By Ann Cantrell
Staff Writer

The Madison Morgan Cultural Center is hosting its most competitive juried art show yet.
Since the 1976, the cultural center hosted some form of a juried art show where a judge selected pieces to be shown.  In the past three years though, the art show has expanded to accept art pieces from all over the country.
This year Sylvie Fortin, the editor-in-chief for Art Papers, selected the pieces for the show. Angela Nichols, Visual Arts Curator for the Madison Morgan Cultural Center, said Fortin was more selective than judges from previous years.
“I thought there was a lot of strong work she didn’t select,” said Nichols.
She went on to say that regardless of competitive nature of the art show, she is happy with the selections made by the judge. Nichols said that Fortin is very well known and respected and on the cutting edge of contemporary art.
With a better known juror, Nichols said the art show is more likely to receive pieces from professional artists because the artists hope to receive recognition from the juror.  She believes that this year the cultural center has succeeded in bringing in higher caliber artists.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot of established artists,” said Nichols.
The art show tends to receive pieces from a lot of graduate students or emerging artists whose passion in life is art.
Fortin picked 31 pieces by 27 artists out of the 450 pieces submitted.  The artists were allowed to send in three pieces in any form of media.  While most of the pieces were sent in from Georgia, there were also a number sent in from other states.
One selected piece, done by Corrina Sephora Mensoff from Georgia, combined aspects from both sculpture and digital media.  Nichols described the art work as an installation piece with hanging sculpture and images projected on to the hanging pieces.
Nichols said that the pieces lean more towards the contemporary side and that their previous art shows have featured contemporary works as well.
Judges from past years include George Adams from the George Adams Gallery in New York and David Houston from the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.  This year, Sylvie Fortin will speak at the reception on April 20 from 2 to 4 p.m. about the selection process.
The art show will be open from April 16 to June 30.  There will be three merit awards each $1000 granted to the artists, picked by the juror.  Three businesses from Madison have also agreed to buy three different pieces for up to $1000 as well.