Eastside Students Attend a Field Trip to Ben Shahn Galleries at WPU

Students from Eastside’s School of Government, School of Information Technology, and School of Culinary Arts recently attended the exhibition “Recent Indigenous Art of India” at William Paterson University’s Ben Shahn Galleries.  Accompanied by their teachers Darryl Jones, Marilyn Simon, and Vivian Reyes, the students toured the art exhibition under the tutelage of Gallery Director Kristen Evangelista. WPU Professors in Residence Triada Samaras and Dina Scacchetti also accompanied the students.

Students began their day with a gallery tour by Director Kristen Evangelista.  They visited the exhibition: 
Many Visions, Many Versions: Art from Indigenous Communities in India

November 2 - December 11, 2015

Court, East and South Galleries

Co-curated by Aurogeeta Das and David Stanton, this exhibition features work from the Umesh and Sunanda Gaur Collection and the Ethnic Arts Foundation Collection LINK

                Above: Eastside Art teachers from left to right: Darryl Jones, Marilyn Simon, Vivian Reyes

"This exhibition features the work of various contemporary artists from four major indigenous artistic traditions in India. It endeavors to increase the appreciation and understanding of indigenous art from India, which is rarely displayed in the United States." 

"On view at the William Paterson University Galleries, this exhibition showcases four of the most prolific communities producing indigenous art in India: the Gond and Warli tribes, and the Mithila and Chitrakar communities in the states of Bihar and Bengal, respectively. The works are drawn from the Ethnic Arts Foundation Collection and BINDU modern, home of the Sunanda and Umesh Gaur Collection." LINK

Right: Gallery Director Kristen Evangelista leads an art discussion with Eastside students

Above: Geraldine R. Dodge STEAM Grant Coordinator Dina Scacchetti listens to the art talk

The exhibition was organized into four broad themes:  Myth and Cosmology, Nature—Real or Imagined, Village Life, and Contemporary Explorations.  As they viewed the artworks, the students noted the use of geometric patterns, symmetry and proportion.  Also of note was the use of pigments obtained from unexpected natural sources—such as mud and cow dung!

                     Above:  Kristen Evangelista talks about a beautiful piece of art created on a cow dung background. 

Above: Emily Johnsen, Gallery Manager, introduces the hands-on art workshop that followed the art talk in the galleries

The students then created their own artworks inspired by the themes and patterns they had seen.  Emily Johnsen, Gallery Manager, explained the task, and the students set to work.  The students created Rangoli designs, patterns and geometric shapes often made of objects from nature such as leaves, flower petals, etc.  Symmetry often governs the design

Above Left:  

                                                                          WPU Art PIR Triada Samaras works with a student painting leaves

 

A visit from Michelle DeMartino, Assistant Admissions Director from the WPU Admissions Office, provided them with information about college and art careers: 

Additional activities also included visits to ongoing art classes.  Students viewed a drawing class with Professor Robles, and a ceramics class with Professor Lorenz, in which the professor was instructing the students in how to integrate technology (computer graphics and 3D printing) into their projects.