AICUO Third Annual Walking Exhibition

On May 4^th in the Short North District during it’s monthly Gallery Hop event, the AICUO Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts finalists and several nominees will be displaying some of their work in the local galleries for their Walking Exhibition.

2013 Participating Galleries:

Marcia Evans Gallery

8 E. Lincoln St., Chelsea Flowers

Grid Furnishings

944 N. High St., Matthew Gallagher

Sharon Weiss Gallery

20 E. Lincoln St., Evan Lolli

The Candle Lab

751 N. High St., Christian Wentland

Sherrie Gallerie

694 N. High St., Ashton Saunders

Brandt-Roberts Galleries

642 N. High St., Dave Bowers

pm gallery

1190 N. High St., Morgan Babic

Studios on High Gallery

686 N. High St., Markia Wright

Rivet

1200 N. High St., Nick Blanzy 

Click on the links to see the galleries websites!

This gives the artist a unique opportunity to be exposed to working with galleries before they graduate. Just one more experience to put under their belts as they move closer to graduation. This year's award winner, Matthew Gallagher, will be present and showing his work at Grid Furnishings during the Exhibition as well. 

Matthew Gallagher, the 2013 Grand Award Winner, And a Very Successful Reception

The 2013 AICUO Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts competition finalized itself with the Award Reception, which was held yesterday, April 3rd at Denison University. Nominees and faculty members from all over Ohio came to meet, view artwork, and hear of the finalists' successful academic careers at the home institutions. The first activity of the evening was a student panel discussion, moderated by Ronald Abram, Denison's printmaking professor in the Studio Arts Department. The six finalists answered questions about their experiences, their artistic interests, and their progression as both a student and an artist.

After the panel discussion, the attendees enjoyed viewing six pieces of artwork, one from each finalist. Slideshows, a tour of the Denison Art facility, and food was provided.

The Award Reception ended with the ceremonial awards procession, where C. Todd Jones, President of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio, handed out the various awards and gifts for all who participated. Judges, nominees, the awards sculptor, and the finalists were presented with gifts from our in-kind sponsors. The finalists were introduced by a member of their institution's faculty, including Sarah Schuster (Oberlin), Micaela Vivero (Denison), Andrew LaMoureaux (Marietta), Loyola Walter (Mount St. Joseph), and Benjy Davies (Rio Grande). Meg Leatherman, the Sculpture Design Contest Winner, was presented with an award copy of her design. The People's Choice Award for the 2013 EVAs was given to Chelsea Flowers (Denison). The Grand Award for the 2013 EVAs was presented to Matthew Gallagher (Oberlin). The six finalists will be presenting their work in Short North District galleries in Columbus, Ohio, during the May Gallery Hop. The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio thanks Denison University and all who helped and attended this year's reception.

Tomorrow's The Big Day!!

Please join us tomorrow at the 6th Annual AICUO EVAs Award Reception
Wednesday, April 3rd
Denison University
Burton Morgan Building
100 West College Street
Granville, Ohio 43023

5:00 PM-5:45 PM Student Discussion Panel- Lower Lecture Hall
6:00 PM-8:00 PM Awards Reception

We invite all visual arts enthusiasts to attend the reception, which will include visual arts exhibition, food, music, and the unveiling of the 2013 Grand Award Winner!

Ann Hamilton at Denison, the 2014 Art Awards Coordinator

Meet Matthew Soppelsa, our 2014 AICUO EVAs Coordinator!
Matt Soppelsa is originally from Worthington Ohio and now lives in Westerville while he attends Otterbein University. Matt is a junior public relations major with a studio art minor. In addition to his major/minor requirements, he has also taken classes in non-profit management as well as design, hoping someday to be involved with museums and their communication departments. Outside of the classroom Matt is very involved with his fraternity and Greek life on campus as he was recently elected president of Sigma Delta Phi. He is an intern at the Otterbein Marketing and Communications Department in addition to this wonderful new opportunity with the AICUO! 

Ann Hamilton at Denison University

"At This Hour, I Was Most Myself"

Please join AICUO's 2013 Art Awards Coordinator, Lindsay Martin, along with Denison senior B.A. Hannah Minifie and Rebecca Ledbetter in their senior portfolio show, "At This Hour, I Was Most Myself." Sculpture, painting, and mixed media. Three very different bodies of work, displayed splendidly at Granville's Bryn Du Mansion.

Opening Reception-April 19th, from 6:00-10:00 PM

April 20th 12-5 PM

April 21st 12-5 PM

Bryn Du Mansion-www.bryndu.com

Free and Open to Public

Food and Beverage, Live Music

Finalists, Past Award Winners, and Participating Galleries!

Hello March!
The AICUO Art Awards program is very busy this month, but making a lot of wonderful advances in the 2013 year! We are preparing for our 2013 EVAs Awards Reception, training a new intern, finishing up the competition and People's Choice Award, and continuing to look for grant funding. We are happy to hear about great events coming to Columbus and Ohio, involving a great deal of AICUO participants. Take a look at just a few!!

Please continue to vote for People's Choice Award on our website-voting ends March 13th at 11:59 PM!

Chelsea Flowers, 2013 Finalist

Finders Keepers, My Chicken & Watermelon

A BFA Closing Reception

"a show that addresses how I understand, interpret, and appropriate Black Culture. It taps into the sublime or uncanny to represent beings or objects within Black Culture. Additionally it utilizes sarcasm and satire to address how I view cultural representation.

 It is also a very personal show, it is a revealing of all my personal jokes. It consists of things, ideas, habits that I have found and now making my own."

March 21-30

Bryant Arts Gallery, 200 West College Street

Granville, Ohio 43023

Reception-March 28 6-8 PM

Bidwa, Fairchild, Gall, Sanders

Four Ways of Looking

Lindsay Gallery

986 North High Street

Galleries Participating in our 3rd Annual Walking Exhibition:

Sherrie Gallerie-Ashton Saunders

pm gallery-Nick Blanzy

Sharon Weiss Gallery-Evan Lolli

Studios on High Gallery-Markia Wright

Brandt Roberts Galleries-Chelsea Flowers

Grid Furnishings-Matthew Gallagher

The Walking Exhibition will be held during the May 2013 Gallery Hop! Mark your calendars-more to come!

UF Student Work Chosen for ArtSpace Lima’s Annual Juried Photography Exhibition

Findlay, Ohio - Work by 11 students from The University of Findlay was accepted into Art Space Lima’s annual juried photography exhibition, which was on display from Jan. 4 – Feb. 16. Sarina Rouholfada, a sophomore at Findlay High School who also is a post-secondary student at UF, earned Best of Show. 

The students entered the photography exhibition during a fall semester digital photography class instructed by Spencer Cunningham, adjunct faculty member. Cunningham requires his students to enter two exhibitions. 

Students generally chose photos taken for class assignments or others taken throughout the semester to submit into exhibitions. The class discusses which images should be entered into a show, but it is each student’s final decision. 

“Art is made to be experienced, and public exhibitions are one good way to see the highest quality expressions of one’s work,” said Cunningham. “It also gives students real-world experience and opportunities to see how others react to their work.” 

This is the second year that a student under instruction of Cunningham has won Best of Show. Students with photography in the ArtSpace Lima’s annual juried photography exhibition were: 

Sarina Rouholfada – Best of Show 

Tim Lefferty – First place, portrait 

Sierra Heaton – Honorable mention, portrait 

Joy Salzwedel – Honorable mention, portrait 

Caitlin Stahl – Honorable mention, portrait 

Jenise Berning 

Jackie Drake 

Keren Rottschafer 

Jule MacMann 

George Wilkinson

Lydea Ziebold

Our Rio Finalists Senior Exhibition

If you are in the area, our wonderful finalists, Markia Wright and Ashton Saunders, will be hosting their senior exhibition at the University of Rio Grande, beginning with an opening on April 8th! Hope you can make it, I know it will be a wonderful show.

March Gallery Hop at the Short North District in Columbus! Saturday, March 2nd, 2013.

Press Releases and Nothing but Great News

Happy February! It's almost over, don't worry. And if you are in Ohio just like we are, you are itching for spring time! Fight back the winter blues by looking into some of our members' art exhibitions! Be proud art majors! Art Student Owl anyone? 

Otterbein University Senior Art Students Exhibit Work
at the Leslie H. and Ethyl Rose Miller Gallery
Art and Communication Building, 33 Collegeview Rd., Westerville, Ohio 

April 8-12-Allie Switzer, Emma Walz, Hannah Warren
April 15-19-Blythe Malone, Laurikate Bayman, Brianna Holderman, Alyssa Mazey
April 22-26-Janet Dapo, Lauren Kresicher, Sarah Plotner
April 29-May 3-Becca Copper, Mike Weisenberger, Amy Hahn
May 6-10-Rachael Amundson, Allyn McGatha, Sam Tribble
May 13-17-Aleyna Hamilton, Tabitha Barkley, Meagan West, Katie Gilmore


Marietta College-Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition opens February 22nd in Hermann
Opening and Award Reception=Friday, February 22 6-8 PM in the Hermann Fine Art Gallery. 
Exhibition will remain open until March 22nd. The exhibit will feature work done by Marietta College students from February 2012 and February 2013. Drawing, printmaking, oil painting, graphic design, and photography will all be showcased.

Look at Finalist Chelsea Flowers' Press Release!!!
Click Here:
link to release:http://www.denison.edu/offices/publicaffairs/pressreleases/flowers_aicuo_20130215.html

Looking for a cure for your wintertime blues? Interested in sharing your passion for the arts by displaying your work? Pick up a copy of the Ohio Arts Council’s 2013 Arts Competitions and Festivals Directory!

The directory contains detailed information about arts and crafts festivals and competitions throughout Ohio, including dates, activities, number of spaces available for artists to display their work, fees and contact information. It is organized by date and location and includes alphabetical indexes of festivals by name, city, region and sponsor.

To receive a copy of the 2013 Ohio Arts Festivals and Competitions Directory, please send a self-addressed, stamped business envelope with $1.32 in postage to: The Ohio Arts Council, Attn: Festivals Directory, 30 East Broad Street, 33rd Floor, Columbus, OH 43215-3414. 


Keep on voting for your favorite artist on our website: www.aicuoartaward.com, for the People's Choice Award!! We just had our 2nd Round Jury Luncheon. Only 2 more weeks for the jury to vote! The 2013 Awards are coming up, just before we know it.

Vote for the People's Choice Award!!

Vote for one of our eighteen nominees for the People's Choice Award! Log onto the awards website, www.aicuoartaward.com, and click on the People's Choice link. Anyone can vote, and you can vote multiple times. 

Voting ends Wednesday, March 13.

We are looking for galleries to exhibit students' work in the May/June months. If interested, please contact Lindsay Martin, Art Awards Coordinator at lmartin@aicuo.edu.

Congrats, Bryan Kossmann! Our 2012 Awards Creator was featured at the Columbus Museum of Art in the Lego Exhibit!

The Results Are In

Congratulations to the six finalists of the AICUO Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts competition! We are very proud to present the following students. Throughout their academic career, they have gone above and beyond expectations both inside and outside of the classroom, pursuing projects that exhibit their creativity and critical perspective. Twenty students were nominated from their institutions, and twelve professors from AICUO member institutions reviewed their work, grading their online portfolio on technical proficiency, originality, creativity, and individual voice. These six artists’ scores were the highest, and they will now move on to the 2^nd Jury Round to see who will be the 2013 Grand Award Winner. Good luck Finalists! Thank you to all of the students and faculty members who have thus far participated in the competition.

You can view all of the finalists’ work on our Art Awards Website, where you can also vote for your favorite nominee for the People’s Choice Award!

Ashton Saunders

University of Rio Grande

Chelsea Flowers

Denison University

Evan Lolli

College of Mount St. Joseph

 Matthew Gallagher

Oberlin College

Markia Wright

University of Rio Grande

Nick Blanzy

Marietta College

Our sponsor list has been updated for the 2013 EVAs! Please look on our blog or website under “support” to see who has helped make our program possible for these students thus far.

Here are a few events for February around the visual art communities of Ohio:

Otterbein, OWU, Toledo, and Lourdes Start Off New Semester with Art

Many events flooded the AICUO EVA inbox throughout the holidays and into the new semester. As students return for Spring 2013, here are some events, exhibits, and notable artwork being shown at Ohio institutions.

Ohio Wesleyan University
Ross Art Exhibit displays Barry Gunderson, artist and professor at Kenyon College
January 15th-February 17th
Sculpture shown looks over a collection of  UMOs (Useless Metal Objects). Gunderson has created 50 of these pieces, and this is the first time that they will all be displayed in the same exhibit. His inspiration? "It's a geographical and mental journey." He has created works from his many travels, including England, France, throughout the Midwest, as well as his own fantastical dreamland.

To view Barry Gunderson's artwork, visit the Ross Art Museum in Delaware, Ohio. Open Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, and Sunday. 
You can also view his work on his website, http://www.barrygunderson.com/umos.html

Gunderson has taught at Kenyon College since 1974. He lives and works in Gambier, Ohio.

Lourdes University and The University of Toledo-National Art Contest!!!!

"Justice Through Our Eyes"-a feature of the Fourth National Restorative Justice Conference

The conference will be held at the UT Medical Center June 19-21 and will bring 500 leading international academics, practitioners, and activists in the fields of restorative and racial justice together as they focus on "Keeping It Real-Race and Restorative Justice."

The Art Contest is a new component, designed to capture the essence and should of justice in its truest form through the eyes of our youth. Students from Kindergarden-8th grade, High School, and undergraduates are asked to submit work that answers the question, "What Does Justice Mean to Me?"

Entries accepted now-March 15th. Artwork can be any medium, but needs to be uploaded in jpeg of gif at www.lourdes.edu/restorativejustice. There is no fee to enter, and you can enter as many times as you wish. Program is open to students worldwide.

The two winning artists will receive $500 Visa gift card. Winning entries will be posted online. 

see www.restorativejusticenow.org for more details.

Otterbein University Spring Art Exhibit Schedule is posted!!!!

Come see artwork of many colors, kinds, and areas of expertise at Otterbein's three galleries.

Leslie H. and Ethyl Rose Miller Gallery

Now-March 15th The Fluxfax Portfolio- works by Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik

March 25th-April 4 16th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition

April 8-May 17 Senior Art Exhibitions

Fisher Gallery

Now-May 19th 

Altering Life by Holding it Still: Photographs by Dorothea Lange and Marion Post Wolcott

The Frank Museum of Art

Now-May 10

Impulsos Vertiginosos

Chilean artist, Isabel Cauas, explores landscape themes in recent monotypes and intaglio prints

http://www.otterbein.edu/public/About/Calendars/ArtScene/ArtExhibitions.aspx

Sculpture Design Contest Winner- Bluffton University Student, Meg Leatherman

Our third annual Sculpture Design Contest was a huge success! Thank you to all who participated. We received over 30 entries, more than we have ever received, and we loved reviewing all of the designs. Thank you Bluffton University and all who participated this year. We chose a design entitled, “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder” by Bluffton University student, Meg Leatherman. Our sculptor for the 2013 awards, Dave Bowers, will be producing her design with various wood materials for our People’s Choice Award Winner, Grand Award Winner, and for the AICUO downtown office’s permanent display. The sculptures will be exhibited at the 2013 AICUO EVAs award reception at Denison University this year.

I wanted to know a little more about our design winner, so I asked her a few questions about being a student at Bluffton University.

Meg Leatherman is a junior at Bluffton who majors in Business Administration, with a minor in graphic design. She runs cross country, sings in her school’s choir, and is a Resident Assistant at Bluffton.

Meg is from Hesston, Kansas.

What made you enroll in an art course at Bluffton? What are you

currently learning?
Design 1 is the first prerequisite to graphic design classes. I am learning to effectively use space I am given to fill. We work completely in 2D so I have learned a lot about different media.

Are you interested in pursuing art, as a hobby, or looking for a

creative profession?
I will pursue art as a hobby and I would like to have some creative aspects to my future career. I would ideally like to work in a small non-profit organization as a program director and graphic coordinator.

How did you come up with the design for the 2013 EVAs Awards?
I have seen wood artwork similar to Dave's done by a man in my hometown named Paul Friesen. I thought about the work I had seen him do and I thought about how art was judged and critiqued everyday. I liked the idea of a simple form with one outstanding element. Beauty is seen everywhere by looking into the soul of artwork and people, because the true value lies in the eyes of the creator.

What do you think about the visual arts culture within Ohio? Do you

participate with any art events? Do you think visual arts is important for

the community? How so?
I have very little experience in Ohio, due to the fact that I grew up in Kansas and spent the last year in Colorado. I have not gone to visit any art museums in the area.

I do think that visual art is important to any community. No matter where you are located there are people who want to share their feelings, talents, and thoughts. Some people can only do that through visual art. Each area of the country has unique qualities and is influenced by history, heritage, and experiences. It is powerful to see art that was made in the neighboring city or just down the street. It is a gift from God that we, as humans, are able to imagine and create art.

Come see Meg's designs come alive at our awards reception!