Sumergido 1

Megan Sumergido

Professor Lawson

ENGL113B

22 February 2017

1183 Words

A Magical Place in the Art World

From the entrance, the pitter-patter of footsteps entering from the outside world are

heard from those who are inside the building. People walk in with facial expressions that

show astonishment and felt overwhelmed by the environment it sets for everyone. The person

working at the front desk is also a greeter, who makes sure that everyone feel more

comfortable and filled with gratitude by saying, Hello welcome! After the small talks,

people begin to quietly to roam around and explore around the building. The simply plain

white walls that somehow appear in every art museum or art gallery with lighting that is

hanging from the ceiling above. The shimmering lights makes the walls stand out more with

the art displays. The contemporary art is mainly being shown at the Cal State University

Northridge Art Galleries: The Main Gallery and the West Gallery, which provides a

welcoming environment for those who aspire to become an artist by presenting beautiful and

unique pieces for the Los Angeles community.

Not all artists have to be a student who are enrolled in CSUN, they can be a professor

or a faculty staff member, or even an artist outside of CSUN campus. For example, a recent

art exhibit high school students can display their art piece at the art gallery for the 19th

Annual High School Invitational, which ran from January 11th to January 30th, 2016. High

schools like Bishop Alemany, Granada Hills Charter, Hollywood, Valley Academy of Arts &
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Sciences, which is a high school that I used to attend, and so forth. Another example of group

who can exhibit their work of art is full-time and part-time faculty who are in the CSUNs

Art Department. The art exhibition show is known as, Full and Part (One), which runs

from February 11th to March 18th, 2017. Art has no age limit from a child coloring to a

professional. (Jennifer Isaias) In comparison to the 2016 for the high school showing, the

2017 shows theme is arranged by the work field of the faculty who focused primarily on

contemporary sculptures.

Every 2 to 3 months, the art galleries change the art displays to tie with a new concept

for the exhibition, Jack, one of the employees who currently work at the gallery. James

Jim Sweeters, the director of the art galleries, discussed during the interview about the

process of how long it takes to put up artists works in exposition. It takes 2 weeks between

the shows to clean up and re apply the displays in their rightful positions, then judges would

come into the students shows, like on April 3rd, Mr. Sweeters stated. He even mentioned that

only 7 employees including himself and the assistant director, Erika Ostrander, work together

to make the galleries alive and running for the people. He also discussed about how each

showing is always different, one of them is on sculpture and paintings, landscaping and

photography as another, and there is an expo on historical pictures that takes back in the

1860s but are retouched by a Scottish photographer who traveled all the way to China and

back.

The distance between the art galleries on campus is not so bad for walking or biking. Art

students and faculty would walk across the street from Arbor Grill and Freudian Sip to the

Arts & Design Center where their art classes are and which is also where the art galleries are

located at. This specific area is the reason why people carrying a huge black art portfolio tote
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bag around with a tackle box or their art projects (e.g. 3-D paper sculptures, canvas, large

brown clip boards with biggie pad paper that is clinging onto the clips). As those students

walk across, they pass by the art galleries. Most people would stop by just to see the wonders

and mysteries of the art that is being laid out right in front of them by the employees of the

art gallery and the artisans.

The art galleries admissions are always free. For Art museums, they have admission

fees because of the huge industry business that the museums run Also, at the entrance of the

art galleries at CSUN has a donations box, which is for support and funds the Art Department

and the artists. Having private businesses for local artists is beneficial and important for

them. When hearing the opinions of visitors that stop by occasionally to view their work and

critique it in a professional manner, even the littlest comment on one part of the piece helps

them as both an artist and as an individual person. Yes, a lot of people visit museums more

than a gallery, but people will realize how more closure you can get when talking one-on-one

with the artist or an employee.

Interviewing the greeter and front desk, Jack, assistant director Erika and director Jim,

gave enough closure about the art galleries itself. How they all answered the same response

to the question that asks, Is the CSUN Art Gallery for a specific group of people: students

and faculty, or is it for anyone? The 3 employers responded by saying, The art gallery is for

EVERYONE to experience! Whether observing each art or participating as the creator of the

art, anyone is welcome. Any age group range are welcome to enter the gallery, it varies from

young children to teenagers to adults to elders.

No wonder Thomas Mller created such a beautiful clay, glaze art that spells out, This

is a magical place too. Indeed, it is sir. The art gallery is a magical place where communities
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from each part of L.A. shares common interests for a variety of art with anyone they come

with, unless the person wants to have alone time at the gallery. Viewing together each art and

taking time to observe the bigger picture and the little details that the artists took their time

and dedication to build the confidence to show off their latest masterpiece. Without art,

everyone and everything would do the same thing every single day, wearing only one set

clothing, eat bland food, listen to the same announcement and watch the same old news, etc.

An expressionless place that no one would ever dream of because of how terrifying it is to

witness such an inhuman society. Therefore, art has become such a huge impact on culture,

especially pop culture. It created the human beings today, specifically the ones who created

the CSUN Art Galleries with a variation of new and exciting expositions for the old visitors

and new-timers.
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Works Cited

Ostrander, Erika. Interview. 14 Feb. 2017.

Sweeters, James B. Interview. 17 Feb. 2017.

Art Galleries California State University Northridge, N.p. 07 Feb. 2017. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

http://www.csun.edu/mike-curb-arts-media-communication/art-galleries.

Corbin, Michael K. "10 REASONS TO VISIT ART GALLERIES." 10 REASONS TO VISIT ART

GALLERIES. American Author, 2007. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

http://artbookguy.com/10-reasons-to-visit-art-galleries_843.html.

Langfield, Amy. "Art Museums Find Going Free Comes with a Cost." Fortune. Time Inc., 01

June 2015. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

http://fortune.com/2015/06/01/free-museums/.