National Park College received a generous donation of art from the Allen Tillery family this month, a collection of 47 original pieces by contemporary artist Shwan Ziwar.
According to his website, Ziwar's work hangs in galleries worldwide, including the prestigious Canadian Museum of Civilization. He has participated in more than 50 exhibitions in Italy, Canada and the United States. Born in Iraq, and educated at Italy's Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, Ziwar is now based in Toronto, Canada.
Ziwar describes his style as "Shwanism," which he said is "a production that incorporates color and movement and love," a news release said. His dominant themes include flowers, men, women, faces, images embedded in lines, waves, landscapes, love and humor.
"The NPC Foundation has grown because of the philanthropic support of our community. We are grateful to have donors like the Tillerys and excited to display this art collection on our campus. This is truly a generous gift," Sara Brown, NPC's director of development, said in the release.
Brown said the collection has been in the Tillery family for several years.
"The Tillery family is proud to support National Park College with this gift. We wanted the collection to have a special showcase and we know the college is the right location for such a unique assortment. We hope the campus and the community will enjoy it as much as we have," Allen Tillery said.
In 2014, the National Park College Foundation began its annual fundraising campaign, The Gift of Education, which supports program and facility needs across the campus.
"The last couple of years we have kind of pushed out different things we look for and how you can give in-kind gifts as well as writing a check -- we wanted our donors to see that there were other options when giving to a college -- so that's kind of how (the art donation) came about; they thought it would be something exciting to have here," Brown said.
The college is currently working on having the art pieces framed and deciding which locations on the campus to display them. The Gerald Fisher Campus Center and the Frederick M. Dierks Center for Nursing and Health Sciences are among the potential display locations, Brown said.
"We're trying to keep them kind of in a close area. Some of the pieces are very similar so we've called in a couple of our artists that work at the college to help determine where to hang them, how to hang them, and to make sure that we display them as best as we can here. Of course, when you have 47 pieces, there are quite a few that are large pieces and so we're really looking at the wall space we have," she said.
"We're looking at the Fred Dierks and Fisher buildings because those spaces have more wall space and they're probably more of the high-traffic areas. We want them to be in a place where lots of people can see them and enjoy them."
As for the impact a donation of this kind has on the college, Brown said she thinks it shows the diversification that National Park has to offer.
"I think it also shows that there are other programs on this campus that really need to be highlighted," she added. "Some of those programs get lost, so I think this really shows the value of the diversification on campus."
Local on 02/18/2018