AKRON, OH.- Inquiring minds want to know – “How exactly does a ‘kinetic sculptural installation’ come to fruition? What makes the sculpture chatter, jump, jitter and sing?” Jean-Pierre Gauthier presents today a new exhibition, Jean-Pierre Gauthier: Machines at Play, in the museum’s Karl and Bertl Arnstein galleries. Eleven installations, several of which fill an entire gallery by themselves, will then be on view through January 4, 2009.

The open installation, the first in the museum’s history, will allow the public access to a process that’s normally off-limits. Visitors will be able to watch as Gauthier and his team build his mechanized art from the ground up, an experience sure to amaze and delight all in attendance.

Another first for the museum is a collaboration with Western Reserve PBS (a service of Western Reserve Public Media), formerly PBS 45 & 49, to broadcast the installation via both webcam and a specially produced television documentary. Western Reserve Public Media’s live webcams will allow people to watch the installation on the Akron Art Museum’s Web site, www.AkronArtMuseum.org, and several air dates are scheduled to televise the documentary. Jean-Pierre Gauthier: Machines at Play will air on Western Reserve PBS on Friday, September 26 at 8:30 pm, Sunday, September 28 at 8 pm and Saturday, October 4 at 3:30 pm.

In conjunction with this production, Western Reserve PBS is working with the education team at the Akron Art Museum to create a K-12 standards-based multimedia package related to Gauthier’s works. Focusing on sound, electronics and art, the materials will include short video segments taken from the documentary (made available online as video on demand) to illustrate sound and electronics principles and how they are expressed in Gauthier’s art, a teachers guide with classroom lesson plans and other interactive activities online. This package will be made available free of charge to all teachers via the Internet. In fall 2008, the station will also host three free professional workshops on the implementation of the curriculum materials. The materials will also be available to teachers statewide.