Exploring Burchfield

Exploring Burchfield was a continuation of the Burchfield Penney’s outreach exhibitions at The Joy Gallery on the East Side of Buffalo. The exhibition was used as an interactive resource for after-school programming conducted by Renee Brown, a Buffalo Public School art teacher, and several volunteers from the church. Included were photographs, reproductions of several of Burchfield’s paintings, and examples of his wallpaper designs. In addition, Buffalo State College art education student Kim Van Norman incorporated interactive materials she developed that reinforced themes in Burchfield’s work, such as sensations and movement in nature. The interactive materials included a nature “touch-and-smell box” and a large-scale painted rendering of Burchfield’s watercolor Golden Dream, complete with whimsical attachable butterfly wings. The Burchfield Penney’s education staff developed lesson plans and projects to accompany the exhibition with input from art education graduate interns from Buffalo State College.