Upcoming SADA art exhibits aim to capture gazes, imagination
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July 6, 2012 : By Drew Menard/Liberty University News Service
Thanks to the growth and expansion of Liberty University’s Department of Studio and Digital Arts, the campus has been graced with an array of stunning visual enhancements.
For the 2012-13 academic year, SADA has a full art exhibition season lined up, promising to continue displaying more of the student, faculty, and professional artwork that has donned Liberty’s halls, computer labs, and the Liberty University Art Gallery.
Todd Smith, SADA chairman, said the department’s goal is to serve as “one of the cultural hubs” for the campus and community.
“The gallery offers the campus, community, and region the opportunity to experience quality artwork,” he said. “I regularly hear from students, faculty, and local art enthusiasts about how much our shows mean to them.”
Since it officially launched in 2006, SADA has grown from about 150 to more than 500 declared majors. Last spring, the department moved to the fourth floor of Arthur S. DeMoss Learning Center where it houses the Liberty University Art Gallery and several studio art labs for drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and design. The labs feature natural light, high ceilings, and loft storage.
As the Studio and Digital Arts department has grown, so has the art gallery, Smith said. Liberty has featured the work of some of the nation’s best and brightest artists, including renowned landscape painter David Heath, and even special guests familiar to Liberty, including Macel Falwell, wife of Liberty founder Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr.
SADA has announced “Contemporary Landscapes: Paintings by Christopher Burch,” as its Fall Annual Exhibit in the art gallery.
Burch is primarily a landscape artist, recognized especially for his large, expansive works reflecting the sweeping sky, water, and landscapes of the Mid-Atlantic region, paintings that magnificently express the beauty and significance of the American landscape. His work is in public, private, and corporate collections and has been presented in public venues and by commercial galleries in Atlanta, Ga.; Washington, D.C.; and in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Staunton, and Warm Springs, Va., and elsewhere. He lives and works in Lynchburg and continues to paint landscapes and coastal scenes from Virginia and North Carolina. He will have works on display Sept. 20-Nov. 3 in the art gallery.
The gallery will also house other shows in the upcoming academic year, including Senior Art Exhibits at the end of each semester. The shows highlight the work of graduating SADA majors and will run Nov. 9-Dec. 14 in the fall and March 16-May 13 next spring.
Artwork of SADA faculty will be showcased Jan. 24-Feb. 9, 2013. Following that exhibit will be a display of a variety of projects from SADA graphic design students, Feb. 15-March 2, 2013.
Smith said the gallery exhibits augment the curriculum.
“Students experience artwork directly as well as meet the artists who created the work. Through lectures and demonstrations, the students gain firsthand knowledge from professionals in the field.”
In addition to the art gallery, several exhibits will take place across campus, predominately in DeMoss Hall and its Integrated Learning Resource Center (computer labs), including the popular Larger-Than-Life Exhibit, in which student teams from the Introduction to Design course (ARTS 113) create large-scale versions of everyday objects.
SADA holds competitions every year that allow students from all majors to test their artistic flair. A student photography contest will take place in the fall. In spring 2013, SADA will host the 14th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibit, opening April 4 and running through finals week. It will highlight student talent in categories such as painting, drawing, photography, animation, and mixed media.
“The arts have vast potential to inform, educate, entertain, and persuade. Perhaps no other art form in our culture is as pervasive as visual images,” Smith said. “The SADA department seeks to equip students to go into all facets of the field of art and design and reflect God’s creativity and bring Him glory. In doing this they act as ‘salt and light’ as they shape the visual sphere of our culture.”
Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., and his wife, Becki, have taken a personal interest in the arts and have commissioned several projects to decorate the walls of various campus locations, most recently the halls of DeMoss Hall’s fourth floor. Liberty provided the canvas and materials for several paintings that now adorn the walls. Liberty assigned a similar project in 2009 to garnish the first floor of Green Hall near Tolsma Indoor Track.
In November 2011, the Blue Ridge Plein Air Painters donated six works of art to Liberty’s art gallery, starting its permanent collection. The group will be visiting campus this fall. These works will be on display again in the art gallery next summer.
FALL 2012
Fall Annual Exhibit- “Contemporary Landscapes: Paintings by Christopher Burch”
Liberty University Art Gallery
Sept. 20.-Nov. 3.
Student Photography Contest and Exhibit
Liberty University, DeMoss Hall, ILRC
Show runs through the month of October
Packing Tape Sculpture Exhibit
Show runs from mid September through October
This annual exhibit features student sculptures created using packing tape. The sculptures are exhibited in various areas around campus.
Larger-Than-Life Exhibit
Show opens in late November and runs though finals
This annual show features work from ARTS 113 Introduction to Design course. Students work together in groups using various materials to create large-scale versions of everyday objects.
Senior Art Exhibits
Liberty University Art Gallery
Nov. 9-Dec. 14
SPRING 2013
Studio and Digital Arts Faculty Art Exhibit
Liberty University Art Gallery
Jan. 24, 2013-Feb. 9, 2013
Graphic Design Exhibit
Liberty University Art Gallery
Feb. 15, 2013-March 2, 2013
Features a variety of projects created by SADA graphic design students.
14th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibit
Liberty University, DeMoss Hall, ILRC
April 4 through finals
This juried annual competition is open to Liberty University students, regardless of major, and features categories such as painting, drawing, photography, animation, mixed media and others.
Larger-Than-Life Exhibit
Liberty University, DeMoss Hall, ILRC
Show opens in late April though Finals
Senior Art Exhibits
Liberty University Art Gallery
March 16, 2013-May 13, 2013
Liberty University Art Gallery Permanent Collection
May 27-Aug. 3, 2013