Visual and Informative Press Releases!

For this project, the client required a press release that promoted two things: their upcoming opening reception and their entire educational institution. The main goal was to provide pertinent information for the upcoming exhibition (including theme and artists involved) and the date for its opening reception. This was a good opportunity to provide insight on its artists and crucial quotes from the curatorial statement for readers to gain insight on the show's content. I put all of the exhibition's important information at the beginning and focused on descending prioritization for the rest of the release, including information about the curator and the mission statement of the museum towards the end. I capped it off with a reiteration of the specific event details and collaborated with the director on what visuals to incorporate for reader reference! ⭐

New exhibition pushes boundaries of self portraiture at the Southeast Museum of Photography 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 9, 2023) – Threshold: Recontextualizing Self-Portraiture is a group exhibition based on bringing attention to the medium of self-portraiture through the act of taking back the narrative of one's own story. The exhibition opens with a reception on January 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Southeast Museum of Photography at Daytona State College and will be open through May 27. 

 Threshold 

:A point of departure or transition 

:A point of entry, a barrier that must be crossed 

This exhibition is curated by Jillian Marie Browning, an Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and features 10 artists using self-portraiture as a way to not only explore themes of race, class, gender, sexuality, and the body, but also as a platform to discuss their embodied experiences on their own terms.  

Artists included in this exhibition are Adama Delphine Fawundu, André Terrel Jackson, Azya Lashelle, Brittney Cathey-Adams, eva birhanu, Jillian Marie Browning, Jon Wes, Lorena Molina, artist duo Lorenzo Triburgo & Sara Van Dyck, and Tommy Kha. 

“As an artist, my working method has always included making work about myself and my body because I did not see myself on museum walls or in textbooks,” Browning says. “I was not taught about artists who look like me in school.” The artists in this exhibition take control of their own image in order to form expressive, genuine, and vulnerable representations of themselves.  

The Southeast Museum of Photography will host an opening reception for “Threshold: Recontextualizing Self-Portraiture” on January 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. with refreshments and brief artist introductions by those featured in the show and Browning. Exhibition catalogs highlighting each artist’s body of work from the exhibition will be available for the duration of the exhibition. 

The reception is free and open to the public, but reservations are encouraged. To register, visit the Eventbrite on the museum’s website southeastmuseumofphotography.org or call the museum’s front desk at 386-506-3894. 

 

In addition to being an Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Jillian Marie Browning is an interdisciplinary artist pursuing themes of feminism, identity, and the contemporary black experience. 

Browning earned their Bachelor of Science degree in Photography from the University of Central Florida in 2012 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art from Florida State University in 2015. Since then, Browning has had their works featured in numerous exhibitions throughout Florida and the nation and has continued to share their knowledge in the arts through instructive and higher education.  

Browning’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Center for Photography at Woodstock and the University of Maryland’s David C. Driskell Center for The Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, as well as the Southeast Museum of Photography’s very own permanent collection. Pieces of Browning’s work were previously on display during the museum’s group exhibition Picturing the Avant-Garde: A Celebration of Alternative and Experimental Processes in 2021.  

About the Southeast Museum of Photography 

The Southeast Museum of Photography's primary purpose is educational outreach. As a department of Daytona State College, the Museum sits on a cultural intersection between the campus and the surrounding community and endeavors to provide educational opportunities for both. The Southeast Museum of Photography exhibits, collects, preserves, and interprets photography to facilitate teaching and learning at Daytona State College, and enhances the community's understanding and appreciation of culture, history, art and photography. 

The exhibition will run January 27 through May 27 with an opening reception January 26, 6 to 8 p.m. A media preview day, featuring access to the curator and museum director for interviews, will be held on January 25 from 1-5 p.m. For more information about the exhibition, the Southeast Museum of Photography, or to schedule a spot during media preview day, please reach out to the museum director, Whitney Broadaway, at Whitney.Broadaway@DaytonaState.edu or 386-506-3350.