ALTOONA, Pa. — “Something About the Sky” by 2023-24 Penn State Laureate Lori Hepner will be exhibited in the McLanahan and Sheetz Galleries of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts at Penn State Altoona March 28 through April 27. The exhibition is free and open to the public. Hepner will offer a presentation from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, March 28, in the Wolf Kuhn Theatre. A reception will be held the same day from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Titelman Study of the Center.
“Something About the Sky” is a new series of cloud drawings and skyscape light paintings featuring movement created through Hepner’s performances in the studio using wearable LEDs. These play back her own sky photographs as she moves while daydreaming about what is, what has been, and what could become our future. Hepner’s project is inspired by and uses the same title as a 1956 Rachel Carson television audio/visual essay, “Something About the Sky.” Hepner will ask exhibition visitors to submit their own views of the sky that she will use in her performative light painting process.
Hepner was an artist-in-residence with Schmidt Ocean Institute on Research Vessel Falkor as the ship mapped the seafloor in the Cascadia Margin Region of the Pacific Ocean looking for methane seeps. She created a performance piece for the rear deck of the ship using data from the seafloor mapping during the cruise. Hepner is a professor of integrative arts at Penn State Greater Allegheny.
The galleries are open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For further information, call the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts at 814-949-5452.