June First Friday

Fair-trade coffee and chocolate, ethically made jewelry, and art? What could be better?

For this First Friday, The SEAD Gallery is excited to host Noonday Collection for their beautiful trunk show, partner with the Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Program to provide samples of fair-trade coffee and chocolate, and host a community art project by our artist-in-residence, Mick Burson!

The Noonday Trunk Show

What is Noonday?

“We travel the world to find artisan entrepreneurs who are passionate about creating opportunity in their communities. Artisan businesses in the developing world struggle to gain access to a global market where they can sell their handmade jewelry and accessories. When you shop our collection, you join us in creating a growing marketplace for artisan businesses, enabling them to make a difference in their communities”

A Noonday representative will be in the SEAD Gallery with an abundance of beautifully crafted, handmade jewelry and accessories from the collection for you to browse through. Noonday jewelry is the perfect gift for yourself or someone special in your life that you can feel good about purchasing. To go along with the theme of ethically made, we will also be providing samples of fair trade coffee and chocolate while you shop thanks to the Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Program!

Mick Burson’s Community Art Project 

Our current artist-in-residence, Mick Burson, will be joining us for June First Friday to create a community wide art project inside the galley. If you’ve been able to see Mick’s exhibition, you’re probably familiar Mick’s stunning piece of work, “Immortality”:

Mick is hosting a project to recreate this piece with the community!  He will have the pre-painted blocks available and a couple of bottles of wood glue for guests to come and work on. In a statement about the art project, Mick stated “With the event for First Friday, I had done a performance piece the semester before the residency where I blindfolded myself and built one of those block paintings and my friend documented it. (Video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTdUO-OixcQ) In the performance I wanted to see if the satisfaction was in the work it took to make the painting or in the end visual result. I just wanted everyone to be able to experience the satisfaction I get from making one of the woodblock paintings. The last few days I have been preparing the blocks, I plan on showing up with around 1,500 and it will probably take around 500 to complete the painting.”

We can’t wait to get started! Be sure to join us in the SEAD Gallery during Downtown Bryan’s June First Friday on Friday, June 5 from 6:00-9:00 pm for an evening of shopping, chocolate and coffee, and art!