Student artwork on display in Seminary Building Art Gallery

The River Campus Art Gallery in the Seminary Building on the River Campus joins the Cape Girardeau arts scene this month with an eclectic show of works from various art workshops held over the summer.

Tapestries, ceramic pieces, digital art and sculptures hang on the walls, and more sculptures sit throughout the room on the floor of the small gallery on the River Campus. The gallery was carved out in the Seminary Building, something that gallery coordinator Emily Booth said confuses some people.

"Because it is so tucked away, when you say River Campus art gallery, everyone automatically thinks the art gallery in the [Crisp] Museum," Booth said.

She recently arranged the gallery to prepare for Friday's opening reception to coordinate with the First Friday events downtown. More than 50 pieces had to be arranged to fit in the room.

"It's a lot of works," she said. "And these are really good for the level of the students."

She said all the students from the summer workshops were at the undergraduate level and many had only just completed their first or second year.

"Some of these are really strong pieces for still being undergrad," Booth said.

Students were enrolled separately in fibers workshop, sculpture workshop, ceramics workshop or computer art workshop.

In fibers, they used dye application on a variety of fabrics to create two panel pieces. The sculpture workshop focused on metal sculptures, while the ceramics used clay to express nature studies or human figure. The computer art workshop used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and scanning software to experiment in digital art.

Roughly 40 artists are on display, making for a wide-ranging scene with pieces from abstract to intentional. The reception will be in the Art Gallery in the Seminary Building from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday. The work can be seen during gallery hours, 1 to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday through September.