One Leads to Another..

I hope you caught last week’s post that includes an interview with my fellow Aggie, Wendy Weatherly, about the local art culture at A&M. During our time together chatting in the architecture studio, I had the privilege of meeting another creative Texas A&M student, Hugo Ochoa. As the Graphic Designer Executive for the MSC Visual Arts Committee, Hugo was able to give me his in tuned insight into the underlying artistic environment on campus. He agreed with the Wendy’s take on the condition of the Aggie art culture that it is in fact existent but struggling and not well known. However, he believes that there potential for the seed of art to blossom into a beautiful addition to the traditions dominating in Aggieland. I must say that I am beginning to see this potential as well.

This is Hugo’s second year being involved in MSC Visual Arts Committee (VAC), which is one of the few but awesome student organizations geared toward the art scene. VAC provides opportunities for student to connect visual arts into their personal, professional and academic lives through multiple outlets including travel, artist residencies, gallery programs, and art exhibitions. By doing so they are helping to fulfill one of the biggest gaps in for art being more evident in the local culture by giving artists the opportunity to put their work on display for an extended period of time. They do this through exhibits open to anyone and by having displays dedicated to specific artists. Currently, there is an exhibit of paintings by Joshua Chambers entitled “The Internal Sublime” in the Wright Gallery inside the Langford Architecture Building (Building A) being displayed until Friday! The "Halloweenesque" painting at the top left corner is an example of one of Chamber's pieces. I was also excited to see that VAC is hosting a “Freedom to Create” exhibit that kicked off back in September and will continue until December 2. In gathering artwork for this exhibit, VAC advertised for people to donate 2-dimensional work exploring the concept of creative freedom and what it looks like for an artist to express freedom of thought through the visual arts. I regret not having heard about this until I met Hugo! I am anxious to check out the artwork for myself sometime this week. And for those of you anxious to see the art culture take off on campus… stop by and give your support as well! :)

On a nationwide level, the increase in support for art is not quite as optimistic according to report in last month's Arts & Business issue. The gap of supporters between philanthropists and artists is growing and there are few signs of increased giving to occur. Check out the full article on this national issue: Arts Philanthropy: the facts, trends, and potential