Past and present Park University faculty from the Department of Art and Design are showcasing their work in an art exhibit in the Campanella Gallery, located within Norrington Center on Park’s Parkville Campus.

The exhibit opened with a reception for the artists on Friday, March 29 in the Gallery. Admission to this biennial faculty exhibit will continue through Friday, May 10, and is free and open to the public.

Andrea Lee, Ph.D., associate professor of fine art and director of the Campanella Gallery, said that it is important for art students to see that their art professors do more than just tell the students how to create something; they actually create work themselves. This process allows the faculty to continue on as practitioners that the students can ask about the process and developments of artwork.

Lee created encaustic collages for the exhibit that were based on her interest in nature, birds and pollinators. The technique for this work is to combine other materials with melted wax to build color and layers in the piece according to Lee.

Elaina Michalski, assistant teaching professor of fine art, created figurative ceramic pieces of her daughters with gold luster for the exhibit.

She believes it is important for students to see that their teachers are active in the field. “Our work is very project based and what we teach for the students, we also practice in our own lives,” Michalski added.

Cheri Regis, a senior double majoring in fine art and digital marketing, said that it is very inspiring to see faculty’s work displayed in Campanella Gallery. “This is a great way for students to get a master class in what our faculty has taught us and shown us.”

Regis added that beyond the technical aspect of the work, the students can also learn practical information including how to plan a showcase, how to interpret audience reception and how to be an overall professional.

The Norrington Center is not just home to the Campanella Gallery but also the Park University Library.

Camille Cook, instruction and outreach librarian and assistant professor, spoke about how she thinks having the gallery in the same building as the library impacts students. She said that students can go to the Campanella Gallery to have a quiet place to study while also being able to appreciate the work on display. “We’re a liberal arts college, so it’s really important for students to be able to see different scholarship and different works that faculty are working on or students are working on that might be different from their own discipline,” she continued.

Other participating artists and their works include:

• Dora Agbas, adjunct instructor of art/fibers, fiber works with embroidered linen, encaustic wax and paper with plant ephemera
• Donna Bachmann, professor emerita of art and founder of the Campanella Gallery, mixed media assemblages, including her Secret Garden series
• William Eickhorst, Ed.D., former adjunct instructor of fine/visual art, photography
• Merrick Henry, assistant teaching professor of graphic design, digital designs
• Matthew Krawcheck, adjunct instructor of art, abstracttwo-dimensional works with solvent transfer, gouache and colored pencil (and artist of above image — “Hard Alee”)
• Lynn Richardson, adjunct instructor of fine art, triptych (a type of art that is divided into three sections or panels and typically hinged together) of “Notre Dame Burning” using graphite on paper

The Campanella Gallery is open during Norrington Center’s regular business hours which are currently Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m.