Sinclair Community College will be having a portfolio show for Fine Arts and Visual Communications students.
Fine Art student portfolio
show to take place
Fourteen students will be graduating this year with a degree in Fine Art and will have work featured in the show.
“Each one of them has the opportunity to show four or five pieces of work that they think is their strongest work in the medium that they have chosen as their concentration,” Pat McClelland, gallery coordinator and collections curator said. “So, in the show there’ll be two sculptures, two artists showing drawings, four photographers and six painters.”
The purpose of the exhibition is to give students a degree of professionalism.
“It’s basically a practicum in professionalism so that the students graduating here with a degree in art have a sense of professionalism, that they’ve had to prepare work to be exhibited in a serious professional gallery, that they’ve created a resume and an artist statement to support their work and their careers as artists,” McClelland said.
The student show doesn’t only serve those students graduating this year, but also serves as a learning experience for younger students.
“[It] serves as a learning experience for the students participating, but [it] also serves as a learning experience for other art students who can come see the show,” McClelland said. “In theory, these are artists who have passed through the art program and excelled enough that they at least think that they’re going to graduate, so it lets the students at the lower levels basically reference what these artists have done and accomplished.”
The galleries only showcase two student shows during the year.
“We do two student shows in the galleries every year, the rest of the time we show work by professional artists… this is the students’ opportunity to exhibit in a gallery that exhibits professional work,” McClelland said.
Jacqueline Stinnette is a Fine Art major who works with pastels and charcoal and will have her artwork in the exhibition.
“It’s scary — I kind of like that they’re making me do it, because most of the time as an artist you see yourself as talented, but a lot of times you’re just like ‘no I don’t want to let people see it because it’s kind of personal,’” Stinnette said
Going through her work, Stinnette has been able to see her growth over time at Sinclair.
“I’ve gone through a lot of my artwork to try and figure what to put in there, which is a pain because there’s so much stuff, but it’s kind of cool to see your growth throughout being here,” Stinnette said.
The exhibit runs from April 15 to May 1 in the Burnell R. Roberts Triangle gallery and the Works on Paper gallery, both located on the fourth floor of Building 13.
McClelland said there will be a reception on April 25 at 4:30 p.m. in the open area between the two galleries with a chance to meet the artists.
The gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Visual Communications design show to take place on April 18
Sinclair Community College’s Design Department will be holding a Portfolio Show for graduating Visual Communications students.
Kyle Fisk, professor of Design, said the Design Department holds a portfolio event every year.
“At the end of their two years here at Sinclair, we have a portfolio event,” he said. “We bring in industry people who are in graphic design and interior design and they come and assess the student portfolios.”
However, students are not the only ones benefitting from the assessments.
“Each student has three industry people assess their work,” he said. “And then what the department does, is we take that data and we look at it and we check out what we need to do differently with our curriculum.”
The event gives students feedback on their work, but also gives them experience with interviewing skills.
The event will also have two guest speakers, Lindsey Kellis Meredith and Sarah Smallwood, in the Smith Auditorium from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Afterword, a panelist discussion will take place with two more people, Chuck Wright and Jennifer Lukoski.
Fisk said the panelist discussion is like an open forum for the students.
The open house takes place between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m.
“I think more and more companies are looking for people to prove themselves,” he said. “And having a portfolio does that, because it’s an embodiment of their whole work.”
A group of four students, Nick Gough, Serif Cinar, Shelby Williams and Cory Thompson, have created the branding for the show, including making the invitations, t-shirts, posters, name tags and more.
Cory Thompson, a Visual Communications major, said that getting ready for the show can be stressful.
“Trying to get everything ready for it is the task, a very nerve wracking task, because not only do our four members have to make our portfolios, but we have to design everything for the portfolio show as well,” Thompson said. “It’s kind of nerve wracking because we basically have two portfolios going. It’s pretty stressful but we always manage to get our work done.”
There are 46 students graduating who will be taking part in the portfolio show this year.
The design portfolio show will take place on April 18, with the open house from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the David H. Ponitz Center in Building 12.