Within the Norick Art Center, just north of the Wanda L. Bass School of Music, lies the Nona Jean Hulsey Gallery. Serving as an exhibition place for the visual arts on campus, the gallery features several exhibits each year curated by Chair of the Studio Art and Design Department Heather Lunsford.
Lunsford contacts artists on a two-year cycle to show their pieces in the gallery and do demos for students. She said she tries to vary the types of artists widely as she curates exhibits.
“I try to really look at a breadth of things so that we’re not repeating upon top of ourselves, and we can try to reach every type of student on campus,” Lunsford said. “[So] every student feels represented and heard.”
In terms of the impact of the gallery on campus, Lunsford said the answer can be found in the mission statement.
“The purpose [of the gallery] is to bring contemporary art to the students and to bring it here on campus and to the community around us,” Lunsford said, “to engage students in discussion of art and issues.”
This year, the gallery will host six shows, each with its own theme and featuring artists from different backgrounds. Lunsford said the variance in cultures is intentional.
“I have this philosophy that you cannot be something that you haven’t seen or experienced, so representation and experiencing something [makes] it really important [that] you hear that, see that, are reflected in that and feel heard,” Lunsford said. “We’re constantly trying to bring in so many different types of artists to talk to them. Some local, some national, some international.”
Among all the shows presented this season in the gallery, Lunsford said she was most excited for students to experience “Do They Make a Sound?” a show by Jessica Lichtenstein.
“We will be having a panel in conjunction with the YWCA, which is a women’s crisis center,” Lunsford said. “It will be with our OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) agent on campus and our psychology group, talking about women’s advocacy, consent on campus and sexual assault.”
Although the gallery primarily showcases visual art, Lunsford said she doesn’t view art to be a narrow concept.
“I just think that all art form inspires all art form,” Lunsford said. “I don’t understand the narrow concept of ‘visual artists are just visual artists’ or ‘musicians are just musicians.’ We have to really push back against that on this campus and say that art is art and that students should be more participatory in all art forms.”
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