Springtime event takes bloom at PhotoSpiva
Apr. 7—PhotoSpiva 2022, a nationally renowned photography competition based in Joplin, will take on new life this week as Spiva in Bloom opens to the public for a three-day show.
It also marks a return to normal for Spiva Center for the Arts, which has hosted virtual or diminished events for PhotoSpiva for the past two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The opening reception for PhotoSpiva last month drew nearly 200 people, said Susan Adams, executive director.
"It's just been wonderful," she said of the normalcy with which PhotoSpiva is operating this year.
PhotoSpiva, a national competition hosted annually by Spiva Center for the Arts, has become the longest-running photographic competition of its kind in the U.S. Nearly 900 images were submitted for this year's competition; the top images from photographers both near and far, selected by jurors Erin and Eric Dodson, of Kansas City, will be on display until May 14.
The jurors don't know the names of individuals who submitted photographs for the contest, nor do they know where the photographers are based, Adams said. Even so, the couple ended up picking "an amazing number of local and regional photographers to be in the show. Out of 890 images, there are about 90 hanging, and a large percentage of them are (from photographers based) within 60 miles of Joplin, and quite a few Joplinites," she said.
A springtime favorite, Spiva in Bloom, will open Thursday in conjunction with PhotoSpiva and run through Saturday. This event invites local florists to create designs based on the photographs exhibited with PhotoSpiva.
"The smell of the flowers hits you as soon as you come in," Adams said. "The gallery walls are white, and a lot of the photography is black and white, and then you just have these floral creations. Last year, there was one that took up a 4-foot table and trailed onto the floor. Some of (the designs) are over the top and huge and vibrant; it's such a change and it adds that additional sensory hit."
Admission to Spiva in Bloom, as with PhotoSpiva, is free. A reception for the florists will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. A floral arranging workshop with Justin Thomas, of The Wild Flower, will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday; the cost is $35, and registration is required at spivaarts.org.
Spiva in Bloom adds a unique element to PhotoSpiva, even for patrons who have already viewed the photography, Adams said.
"These floral designers, they're artists and they're just using a different medium, and some of their interpretations are just stunning," she said. "I remember some from years ago that were just so creative and added a completely different dimension to the photographs. In a lot of cases, it makes you look at the photographs differently when you look at how these floral artists interpret it."
Another PhotoSpiva event coming up later this month is 1,000 Words on Tuesday, April 19. Authors may select one or two exhibition photos to use as springboards for poems or prose to be read at an event at 6 p.m. that day. An evening of poetry by Langston Hughes, a collaboration with the Langston Hughes Cultural Society and the Minnie Hackney Community Service Center, is scheduled for Friday, April 22.
There are a few non-PhotoSpiva exhibitions at the gallery as well this month.
In Spiva's regional gallery, pieces in the Jo Mueller Small Works Auction are on display through May 13. Spiva members have created and donated small works through an auction that will be conducted both in person and online.
In the upstairs gallery, an exhibit from Four States Photography Enthusiasts will be open through the end of April.
