Opening Reception: Maddie McSweeney and Together, Here: 10th Anniversary Exhibition Featuring Alumni and Past Members
Fri, Mar 13
|Akron Soul Train
Join us for our opening reception and meet-the-artists celebration as we launch our 10th Anniversary season. Light refreshments will be generously provided by Jilly's Music Room. Free and open to the public.
Time & Location
Mar 13, 2026, 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Akron Soul Train, 191 S Main St, Akron, OH 44308, USA
About the event
Step Inside Maddie McSweeney's Untitled (Jam) pt. 2, part of the 2026 Emerging Artist Series
In Untitled (Jam) pt. 2, Maddie McSweeney transforms spectatorship into participation. Expanding upon an earlier durational performance, this installation invites visitors to step inside a constructed enclosure and consume jam within the space — shifting the relationship between participants and environment from passive to active.
The work centers containment, proximity, and the body as sites of tension and connection. Through a simple but visceral act, McSweeney heightens awareness of taste, gesture, vulnerability, and mutual presence. What appears playful or absurd gradually reveals deeper undercurrents: the pressures of observation, the instability of boundaries, and the emotional charge of shared space.
By reversing the gaze and redistributing agency, Untitled (Jam) pt. 2 examines collective intimacy and the subtle dysregulation that emerges when private experience becomes public exchange. The work asks participants not only to witness, but to…