Aspiring student sculptors, cartoonists, painters and photographers had their moment in the sun Tuesday at a reception launching the DART Students Arts Showcase.
Twenty-six undergraduate and graduate students will have their pieces displayed in the Louis Jones Brown Gallery, located in the Bryan Center. The exhibit will run from Nov. 23 to January 15, 2010.
“This is the first year we have done something like this and it is a momentous occasion for us,” said junior Lisa Gao, visual arts committee programing director for Duke University Union. “We just wanted to have a place for students to showcase their art.”
A committee of professors, professional artists and students selected the works from more than 200 entries. The committee awarded a first place, second place, third place and honorable mention.
Laura Dodd, a junior, won third place for “Into the Night,” a photograph taken from the backseat of a car on a raining night as an inmate was driven back to prison after visiting home.Dodd said although it was difficult to receive permission to photograph the inmate, the project was very rewarding.
“It made the work a lot harder,” Dodd said. “It took me two months to get permission and the subject of the documentary, I was with him 16 hours a week.”
Gao said the committee was looking for variety in the artwork chosen for the exhibit.
“That was the best part of it,” Gao said. “We told people that they could submit whatever they wanted and we would find a way to display it.”
The artists themselves varied as well. Dodd is a physics major.
“I would love to work for National Geographic, but realistically, we all can’t work for National Geographic,” Dodd said. “I feel you need to have a backup plan and my back-up plan is physics.”
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