WCC talent put on display in annual art show

By Jenee Gregor
Contributor

and Evans Koukios
Contributor

Final submissions for this year’s 2016 Washtenaw Community College Student Art Show arrived just before the Feb. 18 deadline for what promises to be an exciting show for students to display art and compete for prizes. Students created the submissions in their Art and Digital Media Art Department classes.

Allison Fournier, chair of the Humanities Department, described a big change this year.

“We moved the traditional time from July, during the summer term, to March in the winter term.  We just had a workshop to help students mount their works for display and we’ll have another group of students helping with the installation of the pieces starting the end of February,” Fournier said.

This will help train WCC students in production of a show like this. Kristin Good, dean of arts and sciences, speaks positively on this year’s changes.

“This student art show is a fantastic way to show the college community the depth and breadth of our art program at WCC. I am proud of the work that will be displayed and appreciate the efforts of the faculty for moving this forward,” Good said. “It is exciting to have it in such a high profile location this year for maximum exposure.”

Belinda McGuire, a 28-year employee with the college art faculty, said the school has at least 50 easels and 10 podiums that will be used to display student works for this juried show.  With the excitement of the show in the winter term, there are more entries than space available, so WCC’s faculty will go through a preselection process.

The pieces had to made by a student, in a WCC class, that has been graded by an instructor in order to be submitted for the show. The art ranges from fine art, to 3-D digital painting, photography and more. 80 – 100 submissions were received. Though there is no set number of pieces that can be posted, they plan to put up as much art as possible.

“What I am going to be looking for is balance in the show, in terms of students represented, classes represented and levels represented.  We want representation of the entire curriculum, from Art 101 students all the way to Painting II and Life Drawing II,” McGuire said.

Bella Pense, a Washtenaw Technical Middle College student, and her friend and fellow WTMC student, Rosie Van Alsburg, were walking around looking at the art on the first day the show was open, March 3.

“It’s nice to have (student) art around,” Van Alsburg said, commenting about the lack of art nearby in the Student Center.

“I really like it, it makes me want to take an art class,” Pense said. She has been there more than once looking at the different pieces.

McGuire mentioned the prizes have been made possible because of the support from Good, as well as, WCC’s President Rose Bellanca’s office.

This year, three sets of first, second and third place prizes will be awarded in the categories of “2-D,” “3-D” and “Digital Arts.” First place winners will get a four-credit class tuition scholarship at WCC, second place winners will receive a $200 gift certificate from Blick’s Art Supplies, and third place winners will get a gift certificate for the Art Center of Ann Arbor.

The show will be juried by a group of unbiased professionals in the art community who are not affiliated with the school itself.  Their professional art backgrounds vary, including: drawing, ceramic, sculpture, painting, industrial design, and graphic design.

The art show runs March 3-31 on the second floor of the Student Center Building. The prize winners will be announced on March 16 at 6 p.m. at a free reception that runs from 5 – 7 p.m. at the site of the show. The public is invited for this showcase of WCC student artwork, not only at the reception but throughout the month of March.

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