Emma Kelsey – Staff Writer
This Saturday, Oct. 15, the Student Creative Suite ‘22 will be opening in the Schaefer Art Gallery, featuring work of students and faculty alike.
The show will consist of three different exhibits. The first will be Salon des Refuses, the work of Betsy Byers’ Good Art Bad Art First Term Seminar students. This assignment was meant to challenge students to “research and understand the different ways in which art has been received within society and culture,” Nicolas Darcourt says. Darcourt is the visual arts programs manager for the Department of Art and Art History and manages the Schaefer Art Gallery exhibitions.
The second exhibit will showcase the works of the Junior Studio Art Major Summer Grant recipients, Seniors Taite Stevens Aldrich and Oleander Meierhoff.
“As part of the Junior Studio Art Seminar, the students are asked to write grant project proposals. These proposals are juried by a small group of artists from the Twin Cities region. Each year two recipients are awarded a grant to fund their summer projects,” Darcourt said. The grant is given to the students in the spring, giving them the summer to develop their artwork based on their written proposals. It is then showcased in the fall.
Aldrich, who is also a staff editor of the Gustavian Weekly, says she is excited to showcase her work she created over the summer and to receive feedback. Her artwork consists of paintings and a soft sculpture, which was a new experience for her which she really enjoyed. In her paintings, she had fun exploring different colors and perspectives.
The third exhibit will feature the work of Faculty/Student Collaboration Research Grant recipients Professor Priscilla Briggs and Senior Cora Hentges. They engaged in photographic research and created their own zines, which focus on the issues of sustainability. A zine is somewhat like a self-published book, which is produced in small quantities. “This exhibition will act as a launching event for their zines,” Darcourt said.
In addition to the exhibition, there will be a reception on Saturday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. with refreshments provided. These events are in conjunction with an art day event, ART PARTY – activate your imagination. This is an Art and Art History open house event in the Schaefer Studio Arts building, this Saturday, Oct. 15, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. “[It is] open to campus, prospective students, and the general public. This event will include hands-on activities such as gesture drawing live models, throwing on a potter’s wheel, art building scavenger hunt with prizes, student video shorts, and building tours,” Darcourt said.
Darcourt hopes that this exhibition will allow the Gustavus campus and other visitors who come to experience the art, to realize the extent of the creative process, and how it involves significant time and research. He says that all of the participants and artists in this exhibition went through a process to produce their works. “As a result of time spent researching, the work in this exhibition is thoughtful and has the ability to both express creativity as well as educate the viewers,” Darcourt said.
Darcourt prioritizes two exhibitions every year, which are each student based. “There is always amazing work coming from the department’s students, majors and non-majors. I work with the participants in this exhibition to make sure their artworks are effectively being presented,” Darcourt said.
This year’s exhibition is unique, and has been a labor of love for many. “I hope to celebrate the work that has been created by me and my peers while we were away from school. It’s always exciting to see where others’ art takes them when digging deeper into their own specific interests and developing styles further. I hope others will see the excitement in creating and exploring that art can create,” Aldrich said.