Juried Student Art + Design Exhibition opens March 5

The Ashland University Juried Student Art + Design Exhibition opens on Thursday, March 5, in the Coburn Gallery with a reception from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

 This exhibition will offer $950 in awards to student artists, including Best in Show, Honorable Mentions, Bernini Award, Dean’s Award, Alumni “Wink” Award, AU Permanent Collection Award and the People’s Choice Award. The awards ceremony will begin at 5:30 p.m.

A generous donation from Dr. Wendy and Scott Schaller, Dr. Dawn Weber, the AU Permanent Art Collection and other private donors has allowed the University to offer several of these awards.

The annual exhibition represents a culmination of student work from university art classes during the school year. It is an opportunity for art students to take their best artwork from the year, learn how to professionally present it for display and then receive feedback from an outside art professional.

The outside juror for the exhibition was J. Leigh Garcia,  assistant professor of print media and photography at Kent State University. Garcia received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Texas. She has received numerous awards for her work, including Southern Graphics Council International Best in Show, Arts Institute Sinaiko Frank Graduate Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts, Madison Arts Commission Art Education Grant and Madison Print Club Madison Printmaking Award. 

Garcia’s work is in the permanent collections of the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas; California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at the University of California-Santa Barbara; Texas Christian University Collection; Zuckerman Museum of Art in Kennesaw, Georgia; Special Collections Library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Wisconsin Union Art Collection at the University of Wisconsin- Madison; Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas; and the Printmaking Educational Collection at the University of North Texas.

The exhibition, which runs from March 5-27, is an opportunity to support the arts by purchasing a student artwork.

The Coburn Gallery is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and noon-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, go to www.ashland.edu/coburngallery , see the gallery on Facebook or call 419.289.5652.