Student Art Centered At New Provenzano

Art Gallery

By Elinor Brunner ‘26 Staff Writer

Art students on the HWS campus were given a reason to celebrate at the beginning of this school year when the Provenzano Student Gallery opened in the

Leading the Way

By Spencer Pinque ‘26 Staff Writer

their work; the Provenzano provides them with a unique opportunity to share it with the entire campus. The gallery was also created by a group of HWS students and professors, led by Professor Angelique Syzmanek; they cooperated to secure the space in Scandling and to raise enough

Scandling Center. But the Provenzano’s team hopes that it will be able to reach the larger student body as well. “The whole point of the Provenzano is to bring the arts campus to the main campus,” says Jimmy Cherry ‘26, co-director of the gallery (along with fellow senior Gretchen Warner). “We want to get more people who may not be art majors interacting with it.”

Before the Provenzano opened, there was already an art gallery on campus-the Davis-but as Cherry points out, “Realistically a lot of students don’t get the opportunity to go there often.” The Provenzano’s central location makes it much more convenient for students to visit. Additionally, the Davis mainly displays works by outside artists, while so far the Provenzano has only accepted art made by students. The gallery holds open calls after each exhibition’s theme is announced, and any student can submit their work for consideration. Many of these students are not actually art majors and don’t get many chances to display student interest to get the gallery off the ground. It’s now run entirely by a group of students with no prior experience. Cherry admits that “we all completely jumped into this headfirst. Nobody’s done this before. We’ve all been kind of figuring this out as we go.” Despite their lack of experience, they’ve managed to run two exhibitions so far and are looking forward to the next semester.

The gallery’s first exhibition theme was “Hands of the Colleges.” It focused on human form and figure, and it also emphasized the fact that all the works were made by HWS students. The current exhibition is based on the theme of “Perception,” displaying the many different ways that our student artists see the world. This exhibition will last through the end of the semester. Both shows enjoyed success. If you are a student artist, consider submitting your work for display at the Provenzano. And if you’re not, stop by after lunch someday. There’s a fantastic artistic scene on this campus that’s worth exploring.

Studies report that above 77 percent of organizations report a lack of traditional leadership, and now more than ever, efforts are put forth to find specialized employees that exude qualities of ethical, inclusive, and value-based leaders. The Hobart & William Smith Centennial Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation is located at 603 South Main Street in Geneva, and serves as a campus hub for experiential learning for all students. This school year, the return of the Centennial Center (following the pandemic) is met with changes, such as re-introducing old programs, and introducing new programs. According to the Centennial Center website, these programs include HWS Leads, The Pitch, Summer Sandbox, IdeaLab, Student Launchpad, Cohen Fellowship, Centennial Scholars, National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps, Idea Generator, Hackathon, Knowledge Series, Leadership Case Competition. I am an incoming Centennial Center Scholar, and I was pleasantly surprised to be given the offer to have a voice in the hiring process of new employees on my college campus. In the final week of October, the HWS community welcomed two potential candidates for the Director of the Centennial Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation position. During the interview process, the encouraged prompt was detailing how to set goals for the future of the Centennial Center, in addition to engaging reliable stockholders. Next year, it will be celebrating its 15th-year anniversary; the center is looking to make improvements when reaching the 20th anniversary. The search committee ultimately agreed that neither candidate was the right fit and decided on regrouping to search for a Director again in the Spring. Currently, Susan Pliner will serve as the Interim Director, with Kayla Eberhardt as the Associate Director of the Centennial Center, and Ed Bizari as Entrepreneurial Fellow for the Centennial Center. No matter the path the Centennial Center forges, a bright future is guaranteed due to the HWS community.