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Exhibit Listings: Aug. 18 to 24

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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Works of renowned pop artist Andy Warhol will be the featured exhibit when the Sordoni Art Gallery at Wilkes University re-opens this fall.</p><p>The exhibit will open Oct. 6 at the gallery&#8217;s new location in the rear of the university&#8217;s recently completed Clayton and Theresa Karambelas Media and Communications Center in the South Main Street building that formerly housed Bartikowsky Jewelers.</p><p>The news was among some of the new and continuing initiatives discussed during a dinner meeting that university President Patrick Leahy hosted for local media organizations Thursday.</p><p>Leahy and Mike Wood, special assistant to the president, were talking about some of the university&#8217;s property acquisitions downtown, and Wood noted that he gave a tour of the new building to a former Bartikowsky employee, whom he said was &#8220;completely blown away.&#8221;</p><p>Wood alluded to &#8220;a pretty significant come-out-of-the-box art show&#8221; for the gallery opening, and Leahy gave him the go-ahead to reveal the details.</p><p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s a good one because everybody knows Andy Warhol,&#8221; Wood said. &#8220;I think it crosses from a younger generation to an older generation. I think it will be fun.&#8221;</p><p>Leahy decided about three years ago that, &#8220;with all the investments we were making in the business school and nursing and engineering, that we needed to make a big investment in the arts, too. &#8230; You cannot be a true university without an enduring commitment to the arts.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t run an art gallery at Wilkes just to serve the community, though I&#8217;m delighted that we can serve art aficionados in the community,&#8221; Leahy said. &#8220;We need to make sure that we find ways to introduce the arts to our students, half of whom &#8230; are the first in their families to pursue a four-year degree.&#8221;</p><p>To do that, Leahy said, he found it necessary to move the gallery to a piece of &#8220;prime real estate, make it a lot bigger (and) make investments to ensure that the space could accommodate bigger shows.&#8221;</p><p>Leahy said he spoke with Andrew Sordoni, whose family helped found the gallery, and came up with a strategy.</p><p>A decision, which sparked some criticism at the time, was made to sell off some of the university&#8217;s art collection to fund an endowment &#8212;potentially nearing $3 million &#8212; that would be used to draw prominent art shows.</p><p>The new 17,726-square-foot media center will bring the communication studies department co-curricular activities under one roof: WCLH Radio; television studios; The Beacon student newspaper; the student public relations agency Zebra Communications; and the speech and debate team. The grand opening for that part of the building will be Aug. 31.</p><p>Wilkes bought the Bartikowsky building in March 2015 for $1.2 million.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_Leahy-patrick-cmyk-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Leahy </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_Leahy-patrick-cmyk-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Leahy </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_marylin-monroe-1318440_960_720-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The Marilyn Diptych, a silkscreen painting by American pop artist Andy Warhol. WIlkes University will open the Sordoni Art Gallery's new location at 141 S. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, to the community with an Andy Warhol exhibit on Oct. 6.</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_marylin-monroe-1318440_960_720-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>The Marilyn Diptych, a silkscreen painting by American pop artist Andy Warhol. WIlkes University will open the Sordoni Art Gallery's new location at 141 S. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, to the community with an Andy Warhol exhibit on Oct. 6.</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Steve Mocarsky</p><p>smocarsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Steve Mocarsky at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @TLSteveMocarsky.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Andy Warhol exhibit to headline as Sordoni Art Gallery re-opens at Wilkes