Southeast art students exhibit work at River Campus

The upcoming Southeast Missouri State University student art exhibits have a place for everyone.

The Annual Juried Show will feature artwork from select students, chosen by a juror independent of the university. Students whose work was "refused" by the show will be featured in the "Everyone Wins a Trophy" exhibit.

The focus of the exhibits isn't winning, said Kristin Powers Nowlin, Southeast's exhibitions coordinator and professor of art. It's about displaying work and getting feedback beyond the classroom.

"It's good for students to get feedback from someone other than the faculty they have for classes every day," Powers Nowlin said. "And it serves as a sort of evaluation for our Art Department compared to what other institutions are doing."

The pieces that will be showcased in both exhibits were created by students within the past year. Though most pieces come from Southeast's art students, anyone with an interest in art was able to enter.

"Even someone just taking a couple of art classes could submit a piece in the show," Powers Nowlin said.

In the juried show, winners will be awarded cash prizes. Students also may be awarded merit and purchase awards.

"We actually open up the museum to the public before the show begins to see if they're interested in purchasing any of the pieces," Powers Nowlin said. "The students that do sell a piece of work will win a purchase prize."

The show features 10 categories, including graphic design, digital arts and painting. Students were able to submit as many pieces as they wanted into the categories. Winners of each category will receive a cash prize.

Though no prizes will be awarded in "Everyone Wins a Trophy," the show is significant to students, Powers Nowlin said. Inspired by the "Salon des Refuses" in Paris, which was created in 1863 by artists rejected from the juried shows, Southeast students have carried on the tradition of bringing all artwork to the public.

"It started off as an informal student-run kind of thing," Powers Nowlin said. "But then the university made it a more formal event with its own museum show. We've been having this show for years now."

She said the university encourages the show.

Powers Nowlin said, the "Everyone Wins a Trophy" exhibit will be open only one day this year because of scheduling conflicts. The event typically runs as long as the juried show, she said, but was cut short because of an incoming exhibit.

The exhibit will be open from 1 to 7 p.m. today, with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. It will be in the River Campus Art Gallery inside the seminary building at the River Campus.

The Annual Juried Show also will begin Friday, with an opening reception from 4 to 8 p.m., and ends April 28. The exhibit will be in the Crisp Museum in the Cultural Arts Center at the River Campus. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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