UNT on the Square exhibition offers visitors chance to create art

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - 16:53
Category:

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What: Exhibition of new works by Austin Kleon, writer, artist, speaker and New York Times best-selling author.

When/Where: April 11 to May 6 at UNT on the Square, 109 N. Elm St., Denton. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Cost: Free

Additional event: There will be a gallery talk, with Austin Kleon, and reception from 4 to 6 p.m. April 11.

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An artist and New York Times best-selling author who redacts newspapers with a permanent marker to create poetry will show 30 new works at UNT on the Square in an exhibition that allows visitors to create their own artwork.

The Fine Art Series and the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts at the University of North Texas bring Austin Kleon’s works, as well as projections of works others submitted to his website, to the downtown Denton gallery from April 11 through May 6. 

Kleon is the author of Newspaper Blackout, a 2010 collection of poetry made by redacting newspaper articles with permanent marker. The exhibit features brand-new poems and an area for visitors to make their own blackout poetry. Kleon’s blog, NewspaperBlackout.com, has more than 80,000 subscribers, and has featured thousands of poems from people all over the world.

“The exhibition is somewhat unique because of the area where visitors can try out and display their own experiments with the newspaper blackout technique,” Kleon said. “The viewer will turn into the artist, and the artist will turn into the viewer.”

Visitors can find out more about his poems and his best-selling book in his gallery talk, which will be during the exhibition’s opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. April 11.

“I'll discuss the history of my newspaper blackout poems, my creative process and some of the ideas from my book, Steal Like An Artist,” said Kleon.

Steal Like An Artist is based on a list Kleon drew up that has key insights he wishes he’d known when he’d started his career. The list includes pieces of advice such as “Steal like an artist,” “Write the book you want to read,” “Use your hands,” and “Creativity is subtraction.” He used the list in a talk he gave to college students, later expanding that talk into a blog post that went viral and reached millions of readers. He later expanded the blog post into the book, with new writings and illustrations. The book further explains the list. For example, when Kleon says to “steal like an artist,” he doesn’t mean plagiarize; he means give credit to those whose ideas have shaped your own, while creating something new based on those influences.

The free exhibition at UNT on the Square, 109 N. Elm St., on the historic square in downtown Denton can be viewed during gallery hours: 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

 

About Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon is a writer who draws. He’s the author of two best-selling books: Steal Like An Artist (2012) is an illustrated manifesto for creativity in the digital age, and Newspaper Blackout (2010) is a collection of poetry made by redacting words from newspaper articles with a permanent marker. His work has been featured on 20×200.com, NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He speaks about creativity in the digital age for organizations such as Pixar, Google, SXSW, TEDx and The Economist. In previous lives, he worked as a librarian, a web designer and an advertising copywriter. More information is at austinkleon.com.

About the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts

Launched in 2009, the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts (IAA) aims to showcase, support and advance excellence in the visual, performing and creative literary arts at UNT, among its faculty members and in conjunction with their renowned colleagues and collaborators. The three central components of the Institute are UNT on the Square, the IAA Faculty Fellows program and the IAA Artist-in-Residence program. The IAA Faculty Fellows program provides UNT (Denton campus) Faculty Fellows with 100 percent reassignment for one semester to accomplish and present creative research projects. Participants are selected through an annual application process open to all UNT (Denton campus) full-time faculty in the visual, performing and creative literary arts.

About the UNT Fine Arts Series

The Fine Arts Series began as the Lyceum Series in 1903 when UNT was North Texas Normal College. The series has grown over the past century while never losing sight of its purpose to enrich UNT students' lives and provide a higher quality of life at the university. As the Fine Arts Series enters its 109th season, it continues to entertain and educate the campus community by presenting an exciting series of performing, visual and literary arts events. All UNT Fine Arts Series performances are presented free of charge to UNT students.

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