At 34 years and counting, the Keene ArtWalk is the city’s longest running community event. The annual exhibition, which features submissions from area artists and students, offers an opportunity for experienced and burgeoning creatives to share their artwork with a public audience. For the second consecutive year, artwork from Kurn Hattin Homes for Children is part of the 11-day event.
Located in the Concord Med Spa window on Central Square, Kurn Hattin Homes’ display features non-traditional artwork. For example, there are a number of small 3D objects d’art atop a school desk. These figures were created in the SmartLab by using a 3D pen that heats a plastic filament internally then extrudes the melted material through the nozzle. As the plastic cools, it hardens to maintain the shape of the 3D object. Because the industry has not adopted an official term for this medium, SmartLab Facilitator, Ben Weiner, has dubbed it Plasticraft.
At the opposite end of the size spectrum, the window also includes two ceiling-tiles-turned-portraits from the Homes’ art classroom, and two grand-scale, computer-aided custom vinyl wallcovering designs that students created during a recent Career Awareness Program visit to Len-Tex Corporation in Walpole, New Hampshire.
Small and large, each artistic endeavor emphasizes to Kurn Hattin Homes students is that art can be found everywhere, every day. Students are continually encouraged to think outside the easel to recognize, appreciate, and incorporate art into their own personal environments. The 2024 Keene ArtWalk exhibits will be on display in Downtown merchants’ windows through June 9.
About Keene ArtWalk Keene’s ArtWalk Keene is an annual celebration of local artists. Every June, merchants offer their storefront windows so that Downtown Keene can be transformed into a community gallery that features local art in mediums that include oil, pastel, photography, pyrography, watercolor, quilting, mixed media, and much more. It’s an opportunity for residents and visitors to take a self-guided tour around town and see what local artist have created. Please click here to learn more about ArtWalk and the Keene art community.
