UMaine Student Art Show, FUSE, Opens Dec. 8
Contact: Ed Norton, 949-1459; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — Twenty-four University of Maine studio art majors exhibiting dozens of works that culminate their fall semester’s efforts are inviting the public to Lord Hall Gallery’s newest show, “Senior Art Exhibition, FUSE,” Dec. 8 through Jan. 26.
The exhibit represents collaboration by all of the 24 senior studio art majors at UMaine. Participation in the show is the required senior Capstone project, which includes supplemental presentations, artists’ statements, essays and hands-on involvement in putting the show together. The artwork includes mixed media abstracts, portraits, landscapes and conceptual.
The exhibit is free and open to the public weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. An opening reception for the public is scheduled Dec. 8, from 5:30-7 p.m. All are welcome to enjoy art, food and live music.
While the artwork is an expression of creative thought and process, the show is an exercise in reality for the student artists. They planned and organized the exhibition, from the matting, framing and hanging of the works to its promotion and marketing.
Art professor Ed Nadeau, faculty advisor for the student exhibit, says the show “is really about professionalism and knowing what to expect in the art world. This is a segue into the professional art world.”
As budding career artists, students must know how to get their work in front of the public — a curricular component that hasn’t always accompanied an art education, Nadeau says. Hence, students are being taught how to explain and promote their work, and how to get it into conventional art shows.
“Success,” he says, “doesn’t just happen naturally. It’s important for young artists to understand the structure of the art world.”
Mariel Connor of Old Town agrees. She wants to pursue a master’s degree in fine arts in painting after graduation in the spring so she can teach art at the college level while pursuing her own craft.
“It’s helpful to see all of the things we need to be prepared for if we’re going to be showing our work in a gallery somewhere,” she says. “I didn’t have any experience with it before.”
Olivia Cyr, from Fort Kent, says each piece chosen for the show reflects the creator’s strengths and interests, and is indicative of the body of work each artist has produced and will produce in the future.
Themes for the exhibit are evident in the information presented with the work, in the artist’s statements to be posted with the work. The statements describe the artist’s philosophy, influences, methods of working and ambitions as new artists. Statements serve as abstracts of a larger, fully developed thesis that students have researched and written throughout the semester, in order to develop and realize themselves as artists, Cyr says.
On Dec. 12 and Dec. 14, from 7-9 p.m., the students will gather at the Lord Hall Gallery for “Artist Talks,” an evening when they’ll discuss their work with each other and the public.