A Space Set Apart

It’s been a long time coming for Cedarville’s visual artists. After 16 years, approximately the age of Cedarville’s Studio Art major itself, a permanent art gallery has been installed in the Stevens Student Center, the first in the university’s 134-year span.

According to Aaron Gosser, Associate Professor of Studio Art, various proposals for a gallery were met with friction because it meant taking space from another department or building something new. This difficulty was overcome by remodeling what used to be a storage area in the DeVries Theatre, a space designated for use by the Department of Art, Design, and Theatre.

Before the gallery’s installation, art majors had to display their work on unlit, carpeted artboards set up in the Dixon Ministry Center, the Student Center lobby, or the Centennial Library.

Gosser said, “It was nice when different departments would accommodate art” but noted that these spaces “competed with tables and walkthrough,” making them “far less than ideal.”

While lacking a gallery was less than ideal for all art majors and their work, Studio Art majors especially felt a sharp absence. Gosser said, “[A gallery] is important for art and design, but it’s necessary for studio art. It’s where the work takes on its significance. We’ve produced class after class of students who’ve left the university and didn’t have that experience.”

Why does having a gallery matter? The gallery space is significant in terms of both the types of work displayed and the experience. Practically, a three-dimensional work or large piece needs physical space. To paraphrase Gosser, the importance of a proper art gallery to studio art is akin to the importance of a playing field for a sports team.

As a matter of inspiration and expansion, Assistant Professor of Studio Art Caleb Booth points out, “It’s a huge encouragement for the students to make more work and even make larger works. Otherwise, [a lack of space] is not pushing you to grow. Turtles only grow to the size of their cages.”

Both Gosser and Booth noted that the way most people interact with images and art today is through a phone screen, which robs people of an enriching experience. Experiencing art requires a separate place.

“How difficult it is for art in this culture, in this time and place,” said Gosser. “We move so quickly between images. We have hardly any appetite for contemplation. In order for art to live, it requires a viewer that intends on seeing art, that is willing to step out in faith, believing there is something here to be gleaned. You can’t do that quickly. It takes a separate space.”

Booth agreed, adding that viewing art on our phones stunts a person’s growth. “The main way we interact with creativity and images is usually on our phone, swiping through [feeds] curated for you based on what you’ve already liked. You don’t actually grow your palate of what you’re interested in or grow in appreciating the arts.”

In contrast, art galleries “expose us to different ideas, different ways of thinking, different points of view, which is really important, especially for the gospel and...interacting with very different types of people.”

As a physical experience, Booth said, “Nothing really replaces this type of moment where you can walk around and feel the size of the art compared to you as a person, and not just your finger.”

Currently, Booth’s works are on display in the gallery.

One fascinating theme of Booth’s work is the vulture, featuring in several pieces displayed. “Typically, we think of vultures as arbiters of death or some sort of bad omen,” Booth explained. “But I see them as really good things because they’re eating death, getting rid of death, which I think is a really nice idea of salvation and what Christ does for us.”

In the back of the gallery is a large painting in the back of a man looking off into the distance, called “Rest.” Booth said, “I was thinking about how we long for rest in this life. This figure looking off the panel feels cold and longing. It’s kind of like how Christians are stuck between two worlds wanting to be with Christ but then also being present in flesh.”

Booth said his paintings are “not necessarily always the happiest of things,” but he wanted to “wrestl[e] with pain or suffering which is also prevalent in this world. For a lot of people, this is their world. I think we want to empathize with that so that we don’t just come off as bubbly people who can’t care as opposed to people who see the pain but then also have hope.”

Gosser hopes that people will come to engage with the art, saying that art “[isn’t] just decoration, [or] just necessarily pretty.” Art is more than that, having “potentially real significance someone has poured into them, and [people] have an opportunity to interact with them if they choose to do it.”

The significance of the art gallery for artists at Cedarville may be even more intense than the significance of the gallery to the student body as a whole.

As Gosser put it, “Art making is so personal. It’s like you’re putting yourself into this object of paint, or wood, or plaster, or terra cotta. You’re putting [your art] out there to interact with. Most people are too busy to have those interactions; they’re just moving from one thing to the next. That’s not ideal for eliciting the kind of response for which one makes art.”

But, with the art gallery’s installation, “there is this set apart, viewing, sensing space, where [you have] blank walls and a clean environment, [and] you can focus -- now there’s a chance for [the art] to live a little bit.”

Viewing art takes time and effort. Art’s inherent subjectivity can be intimidating, but, as Gosser said, “the fact that [art] opens itself up to your own experiences, your emotions, your exposure, individually is amazing. If you don’t bring all that to the table when viewing a work of art, it’s going to remain opaque. You’re not going to get anything from it. You have to bring all your knowledge and imagination into that conversation.”

He remarked that when the Psalmist said that “the heavens declare the glory of God,” (Psalms 19:1), seeing that expression still required something of the viewer. Art can be a form of worship. Booth said, “[Art] done with a right heart can be something that we [use to] say, I love you, Lord. In being able to say, Lord, use me, and create something interesting or beautiful or provoking -- something that speaks to the spirit and not just physical needs.”

Overall, both Booth and Gosser emphasized their and the department’s excitement for this gallery and look forward to displaying more work in the months and years to come. As Gosser put it, “It’s not easy to carve out time, but if [you’re] willing to play along, make the effort, art can meet you halfway. It might surprise you.”