The opening reception of the biannual Art and Design Faculty Exhibition was held in the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center gallery on Nov. 11 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The exhibit featured works created by the professors and faculty of the Department of Art and Design.
This was the first time lecture and performance credit was offered for a gallery opening. The opening featured a gallery talk, which the faculty members talked about their process and techniques.
Each faculty member took five to 15 minutes to talk about the inspiration, concepts, process and techniques used for each of their pieces.
Senior experience design and studio art double major Elizabeth Ailes believes the gallery talk “brought good attention to the gallery and the department and shows the importance of sharing your process and how you make it [your art].”
According to associate professor and chair of the Department of Art and Design James Viewegh, the department has been trying to get more credits related to fine arts, as many students have requested for this in the past.
By including the faculty artist gallery lecture during the opening reception, the event could be approved as an LP event. Viewegh said the department would like to hold similar LP events in the future, since many students seemed to find the talks interesting. Ailes said she enjoys hearing from the artists.“I think they should do it [the gallery talks] more often. It’s cool to see their perspective as artists, not just professors,” Ailes said.
The gallery features 38 pieces on display, as well as two monitors displaying sites of digital work. These pieces all represent the work of faculty members, and some of the pieces are the result of hundreds of hours of work. Pieces presented a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, pottery, printing, drawing, graphic design, digital installation and mixed medium.
The gallery was put together through the Gallery Studies course, taught by Mark Ruschman, the gallery coordinator. In the one week period between exhibits, the class took down the old pieces, touched up the white paint, and hung the new pieces.
The goal of the gallery is to give students a view of their professors’ works, while also giving them a helpful insight into the process that their mentors use.
“It gives them [students] an opportunity to see how other artists are working, whether it be stylistically, conceptually, how they’re using the medium, whatever the case may be,” Viewegh said. “That is what we try to do with every exhibition: to use it as a learning experience. So we always try to do things in the gallery that we think will have some interest to student.”
The Department of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition can be found in the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center Gallery. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“We have a gallery here, and they should actually come and see,” Viewegh said. “It does exist, and we have a lot of cool things there.”
