Collegiettes™, if you still possess the mentality that gallery equals boredom, the 18th Women in the Arts Gallery Show will change your mind. The show is located at the Craft Studio in the basement of Memorial Union. Get ready to be exposed to a diverse collection of artwork, which ranges from oil on canvas and fibers pieces to mixed media and photography.
The reception was held March 10, and attendants (including moi) got to enjoy a live guitar performance and delicious refreshments. The show itself continues until April 2, so make sure to stop by between classes!
refreshments and live music
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Craft Studio partners with the Women’s Center to bring together the juried exhibition that features MU and Mid-Missouri female artists.
Kelsey Hammond, coordinator of the Craft Studio, says they have partnered with the Women’s Center for the gallery show for 18 years now. It has served as a great opportunity for women to exhibit their talents.
“Historically, women are not allowed to take any art classes.” Kelsey says. “This gallery show enables their voices to be heard, and it is a great way to celebrate women artists.”
Suzy Day, adviser for the Women’s Center, agrees that women were often an afterthought in the past. But she says the show creates space for women artists and drives the public to focus on their works. “This event is great because it brings different people together,” Suzy says. “It’s not just women who attend this event; it’s everybody.”
About 80 pieces were proposed by 40 applicants this year; only 24 of them made it to the showcase. When asked how the Craft Studio narrowed down the proposals, Kelsey says they invite a female artist to be the juror of the gallery show each year.
Patti Shanks, an artist and visiting MU faculty member, selected this year’s artwork. She chose Sidney Stretz’s photography, “Swimming hole,” as one of the winners of the gallery show.
Artist Sidney Stretz with her winning artwork
Sidney says her photo was taken in Three Creeks in Southern Missouri. “I want to create images that look like memories,” she says. Sidney took the photo with her good old film camera because she likes the aesthetic of film cameras over digital ones. “Digital is too perfect, and there are a lot of people who can master digital cameras better than me,” she says. “It’s always an exciting process to wait for the films to be developed. I like how muddy and blurry they can be, but you never really know how exactly they will turn out.”
Another artist whose graphite and watercolor painting is being exhibited, Dionne Bates, also attended the reception with the company of her brother. Dionne says her painting is actually one of the 12-piece series that portrays her music journey from high school through college. “The first few paintings of the series are all very colorful, but then it gets blank white toward the end because I knew I wouldn’t be able to be in the orchestra anymore once in college,” she says. “It represents the transition for my music journey.”
Dionne says her favorite piece in the gallery show is the oil on canvas painting called “Immobilize” by Tristan Johnson.
Artist Dionne Bates and her brother, Mitchell Bates, look at their favorite painting in the show by Tristan Johnson.
“It’s painted very well without a doubt,” she says. “It also draws you into the painting to think more about it. For example, I didn’t realize at the beginning that the naked body is being trapped in a glass bottle.”