FSU Libraries Unveils Art in the Library Program

By Nikki Morse (B.A. ’16, M.A. ’19)

Last fall, Florida State University Libraries hosted its first student artist exhibition at the Paul Dirac Science Library as part of its new Art in the Library program.

The exhibit, titled “People I Know,” featured a collection of paintings by William Rowe (B.F.A. ’22), a graduate student in the FSU Department of Art Education. “My paintings are snapshots of my home life, brief moments that are filtered through recollection and brushwork,” Rowe said. Rowe was the first student selected to participate in the program.

The Art in the Library program aims to enrich the library environment as an aesthetic and academic space. It debuted in Fall 2021 featuring prints by Karl Zerbe, a former professor of Art at FSU, on display in the Robert Manning Strozier Library.

“Art in the Library at FSU Libraries is interested in and invested in bringing the visual and performing arts into the library environment,” said Leah Sherman (B.A. ’10, M.A. ’12, M.S. ’16), visual and performing arts librarian and chair of Art in the Library. “It enriches the library experience for our visitors, stimulates creative thought and practice among our researchers and engages the broader audience of makers, creators and performers across our campus.”

“People I Know” was the start of a continued effort to bring art into library spaces on campus and further provide opportunities for FSU students to exhibit their work in a public space. Rowe’s exhibit was on view at the Dirac Library throughout the entirety of the fall semester.

The Art in the Library program opened the spring semester with “The Sum of Many Spaces: Landscape Photography and the Sense of Self” also at the Dirac Library.

In “The Sum of Many Spaces,” two student artists express their own sense of place and self through different global yet site-specific expressions.

Danielle Wirsansky (B.A. ’16, M.A. ’18) documents Israel from the dual perspective of Israeli citizen, and orachat la’regah, or “a visitor that comes only for a moment.” Wirsansky is currently pursuing a doctorate in History and her photography focuses on storytelling and themes of anemoia, a longing for a time or place which you’ve never known, may never know and that is always changing.

Similarly, Gizem Solmaz (M.S. ’21) presents place as hometown landscapes, past and present, by capturing the night sky over Ankara, Turkey and Tallahassee. Solmaz is also a doctoral candidate, studying Curriculum and Instruction. Her astrophotography is meant to represent deep feelings digested in space, allowing her to express her own feelings in the moment of artistic creation.

“The Sum of Many Spaces” will remain open at the Dirac library through the end of the spring 2023 semester.