Arts This Week: Ruffin Hall Studio Art Exhibition Series
By Ben Larsen
Ben Larsen:
The University of Virginia art department is hosting opening receptions at Ruffin Hall throughout April as part of a thesis exhibition series for arts. This week, we spoke with Elena Yu.
Elena Yu:
My name is Elena Yu, and I am the Department of Arts Ruffin gallery and visiting artist program manager, and this April 7 through May 9, Ruffin Hall will be completely taken over by fourth year thesis exhibitions and our fifth year Aunspaugh fellowship exhibitions. So not only Ruffin gallery, but all the walls and three floors of Ruffin gallery will have student artwork. The exhibitions will feature a range of mediums. We have students working in many different concentrations. So there will be paintings, drawings, video art, animation, performance, immersive projections, sculpture, ceramics, anything you can think of these students are working with and these are exhibitions that are part of their requirement to graduate to put on a public exhibition. So it’s a great opportunity for members of the UVA community, but also people in the wider Charlottesville community who are interested in art to come check out what our studio art majors are making and meet the artists, and also possibly take home art, because sometimes the work is for sale. The exhibitions are open only from Monday through Friday, so just five days with public receptions on the closing Friday of each week from five to 7pm and the students organize their closing receptions themselves. So there will be a party on every floor with lots of snacks.
Ben Larsen:
Are there any other events coming up?
Elena Yu:
So the week before the thesis exhibitions open, we will also be having some special visiting artists from Mexico. Their visit is supported by UVA arts, an Arts Endowment grant, and their names are Abraham Cruz, Villegas, Jose Angel and Ana Hernandez, and they’re traveling from Oaxaca and Mexico City to give a artist lecture and panel discussion in Campbell Hall, 153, on April 2, for more information on our visiting artists lectures and Ruffin gallery receptions, you can visit the Department of Art website, join our mailing list, follow us on Instagram.
Ben Larsen:
Are these all open to the public?
Elena Yu:
Yes, the gallery receptions and the visiting artist talks. All of our programs all the time are open to the public and free and generally there’s no registration required. We just want people to come. It’s okay if you come late or leave early too.
Ben Larsen:
And it’s not just undergraduates exhibiting either. There are also fifth year fellows. Could you tell us more about that program?
Elena Yu:
So for those who don’t know, the fifth year Aunspaugh fellowship is an opportunity awarded to five alumni of the UVA art department. They’re given a studio at Ruffin Hall for a year and a stipend, living stipend, and they participate in a distinguished major and Aunspaugh weekly seminar with the Department of Art faculty member. So it’s a great like post grad opportunity for art majors to get get ready for being artists out in the real world and put their portfolio together for grad school. So the exhibitions in Ruffin gallery between April 7 and May 9 feature the work of these fifth year Aunspaugh fellows as well as the distinguished majors in the art department.
Ben Larsen:
Art goes up in the building on the seventh, and opening receptions will be held on the 11th, 18th, 25th, and May 2nd. More information about the gallery and the visiting artist lecture series can be found on arts.as.virginia.edu. Arts This Week is supported by the UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more@pvcc.edu
