Writing Center exhibit gives opportunities for students to showcase their work

Watercolors, pen and ink, photography and more line the walls as a new student showcases their artwork each month.

The art isn’t it in a gallery or museum, but in the student Writing Center, located in the basement of the Ray B. West building.

“It’s really fun to see a new artist every month,” said Jessica Christiansen, a graduate student in English creative writing. “I always come in here and [I’m] like, ‘Oh boy, it’s the first day of the month. We get to see someone’s stuff.'”

The Writing Center also showcases broadsides from Helicon West readings, said Shay Larsen, the art coordinator for the rotating exhibit at the Writing Center and a grad student in literature. She said featuring student artwork adds a fun, visual element to the space.

Christiansen is February’s student spotlight. Her paintings use a mixture of watercolor and ink.

“It was in my AP art class and we had to pick a theme,” Christiansen said, “so I decided to do mostly underwater things above water, which is why there are sea horses in a nest and other such things like that.”

Christiansen brought out her artwork after a last-minute cancellation left the Writing Center without a February student showcase.

“You can feature any theme that you want, but I like seeing work in these bright, vibrant colors,” Larsen said.

Seeing the artistic techniques from their classes reflected in the student’s artwork shows what the students are learning from their programs, Larsen said.

The idea to showcase student artwork came from Star Coulbrooke, the Writing Center’s director, as a way to promote collaboration with the college of the arts, said Rachel Telfer, a senior in English.

“Like now we have a Science Writing Center, so there’s a combination of English and science, there’s a combination of English and art,” Telfer said. “So she is always looking for things, how to collaborate with other fields and anything, she’s really good at that.”

Having a showcase in the Writing Center is an opportunity for artists to practice professional exhibitions, Larsen said. They make labels, set up and organize the artwork and have announcements made for them.

“Exhibitions are going to be a lot of the things that the art students will do as they’re graduating,” Larsen said. “Their capstones and their thesis projects and things like that, their portfolios of the ends of their college careers, they’re going to be a lot like this.”

Students from any major or department are encouraged to submit their artwork, and all mediums and subjects are welcomed to be showcased, she said.

“Last month we had a pottery major featured and she just took pictures of her artwork and then we featured those,” she said.

The Writing Center exhibit is a good resource for students of any major, including artists and scientists, Christiansen said.

“Engineering students express themselves by, like, building things, right? Science students can get their ideas out by doing experiments,” Christiansen said, “so maybe it’s not like, ‘well here’s my soul,’ but they are still exploring the world, and writing is one of the ways people can do that.”

Students can make a Writing Center appointment for help writing or editing scholarships, job applications, resumes, essays or anything else, Larsen said.

“If you can express yourself one way, maybe you’ll be able to express yourself better other ways,” Christiansen said, “but at least if you can express yourself through writing, that’s one thing you can do.”

Artists interested in showcasing their work in the Writing Center can contact Larsen at usuwcartexhibit@gmail.com or Coulbrooke at star.coulbrooke@usu.edu.