Artwork faces judgment day

The University Art Gallery is taking down the Juried Student Art Exhibit, but three pieces will have a new home in the Student Union Building.

The Juried Student Art Exhibit, which took place from Nov. 8 to Dec. 2, contained pieces of art created by students and was judged by a juror from another university. Students were able to submit up to three pieces of art and had the chance of receiving awards.

Aaron Fine, assistant professor of art and University Gallery director, said the student exhibit accomplishes many things.

"There's other things that are attached to [the exhibit]," Fine said. "We have the Student Union Purchase Prize Award. It's a way to sort of assess our studio art program and the visual communications program to get an idea from an outsider's perspective to how these programs are doing."

For the annual exhibit, the University Art Gallery brings in a juror who is not a faculty member at Truman, Fine said. The juror then judges the art and decides which pieces are best in the show.

Robert Hower, director of the visual communication division at Kansas State University, was chosen as this year's juror. Hower said in a statement he left in the gallery that the student exhibit displays diversity in ideas, creative disciplines and visual language. He said that "seeing" and "language" are two words that are important to him, and he uses this approach to evaluate students' artwork to help them with their studio activities.

Fine said that after Hower makes his decisions, he acknowledges the top pieces with different awards.

"There isn't much with the juror's recognition reward beyond the honor and recognition of it," Fine said. "Although, sometimes there are some informal things ... I'll pull [that piece of art] from the juror's recognition pieces. Other than that, it's really an honor and a line on your résumé. The Student Union Purchase Prize is different. It does come with some money. ... So, there was sort of an extra incentive to get that top award."

This year, the Student Union purchased three pieces from the show, one for $300 and two for $100, Fine said.

The winner of the $300 award was senior Lisa Payne for her acrylic painting titled "Home on the Range." The winners of the two $100 awards were seniors Kate Sherron and Ellie Goedeker.

"It's my senior year so getting the Purchase Prize is a neat thing for your senior year, knowing that the school likes my work and I'll be able to leave a piece of myself here," Payne said.

Payne said the Student Union bought two pieces of art from her last year. She said one is in the Student Union Building, but the second piece was stolen during the summer.

Senior Matthew Kemp submitted three pieces of his artwork, including his acrylic painting titled "Unlikely Postcard Series: Venice."

"Everyone goes to art exhibits all the time and even art museums, and they see famous artists or amateur artists and their pieces are hanging on the wall," Kemp said. "I think it just adds a certain amount of respect. To have your own artwork be put up anywhere, even if it's a juried show or not a juried show, I think it's a privilege."

Kemp said he decided to submit his work to the exhibit to see how someone outside Truman would judge it.

"I submitted stuff in the past couple of years, and I hadn't gotten anything in shows," Kemp said. "I wanted to see if my stuff was up to par with everyone else's because I think a lot times it's hard to judge your own work against everyone else's."