Gifted Gallery

By Matt Hutnyan ‘17

The Orange Lutheran hallways serve as more than just a space for lockers.

They serve as a canvas.

Constructed in 2003, the space that is currently known as “Gallery500” was originally built to serve merely as a hallway. But in time, it’s grown into so much more.

And now, what was just part of a campus expansion has in fact, expanded the view of the OLu community.

At the time of Gallery500’s creation, the Visual Arts Department had been displaying art on campus in various formats, mostly moving display panels. However, many members of the department began to realize that having permanent wall space would be very helpful in telling the story of the Visual Arts Department to the OLu community.

“It was really a natural conclusion,” said arts teacher Jeannie Mooney, reflecting on the decision to use the new hallway as a gallery space. “Because the visual arts are largely a silent art form, the faculty needed to provide a ‘stage’ to help students and the community view and interact with their artworks. We needed to bring the visual arts alive for our students and our community.

“And the blank walls literally shouted out to us!”

After much research into various forms of gallery display formats, the Visual Arts Department devised a plan to cover panels with burlap and affix them to the walls of the 500 hallway.

The 500 hallway has been transformed into Gallery500 and hosts multiple shows each year.

“Art flooded that hallway constantly,” Mooney recalled. “As soon as our classes finished a project we put the new project up for all to see. It really began creating a buzz about the classes and programs we offered in the Visual Arts. Shortly after the gallery walls were created and we were strolling the 500 hallway to critique our progress, we realized we really had begun changing the culture of our school with this new setting.”

Since its inception, Gallery500 has grown exponentially. Between the two gallery spaces on campus - Gallery500 and the Nechita Gallery - the Visual Arts Department is able to host about 10 art shows each year, including professional artists’, student-curated, themed and annual salon-style exhibitions.

“It is extremely valuable to display the visual artworks of our students on a regular basis because it raises the importance of what our students do in their private classrooms when our community can view it and interact with it,” Mooney said. "I believe artists are responsible for helping a society develop 'new eyes' and to see things in new ways. That is one of the most valuable gifts Gallery500 has brought to our OLu campus."

In addition to various shows throughout the year, the annual student art shows at the end of the school year are the culminating events for art students. The first show exhibits work from Exploratory Art, Sculpture/Ceramics, Graphic Design, and Video Production. Students typically choose their best 2-3 artworks created during the year, mat & label the artwork, then install the work in Gallery500.

The grand finale of the gallery season is the Advanced Art Show, featuring work from Advanced Drawing & Painting, Advanced Sculpture/ Ceramics, Photo 1 & 2, Graphic Design 2, Advanced Studio Art & AP Studio Art. This exhibition includes the Featured Artists exhibit in the Nechita Gallery where the top 10 art students have the opportunity to install their work in their own personal section of this professional space. In Gallery500, AP Studio students display work from their AP portfolios in their own personal section in the front of the gallery, and Advanced Studio students are given the smaller boards upstairs to arrange their work.

Advanced Visual Arts students showcase their work in Gallery500.

“The purpose of education is to teach students to think for themselves and express their ideas in clear, powerful, and courageous ways,” Dawn Hamby, Visual Arts Chair/Teacher said. “The arts give voice to students’ perspectives, experiences, and emotions. More than just an outlet or pastime, the visual arts challenge students to originate ideas, solve problems, overcome restraints and failures, produce quality work, and critically evaluate their own achievement. The galleries play a vital role as a space for sharing and exchanging ideas.

“Like performing on the Nechita stage, it takes courage to put artwork up in the gallery for everyone to see, but it is on the stage and in the gallery that expression becomes connection as the audience reacts to the artists’ communication. The gallery is where the power and courage of students’ ideas connect with others.”