Penn State Shenango presents 'Talk to the Artists: Visual Arts Faculty Show'

Penn State Shenango invites the community for a night of sculptures, ceramics, paintings, and drawings as the campus concludes its 2018-19 lecture series at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 14, in the Lecture Hall Art Gallery. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

The faculty presentation, titled “Talk to the Artists: Visual Arts Faculty Show,” will feature works of art by Christian Kuharik, Edward Hallahan and James Pernotto.

“We are really looking forward to being able to come together as Shenango faculty to show our work,” said Kuharik. “This event gives us a chance to show the community what we do as artists and how we impart our knowledge and creativity onto our students.”

Kuharik is the art program coordinator at the Shenango campus, where he has taught ceramics since 2005. He is also the director of ceramics at the Hope Center for Arts and Technology, a nonprofit center that teaches mentorship through the arts to underprivileged high school students and job training for adults. Kuharik was a pioneer artist who opened a pottery studio in downtown Sharon to help with the town's revitalization efforts in 2013. Besides teaching, he is also an accomplished potter and has shown his work throughout the United States, as well as internationally. In 2017, he completed a large scale commission for a 6-foot-tall ceramic harp for the city of Dublin, Ohio to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their Irish Festival, which attracts over 100,000 people annually.

Hallahan teaches drawing and photography, as well as art history at the Shenango campus. He began teaching at the Shenango campus in 2001. Throughout the year, he participates in various events, including the campus’s STEM Camp and STEAM Day in conjunction with Sharon School District. In addition to being a faculty member, Hallahan is a preparator at the Butler Institute of American Art, as well as the coordinator and instructor for two outreach education programs at the Institute. During the summer, Hallahan teaches art at the Good Grief Camp at Camp Frederick in Rodgers, Ohio.

Pernotto is a lecturer in visual arts at the Shenango campus where he teaches painting and printmaking. He began his teaching at the Shenango campus in 2007. Pernotto is one of the most celebrated artists in Northeast Ohio with works in numerous public and private collections throughout the United States. Although his process is primarily intuitive, his works often center on patterns, proportions, shapes and harmonies.

For more information, contact the Penn State Shenango Academic Affairs Office at 724-983-2825.