Student Hangout: Gallery gives WFU's young artists a space to call their own

Where there was once stained carpet, there is now a smooth cement floor.

Where there was dark wainscoting, there are now calm, white walls.

And where there was little space for Wake Forest University students to hang art, there's now a gallery devoted to student paintings, prints, sculpture, photography and drawings.

StArt Gallery opened quietly in Reynolda Village last year. Since then, it's become a center for WFU artists to learn the ways that most professional artists aspire to work, showing and even selling some of their art.

It's also become a spot for art classes to have critiques, for a poetry reading, for a religion department party and even to demonstrate art -- a photography professor used a storage area to build a camera obscura, a large, primitive camera.

Until StArt opened, WFU students ad few options for shows. The Hanes

Gallery on campus is a professional space, although it has a student show at the end of the school year. "We used to hang shows in the library and different office walls. But as Wake Forest has grown and renovated buildings, we have actually lost space to show student art," said Page Laughlin, a WFU art professor and chairwoman of the department.

At StArt, the pace is fast -- shows come and go in two weeks. It's open all year, so there is artwork up even when most students are gone for the summer.

Kathren Bowman of Wilkesboro was among the six seniors who had their work up during a recent show called "Borrowed Time." Among the show's paintings and prints, is one of her installations, a work that she made for a painting class. Six pinecones dangle from delicate thread, painted black and detailed with tiny paintings of cells, a human heart and a fetus. It's challenging, weird and beautiful -- but it's not art that most people would want in their living rooms, she says.

Bowman is an art major who has shown in StArt twice. Though she hasn't sold anything, she likes having a place to hang her work. "I think it gives something to work toward, and it's nice to have your work validated in some way," she said. "Most people would like their work seen and have input on it."

StArt is showing work prints from an art class that etched images onto vinyl records through today, followed by works by a drawing and painting class. On April 7, the gallery will have a panel discussion, "Kinetic Aesthetic: The Movers and Shakers of the Local Arts Community," at 6 p.m. It's open to the public.

For an artist, showing your artwork is like a playwright having her play performed or a screenwriter seeing his script made into a movie, Laughlin said -- it's a final step that allows the work to be shared.

"The work is made to be seen in a place that is lit and clean, where the work can be revealed," Laughlin said. "When you hang a piece of work on a clean, well-lit wall it reveals the artwork in all its strengths and weaknesses. It's amazing. And I think when the students get their work on the wall, I think they realize it. It completes the last loop of the creative exploration."

StArt takes student art off WFU's campus, too, into a place where people who have no connection to the university may wander in.

Caitlin Berry, a 2009 graduate, manages the gallery. Her job is a post-baccalaureate fellowship. She's gaining experience in buying and selling art and running a gallery. Berry, 22, handles everything from the technical and specific (hanging art, writing press releases) to the necessary but not-so-glamorous (sweeping the floor).

She also has the tricky job of asking students if they want to put their work up for sale -- not all do -- and then assess what people in Winston-Salem might pay for it. "To put that much of you out there and then putting a price on it is harder," Berry said.

Work in the "Borrowed Time" show ranged from $10 to $600, with most above $100. One work sold during the two-week show -- a $600 painting by Emily Mihalik, whose work is influenced by the art of Kazakhstan.

There's a tension between art and business -- even in this little gallery. The gallery isn't self-sufficient. To function, it relies on the generosity of the university. Money for utilities, receptions and Berry's salary come from the provost. Reynolda Village (owned by WFU) is donating the space for 18 months, said Michele Gillepsie, the associate provost for academic initiatives. The gallery takes a 50 percent cut from every piece it sells, which is put back into the gallery's operating expenses. Gillepsie declined to specify StArt's budget.

"Few galleries anywhere in the U.S. are (self-supportive). So that's a big goal, but that would be nice if there was enough traffic and sales in there to make it self-supporting," she said.

"It's seen more as an educational tool," Laughlin said. "There is, in tandem, the desire to make sales. But making sales does not trump educational experience. We don't want them to make art with the goal of making sales."

lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com | 727-7302

StArt Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and is located in Reynolda Village next to Simplyummy.