The following was shared with the Bloomingtonian:
The Waldron Arts Center announces June exhibitions
Pat Gleeson Retrospective and Harvesting Limestone
Opening on June 2nd Gallery Walk
Bloomington, IN – The Waldron Arts Center is proud to host two new exhibits opening in June. In the Rosemary P. Miller Gallery, Tom Gleeson honors his mother Pat Gleeson, who dedicated her life’s work to young theater artists. All Children Are Gifted and Talented; Pat Gleeson and 50 Years of Children’s Theatre runs June 2nd through June 30th. Photos, videos, sets, and costume pieces in this exhibit walk visitors through Pat Gleeson’s 50-year commitment to arts education and the theatre. Her work included founding two children’s theatres, including Acting Up for Bloomington, Indiana. She taught and directed for numerous high schools, including Bloomington High School North. She served for 20 years as the Executive Director for the Boston Children’s Theatre and led Stages Bloomington from 2014-2019.
Many people, including her colleagues and her young actors, would often hear Pat Gleeson say, “All children are gifted and talented” and she believed that theatre was a way for children to find out what those talents were – even if those talents did not lie in theatre itself. Pat strongly believed in the benefits of arts education as a way to understand history and the human condition; and her intention was to broaden the minds and enrich the lives of the children she worked with. For her, theatre was not just an after-school activity.
Pat Gleeson died on November 8, 2019. This exhibit is in honor of her life’s work and the passion she had for children’s theatre in the hopes of inspiring current and future leaders of all sorts, but in particular in the arts, as well as those who wish to celebrate the many talents of young people in today’s world.
In the Spotlight Gallery, local photographer Tom Duffy shares Harvesting Limestone from June 2nd through July 28th. In 2015, Indiana Limestone Company invited Duffy to photograph in their quarries in Oolitic and Bloomington. Their quarries were the source of the limestone for major buildings around the country, including the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and National Cathedral. One of their quarries was also featured in the movie Breaking Away.
Duffy spent from 2015 to the summer of 2018 driving into the quarries to photograph the workers and their work. His goal in the project is to tell the story of the process of harvesting the limestone and the men who do it.
Both All Children Are Gifted and Talented and Harvesting Limestone will open on June 2nd at 5pm. The Waldron’s lounge will be open during Gallery Walk from 5pm-8pm with snacks and beverages available for sale.
