“The students benefit greatly from the broad and diverse artistic backgrounds of the staff and faculty of the HSU Art Department,” commented Jack Bentley, director of the First Street Gallery. “This exhibition demonstrates how Humboldt State’s Art Department provides students with practical, living models of individual success in the art world, while also providing them with the critical abilities to understand and interpret a variety of practices in the visual arts.”
The exhibition will give students and the public an opportunity to see how the instructors at Humboldt State approach their own art outside of the classroom. The public will be introduced to a wide range of themes and styles, which include works in ceramics, drawing, graphic design, jewelry, metalsmithing, painting, photography and printmaking, and sculpture.
The gallery will also exhibit pieces by former professors. Bentley cites the inclusion of these antecedent artists in the show as a way to demonstrate the depth and the evolution of the Art Department.
A reception for the artists will be Saturday, Sept. 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. during Eureka’s monthly Arts Alive! event. Celebrating its tenth year of service to HSU students and to the North Coast community, the First Street Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m. and is located at 422 First Street in Eureka. Admission is free. Those planning group tours are encouraged to call ahead. For more information call (707) 826-3424 or visit the gallery’s website at http://www.humboldt.edu/~first.