Students curating art exhibit for display in Sustainable Agriculture Project

A group of Lakers are developing an art exhibition that will showcase work by artists from around the U.S. in a unique venue near campus.

“System Processing” will be on display at Grand Valley’s Sustainable Agriculture Project, the university’s educational farm located just north of the Allendale Campus at 4539 Luce St. in Jenison. The exhibition will be on display from 6-9 p.m. on November 29-30 with a reception taking place November 29.

The creative minds curating the exhibit are the students currently enrolled in the Curatorial Studio course offered through the Visual and Media Arts Department. The Curatorial Studio course explores the study and creation of visual presentations within a studio context.

Hayley Ganshaw, a junior majoring in art history, said managing executive decisions, budget dollars and collaborating with her classmates and out-of-state artists, have given her valuable experience in professional curating.

“The process of curating this exhibition has broadened our experience working with professional artists, forced us to be able to imagine where work would go in an unconventional gallery space, and opened our eyes to look at the work not only in the contained sense of the work itself, but also the work in relation to the space,” said Ganshaw.

The Curatorial Studio students selected artwork through an open call to artists around the U.S. Ganshaw said the pieces of art and the venue were chosen because they all represent the process of life and how the natural world influences that process.

“The SAP has never hosted anything like this before, so we thought it would be interesting to collaborate with this agricultural space and expose it to the art world,” said Ganshaw. “This show has the ability to provoke interest from many different people, such as those interested in art, science and agriculture. It gives everyone an opportunity to not only support the artists and curators involved, but it also shines a new light on the Sustainable Agriculture Project.”

For more information about the exhibit, visit the "System Processing" website.