Many students and faculty skipped their usual Kerckhoff
Coffeehouse run Wednesday, in favor of an afternoon of art and
complimentary refreshments just next door.
Samba music and mingling observers filled the usually empty
Kerckhoff Art Gallery, as the Associated Students of UCLA’s
Art in the Union program hosted a reception Wednesday afternoon to
honor the winning entries in its annual Art in the Union
program.
Five winning pieces were chosen from among 23 entries. Winners
were awarded $500 each and will have their art permanently
displayed on campus. ASUCLA began its collection of art in 1973,
and it now boasts 64 original pieces throughout the Union and
Kerckhoff Hall.
The contest, a sort of open casting call for art, encouraged
students of all backgrounds to submit entries in any medium. With
four of the five winners majoring in subjects besides art, the
contest gives all students the opportunity to be honored for their
artistic visions.
“I wanted to pursue the sciences, but I also wanted to
keep up my creative side,” said fifth-year neuroscience
student Miluska Propersi, whose photograph was a winning piece. The
other winners were Rupinder Cheema, Valerie Hall, Alexandra Jaffe
and Danielle Salyer.
In spite of the cash prizes and the chance to be known to
posterity, many pieces were created without intention of entering
the contest. For most, the competitive aspect was secondary.
“It’s kind of like this is the first piece of art I
ever sold. That’s how I’m thinking about it,”
said Jaffe. “They’re buying my art, and I sold
it.”
Having more than one winner took an edge off the competitive
atmosphere, added Jaffe.
Hall, a graduate student in education, submitted a piece
depicting the occasional serenity of campus life. Her piece is just
one work of what she hopes will be a series of drawings portraying
different campus locales.
“It was an idea I had before I found out about the
contest, but once I found out about the contest I decided to go
ahead and do it,” she said. “I loved the idea of
leaving something here.”
The winners were selected from a panel of graduate and
undergraduate judges. According to Jerry Mann, director of Student
Support Services and the Student Union, the judges selected their
winning works based their originality, content, technique and
expression.
ASUCLA revamped its selection process this year. Before,
participants would submit a portfolio and a proposal of what they
planned to make, and then ASUCLA would select a winning proposal
and commission the artist to create it. Mann showed enthusiasm
toward the new direction.
“Honestly, we really did not know what kind of stuff we
were going to have, but it was really gratifying and shocking for
this stuff to come out of the woodwork and to have over 20 entries.
Sometimes you make change for the best,” Mann said.