UM gallery gets a makeover

Guests of The Penny Stamps Gallery will witness the remade and remodeled gala and with it a new show, and Director, this March. The brand new, amazing Stamps Gallery comprises 8,000 square feet of exhibition space and is overseen by its internationally renowned new Director, Srimoyee Mitra.

Mitra came to the Stamps School having served as Curator of Contemporary Art at the prestigious Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario. At the AGW she developed an award-winning series of exhibitions, public programs, publications and inter-gallery partnerships. Mitra earned her BA in drama studies and international studies and her MA in art history from York University (Toronto) and she retains her faculty position at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Windsor. She will oversee and organize regular shows by students, faculty and grads, and by local and national and world leaders in art and design.

“I envision a space that is inclusive, lively, expansive, responsive, experimental, robust,” she said, “A collaboration of audiences, community members and creators working to build mutually respectful dialogues and examine the role of creative practices in the 21st Century in order to redesign and imagine a society where people from diverse backgrounds live together learn from one another.”

The Stamps Graduate Thesis Exhibition, “Pathways: 2017 Graduate Thesis Exhibition,” opens on March 10 and runs through April 1, 2017 including a gala, public open-house reception on Friday, March 10, 5-8 pm. It will be a special opening, not only of the show, but for the gallery itself. Guests will have the opportunity to meet the artists and the Stamps faculty, as well as fellow art lovers and community members and hey, maybe even a humble art columnist.

The actual exhibit surveys the work of both the Stamps second-year MFA and MDes (Master of Integrative Design) graduate students. What’s the difference between art and design? You be the judge. Most impressive is the international valence of the students. Of the six Integrative Design Candidates, two are from India (Mansai Agarwal and Aditi Bidkar), one from Taiwan (Kuan-Ting Ho), one from Korea (Ji Youn Shin) one from Hong Kong (Kai Yu) and one, Elizabeth Vander Veen, is from the exotic realm of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Why is there only one American entry in this half of the exhibit? Who cares! Variance in creativity is just part of the fun.

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