(Posted September 23, 2013)

Blake Bradford, director of education, Barnes Foundation
Blake Bradford, director of education, Barnes Foundation

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Blake Bradford, director of education at the Barnes Foundation and the curator of the current Juniata College Museum of Art exhibit, "Infinite Mirror: Images of American Identity," will talk about the exhibit at Juniata College at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 3, in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.

The lecture, titled "Assimilation and Visual Connections: Musings on American Dreams," will focus on the 30-plus works in a variety of art mediums. The exhibit features work by such nationally known artists as Luis Jimenez, Jacob Lawrence and Joe Namy. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Bradford will explain how works in the exhibition fit into the show's four themes.
The first theme, Self Selection, shows how artists define their world through their own unique experiences. The next theme, Pride, shows how artworks can depict pride of origin through the view of a particular artist or through subject matter depicted by the artist. The third theme, Assimilation, reveals the cultural signposts that different ethnic populations and immigrants and can be adopted by the wider culture of the United States or fall by the wayside. The last theme, Protest, incorporates views from several artists that tweak or confront the viewer with images that present a dual image of beauty or compositional detail, yet also reveal that not all of the people who came to the United States were able to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Bradford has been director of education at the Barnes Foundation since 2009, where he coordinates adult courses, K-12 programs and informal educational projects. He also is responsible for training staff, docents and instructors as well as developing institutional and community partnerships.

Before coming to the Barnes Foundation, Bradford was director of education at Hyde Park Art Center, in Chicago, Ill., from 2005 to 2008. From 2000 to 2004, he worked as education coordinator at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, in Philadelphia, Pa.

Bradford earned a bachelor's degree in art in 1992 from Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass., and went on to earn a master's degree in art history in 1999 from the University of Texas at Austin.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.