​Summer Exhibits Open At Bucks County Community College

NEWTOWN, PA — Two new exhibitions - “Dreams of Flora and Fauna” and “Endless Summer” - open this week at the Hicks Art Center Gallery on the Newtown Campus of the Bucks County Community College.

In the main gallery, “Dreams of Flora and Fauna,” comprised of the work of 17 local artists, features fanciful, naturalistic, pop, symbolic and abstract scenes of botanic and animal depictions.

The artists’ renderings — across mediums including drawing, painting, collage, fiber, ceramics, and video — range from subtle, delicate lines, to dense and rich color fields, and hypnotic patterns to sculpted animated shapes and puppetry. The exhibition transports the viewer to multiple fantasy realms through the portal of the gallery.

Judy Barnett, “Wildflowers,” needlepoint on cotton, 2018, embroidered, brightly colored flowers on fabric.

Boldly and delicately painted, drawn and stitched flowers mingle with nightmarish spiders, hybrid beasts and cartoon stylized animals conjuring an imaginative art safari tour for viewers.

The artists participating in “Dreams of Flora and Fauna” create their artworks and products in Studio Route 29 in Frenchtown, New Jersey or at The Center for Creative Works in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Grounded in Progressive Art Studio practices, both organizations advocate for artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities to focus on professional development and to exhibit in a variety of venues and locations.

Outside the main gallery, a film created by BCCC Arts and Communication artists, “Can You Repeat That” will be screened continuously alongside “Dreams of Flora and Fauna.” The film documents BCCC student Sean Hesser’s life living and thriving with motor impairment and cerebral palsy.

By featuring the works of neurodiverse artists and Sean Hesser’s narrative perspective documentary alongside one another, Hicks Art Center Gallery affirms its mission to inclusively promote all artists’ access for invitation and participation in gallery exhibitions at Bucks County Community College now and in the future.

In conjunction with “Dreams of Flora and Fauna," on September 12 the neurodiverse poet Nathan Spoon will present a reading at 12:15 pm in the main gallery. This event is collaboratively hosted with the BCCC Language and Literature Department and is free and open to the public.

In the hallways surrounding “Dreams of Flora and Fauna” and in the Atrium Gallery, the exhibition “Endless Summer” features more than 30 local artists’ paintings and sculpture evoking the summer season experience. From realism, impressionism, to abstract, this diverse range of expressions brings the sensorial experiences of summer to life.

Daniel Lacey, “Untitled,” caran d'ache on paper, 2024, crayon drawing with animals atop a bluff overlooking a beach scene

Visitors are invited to “escape the virtual” and take a break from the demands of our tech centered world by absorbing the different terrains, textures, times of day and weather in the artworks to remember the summer experience they most enjoy.

All are welcome to the closing reception of the exhibitions on Thursday, September 12 from 4–7 p.m. at the Hicks Art Center Gallery, Bucks County Community College, 275 Swamp Road, Newtown 18940. The exhibition will remain on view through September 14. Summer gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m.

To learn more about the exhibitions and participating artists, visit: hicksgallery.bucks.edu