From bold, colorful paintings to glass-beaded necklaces inspired by indigenous cultures, black and white street photography to window panes stenciled with dinosaurs — 46 artists from diverse majors submitted their work for the Student Art Sale and collectively earned over $8,000 for themselves.
Arts NC State works with students every year to help them value and present their creative endeavors for the annual Student Art Sale. The event is meant to draw attention to the community of artists on campus — even if they come from studies that are not traditionally considered “artsy” — and help them succeed as creators. After all, their motto is “At NC State, the arts are for everyone.”
“It originated out of a desire to acknowledge the artistic talent of students on a campus where there’s not a traditional art school,” said Amy Sawyers-Williams, five-year director of the office of Arts NC State’s outreach and engagement. “What’s cool is that the majors of these student-artists are so varied and diverse. […] These are students who are not necessarily pursuing artistic majors, but are clearly talented and through the sale many of them are selling their work for the first time ever so they’re getting experience selling and marketing their work, and they’ve shown a lot of gratitude over the years for the sale.”
One student, Madeline Henry, a second-year majoring in art studies, has contributed to the art sale for two years and spoke about its benefit to her blossoming career as an artist and NC State’s art community.
“Painting and drawing are a big part of my life,” Henry said. “I ended up selling three pieces last year, and I bought a guitar with my money. I had a really hard time pricing my pieces, but they taught me that I shouldn’t downplay my efforts. […] It’s cool to see what other students are making; there’s a small arts community at State, but they’re good artists. It’s a powerful group of [students]. Compared to other schools, we don’t have a lot of arts people here, but what we do have is very powerful.”
It wasn’t until 2015 that the office of Arts NC State decided to take the art sale public. Prior, starting in 2001, students submitted their pieces to the office for selection and purchase by the university for its permanent collection. With about 140 pieces, this collection is what brings color and sometimes provocative thought to the walls and display boxes of Talley Student Union and Witherspoon.
But, the amount and caliber of art being submitted was so impressive, that Sawyers-Williams found it sad to see such committed pieces go unappreciated by a greater audience. According to Sawyers-Williams, they took the sale public, and it’s only grown since.
“Before [2015] we would have a student art purchase and students would submit their work and we would select like six pieces to buy for our permanent collection and all the other pieces would go back to the students,” Sawyer-Williams said. “In 2014 we realized that this is really sad that all this great artwork that we didn’t buy is just going back to the students. […] So we opened the sale up to the public in 2015 and that year it was relatively small, 50 or 60 pieces, but last year we had about 130 pieces and we sold over $5,000 worth of student art, the proceeds of which go directly back into the students’ pockets.”
The university continues to purchase for their own private collection with the thoughtful selection of pieces by a worthy judge — Roger Manley, director of the Gregg Museum. Before the sale on Friday, which went from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. on the third floor of Talley Student Union, the panel made their decision for the single piece they would buy: Emma Simon’s two-dimensional screen print “Clowning Around,” sold for $270.
Simon, a first-year studying art and design, is also this year’s recipient of the Visual Artist Award. The award is the product of a generous endowment made last year and includes a $500 prize and a prominent display in Talley.
Simon’s print depicts the faces of clowns, inspired by their manic makeup and expressions, and Manley was drawn to its elaborate but carefree control of depth, pattern and color.
“I picked Emma Simon’s piece, ‘Clowning Around,’ because it has a strong graphic sense of spatial depth, pattern, and color, but all of it had been held under just enough, but not too much control,” Manley said. “In Emma Simon’s print, the energy comes from how it pits a clownish array of emotions — ranging from anger and shock, to despair and horror — against blobs of bright primary colors and misaligned wigs, rendering it unpretentious and unfussy, and yet fresh, fun, and delightful. I’m impressed, and would love to see more work by this artist.”
Arts NC State works in conjunction with the Crafts Center, University Theatre, Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Dance Program, NC State LIVE and Music Department to make art of all forms accessible to students and faculty. In a STEM-focused school, they hope to grow the arts community and enhance campus life through art.
“We want to be here to keep encouraging [art] because we know that creating art is extremely beneficial to creating the ‘whole human,’” Sawyers-Williams said.
Various pieces are displayed in Talley Student Union during the Student Art Sale on Friday. The pieces were created by NC State students and the proceeds went directly to the creators.
