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Sedona Arts Center — Celebrate Sedona this Friday!

by Community Contributor • September 5, 2024 • Comments Off

This Friday in Sedona!
Celebrate Sedona and a Special Exhibition!
September 6 from 4 to 6pm

Join us for the special opening reception in partnership with the Sedona Heritage Museum of work by Myrna Harrison! Sedona Trolley will transport guests to and from each location. Musicians at Sedona Arts Center provided by Sedona Symphony. Enjoy beer, wine and food while you view colorful landscapes by the artist. Spread the word…Celebrate Sedona is now held on First Fridays! Bring your friends!

Myrna Harrison Joint Exhibition
Sedona Arts Center & Sedona Heritage Museum
September 6-29, 2024

Sedona Arts Center and Sedona Heritage Museum present “Myrna Harrison: Exhibition & Sale” opening September 6 at both organizations. The joint exhibition opens with an artists’ reception from 4-6 p.m. The Arts Center’s opening reception will be held in conjunction with Celebrate Sedona. The afternoon features artist demonstrations, a ceramics sale by Sedona Arts Center’s ceramics department, food, wine, beer and musicians from the Sedona Symphony will be performing. Both events are free and open to the public. Visitors will be shuttled between the Arts Center and Sedona Heritage Museum by Sedona Trolley during the afternoon’s festivities.

The exhibition and sale features more than 50 artworks on view between Sedona Arts Center and the Sedona Heritage Museum that span the artist’s career—color-saturated abstract and desert landscapes that evoke the vivid and dynamic terrain of the West. From jagged mountains and deep canyons to dusty roads and expansive skies, Harrison’s artworks are executed with traditional and crayon watercolors often outlined with Japanese sumi ink.

“This show is our ‘element’ of history,” says Julie Richard, CEO of Sedona Arts Center. “Myrna has enjoyed a remarkable career spanning more than 70 years. It is an honor to celebrate her artistry and legacy, in partnership with Sedona Heritage Museum.”

Born in 1932 in Hollywood, Calif., Harrison has been enveloped in the arts since childhood. Her father was an animator and her mother a hat designer. She studied in
New York under abstract painters Morris Davidson and Jack Tworkov and finally at the
renowned Hans Hoffman School of Fine Art in New York City and Provincetown in
Massachusetts, where she honed her style under the guidance of Hoffman, one of the most prolific figures in postwar American art. In 1959 she received a BA (magna cum laude with Honors in English) and in 1960 an MA (English) from New York University (NYU). At NYU she studied with Philip Guston, a founding figure of the New York School.She showed in numerous juried and invitational group shows in the 1950s, including the International Watercolor Biennial at the Brooklyn Museum. In 1960, Harrison returned to California where she taught and exhibited throughout northern California for the next 20 years. In 1980, she moved to Ariz. to become President of Rio Salado Community College (1980-85), Gateway Community College, (1985-88) and Phoenix College (1988-93). She retired in 1993 and moved to Wickenburg. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including solo exhibitions at Sedona’s James Ratliff Gallery, Cortland Jessup Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts and group shows in the United States, Europe and Japan.

A Message from
The Ceramics Department
at Sedona Arts CenterGreetings Potters, Artists, and Friends, Neil Kennedy is moving!

His last day will be on September 6 at our Celebrate Sedona event from 4 to 6pm at Sedona Arts Center in Uptown Sedona. As many of you know, Neil joined our Sedona Arts Center ceramic department almost 7 years ago. During Neil’s tenure with us, he developed the Tuesday afternoon’s Hand Building and Saturday morning’s Pottery Wheel for Beginners classes. With Neil’s years of ceramic experience and his natural talent as an artist, he has helped build the ceramic department’s programming to what it is today—one of the most active and popular clay schools in northern Arizona.

We will miss Neil and wish him many more successes in his new life in Cape Cod.

Dennis Ott
SAC Ceramic Dept.

Make a Donation: Click Here To Contribute to Sedona Arts Center

Our mission is to connect, enrich, educate and lead through the inspiring power of the arts and creative discovery.

Sedona Arts Center is one of Northern Arizona’s most well-established cultural organizations and serves as the creative heart of Sedona. Founded in 1958, the nonprofit is based in Uptown Sedona and offers year-round classes, exhibitions, festivals, and cultural events that enhance the creative life of the Verde Valley.

SedonaArtsCenter.org