Anjali Bose ‘20: Department of Artists, an exhibition of works by EA faculty members, is currently on display in the Crawford Campus Center Gallery and will remain there through October 5th. The current gallery at Episcopal “showcases the work of EA Visual Art Department faculty” according to its description on the Episcopal Academy’s website. From the creative minds of David Sigel, Hilary Hutchison, Julie Choi, John Binstock, Naomi Knecht, Michael Leslie, Matt Memmo, and Claudia Parra, the EA Visual Art Department presents a wide range of skills with pieces from scenic paintings to sculptures of crows and prints of mermaids. Susan Coote, coordinator of the Gallery, personally loves this exhibit. “The story in here was just celebrating the faculty of the Visual Arts as artists themselves,” she began, “Not everyone always sees that every member of the art faculty also does work on their own amazing work. It’s great that we have the opportunity to show their work to the students and community.”
Coote coordinates five galleries each year at Episcopal, three in the fall, one in the winter, and one in the spring. When describing the types of galleries she coordinates, Coote said, “Some [of the exhibits] feature professional artists and some of them are purely student shows. This one is clearly all art faculty.”
There is no one way Coote goes about planning each show, as each show contrasts with the last in both art and story. “Sometimes I do group shows with multiple professional artists, which are pretty complicated. You have to come up with a theme and story to unfold through the art,” she explained.
Coordinating a gallery is very difficult and Coote typically conducts numerous studio visits before even starting all the legal matters, which she said includes “contracts, insurance, and all kinds of other paperwork.” Throughout this careful process, Coote stressed how important it is for her to get Episcopal students involved. “Instead of putting up art so it’s like wall paper, we want to get classes and students involved. That’s almost the most challenging part of making the shows,” Coote said, “It’s an exciting challenge and privilege for me to get to organize the exhibits here. Through working with EA’s own faculty and students, I think this is a really unique and special exhibit.”
Hilary Hutchison, Upper School Visual Art teacher, has several of her sculptures on display and feels very passionate about the show. “The pieces here go back to two things that I really love. One is that I spend my summers on Cape Cod,” she said, referring to what inspired several of her fish-themed works and sculptures. Her other inspiration goes back to her beginnings as an artist. “My training as an artist involved doing a lot of figurative and academic work. Going back to animals and the figures is something that I love too.” In another part of her artist’s statement, Hutchison wrote, “Having spent much of my fine arts education and career working with the figure, natural subjects, organic form, and gesture continue to inspire my work in the studio.”
This first gallery opening of the 2017-2018 school year has been a huge inspiration for the coordinators involved as well as the students who’ve seen it. Jocelyn Andrews ‘20 said, “ I really loved the exhibit. It was intriguing to get a look into the artistic background of our art teachers.” A fellow student elaborated on Andrews’s comment by explaining, “Before this, I never really thought of my art teachers as anything but teachers. It’s really cool to see their own work and see them in their own element as artists.” The general feedback towards the Department of Artists gallery has been overwhelmingly positive and it is a great way to start the new school year.