From August to November, 2011, Rita Blitt will exhibit her work in three Missouri exhibitions:
Aug. 19 – Sept. 24, 2011 · Gallery of Art & Design, Univ. of Central Missouri, Warrensburg
Fear of War, Courage to Hope…While Dancing
A traveling exhibition of drawings, paintings, sculpture and film. Exhibition schedule
Oct. 1 – Nov. 12, 2011 · Cultural Arts Ctr., Metropolitan Comm. College, Longview, Lee’s Summit
Discovering and Sharing Joy: Part I: Drawings, Paintings, Sculpture and Film
Oct. 4 – Nov. 7, 2011 · The Carter Art Center Gallery at MCC–Penn Valley, Kansas City MO
Discovering and Sharing Joy Part II: Drawings, Paintings, Sculpture and Film
THE LOCAL SHOW talks with Rita about her work on the memorial for the 1981 Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse in Kansas City:
Thursday, October 27th at 7:30 pm on 19.1 HD, KCPT's primetime public and cultural affairs program, THE LOCAL SHOW, takes viewers to meet Kansas City native painter/sculptor and esteemed international artist Rita Blitt. Blitt exhibits her artwork all over the world (as well as in museums in Kansas City, St. Joseph, Missouri and Overland Park, Kansas) and was commissioned by the Skywalk Memorial Foundation to create the sculpture that will be the focal point of the new Skywalk Memorial honoring those people who lost their lives or were injured in the Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse on July 17, 1981.
The Hyatt skywalk collapse remains the deadliest structural collapse in U.S. history other than the World Trade Center. 114 people were killed, 216 were injured and countless lives were changed forever by the unprecedented disaster.
Blitt's creation will capture the significance of the disaster and the spirit of the survivors, including her 5th grade art teacher, Ruth Ann Angstead, who first introduced Blitt to the magic of creating.
The memorial will be located at Hospital Hill Park, 22nd Street and Gillham Road. Visitors to the memorial will find a 36-foot plaza area illuminated by pinpoints of light, symbolizing the victims, rescuers and the ripple effect the tragedy has had on the community and Blitt's abstract, stainless steel sculpture, which will be 23 feet tall, sway in the breeze and include a scroll listing the names of the victims.
This episode of THE LOCAL SHOW can be viewed here.
Responding to 9-11
The group of paintings “Responding to 9-11” is on exhibit at the Basalt Library, Basalt, Colorado during the month of September.
Skywalk Memorial, Kansas City
A commemorative sculpture by Rita Blitt will be installed at the Skywalk Memorial at Hospital Hill in Kansas City to honor those who lost their lives during the 1981 Hyatt walkway collapse.
The sculpture for the Skywalk Memorial obviously depicts a couple in a dancing embrace. Or does it?
To John Sullivan, the memorial board member who lost his mother in the disaster, it evokes a broken heart. But he still finds comfort in it.
The abstract design will stir different feelings in different people. The artist wants it to be a place for reflection and solace for everyone.
“I hope it gives them positive feelings, uplifting feelings,” said Rita Blitt, a Kansas City native whose art is displayed around the world.
The memorial foundation was drawn to Blitt, in part, because her work is inspired by music and dance. Then organizers learned that the person who most inspired Blitt to become an artist, fifth-grade teacher Ruth Ann Angstead, had herself been injured in the skywalk collapse. Blitt refused to accept payment for her design.
The stainless steel sculpture atop a pedestal will reach about 23 feet high. Some kind of kinetic, or moving, element to catch the breeze and light is still under review. A scroll around the pedestal will list the names of the people killed in the disaster.
The art will stand in a plaza with limestone walls and seating surrounded by native grasses. The pavement will be embedded with concentric rings of fiber-optic lights to represent the rippling effects of the disaster. The setting was designed by Bowman Bowman Novick Inc. of Kansas City.
The Municipal Art Commission last week endorsed the concept, which had already been approved by the parks board.
Aspen Music Festival
Rita Blitt’s line drawing is featured on 2011 Aspen Music Festival tee shirts, poster, and book cover. See more on Facebook
The June 2011 Laguna Beach Magazine editorial, “Escape into Art,” features a photo of Blitt’s sculpture, “Time Arrow.”
Rita Blitt’s 12-minute film blur (2010), based on Lansing McLoskey’s music, screened 6/17/2010 at the American Composers’ Alliance (ACA) New Music Festival, NYC More info
Collaborating with the Past film screening
Rita Blitt’s film Collaborating with the Past had its world premiere at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum on Holocaust Remembrance Day, May 1, 2011.
Premiere of Collaborating with the Past
Artist Rita Blitt presents the world premiere of her meditative multimedia work, Collaborating with the Past, featuring music by composer Pavel Haas, who died at Auschwitz. The nine-minute film will screen continuously, and echoes the musically-influenced paintings of Charlotte Salomon currently on view.
A Conversation with Ritta Blitt
Artist Rita Blitt (Collaborating with the Past) and longtime California Symphony Music Director Barry Jekowsky discuss the role of music in nourishing community, as well as the complexities of connecting music to painting and other art forms. More info
Orel Foundation
Rita Blitt’s film Collaborating with the Past is the Orel Foundation’s web site feature. The OREL website provides information and ongoing discussion about composers whose careers were destroyed or irrevocably altered by the events in mid–20th century Europe. More info
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