The latest Monroe Bank Art Exhibit is presenting abstract collage and multimedia art. The exhibit features artwork by Ronald O. Elkins, Gretchen Sigmund and Jeremy Bazur.\nMonroe Bank, 210 E. Kirkwood Ave., holds about three art exhibits a year in an effort to bring in business and bring the community together in celebration of art, the bank’s Marketing Director Ashley Mattick said.\n“This is a way we show support to the community that supports us,” Mattick said. “It’s our way of connecting the arts community with the general public.”\nAn opening reception will be held Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the bank lobby. The reception is open to the public and catering will be provided, but the bank requested that guests RSVP by calling (812) 335-5983, according to a press release.\nThe art will be on display between now and Sept. 22 and is available for sale unless specified by the artists. Art may be purchased directly from the artists, Mattick said, because the bank takes no commission for the exhibit. Once a piece of art is sold, the bank requires the artist to fill the space with something new.\nSigmund, who is displaying 12 of her relatively small works in the exhibit, said her favorite work on display is a three-part series titled “Class Notes.” She said the works are a compilation of textbook pages from the 1800s, where people had scribbled notes and writing on the pages.\n“I’m real interested in kind of the moment that someone decided to do a drawing and leave it inside of a school book,” Sigmund said. “How that triggers people’s thinking of the book. It’s like a container, it has lots of things in it, and some of it wasn’t intended to be in that container.”\nMattick said that it is an important value of the bank to participate heavily in the community.\n“It’s an opportunity to bring our customers in to participate with us in our community support,” she said. “It benefits us as much as it does the artists.”\nNot only does the artwork bring in business for the bank, but it promotes an artistic environment in the bank, Mattick said.\n“Our staff gets to see lots of things people don’t normally get exposed to on the job,” she said.
