Emerald Grove at Art Park by Jesse Walp
ART THAT SERVES EVERYONE BY KAREN MARLEY
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iewing artwork can arouse any number of thoughts and emotions — joy, tranquility, empathy, love, annoyance, nostalgia, anger — any of the vast array of feelings that comprise the human experience. Fortunately, accessing art’s emotional shapeshifting superpower is not limited to select audiences in meticulous, curated galleries. Community art or art found in the public domain such as urban centers, lush parks, empty side streets, and everywhere in between, is readily available to anyone and everyone. Its cost of admission? Only the time it takes to look at it. Its value? Priceless. “Art can do a lot for a community,” says Villa Maria College Associate Professor of Interior Design, Jesse Walp. “It can help viewers understand different places in different ways. It can be transformative.” Western New York (WNY) knows the value of that transformative power. Buffalo has long been considered an art city, but community art, especially murals, is growing in numbers and fueling the region’s overall sentiment of optimism and characteristic can-do attitude. From gracing the sides of buildings to enriching neglected crannies to turning plain spaces into destinations, Villa Maria faculty and students are playing a definitive role in this wonderful trend. ART OUT AND ABOUT Anyone who has visited Old Falls Street in Niagara Falls or wandered the grounds at the Chautauqua Institute or Artpark has likely experienced Walp’s handiwork. His metallic sculpture, Arch on Old Falls Street, was strategically placed two blocks up the street to draw visitors deeper into the city of Niagara Falls. At Artpark, Emerald Grove, a whimsical, interactive exhibit, has evolved to become a community icon and destination. “Art in public can reach everybody,” Walp says. “All those people think and feel different things. Art engages them and helps create interesting spaces in Buffalo.” Walp explains that public art is not always about the art, but rather helping people look at the whole area in a different way. That does not diminish the sense of pride and excitement he feels as he watches the community interact with his work. It’s an important element of being an artist and he makes sure his students get to experience it as well.
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Each year Walp teaches a 3D design class where his students make figurative pieces out of metal for display on the campus from spring to autumn. The location differs each year and is decided by Walp and the students. He reports that students express pride in bringing one of their pieces to a completed state. In another class he breaks students into two groups that scour the campus to install temporary art installations, transforming hallways and other ordinary places.
Arch on Old Falls Street by Jesse Walp
