Ally

(OPENPRESS) September 28, 2007 -- This October, while most of Salem celebrates the dark arts, sass:C - a collaborative gallery of art and craft will celebrate Salem's other dark side: the creatures and habitats under the surface of the surrounding waters. The Undersea World of Salem Sound, an exhibition of the underwater photography of Donald Whitehead, will grace sass:C's walls from October 13 to November 4. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, October 13 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the gallery.

To inaugurate the show, the artist will give a special one-hour presentation on Friday, October 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Beverly Cooperative Bank at 87 Lafayette Street in Salem. Whitehead will offer a sort of subaquatic travelogue, a combination of natural history, maritime history, dive talk, and sea stories from the submerged places in and around Salem Sound. Images taken over a period of 31 years will reveal the full range of colorful flora and fauna, strange and beautiful creatures, decaying remains of sunken ships, and the fantastic shapes of glacially carved rock formations.

Whitehead has logged over 480 dives to capture on film a world so few of us get to see. “God is the artist, I am merely a photographic technician and scuba diver documenting His creative works in the deep places. No matter how hard I try to compose my shots, balance the lighting and capture a scene using my skills, technology and creativity, these undersea places are not of my making.”

Whitehead's company, Liquid Space Publishing, specializes in guidebooks and maps for scuba diving in Massachusetts Bay. Whitehead is also the author of Liquid Space's latest release: Diving Cape Ann and Boston’s North Shore, a 112-page book describing 75 underwater sites with over 200 surface, historical, and underwater photographs. His other publishing credits include photo-feature articles in Ocean Realm and Scubapro Diving & Snorkeling, both magazines catering to divers.

The exhibition and presentation are supported in part by a grant from the Salem Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

About sass:C - a collaborative gallery of art and craft
Operated by Salem State College’s Campus Center Arts Program and the Salem Arts Association, sass:C offers fine art, photography, stained and hand-blown glass, craft, and jewelry created by Salem Arts Association members and Salem State College faculty, staff, and students.

sass:C is located in Artists Row in downtown Salem between New Derby Street and Front Street near Old Town Hall. For mapping purposes, use the following address: 24 New Derby Street, Salem, MA 01970.

For more information, call 978-745-4850, Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., or visit http://www.salemartsassociation.org/.

About the Salem Arts Association
The Salem Arts Association, Inc. seeks to bring art, in all its forms, to the community and bring the community, in all its diversity, to the arts in Salem, Massachusetts.

Established in 2007, the SAA is an entirely volunteer-run nonprofit arts organization. In only a few months of existence, the SAA has partnered with Salem State College to create sass:C - a collaborative gallery of art & craft in Salem's Artists Row; mounted the juried exhibition Ode to Cornell: What Would Joseph Do?, featuring work by local and international artists; expanded on the annual Essex Street Fair with the Old Town Hall Arts Festival; and presented Salem by Salem, an exhibition of work celebrating and interpreting the city of Salem by Salem artists and residents.

Exhibition Images: http://www.salemartsassociation.org/press/whitehead.jpg
http://www.salemartsassociation.org/...teheadCROP.jpg