Investigating the Portrait, an Exhibition of Student Work

If you've been keeping up with my occasional posts, you know I had an excellent Portrait Painting and Drawing class in the last spring/summer term.  They were such a great group that halfway through I proposed the idea of having an exhibition of their work!

Our local community puts on First Friday gallery walks every month and I loved the idea of linking what we were doing at the college to the greater arts community.  I wanted their show to be in the best venue- 22 North Gallery.  It is a very classy operation and was very receptive to the idea.  Their next open slot was this November, and even after 5 months since the end of the class I had tremendous energy from the students in getting it together.

All of the work represented was from that one class.  38 high-quality pieces from 20 students in 10 weeks!  We titled it Investigating The Portrait at Washtenaw Community College.

Not only did it give the students a chance to get their artwork out of the studio and connect to the wider community,  but it gave them the opportunity to learn how to prepare for and deliver to a show.  All of the artwork in the show was juried by them in the final day of the class, so they got to see much of the entire process of making, preparing and exhibiting the work, as well as some of the curatorial work involved in an exhibition like this.

This has gone so well I might try the same with my Studio Concepts class.  From the most representational subject to the most conceptual ones, I am stretching my teaching skills, and really getting my students involved in many aspects of the complex and diverse world of art!