Students in the Bachelor of Art and Bachelor of Fine Arts programs are required to present an exhibition of their work in order to graduate. But there is only so much gallery space for so many people.
According to Whitney Lee, a senior in art, the problem is not that students are unable to get space, but that the limited amount of space in on-campus galleries allows shows to run for only a day or two.
“At the end of the quarter, there are a lot of students trying to do senior shows, especially in spring quarter, and the problem is not that they cannot do everyone, but that your show can only last one or two days before they need to get someone else in there,” she said. “If someone wants to have a longer show, they just need to find a different place, or can even have it earlier in the quarter and not wait until the last minute.”
Undergraduate art students meet with a faculty advisor at the beginning of their last quarter before graduation to set up a time and place to exhibit their work. They choose from a number of different on-campus galleries, including the undergraduate gallery on the fourth floor of Hopkins Hall, a gallery in Haskett Hall, the Clean Space Gallery on West Campus and Exposures Gallery at the Ohio Union. The first floor of Hopkins Hall is usually reserved for graduate students in the Master of Fine Arts program, who must also present an exhibition.
Pheorus West, an associate professor in the painting and drawing department, said art students have a number of opportunities for space, although time may be limited. He said students must take the initiative to reserve gallery space early on in the quarter. By doing so, they are able to display their work at the time they want — most students like to have their exhibition during the last few weeks of the quarter.
“It’s the basis for just about anything — the early bird gets the worm. That is why we establish the first week as the time to make sure everything gets set. Don’t go all quarter and look around for a show — it just does not happen that way,” he said.
West urges art students to have a primary exhibition space and a secondary exhibition space. If one space does not work out, the student always has the other to fall back on.
Ardine Nelson, interim chairwoman for the art department, said several steps have already been taken to alleviate the problems stemming from limited on-campus gallery space.
Revisions to the BA and BFA programs recently approved by the university will allow students to exhibit their work for longer periods of time. Students in the BA program will have a group show with each student in the program putting up several pieces in galleries across campus at the same time. Students in the BFA program will have a single show, but will also help the BA students to mount and organize their exhibit, training them for their one-person show the following quarter. This will eliminate the competition for space amongst BA and BFA students.
“We are trying to work this out in a way that is educationally valid, a good experience and more helpful to students involved. It will still be several years before people are graduating under the new procedures,” Nelson said.
For now, art students can use one of the on-campus galleries, although time can be limited, or students can embrace the opportunity to present their work at an off-campus gallery. According to Nelson, although art students are technically supposed to show their work on campus where space is readily available to all faculty and students in the department, given the limited time and the number of students, the art department has allowed students to venture off-campus.
Lee has been showing her work on the walls of the restaurant Dragonfly for a few years and will have a show this spring at the Neo Gallery next door to the restaurant. Because of a technicality, she cannot use the show at the Neo Gallery for her senior exhibition, so she will have a less lengthy show at an on-campus gallery to fulfill her requirement.
“I really don’t mind — it’s like a practice for the real thing,” she said. “I think everything in the art department, and really in life, is what you put into it is what you are going to get out of it.”
