Georgia Southern Art Students Explore Statesboro in Multimedia Exhibition on View in Downtown Statesboro
The public is invited to view “Gown to Town: Visual Art Mapping in the ‘Boro,” an exhibition of senior capstone projects created by the Bachelor of Arts, Studio Art class of 2017 at the Averitt Center for the Arts, and the Roxy Remley Center for Fine Arts from April 7-30. An opening reception will be held during April’s First Friday Downtown event (April 7) at 5:30 p.m.
“When we started this project in 2016, we discovered the enormous emphasis put on steering students into the downtown area with projects like Blue Mile and City Campus. This made me curious about which elements of the city draw students naturally,” said assistant professor Elsie Hill. “This is year two of what I am calling a socially engaged legacy project that examines Statesboro from the visual art students’ perspective.”
Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art capstone students were asked to design visual art projects that reflect their viewpoint of Statesboro, based on local traits such as history, geography, personal experience, emotional growth, play, etc. The students employed their studio skills in combination with personal experience, visual and historical research, and geographic information system mapping to represent aspects of the city they have encountered during their time at the university. Through their research, students recognized and identified habitual paths and psychogeographic boundaries established by their college routines. Some students chose to work within those boundaries and others expanded upon them. All of the 2017 projects (as well as the 2016 projects) are mapped and will be available to view online in the form of an ARCGis Storymap website hosted by ESRI.
“Once the students were asked to pull from their personal perspectives and broad studio skills, there was an abundance of ideas that covered many parts of the city,” said Hill. “Story Mapping is the perfect tool to bring together multiple experiences, multiple locations, and multiple mediums because it integrates mapping with visual elements and text.”
The exhibition will showcase capstone projects from 10 graduating seniors, and will include animation/video, ceramics, digital art, drawing, mixed media, painting, and printmaking. Zackery McVey (St. Augustine, GA) and DeMyron Kendall (Augusta, GA) each are creating animations from local video footage. Robin Lane (Duluth, GA) continues her ceramic book project with topics from Statesboro history. Jenny Callahan (Blackshear, GA) and Denson McLain (St. Augustine, GA) each will be presenting a series of landscapes. Stefani Waters (Ringgold, GA) and Jasmyne “Joala” Johnson (Atlanta,GA) are creating mixed media works depicting architectural and natural elements that often go unnoticed. Rian Mobley-Luke (Atlanta, GA) has painted portraits of strong women who have influenced her success while attending Georgia Southern. Peyton Snell (Loganville, GA) and TJ Thomas (Statesboro,GA) have each developed a visual vocabulary based on their travels around town.
This exhibition will be on view at the Legends Gallery on the second floor of the Averitt Center for the Arts on 33 East Main Street, and the second floor of the Roxy Remley Center for Fine Arts on 31 East Vine Street.
To see the 2016 Capstone Project storymap, go to http://arcg.is/2ln9vt1.
Posted in Art, Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art, Events, Galleries, Students