by Stuart Overbey
Daily Lobo
The first juried gallery show of The Art Student Association opens Friday, Dec. 6, at the Harwood Art Center and is a step toward the ASA returning to the UNM campus.
One of the first student-run organizations on campus, the ASA had a gallery since the early '70s in the basement of the old Student Union Building.
"It was kind of this funky little place, but it was really great," ASA President Jasmine Ceniceros said.
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But the student-run gallery did not even make it onto the blueprints for the new SUB.
After many meetings between administration, faculty and students, the ASA now lays claim to part of a space in the new SUB that was designated a "quiet-lounge" area.
The only catch is that the space must remain a "quiet-lounge," while also housing the gallery.
"It's totally ridiculous, but really, it's all we have, so we take it seriously," Ceniceros said.
Having a space on campus is integral to ASA's goals. The association members intend for students from any department to submit their artistic creations for exhibition.
They also want the ASA space to allow for undergraduate art majors to display their work.
The current campus gallery spaces are already at capacity with graduate art students' shows, which are mandatory for students in the graduate programs.
News of this year's show, since it must be held off-campus and is the first of its kind, came mainly by word of mouth and through fliers the ASA committee posted in the art building.
Ceniceros said even with the end-of-semester pressures, she expects students to submit a great variety of work.
Jurors Michael Cierto and Jocelyn Nevel will choose from drawings, paintings, sculptures, video installations and photography the pieces that will work best in the gallery space and with each other in the show.
Cierto is owner of the "ac2" gallery Downtown and curator of education at the UNM Museum. Nevel is a professor of photography at UNM.
Artists who wish to sell their work at the show will get 75 percent of the proceeds and 25 percent will go to ASA.
Submissions cost $5 and the money from the submitting artists is what pays the rent, key and damage deposits on the space at the Harwood. Ceniceros did not know if the submission fees would cover costs.
But, she said, "We all just do whatever it takes to make it happen. A lot of it is out of pocket."
Refreshments will be served Friday at the opening reception from 6 - 8 p.m. The closing reception, on Dec. 27, will be in conjunction with Artscrawl, the annual downtown celebration of the arts.
The show will be in the South Upstairs Gallery of the Harwood, which is at 1114 7th St. NW, at the corner of Mountain Road and 7th Street. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
While ASA members wait for their new space, they hope to create a traveling art show, which will move from building to building around campus for a period of time.
They would also develop another show at the Harwood and sponsor an Art Sale event, similar to the Print Sale, held each year in the printmaking studios.
