May 2 – July 30
On May 2, Nevada County Arts Council will present the work of Ruth Chase in an artist-led community exhibition. This exhibition is the culmination of a year’s work—traveling, interviewing, painting, organizing, documenting. Alongside Ruth’s large-scale acrylic paintings will be a meaningful collaboration of work from the community: paintings, drawings, sculpture, letters, poetry, photography and video. A short film by Ruth Chase and Radu Sava will emerge as the centerpiece of this year-long inquiry of what it means to belong to the land in Nevada County. The exhibition runs through July 30th.
BELONGING is about our vulnerable mountain home. Ruth worked with the people who tend it, love it and depend on it, mobilizing perspectives to create a deeper sense of connection between the members of our community and the land we all share. Belonging is an initiative of Nevada County Art Council led by Artist Ruth Chase, generously funded in part by California Arts Council through its Artists Activating Communities Program.
Through social media, Ruth posted a weekly Saturday morning question that engaged the community in finding a sense of belonging here in Nevada County. The interactions and responses of this group informed the project’s outcome. In addition, ten featured participants were interviewed by Ruth about their direct relationship with the land in Nevada County. In the short film by Ruth and Radu, each person reflects on their connection to the land and how it relates to their sense of belonging. Lori Lachman followed the project, taking photographs of the people and of the places that Ruth and Radu traveled throughout the year of the Belonging project. These photographs will be on display during the exhibition.
Ruth Chase lives and works in Nevada County. In 2017, Ruth completed the West of Lincoln Project that was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles for Art in Action. She was also awarded a grant to an individual artist from the Carl Jacobs Foundation. She was granted a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts in NY, was published in Professional Artist Magazine, Catapult Art Magazine and Huffington Post, and has taught at the Crocker Art Museum, and she was a featured sketch artist on the Dead Files television program. Most recently she was awarded an Artist-in-Residence at Nevada County Arts for Artist Activating Communities through a grant from the California Arts Council for the BELONGING project. Ruth is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute.
BELONGING EXHIBITION
May 2 – July 30
Summer Thyme
231 Colfax Ave, Grass Valley, CA
OPENING RECEPTION
Sunday, May 20 3-5p
INVITATION
FILM SCREENING
Sunday, May 20 2-3p
With filmmaker Radu Sava, Ruth Chase and featured participants of the film: Rick Berry, Jeff Brown, Jonathan Collier, Shelly Covert, Philip Oyung, Nancy Tiken Lopez, Elisa Parker, Aimee Retzler, Mike Stewart and Rob Thompson.
ARTISTS EXHIBITING
Masha Lewis, Bill Jacobson, Ashely Foreman, Jude Bischoff, Sherri Dauphinais, Peggy Wright, Ron Kenedi, Amy Mills, Robert Finn, Al Martinez, Anna Snelgrove, Jennifer Rugge, Lisa Barker, Erin Sorani, Linda Leith, Dodie Johnston, Sarah Clark, Pamela J Bradford, Radu Sava, Ruth Chase
