The St. Thomas Art Club has a new hanging gallery in The Grill titled “Inspirations and Dreams.” The exhibit features 14 artists’ work and includes a variety of mediums such as photography, poetry and painting.
Lauren Graff, st(ART) Club president and exhibition curator, said everyone was encouraged to join.
“We wanted to make [the title of the exhibit] pretty broad so that people didn’t feel constricted by the theme,” Graff said. “[So] they felt that they could interpret that theme however they wanted, and send in whatever they thought fit.”
Junior Lorene Pioch, an international student from Germany, joined st(ART) this year and contributed photography pieces from her travels to the gallery.
“It has always been a dream [for me] to come to the states,” Pioch said. “And seeing so many different things was always an inspiration to me, so when we started putting together this exhibit for the club, I just thought maybe that would be considered art. I just chose which ones I liked and which ones fit it.”
The gallery also features a painting from senior Marissa Ellingson, another st(ART) member.
“As far as my piece goes, I am definitely not an artist,” Ellingson said. “I just have a lot of fun with colors, and I think dreams are colorful, so I tried to represent that in my piece.”
Graff said The Grill was chosen to house the exhibit to increase visibility and use of space.
“The Grill, especially during lunch and dinner time, is very busy, and we’ve already gotten a lot of comments about how wonderful it looks,” Graff said. “I think it really brightens things up in there.”
Pioch said she appreciated how the gallery was located in a popular spot for everyone to enjoy.
“I think it makes it kind of special that it’s on the wall [in The Grill] because it’s something different,” Pioch said. “Also it kind of decorates The Grill. It’s a way to make it look nice.”
While Ellingson is graduating this spring, she said she has high hopes for art on campus in the future.
“It would just be nice to see a continued presence of art on campus, especially student [work], because there are so many talented students at St. Thomas,” Ellingson said. “Between everyone’s busy schedules, majors and schoolwork, I think it’s a really great creative outlet that adds a lot to campus.”
The “Inspiration and Dreams” gallery features Katie Monnin, Julian Woodhouse, Hans Pflaumer, Ryan Mathieu, Lorene Pioch, Marissa Ellingson, Lauren Graff, Ramona da Silva, Lulu Shih, Rita Kovtun, Michael Panka, Katie Peterson, Andrew O’Brien and Riley Hare.
Carly Samuelson can be reached at samu5380@stthomas.edu.