Slater Museum Opening Reception - CLARA NARTEY

Last Saturday was a very eventful day for me. The Slater Museum exhibition in which my piece “Shadows” is showing was opened with a beautiful reception.

I woke up very early that Saturday morning to get a good start. I’m a council member of Connecticut Women Artists (CWA), the organization that is hosting this show. And I’d volunteered to help setup the event, so I had to arrive at the museum a couple of hours before the event began.

I arrived to find some of my fellow council members already at work setting up the place for our opening reception. It was a great team effort and the outcome was wonderful. I’d been at the museum for well over an hour, had glanced through the show catalog yet, I hadn’t noticed my name and the prize that I had won printed in the catalog, till someone came over to say ‘congratulations’ to me.

I won the ‘Joan Coderre Painting Award for Excellence in Color ‘. I got to meet Joan, the one who sponsored this award. She’s a very kind woman and it was pleasant talking with her and getting to know her. My work was not selected by her for the award, it was rather selected by the Juror- Carol Padberg. However, when Joan found out ‘Shadows’ was the one that won her award, she was not at all disappointed. In fact, she was delighted. I got to meet Carol Padberg too – a very nice woman and accomplished artist. All in all, it was a very fun event and I have some photos from the event for you to enjoy.