The Fort Lewis College Art Gallery held the opening reception and awards for the 56th Annual Student Juried Exhibition from 4:30-6:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 1.
A Student Juried Exhibition is a competition available to all FLC students that accepts any form of media for the chance to be exhibited in an art show and be judged in a professional art show setting.
Peter Hay, the Exhibits Director at the Durango Arts Center, was the juror for the event and his responsibilities for the show were to pick which of the submissions made the show and judge the pieces in the show to decide on the award winners.
“For me, one of the first things I look at is, ‘Does this transcend a homework assignment?’ ”, Hay said.
Art Gallery Director and lecturer, Andrea Martens, said that the exhibition allows students to practice their presentation in a professional setting and get feedback from a credible professional rather than just their professors and peers.
“It gives them practice entering a professional gallery show,” Martens said. “It also gives them practice with framing and mounting their work and getting it professionally presentable in a gallery setting.”
There were over 140 submissions that had to be decreased to the around 50 shown in the show, Hay said.
“My job was to narrow that down and try to make it the best show, most representational, best show for the college and then from those remaining works to pick some that I feel are outstanding and award them,” Hay said.
There are 41 artists exhibited in the gallery, Martens said. Some of the pieces on display are for sale with at least one of those pieces being sold at the opening reception.
The Art Gallery takes no commission on student works meaning that all of the pieces sold are paid in full to the student-artists themselves, Martens said.
The Best of Show award winner received a $150 prize and all of the other awards, except for the honorable mentions, received a $75 prize.
Elan Rupp, a junior communications design major at FLC who had two pieces in the show, said that the exhibition allowed for him to put his art in a professional and public setting to be judged by the public’s eye.
“It has fostered inside me, more or less, this ability to let go and to allow people to look at my work subjectively on their own rather than with me over their shoulder telling them what they’re looking at,” Rupp said.
The 56th Annual Student Juried Exhibition will be on display until March 27th in the on-campus Art Gallery located inside the art building.
AWARD WINNERS
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Honorable Mention
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Honorable Mention
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Dillon Janda
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Blackbird
- Made from a broken Dean Martin record