Mechelle Hankerson
Contributing writer
This school year, the students running the Student Art Space in the VCU Student Commons have big plans in store.
The Student Art Space began 10 years ago as a student organization, run with the cooperation and support of the Anderson Gallery, and has since evolved into an independent study course in which the participating students book the bi-monthly shows. The space has been student-run for all 10 years of its existence.
Currently, junior Amber Esseiva and senior Luke Harman are the students working with the space.
“[The space] has been kind of ambiguous,” said Esseiva. “It didn’t really have a name, and we wanted to brand it so people could see it and know where it is.”
In order to make the space more recognizable, the Student Art Space logo was introduced this year. Esseiva and Harman hope the logo will make the mini gallery more accessible to people outside of the art community on campus.
Esseiva collaborated on the logo with a friend, Andrew Santa Lucia, and his design group, Col.laboracio. Ultimately, Esseiva and Harman worked to complete the final logo that is now displayed at the entrance of the exhibition.
The art in the space is not necessarily from art students, though Esseiva hopes that eventually, the entire art school will somehow be involved with the space.
“We want to create this overall larger dialogue between all students, art or non-art,” said Esseiva. “We want anyone in the community to come in and see it and appreciate it.”
The space is actually three smaller units, consisting of the main gallery, the back gallery, and the glass display case. The back gallery used to belong to the Commons Convenience store – the Art Space crew is always looking for opportunities to expand, not only in the Commons, but anywhere around campus.
“We’ve been talking about expansion and finding new spaces around the campus,” said Harman.
“[We’re also looking for] more unexpected art,” said Esseiva. “We’re trying to branch out from that traditional canvas gallery.”
The space doesn’t have any specific guidelines about what they want in the pieces they display, but they do require a very specific application process: in order for a student’s art to be displayed, the student must submit a proposal through email, as well as answer any questions the team asks the artist.
“It just has to be professional,” said Esseiva. “That’s part of the whole exercise, learning how to write a proposal…[Artists] have to tell people exactly what we want to do.”
Presently, the space is showcasing art by Egbert Vongmalaithong and Seychelle Stableford, titled “Until We Remembered.” The exhibition is meant to present the idea of time in one’s life and how, ultimately, the person is left with only objects retained through memory.
As usual, gallery visitors are welcome to leave comments and messages for the artists in a collection of red Moleskines by the entrance.
“Our biggest concern is exposing artists, getting them to pull their artwork out…putting it out there so people can engage with it,” said Harman. “That’s the most important part of the mission; we want to help artists show their work. We have this great space for them to work in and put their work in.”
Visit the VCU Student Artspace on their website or their Facebook page for more information, exhibition schedules, and submission applications.
Leave a Reply