The Fort Lewis College Art Gallery held the opening reception and awards ceremony for the 57th Annual Student Juried Exhibition from 4:30-6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb 28th.
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 setting.
Patti Singer, a working artist with a Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, was the juror for the event and her 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
“The Fort Lewis art department has a wide range of fine art students, and graphic students and students who’ll end up using digital media after they get out of school, so I wanted to represent the whole department,” Singer said.
Singer said she made her decisions for the show based on the criteria of technical expertise and the content of the piece, the content being politically relevant.
There were a record number of submissions this year with 123 pieces of art submitted and 56 pieces chosen to be displayed in the gallery, Art Gallery director and lecturer Andrea Martens said.
Kenny Currier, a senior Business Art Major, has been in these juried shows before, but he gained something else during this show that he hasn’t in the past.
“It feels good to finally win an award after three years of being in the Student Juried shows, but the awards aren’t really a main goal of mine just being in the show is enough of an award,” Currier said. “Getting the Technical Ability and Craftsmanship Award is a nice addition to my art and to my ability showing that I actually can create good work that is of the technical ability that is recognized by other people.”
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 mention, received a $75 prize.
Even those that didn’t win an award, but were still selected, took something away from the experience.
“Drawing is an activity I greatly enjoy and into which I pour a lot of time and effort, but I don’t get many opportunities to show my work to others,” senior anthropology major, Forrest Lisle said. “This show provided an opportunity to share and was a nice affirmation of the value in the efforts and products of all who had their art displayed.”
The 57th Annual Student Juried Exhibition will be on display until March 26th in the on-campus Art Gallery located inside the Art building.
AWARD WINNERS