Student’s work lights up art gallery at university

ORONO – Jeff Snyder’s work is currently on exhibit at the Department of Art Galleries at the University of Maine.

His art isn’t hanging on the wall or resting on a pedestal, however. It’s on the ceiling.

Snyder, a junior studio-art major at UMaine, engineered the lighting for the gallery’s current show, “Meditations.”

“[It is] art and art – the artwork itself and the presentation,” Laurie Hicks, an art professor and the show’s organizer, said. “He designed the space and created the work that is the exhibition.”

When the University of Maine Museum of Art moved from Carnegie Hall to downtown Bangor in December 2002, it left a prominent “hole” on campus. Despite a lack of funding from the university, the art department has filled the void with exhibits by students, faculty and outside artists.

“The whole thing is done as really a faculty and student volunteer process,” Hicks said.

By adopting the gallery, the department has not only added an art venue, it has given students such as Snyder a place to hone their craft. Though the university’s downtown museum has its own professional staff, the campus museum has become a hands-on learning-research lab for art majors.

“I’ll probably be able to find work at a gallery pretty easily,” Snyder said.

The lighting and layout of “Meditations” were particularly demanding, because the first-floor installation included tall, pierlike woodcarvings and relief masks by sculptor Larry Corbett, as well as mixed-media paintings and collages by Deborah Jellison.

“[Snyder had to] blend the kind of lighting that highlights the flat wall pieces, while at the same time creating shadow on the standing pieces,” Hicks said. “He played a lot with the shadows and how they work with the space, and gave them context.”

To make things even more challenging, Corbett’s work is intended more for an outdoor setting than a gallery. To augment the lighting, which has always been problematic in the Carnegie galleries, Snyder clamped utility lamps to the rafters.

“We work with minimal equipment,” Hicks said.

In time, the department will move to a new home with more amenities. In 2001, voters approved a $4 million bond to renovate nearby Lord Hall for art department offices, art galleries and lecture halls. The project is now out to bid, but funding for staff support is still up in the air.

It is Hicks’ hope that university officials see the gallery as a campus resource, and reflect it in the budget. The opening reception for “Meditations” attracted 150 people, only a handful of whom were affiliated with the art department.

“People from all over campus see it as one of the few venues to see art,” Hicks said.

For people within the department, it serves as more than a viewing space. It gives faculty a place to show their work and curate shows, and it allows students to immerse themselves in the day-to-day workings of a gallery. Just ask Jeff Snyder, who keeps tweaking the lights to make sure everything is just right.

“I’ll come out here and find him adjusting them all the time,” Hicks said, laughing.