The Maude Kerns Art Center took a break from traditional art Saturday night to celebrate the jiggly, malleable substance of Jell-O.
The Jell-O art show, themed “A Toast to Jell-O,” celebrated nearly 30 years of creating art from an American food staple.
Taking place on the first Saturday of April, near April Fools’ Day, the art show worked as a fun and relaxed atmosphere that celebrated both art and community. Everything from a Jell-O person, to a Jell-O Matthew Knight Arena being attacked by monster lizards, to simple Jell-O cutouts were exhibited. Everything on display was created with a foundation that costs well under a dollar at any local supermarket.
With Jell-O boxes taped to the immaculately clean white walls of the gallery, the laughter and overall relaxed vibe made it clear that this was not a stuffy art gallery, where art could only be commented on with a whisper.
“It was started by a group of artists called Radar Angels, and they wanted to do a big kind of thing to celebrate spring and they kind of wanted to do a wacky thing,” said Sabrina Hershey, the associate director of the Maude Kerns Art Center.
The fun event is seriously accredited as the original Jell-O art show in the nation. The lighthearted phenomenon has spread across the country, being featured in other galleries. In 2005, the Maude Kerns Art Center’s show was featured in Reader’s Digest as one of the wackiest art exhibits in America. The art show is also featured in the book called “Biography of Jell-O.”
“It’s actually spread across the country. There are other galleries doing it now, including the Metropolitan Gallery in New York,” Maude Kerns volunteer Dana Burall said. “They’ve all said it started here.”
Even though the event is a departure from traditional art, many of the pieces featured this year were elaborate designs that took large amounts of time to create. One piece of art, created by local Jell-O artist Diane McWhorter, mirrored pieces of colorful ripples of blown glass, a process that took months to create, but completely worth it by the looks of the end result.
“It appeals to me because it’s kitchen art. It’s really accessible and it’s sort of anti-art because there’s no criticism structure,” McWhorter said. “It doesn’t sell, so you have a whole layer of concern that you’re not concerned with.”
Outside of Jell-O art, the Maude Kerns Art Center features other art for the majority of the year. The art center was founded in 1950 by a group of artists, including a woman named Maude Kerns, as a way of creating and appreciation visual art. Since that time, the center has served the surrounding community a few blocks off the east side of the University campus with thought-provoking art. The center offers classes, workshops and lectures, while displaying unique visual art.
After Saturday, Maude Kerns Art Center returned to a more traditional way of displaying art as the Jell-O creations were eaten or destroyed.
From the hours of 5 to 8 p.m., however, the hundreds of patrons proved that Jell-O can work in any form — even art.
[email protected]