CONTACT: Bruce Smith FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Public Information Officer DATE: June 9, 2009
(310) 434-4209 www.smc.edu
SMC ART MENTOR SHOW “117″ JUNE 16-JULY 1
SMC Mentor
The work of gifted students in the highly selective Santa Monica College Art Mentor Program will be exhibited June 16-July 1 at the SMC Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery. The gallery is at the SMC Performing Arts Center & Music Academy on Santa Monica Boulevard at 11th Street. The opening reception for the show – called “117″ – will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 13.
The exhibit is curated by Pilar Thompkins, curator of the Claremont Museum of Art and director of the Latin American branch of the Artist Pension Trust.
The Art Mentor Program is a unique yearlong program for gifted visual art students, selected by SMC art department faculty.
The program – in many ways similar to a graduate school program – was created to provide an innovative, experimental and interdisciplinary environment for students to explore a variety of art forms, professional practices and critical theory. Students work in small groups with a professional artist or art historian, visit artists’ studios and art institutions, and participate in group discussions and critiques.
The title of this year’s show comes from the location of the cavernous studio – Room 117 at SMC’s Airport Campus – where students have worked intensively with three art professors over the last year: Ichiro Irie, Kavin Buck and Ronn Davis, program director and Art Department chair.
Art mentor alumni have gone on to prestigious schools throughout the nation – including the Rhode Island School of Design, California Institute of the Arts, UCLA and Claremont Graduate School – and to successful careers.
The student artists this year are Ana Baranda, Melanie Berry, Brittany Boyd, Holly Brobst, Ching Wah Chu, Jodi Clark, Zoma Crum-Tesfa, Elena Egorenko, Damaris Garcia, Helen Geisler, Jay Grant, Nikki Hillman, Brian Jones, Lucas Kazansky, Faina Kumpan, Veronica LeBlanc, Ka Man Lee, Kylie Michel, Cedar Miller, Gustavo Munoz, Tess Murdock, Elyse Reardon-Jung, Jeanne Roderick, Susan Scarangello, Gina Speers, Sara Theden, Elizabeth Weber and Kathleen Zadikian.
Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call (310) 434-3434.
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