Thyen-Clark Cultural Center Announces New Exhibit for August, September

American artist, Stacey Lee Webber was born in Indianapolis Indiana in 1982. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Ball State University in 2005. Webber went on to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin - Madison where she was awarded a full- time artist assistantship all three years of her degree program under her major professor, Lisa Gralnick. 

After earning a Master of Fine Arts in 2008 she went on to become an artist in residence at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago in 2009. In 2011 Webber moved to Philadelphia to pursue her dream of being a full-time artist. After four bustling years of teaching at Tyler School of Art, University of the Arts and Rowan University while working as a production jeweler for a local jewelry company in Philadelphia, she made her dream come to fruition in 2015. 

Webber is currently working and living on the northeast side of Philadelphia where she has made a career of making and selling artwork and jewelry. 

Webber has exhibited her work around the world including the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in the Republic of Korea, Gallery Okariya in Tokyo, and Sophie Lachaert Gallery in Belgium. Her work has been curated into the permanent collections of The Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington DC, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton Massachusetts, the art collection of Wells Fargo Bank, the Kamm Teapot Foundation collection, the University of Wisconsin Madison's School of Business and numerous private art collections around the world.

 As a contemporary artist, Webber cherishes working with found materials whose history is physically evident. Her work is often described as meticulous, pushing the boundaries of everyday recognizable objects to the point of unidentifiable. Through material, she strives to make artwork that interests a broad range of viewers and challenges their preconceived notions of the objects that surround them. 

Webber’s sculpture is often painstakingly laborious which she uses as a continuous theme throughout her work. The pieces make the viewer question the value of her labor and the work ethic of blue-collar America. Her practice incorporates a wide range of techniques including coin cutting, embroidery, metal fabrication, weaving and resin pouring. All of these techniques and more are used to declare the importance of the handmade while challenging these same systems. Webber’s objects are haunting celebrations of liberty and labor. 

 The galleries at the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center, located at 100 3rd Avenue, Suite A, Jasper, IN 47546, are open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, and Sunday from noon to 3:00 pm. School groups, clubs and students are welcome. Admission is free. Donations appreciated.