Art show to feature students’ drawings, sculptures

Grace Hutchison - The Yellow Jacket

Student artwork featuring various media will be on display at the Student Art Show, opening the evening Monday, April 15.

This is a two-week exhibit located in the gallery in the Fine Arts Center.

It will showcase featured art from the variety of classes that were offered this past semester.

“It’s a diverse collection, but one of the most exciting and one of my favorite shows,” Andrew Heisey, chairperson of the fine arts department and professor of art, said.

The show will consist of roughly 50 pieces of work, which will be pulled from classes such as digital art, jewelry and metals, world art history, watercolor and pastels.

Heisey said she enjoys this show because it features art from several rarely offered classes and from both art majors and non-majors.

This event allows those who are taking an art class to fulfill a general education requirement the opportunity to see their art displayed.

“It’s neat for students to see their work is valued and is on exhibit in a gallery,” Heisey said.  “To see it matted and on the wall with lights on it changes the work. It’s no longer something in your sketchbook. It’s a piece of artwork.”

To make this exhibit distinctive, there will be featured pieces from Heisey’s studio classes, which are offered through Waynesburg University’s Fine Arts Academy.

These pieces are created by high school students as well as adults who attend classes through the academy and will be featured alongside pieces created by Waynesburg University students.

“It’s really a packed show,” Heisey said.  “You will have ceramic pieces, sculpture pieces, pieces from independent classes and it’s a surprise what comes in.”

Two fine arts majors, Mason Klopp and Clare Rainone, are taking independent classes with Heisey that will be featured in the show.

Klopp is a junior and has been featured in the semester shows since his freshman year.

Rainone is a sophomore and will be represented in the show by a watercolor piece she created for her midterm grade.

She chose this piece because it was one which took meticulous crafting and consultation with Heisey.

Traditionally, art is curated by professors who make an effort to represent as many students as possible.

Professors’ choices typically consist of students’ best pieces of work.

Heisey views these art shows as not only a public display for observation and entertainment but also as educationally beneficial opportunities for students.

“It is helpful because those are lines on students’ resumes that they’ve been in different exhibits,” he said. “One of our goals here at the university for our majors is that when they leave they have a diverse portfolio, and one way to build that up at first is to participate in school or university exhibits like this.”

Heisey said attendance for the event is expected to be abundant.

Since it features a diverse array of students and art, many are drawn through friends or other relations to the event.

Admission is open and free to everyone throughout the exhibit’s two-week running time and evening open hours.