts—friends, co-workers, lovers, relatives, attorneys, scientists, consumer advocates, and myriad interested bystanders. Called a “powerful” and “engrossing” drama by critics, Radium Girls offers a wry, unflinching look at the peculiarly American obsessions with health, wealth, and the commercialization of science.

Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois
Originally produced by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and developed with a commissioning grant from The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project.

April 17, 18, 24, 25, 26*, May 1, 2, 3*

by D. W. Gregory
Directed by Willow Jade Norton Zolan
Held in the Hope Theatre
In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage—until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease.

Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees.

As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. Written with warmth and humor, Radium Girls is a fast-moving, highly theatrical ensemble piece for 9 to 10 actors, who play more than 30 parts—friends, co-workers, lovers, relatives, attorneys, scientists, consumer advocates, and myriad interested bystanders. Called a “powerful” and “engrossing” drama by critics, Radium Girls offers a wry, unflinching look at the peculiarly American obsessions with health, wealth, and the commercialization of science.

Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois
Originally produced by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and developed with a commissioning grant from The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project.

An Artist Talk for Maude Kerns Art Center's exhibit “Consume & Dispose," featuring Eugene artist Jennifer Bucheit and Springfield artist Ralf Huber, will be held on Saturday, April 18, from 1 – 2 pm. The public is invited to hear the artists share their visions at this free event.

Eugene artist Jennifer Bucheit, has shown her work throughout the US, including at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Bucheit uses post-consumer waste materials to comment on American consumerism, intertwining habitual consumer behavior with the everyday human condition. She collects paper packaging and photographs it in a still life setting. The resulting images are then printed directly on the interior side of the original packaging. Bucheit says that her work is intended to be “both aesthetically engaging and socially revealing, challenging conventional ideas of what [is] considered art and what [is] considered expendable.”

Springfield artist Ralf Huber was born in Switzerland and moved from Europe to the US in 2003. After 25 years of designing commemorative coins, Huber turned to making his own art in 2020. His work has been displayed in various West Coast venues. Huber addresses social issues, especially the horrors of child labor, using worn, weathered, and repurposed found objects in his mixed media creations. He hopes his work serves as a “reminder of the collective responsibility we bear to protect the innocence … of our youth” so their future is not sacrificed for the sake of economic expediency.

April 17, 18, 24, 25, 26*, May 1, 2, 3*

by D. W. Gregory
Directed by Willow Jade Norton Zolan
Held in the Hope Theatre
In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage—until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease.

Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees.

As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. Written with warmth and humor, Radium Girls is a fast-moving, highly theatrical ensemble piece for 9 to 10 actors, who play more than 30 parts—friends, co-workers, lovers, relatives, attorneys, scientists, consumer advocates, and myriad interested bystanders. Called a “powerful” and “engrossing” drama by critics, Radium Girls offers a wry, unflinching look at the peculiarly American obsessions with health, wealth, and the commercialization of science.

Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois
Originally produced by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and developed with a commissioning grant from The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project.