The Bradley provides a unique venue for VPA creators

Since finding a camera buried in her parents’ closet at age 13, Madison Foreman has been consumed by photography and gotten pretty good at almost every style. She’s even started a wedding photography business with six assignments this summer.

Some of her favorite images are the spur-of-the-moment shots, those things that just happen to appear serendipitously when instinct takes over. That’s why two of her works are hanging at The Bradley in downtown Fort Wayne, part of an exclusive collaboration between Purdue University Fort Wayne and the boutique hotel.

When the building was going up in 2019, PFW’s Rebecca Coffman, chair of the Department of Art and Design, was invited for a tour where a pitch was made for students, faculty, and staff creations to be displayed in the hotel, which is owned by Fort Wayne’s Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Provenance Hotels. Provenance owns 14 total and always stresses highlighting the local art scene.

“We always catch guests wandering up and down the hallways checking out our artwork,” said Brent Pope, general manager of The Bradley. “Our hotel guests really appreciate it, and it’s great to have a connection with the major university in town.”

The Bradley provides spaces for 10 pieces of PFW art with Coffman collecting suggestions from faculty. The submissions are shipped to Katherine Durant, Provenance’s president and CEO for final approval.

There have been three rotations since the first in 2021, and the current presentations include two images apiece from students Sarafina Burton, Iris Miller, and Foreman, and two each from Chris Ganz, professor of fine arts, and James Gabbard, senior lecturer in the Department of Art and Design, who is also Foreman’s mentor.

“I think he saw potential in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Foreman said. “He pushed me to dive in and see how it goes. It’s hard as an artist to accept that you have talent. I’m never cool with my work. I can always find something to mess with.”

For the two Foreman pictures hanging at The Bradley, that would be difficult to do. One captures the joy of summer on Mackinac Island, Michigan, with a little boy running in front of a church as the sun sets behind it.

The other is easily her favorite, showing her grandfather Tom More backlit by the rising Florida sun as he prepares to cast his fishing line into the ocean. Because the sun was shifting the colors, the January 2023 picture was printed in black and white.

“Just the way the light flickered was really cool to me,” Foreman said. “We went out at sunrise, and I thought I would bring my camera just to see what happens. I didn’t expect this to be something I’d submit to a gallery.”

When the most recent works were unveiled at The Bradley’s gallery, the hotel hosted a small cocktail party on Feb. 15, and Foreman took her family, including her grandfather.

Foreman’s next project will be a photo study of endometriosis, which she first suspected she had at age 11. An official diagnosed was made two years ago when she was 20. The symptoms are constant and painful, and the only chance to temporarily cease pain is through laparoscopic surgery, but they can return. Foreman said studying the disease helps her handle fear, and her research was honored with a Dean’s Choice Award at the recent Student Research and Creative Endeavor Symposium.