Kaiden Pope
Reporter
On April 9, 2018, Parkland’s Giertz Gallery opened the student juried art exhibition.
The exhibition will be open until May 5. A reception was held on April 12, 2018.
At the reception, several students received both monetary and achievement awards. These awards included scholarships such as the Don Lake Art Scholarship, the Underwood-Alger Scholarship, and the Robert Ralph Ford Memorial Art Scholarship.
The exhibition is comprised of fine art students’ work. Students who were enrolled in art classes for the current academic year, including summer 2017, were eligible to submit art. Roughly 180 pieces were selected from a pool of over 350 submitted pieces.
Gallery director Lisa Costello said that taking part in the show “introduces students to professional practices they will encounter in their field as well, such as working with a gallery, preparing their work for exhibition and engaging in the jurying process that is essential for an emerging artist. This is a necessary component for résumé building and establishing themselves as practicing artists once they graduate or transfer to a four-year college.”
University of Illinois and Parkland student Sierra Clark had one of her photographs hung in the gallery for the show. The photograph is titled “Entry 1,” and features the Morrow Plots on the U of I campus. The plots are cornfields near the undergraduate library in the center of campus.
“I’m proud of getting into the exhibition. I thought it was pretty cool to be in the gallery and to see all the amazing work that Parkland students have created. I thought it was pretty cool, you might not think that this little corner of Illinois, this community college, made such beautiful work, and to see my work among that. I think the show is a really great way of encouraging students here,” Clark said.
Clark’s photography instructor Peggy Shaw encouraged students to submit up to four pieces to the exhibit. Other photography teachers also encouraged students to submit their pieces and helped students choose which pieces to submit according to Clark.
“I wanted to see how what I had learned so far stacked up to being able to get into the show, so I thought I’d try [to submit a piece,]” Clark said.
Clark is going for her bachelor’s in media and film studies. Clark said that she only needed one more class to complete her Bachelor’s degree as of the beginning of the spring semester. To fulfill her art requirement, she chose to take photography at Parkland.
“I really love art and creating and telling a story or a feeling. When it came down to it, in my media and cinema classes we studied video. Photography is related to that and I wanted to learn visual composition, which isn’t really taught in film courses,” Clark said.
Clark plans on hanging up some of her pieces at her home, but as of right now has no plans to hang her art in any other galleries or exhibitions around town.
“I think one of the things I learned was that it made me think about my piece through the eyes of others. When I think of taking photographs, I’m only thinking of how I see it. When I present it to a class, I have to explain my thoughts. And now we have this other group of people, who aren’t in my class who have to take it entirely out of context.” Clark said.
Among the things that students learned were how to prepare their pieces to be hung in a gallery.
“Students learn how to mat their drawings, dry mount their photos, fabricate display mounts for some three-dimensional works, etc. This is also very similar to what happens in professional exhibitions. So all of this is part of the learning process,” Costello said
Some of the monetary awards awarded to students include the Parkland President Award, the David M. and Shirley A. Jones Student Art Award, the Parkland Art and Design Faculty Award, the Fine and Applied Arts Chair Award, the Metals Award for jewelry and metalsmithing, and the Blair Kling Memorial Art Award, as well as the Louis Ballard Memorial Award, and the Art Coop Award for sustained excellence.
Students who received merit awards, scholarships, or monetary awards are allowed to take their art home with them at the end of the exhibition. Students whose art has been purchased by the Gallery will have their art remain in the Parkland student art collection.
The gallery will be closed between May 6 and May 14 to take down the student-juried exhibition and to prepare for the graphic design exhibition.