Art department blankets the community with art

Students and faculty will be unanimously giving up their artwork in an effort to bring visual art to GC&SU and the Milledgeville community.

Artwork will be slipped under residence hall room doors, left on car windshields and in other places that it will not be missed. The work will be in an envelope and left for the person who discovers it to decide what to do with it. Knowing that the work might be tossed away or found as a treasure is all part of the lesson.

Bill Fisher, a temporary assistant professor of art, is heading up the project. The students in his drawing I and II and Printmaking classes will be giving up their work along with him.

“Most of the students are Studio Art majors, but we also have Art Marketing, English, General Business Administration and Psychology majors,” said Fisher. “Perhaps other faculty will participate along with their students soon.”

Fisher is open to the ideas and suggestions of his students, because he wants this project to be a collaborative effort.

“I look to my students for redefinition and reification of this project, as it is not a static assignment to be `completed’ but an organic process existing because of all our efforts,” said Fisher.

Steven Smith is one of the students participating the in art blanket project. He thinks it is a good idea and gives people an idea of what the art department is about.

“I think it is telling of where the art department is going. It used to be more traditional, but now we are pushing the envelope and pushing people to think.”

The idea of the art blanket project is to make the community aware of the art all around them.

“Too often we think of art as belonging in museums or galleries exclusively, inapproachable, unaffordable and producible by only those initiated in the mysteries of the medium. It is rarely fun and often overly intimidating,” said Fisher. “We hope to let the public know that art is available to them, to encourage discussion, spark the imagination and brighten a day or two in the community.”

Art awareness will be encouraged through this project. It will help the people that receive the artwork realize what art can be, and it will help students realize the effects of their work.

“Artists do not work within a vacuum, and our audience need not be our colleagues exclusively,” said Fisher. “The arts are one of the last democratic arenas left in our society, a place where all can experience the sensation of truly making up one’s own mind. Those participating in this project are validating their work by widening this arena to include those often marginalized or ignored by the usual art `market’ and those who mistakenly believe that art is `not for them.’”

Smith thinks this project will help the students realize that art is more than just the name splattered across the front of it.

“This is trying to get us away from the signature being more important than the art,” said Smith. “The idea is teaching us not to fall in love with our art. Everything we put on paper is not going to hang on the wall at an art gallery somewhere.”

Fisher wants the public to know that artists are people. He wants everyone to know that art exists in many forms and that it is a part of everyday life.

“We are attempting to demystify what we do, to ourselves and therefore to the community. By abandoning our work at bus stops, slipping it under a door or putting it in the hands of strangers and walking away, we deny the preciousness and reject the elitism traditionally associated with our vocation. This helps keep us from falling in love with every scribble we make and allows us to concentrate on the process of production and growth,” said Fisher.

Smith has high hopes for what he will be participating in.

“Hopefully people will get excited about it and hope that they receive a piece of art,” said Smith.

Be on the look out in case a piece of artwork is waiting for you.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 7 2001. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry