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Colby-Sawyer College Hosts Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition

Colby-Sawyer College's Fine and Performing Arts Department will host the Annual Gladys Greenbaum Meyers Juried Student Art Exhibition, featuring students' latest work in graphic design, ceramics, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, watercolor, painting, photography and integrated media.

The reception and awards ceremony will open the exhibition on Friday, March 29, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery of the Sawyer Fine Arts Center. The exhibition is made possible by a generous endowment gift established by Gladys Greenbaum Meyers, a graduate of the Class of 1939. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Each year, Colby-Sawyer students, regardless of academic concentration, are invited to submit five pieces of work for exhibition. Fine and Performing Arts Department faculty typically evaluate about 300 works of art based on their expression of ideas, evidence of perceptual skill, composition and craftsmanship.

In addition to the awards given for Best in Show in each discipline, second and third place winners will also be recognized in each category. Several scholarships will distinguish the students with the strongest suite of entered works. A panel representing the Financial Services Department will also commission one student to create a piece for the college. The Tomie de Paola Paper Awards, donated by the renowned artist and children's literature author, will honor student achievements in drawing, watercolor, painting and printmaking.

Mugar Art Gallery Director and Professor of Fine and Performing Arts Loretta Barnett attributes the show's popularity to the students themselves. “Students spend hours and hours in the studios creating and refining their works of art. Sometimes it's a lonely business late at night and on weekends working alone or with a few others who are also trying hard to create something fresh and self-expressive,” she says. “Then the student show comes along and once again they have to marshal their courage to present in public what they have worked hard to produce.”

With great enthusiasm for students' work, Professor Barnett extends an invitation to the opening reception to the campus and community. “Art students are just like science or psychology students: They are thrilled when an experiment goes well and lots of new information is uncovered. Art students are like business students in that they appreciate when careful planning pays off with dividends. They are like English majors or Media Studies students when a piece of poetry, a short story or a script brings to light new ideas and images for people to enjoy and think about,” she says. “The spring term is alive with great student work across all disciplines.”

Following the opening, the exhibition will be open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will close on Friday, April 12.

-David Hart '13

David Hart is a Media Studies major at Colby-Sawyer College and a student writer for College Communications.