Hey guys!

IC View has posted a video about the Handwerker on youtube. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW2jvMMz210 . It is a great video about our Thursdays at the Handwerker events featuring the writing departments and the opportunity it gives both student and faculty to present their work. 

           On September 29th, the Handwerker Gallery along with Professor Jeremy Long and Lin Price from the Department of Art hosted an open live drawing session. This allowed students and visitors to attend a live drawing session with a model. The event consisted of two 45 minute poses. What I loved about this event is how it broke down the barrier of viewing artworks and creating artworks in a gallery. When most people visit a gallery, their visit consists of observing and appreciating another person's artwork. If they are to draw at the gallery, it is to emulate an artist's style or subject instead of creating their own work. This drawing session allowed for visitors to do more than just observe, they created art themselves. Following with the theme of the exhibition, "The Figure", they drew their inspiration from a model. This event brought together students from different levels of artistic expression and techniques. It was great to see the gallery full of enthusiastic students practicing their drawing skills around the wonderful works of the exhibition. I hope everybody has a chance to see the the exhibit! It comes down in just a few days!

             On September 15^th, the Department of Writing had the first open reading night of the semester at the Handwerker Gallery. The theme of this reading was “Specters of the Past”, which focuses on the notions of loss and the past. This Thursday at the Handwerker event featured readings from Professor Nick Kowalczy and Liam Curley (’12).  Both gave evocative and compelling non-fiction readings about ghost towns and images of the past that have affected their lives. An open reading followed them where many students shared their writings from prose to poetry. Overall, the reading was a great success. It was amazing to see many students from all departments show up for the readings. I hope that future readings will be as successful!

            For every exhibit, the gallery hosts an opening reception for all to come. Even with the horrible weather, typical Ithaca, we had over a 100 people show up! It is always so exciting to see people enthusiastic about a new exhibit. As a monitor in the gallery, the majority of the time when people visit the gallery it is one of quiet contemplation or observation of the works around them but during an opening there is this vivacity that only exists during opening nights. The air vibrates with the excitement of a new exhibit and conversation. Faculty, students, and even artists (our own Professor Long has a piece in this show!) are busy with conversation. Jazz music sets the mood and the free food brings in the wandering students from the rain.

            This exhibit brings to mind the idea of the figure and its many interpretations. From classically drawn and realistic portrayals of the figure to abstract expression of the human body, the exhibit explores many ways one can illustrate the figure. This exhibit is filled with so many great artists that truly give inspiration. As an art student, I find this exhibit to be very educational. We sit in drawing classes and draw from a live model, we do fast sketches of these people to study shape and form but its rare to finish these drawings. This exhibit shows the end result that us as students rarely get to. It is also great to have artwork from our professors up in the gallery!

The exhibit will be open from September 8^th till October 16^th. Come check it out! We will also be hosting many events from different departments on campus. Look out for the posters around campus for these events or click on the events tab on Handwerker website.  

             When one visits an art gallery its exhibition and organization seem so flawless that we forget the hard work that goes into it. From the unpacking, the establishing what pieces go into the exhibition, and most importantly the order that the pieces are presented. Many traveling exhibitions have curators that set up the entire exhibition for the gallery but for this exhibit there was no set guidelines. Many questions arise because of this, what theme are we trying to portray? Are the pieces going to be set up by theme, style, or color? Which pieces complement each other?

            The first phase of this process is to unpack all of the artwork. We first make sure to properly unpack and keep all packing materials together for when the exhibition is taken down.  It is really interesting seeing how artist pack their work. Some could care less while others made it into a puzzle of artworks and foam. With some of the artists, you can even see how their style reflects their packing style. The next step is the condition report, an important part since we do not want to blamed for damages! How has the piece survived traveling? Does the piece have the hardware necessary to be hung up in the gallery? For every piece/artist the answers differ. Some artists are better at packing than the others; just as some artists are better at framing their work than the rest.  After we have completed the unpacking process, we rest the pieces against the all and group them by artists. And this is where it gets complicated.

            All the pieces have been laid out but how do you decide which pieces belong where? You run into various problems such as you find the proper spot but you’ve realized that the artists have too many pieces to fit there or it just isn’t a fit. For the continuity and progression of the exhibit, separating the artist’s works won’t be a good idea. Then you start moving around pieces. This process is a work out. Lifting pieces and moving them to the other side of the gallery to move them back to the other side. At the beginning you might have one or two ideas of where to place certain pieces but that is only two pieces. You start to question how you want this exhibit to be laid out. Should it be by style or by subject matter? Should it be pieces that complement each other, but which pieces do? Sometimes two pieces that are of drastically different styles work well together, and sometimes they do not. This is a long and tedious work. Constantly rearranging and moving the pieces until you get a sense of what works well. In the end, it just about your gut feeling and how you want the guests to experience the exhibit.

Hopefully many of you have seen our latest exhibit “The Figure” which also hosts a special appearance by our own Professor Jeremy Long of the Department of Art! And if you haven’t, go check it out! The exhibit is up till October 16^th!