Alan Powell

“One of the things in the birth of the video art movement was the sense of the artist being able to control the medium. It was a dream. The idea of a personalized voice, instead of a corporate voice, was a very strong part of the video art movement. It involved the whole idea of public access to the airwaves.”
-Alan Powell, The Morning Call, February 13, 1997

Alan Powell has been working in video and electronic imaging since the early 1970s. He worked in collaboration with his wife, Connie Coleman, from 1979. Powell is also an accomplished painter, returning to the medium in 1994 after a twenty-three year hiatus.

In their videography work, Powell and Coleman utilize the video camera as a drawing tool, collecting source imagery, which is transformed electronically into single-channel videotapes, sculptural multi-channel mixed media installations, digital photography and electronic printmaking. Their work explores the formal properties of electronic imaging while addressing issues of personal identity, gender, politics, and media spectacle. Recent work includes Songs of a Woman's Place, a video portrait of the women and children who are victims of domestic violence and the staff that helps them begin the healing process, which was on view at the Michener Art Museum in the Summer of 2002. Another recent work is Just South of Here, a photographic journal of time spent in Central America and India in 2008.

During 2007 and 2008, Powell created painted “journals.” Journal 2007 includes 365 paintings made daily between January 1st and December 31st. Each painting, done on paper using watercolors and gouache, measures approximately 7 x 11 inches and chronicles the artist's life during that year. Journal 2008 follows the artist through the death of his father, travels to India and Alabama to build homes wrecked by Hurricane Katrina, walks through the woods, and his daily life with Connie Coleman.

Note: This database entry reflects work done individually by Alan Powell. Please refer to the "Coleman and Powell" entry for work done in collaboration with his wife, Constance (Connie) Coleman, and to the "Connie Coleman" entry for work done exclusively by her.

Education and Training
Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, M.F.A., 1987
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, B.F.A., 1974
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Electrical Engineering and Music Composition, 1974-1978
Bucks County Community College, Newtown, Pennsylvania, Web Design and Computer Network Administration, 1998-1999

Connection to Bucks County
Powell, resides in Pipersville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His wife and fellow videographer, Connie Coleman, passed away in 2011.

Exhibitions
Cough Up with Willoughby Sharp videotape exhibition, Artissima, Torino, Italy, 200
Domestic Violence Awareness Month poster design and painting exhibition, Oregon City, Oregon, 200
The Gun Show, Shore Institute for Contemporary Art Center, Long Branch, New Jersey, 200
The Prisoners painting, Hunterdon Museum of Art Members Show, Clinton, New Jersey, 200
Alan Powell Chronicles of a Seeker, selected paintings, Gallery 31 North, Glen Gardner, New Jersey, 2004, 200
Biennial Art Faculty Exhibition paintings, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 200
All That is Left is Myth painting, Annual Members’ Exhibition, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, New Jersey, 2001
Painting and Prints, River Row Arts Gallery, Stockton, New Jersey, 199
Faculty Exhibition paintings, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 199
New Paintings, Roxbury Center for the Arts, Roxbury, Massachusetts, 199
Bucks Biennial 2, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 199
Pat’s Story painting, Annual Juried Show, Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, 199
Portico Gallery Group Show, Don Yates Art, 198
Five Philadelphia Artists at School 33, Baltimore, Maryland, 198
The Artist and the Computer Symposium, City College of New York, NYC, New York, 1983

For exhibitions representing Alan Powell’s work done in collaboration with Connie Coleman, see "Coleman and Powell" database entry.

Private Collections
"Sax Man" sculpture commission, William & Jean Brenner, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 2006

Teaching Appointments
Associate Professor, Communication Program, Arcadia University, Glenside, Pennsylvania, 2008 to present
Assistant Professor, Communication and Video Production, Arcadia University, Glenside, Pennsylvania, 2003-2009
Adjunct Professor, Web Design, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 2000-2003
Summer Teacher, Computer Animation and Video, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, New Jersey, 2001-2005
Associate Professor, Film Media Arts, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1991-2000
Assistant Professor, RTF Department, Temple University, 1988-1991
Associate Professor, Media and Performing Arts, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1983-1988
Adjunct Instructor, Film/Video, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence Rhode Island, 1973, 1977-1978

Additional Employment
Independent Designer of Web Sites, Video Production and Computer Consulting, 2000-2003
Freelance Video Production. Producer, Online Video Editor, Camera Person, 1978-1983
Artist in the Schools Program, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania Department of Education, 1978-1988

Associations
Treasurer and Founding Member, Electron Movers Inc., Providence, Rhode Island, 1974-1978

Grants and Awards
Arcadia University Faculty Development Awards, Color of Terror, Road Kills, Video Archive, 2004-2007
Arcadia University Faculty Incentive Award, Solo Painting Exhibition at Gallery 31 North, 2003
Arcadia University Communications Department, Arcadianet intranet website, 2003
For the Love of One, funded by Temple University and PEW Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2000-2003
PEW Foundation grant, 2000-2001
Summer Research Grant, Temple University, 1999, 1990
Artist’s Fellowship, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 1994, 1988, 1985, 1983
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Visual Arts Residency Grant, CEPA, Buffalo, New York, 1992-1993
NEA/AFI Mid-Atlantic Regional Media Arts Fellowship for Video Production, 1992, 1986, 1984
NEA Artist Fellowship, Video Art, 1974

For grants and awards won for collaborative work with Connie Coleman, see Coleman and Powell database entry.