Jan. 23 to Feb. 25 marks the biennial Elgin Community College art and design faculty exhibition located on the first floor of H building in the Safety-Kleen gallery, room H100.

Amanda Voltz, gallery director, and curator notified every faculty member in the art and design departments to submit one to three pieces of art to be displayed for the exhibition. These pieces of art could include oil paintings, three-dimensional sculptures, and anything in between. Voltz personally believes it is important to showcase faculty creations in an academic setting.

“I think it’s really crucial for the students to be able to come into a faculty exhibition and see an instructor’s work. Where they’re coming from gives you a lot of understanding about their teaching methods,” Voltz said.

Of the 25 faculty members that were eligible to send in pieces of work, 16 of them responded to Voltz and at least one piece of work from each artist is currently on display in the gallery. The gallery contains 26 works of art, half of the contributors have one piece on display, while the other half of contributors have two to three pieces displayed.

“I made the decision that I would definitely include a piece from everyone that participated,” Voltz said.

As the curator, it is Voltz’s responsibility to siphon through all the submitted work and compose the gallery. She looks at each piece of art and must determine the strength of each piece as well as how all the pieces look together as a whole.

According to Voltz, there is a lot of experimenting with placement, spacing, and lighting in order to obtain a good balance and organic flow when entering and moving about the gallery. Experimenting with arrangement allows each individual piece to have their own focal point while the lighting and shading emphasize the separation of the pieces to avoid intrusive viewing.

All of the faculty contributors include Ellen Vartanian-Mahr, Edwin Meyers, Joel Peck, Juan Fernandez, Travis Linville, Nancy Reid, Kevin Hunter, Daniel Josh, Tina Leverenzzi, Peggy Dee, Leah Mitchell, Pat Brutchin, Todd Reed, Yvonne Beckway, Howard Russo, and Alexis Bach.

The gallery will continue to display the works of our ECC faculty until Feb. 25.