Westmoreland Museum curator named awards juror for statewide exhibition

Jeremiah William McCarthy, chief curator at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, will serve as awards juror for the 56th annual Art of the State exhibition.

Running Sept. 10 to Jan. 4 in The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, the juried exhibit is a survey of the creative efforts of artists from across the Commonwealth in the categories of painting, work on paper, photography and digital media, sculpture and craft.

The invitation is both “a great honor and a little bit of pressure,” McCarthy said.

“It’s wonderful that Pennsylvania has a program where the state is organizing an exhibition that highlights the work of the whole state,” he said. “I think people have specific ideas about Pennsylvania, whether they’re in eastern Pennsylvania or southwestern Pennsylvania, and what I’m looking forward to is seeing the range of materials and the creative output of the whole state.”

As awards juror, McCarthy will choose works in each category that will receive cash awards. Works for the exhibit itself will be chosen by three selection jurors.

The jurors are Deborah Pinter, an artist and adjunct professor at Cleveland Institute of Art; Kyle Hackett, an assistant professor of painting and design at James Madison University in Virginia; and Jennifer Zwilling, curator and director of artists programs at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia.

Being fairly new to Pennsylvania, McCarthy said, the awards selection process will familiarize him with more Pennsylvania artists. A lifelong resident of New York, McCarthy came to The Westmoreland in April 2022.

“I’m excited that, recently having moved here, it’s allowing me a virtual way to visit a much higher number of studios,” he said. “If you were trying to do this in studio visits, it would take weeks — if not months — to do. I can at least start to see the work of people I’m not so familiar with, because they’re operating in areas I’m less familiar with.”

McCarthy said he also appreciates that Art of the State includes a category for craft.

“Sometimes, in other programs like this, craft can get sidelined. Here, craft was put on par with the other various media,” he said. “It parallels something I’m thinking about with the (Westmoreland Museum).

“Placing artists and craftspeople side by side, in my mind, is a more democratic approach to media,” he said. “Many times, craft is separate and has its own fairs, its own programs; so I was excited to see the possibilities and potentials of the dialogue between craft and other media.”

More than $4,000 in cash awards will be presented to winning artists.

Western Pennsylvania artists who received honors in the 2022 exhibit included Patty Kennedy-Zafred of Murrysville, first place in craft; Robert Sholties of Glenshaw, Allegheny County, second place in painting; and Stephanie Oplinger of Greensburg, third place in sculpture.

Artists 18 and older can submit works to be considered for the exhibition through May 5. Information is available at statemuseumpa.org.