Staff Editorial | Old bookstore could serve as student art, social space

As many art students know, gallery space can be difficult to come by at Vassar. Most major showings occur either off-campus or hidden away in one of the distantly located studio art buildings. For members of the College community who are unconnected to the art department, these showings of visual art are virtually invisible. Though the Palmer Gallery, which occupies over 1,000 square feet in the College Center, hosts 10 to 12 shows per year, only the two months at the end of the school year are typically devoted to the art of Vassar students. The annual Senior Exhibition for Studio Art majors is held off-campus each year due to a lack of available gallery space.

“The presentation of current projects is restricted to the limited ‘exhibition’ spaces we have—consisting of only corners and small spaces in Double Day and New Hackensack,” said studio art student Lindsay Harris ’08. “Art students, particularly studio majors, put in a lot of time, sweat, splinters, and guaranteed facial smudges into their work. I just think that it would be a swell idea if those works that cost us hours of sleep could be given the opportunity to sit somewhere else beside New Hackensack storage or our [Terrace Apartment] basements.”

The announcement that the College Bookstore will move off campus has given rise to questions about what will be done with the soon-to-be-vacant 6,000 square feet of well-lit, easily accessible space in the basement of the College Center. Though administrators’ minds may go to potential for the space to house more offices, the needs of art students should definitely be considered. Students should have an on-campus art gallery in which to showcase their art pieces and installations. The space need not be exclusively for Art majors—it could be open to students in art classes, as well as those doing creative projects for other majors such as Media Studies or for members of student organizations like PHOCUS.

The Miscellany News does not wish to disparage to the current function of the Palmer Gallery—or the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, for that matter. Students benefit tremendously from being able to view work from artists both inside and outside of the College community. That said, the lack of on-campus space specifically for the display of student art is unfortunate, particularly in light of student gallery space at Vassar’s peer institutions.

At Bard College, for example, a 3,500 square foot student gallery is located in the Bertelsmann Campus Center. At Wesleyan University, art students and classes are able to reserve one of several gallery spaces in their large art facilities to showcase their work. At Yale, each of the school’s 12 residential colleges—which are living communities of about 400 students—are equipped with galleries specifically reserved for student work. All of these approaches taken by our peer institutions provide their students with ready access to gallery space.

Vassar, which prides itself on its programs in the arts, should take similar steps to allow for a continuous public display space for students’ visual artworks.

The current College bookstore space would seem to be the ideal site for such an art space. It is airy, bright, and easily accessible to students as they walk into and out of the College Center. As an additional benefit, Admissions tours pass the location frequently, meaning that prospective students would have the opportunity to look at the ongoing projects of Vassar students. Some might believe that the location is far too large to sustain a gallery of student art. We agree that it is large for a gallery alone and think that the area could be furnished as a social space with a backdrop of art works, so that visitors would be encouraged to spend considerable time in the gallery.

For quite some time, there has been discussion within the Food Committee about the possibility of a 24-hour snack bar or coffee house. Ideally, the proposed new gallery space could function as a social art space—a place where students can come to study, to think, and to examine visual works created by their fellow students. As the administration finalizes plans for a renovated and expanded bookstore, the College should consider the space needs of its students whose accomplishments are currently being unfairly tucked away in corners of campus.

—The staff editorial reflects the opinion of at least two-thirds of the 13-member editorial board.