Loyola University • New Orleans • Volume 96 • Issue 4 • September 8, 2017
THE MAROON FOR A GREATER LOYOLA
Thefts plague Loyola's studio artists
The Willow to host Harvey relief concert By Emma Gilheany eagilhea@my.loyno.edu @eagilheany
Artwork courtesy of Zoe Blair-Schlagenhauf. Illustration by Hayley Hynes.
Zoe Blair-Schlagenhauf reports her artwork missing on the first day of school. Others in Loyola's Department of Art also attest to having this experience.
By Seán Brennan shbrenna@my.loyno.edu @sean_themaroon
Earning a studio art degree requires dozens of projects and hundreds of hours. Stealing student artwork takes all those hours away. Three weeks ago, Zoe Blair-Schlagenhauf, studio art major, walked into her Monroe Hall studio on the first day of her senior year to find three of her pieces gone, her desk re-organized and only a small piece of paper with the letters “D-E-DO-I” written on the back. She reported her work stolen three days later on Aug. 24 to University Police but doesn’t except her projects to re-appear anytime soon — something all-too-familiar for Loyola’s studio art students. “This is my studio space. This isn’t even a public gallery space,” Blair-Schlagenhauf said. “That means somebody I know who has a code to the door or a friend of somebody who has the code to the door came in and took them.” Hours of work went into Blair-Schlagenhauf’s missing pieces — a painting, a sketch for a painting and a book filled with origami — and while the fourth floor Monroe
art studios are meant to be a personal space for students, this incident makes them the newest scene of art theft on campus. Blair-Schlagenhauf and other studio art majors have previously had their work taken from the Danna Center, the first floor of Monroe Hall and now their own private studios. Stolen off tables or simply taken down from the wall, their projects can take a semester to complete but be gone in a moment. Two semesters ago, Blair-Schlagenhauf and June Gehringer, A'17, spent almost 40 hours on a sculpture entitled “Trash Heart” for their class. Once completed, it was displayed in the gallery located in the basement of the Danna Center, only to be stolen off a table within a week. The same semester, another of Blair-Schlagenhauf’s works called a diptick — two pieces meant to go together on separate pieces of paper — was taken off the gallery wall. The next spring, the diptick re-appeared in the gallery, wrinkled and dented. She believes it was probably hanging in a student’s dorm room before being returned. “I think it’s just other students that think it’s not that big of a deal if you take someone’s work, but
they don’t understand that hours go into it,” Blair-Schlagenhauf said. “If someone really wanted it, they could have offered to buy it.” William Kitchens, professor of printmaking in the Department of Art, says the program is no stranger to art thefts and hopes that culprits come to their senses when things go missing. “There have been thefts in the past. Students have lost supplies and, on occasion, artwork,” Kitchens said. “We lost several silkscreen prints a year ago, and I posted flyers with pictures of the stolen work and the prints appeared a day later in the hallway near where they were stolen. If a student steals artwork and hangs it up in their room, someone will eventually see it.” University Police said it investigated the matter and determined the student was not at fault and that they took the art since it was out in the open and had assumed it was available for taking. According to Kat Dilonno, studio art junior, Kitchens and her professors are flexible when it comes to these incidents when they grade. “They’re really understanding. They get it that it’s so many hours of work taken so they don’t penalize
anyone for it,” Dilonno said. Dilonno has had both sculptures and paintings stolen out of Monroe Hall, work that had to be turned in for a grade and was taken right off their pins on the wall. When students display their art, they risk walking in the next morning to see it gone. “I have no idea who would do it, but I’d put money on that it’s nobody in the art program,” Dilonno said. Following Blair-Schlagenhauf’s back-to-school thefts, she suggests the door to the senior studio has the code changed. While she thinks the mysterious letters “D-E-D-O-I” are nonsense, she plans to buy a lock and start to only keep her belongings in cabinets, as she waits to hear back from University Police. According to the safety tips located on the Public Safety and University Police section of Loyola’s webpage, students should immediately notify the police if a crime occurs on campus or in off-campus housing. The investigation into the disappearance of Blair-Schlagenhauf's artwork remains ongoing. University Police stated they could not comment since the investigation is ongoing.
Well-known local performers, including Cyril Neville, Rockin Dopsie Jr., Hot 8 Brass Band, Michael O'Hara and more are set to come together at The Willow starting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 12, for a benefit concert to raise money for victims of Hurricane Harvey. All of the ticket sales from the event, which will come in the form of a $10 minimum entrance fee (though concert-goers may donate more), will go to the Houston Food Bank, and there will also be a truck collecting food and clothing donations at the event. The hurricane, which struck southeastern Texas on Aug. 25, is believed to be responsible for at least 70 deaths in the United States and could potentially break Hurricane Katrina's record for the costliest natural disaster in United States history. The idea for the concert came after an event The Willow planned to host on Aug. 28 was cancelled due to the inclement weather caused by Harvey. It was a charity event called the Rock Against Racism, which benefited the Southern Poverty Law Center. When the event was canceled, Claude Bryant, one of the musicians, as well as a manager at The Willow, had the idea to host this event instead. They started planning it the next day. The musicians from the Rock Against Racism agreed to participate in the flood relief concert, and all have agreed to send the money they would have earned to hurricane victims, according to Jared Mintz, the production manager of The Willow. All of the musicians "want the money to go to the best place possible," Mintz said. Aaron Cohen Band is the youngest of the groups playing at the concert. Cohen described their style of music as "rock 'n' roll grit meets Detroit soul and electric NOLA brass." "We're thrilled to be taking an active role in the Houston recovery process, and honored to share the stage with musicians we admire," Aaron Cohen, who offers vocals and guitar for Aaron Cohen Band, said. Most of the performers at the event are local, so they "have a lot of sympathy for Houston because of Katrina," Mintz said. Cohen, who went to college in New Orleans but is originally from Detroit, said he had made many Houston connections after attending school here and knew people affected by the floods. "The cities are inextricably linked, both geographically as major hubs in the Gulf South, and spiritually, as Houston held host to so many New Orleanians following Katrina. That's why it's so important for the New Orleans community, especially the artistic community, to give back as they face this challenge," Cohen said. Tuesday's concert will be for audiences age 18 and up.