‘Spectrum Of The Arts’: Faculty Work In Photography, Painting, Music And More Featured In Biennial Exhibition at Stark Galleries
Faculty members in the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts will showcase their creative works in a new exhibition.
The Faculty Biennial opens Thursday and continues through May 18 at the J. Wayne Stark Galleries in the Memorial Student Center. A reception will be held Thursday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., where faculty members will be on hand and refreshments will be served. To register, visit the RSVP link.
The every-other-year exhibition dates back to 1999, when the Visualization program was part of the College of Architecture. The exhibition now features work across the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, according to Dr. Ann McNamara, professor and associate dean for research and creative works.
McNamara said the exhibition offers a platform for faculty to share their artistic research, explorations and creative output, and hopes the community will come to appreciate their work.
“The work showcased at this biennial will be really representative of all the different disciplines that are housed in the college,” McNamara said. “I think that it will reflect the benefits of how we all fit together, and how we are blurring those interdisciplinary lines with our creative works. This spectrum of the arts will also increase engagement across campus and the greater community.”
Having a creative outlet is essential for faculty, McNamara said, because it helps them recharge as they are teaching students and gathering research.
“It’s energizing to be able to showcase your creative work,” she said. “We have seen creative works from very technical faculty and more technical pieces from faculty that you might think were more traditional. It’s always a nice surprise to see.”
Faculty work featured in the exhibition include photography by Stewart Ziff; mixed media by Tim Weaver; sculpture works by Courtney Starrett and Emily Bujnoch; paintings by Felice House, Rebecca Pugh and Dmitiri Koustov; music by Rebecca Hays; and a collaborative video project titled “Memor-ii” with Lynn Vartan, Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo, Michael Bruner and Weaver.
The exhibition will feature an “exquisite corpse” exercise that was a collaborative work created during the college’s Research and Creative Works Day on Feb. 3. The concept was introduced by Dr. James R. Ball III, associate dean for industry and community engagement and associate professor in Performance and Visual Studies.
A booklet was passed around the room and each participant drew on one page for 5 minutes, then passed it to the next person. Without seeing what was on the previous page, the new person added a new drawing. The pages will be displayed in an accordion fold to showcase each drawing.
“Ideally, what would a group portrait be of us?” Ball said. “Everyone added a little something and it became a record of who we are and what we do. No one was given enough time to make a masterpiece. The whole point was, in 5 minutes, make your mark on it and see what comes together. In the end we got these amazing compositions as an illustration of us — we see ourselves in it.”
McNamara said she hopes the exhibition leads to faculty members engaging in new collaborations. She also wants students and community members to feel inspired to create.
“I want everyone to see how people are integrating different forms and being so creative,” she said. “And how that creativity might lend itself to some unexpected connections outside of the college, between students and faculty or between faculty and the general public.”
The J. Wayne Stark Galleries are open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
Top photo, from left: Artwork by Will Connor, Felice House and Emily Bujnoch.
