Southern Utah University’s College of Art and Design has an exhibition of their senior Bachelor of Fine Arts students’ Capstone projects. The exhibit opened Wednesday, March 30, and will run through commencement on April 29. It is open and free to the public in the Southern Utah Museum of Art.
“These projects start in the fall semester,” said Art and Design Department Chair Jeffrey Hanson. “They generally propose what they are going to do and their initial drafts are made four to five weeks into the semester.”
Part of the reason the Capstone projects last these students’ entire final year is to mirror the professional art industry.
“When you start working professionally, you don’t have the same sort of time constraints that you do in school,” said Hanson. “We try to help the students have an experience where they’re working on something for a long time.”
These BFA students were very grateful for the decision to make the project span the entire academic year.
“It was very nice to work outside the constraints of the semester system,” said graphic design major Emily Arrasate. “I had a lot of fun with the long process because it allowed me to put in the elements that I wanted.”
Arrasate chose to pursue art at twelve years old when she fell in love with the designs associated with rock bands.
“I knew I wanted to pay homage to where I started from,” said Arrasate. “See how I could do things that I wanted to do when I was twelve with the skill set I have at twenty.”
The projects had relatively open-ended parameters with a goal of encouraging students to take the initiative to define what they would like to make.
“It generally has some overlap with classes that they’ve already done,” said Hanson. “A student who has taken a publications class and enjoys that might create a publication.”
BFA students worked in groups at the beginning of the project to give one another feedback. Seeing their work and the work of their classmates on display in SUMA has been both rewarding and relieving.
“Even though you have so much time, it still feels like you’re crunched for time,” said Arrasate. “It’s relieving to know that it’s all there, I finished it all in time and everything looks good. It’s kind of a breath of fresh air.”
Article by: Tessa Cheshire
accent@suunews.net
Photos courtesy of the Southern Utah Museum of Art
