Gallery showcases student art

By Iam Pace · The Mainstream
Published June 1, 2010

The student art show is being held at the Whipple Gallery May 26 to June 3.

The exhibit displays dozens of student works from a variety of mediums such as oil, acrylic, clay, watercolors and photos crossing over many distinct, and not so distinct, genres and styles such as expressionism, impressionism, postimpressionism, primitivism and realism.

“I think drawing and creating art is a great way to clear the mind and express oneself. I’m sure I can speak for a lot of other students, as well as myself, when I say that I wish I had more time to just sit down and draw,” Thomas Mansanti, a UCC art student, said.

Mansanti is just one of the many students displaying his work in the gallery. Mansanti attributes part of his interest and success in art to Greg Price, a UCC art instructor. “Greg Price is an excellent teacher and a really great guy; I had a lot of fun in his class and I’d love to take another class from him if I get the chance,” Mansanti said.

Part of UCC’s new campus-wide mission statement focuses on supporting, enhancing and encouraging the arts. The college’s motivation for its new direction pertains to the importance art plays in learning.

António Damásio, an award-winning neurologist and prolific author, found significant research substantiating that art stimulates the areas of the brain associated with spatial-temporal reasoning, mathematical prowess and analytical analysis. Children exposed at a young age to art and music—and who continue to practice such endeavors throughout life—had denser, more active sections of the brain affiliated with complex problem solving.

“One thing we have found is that the brain physically changes when we learn. And that change is most extensive and powerful when emotion is part of the learning. The chemicals of emotion, such as adrenalin, serotonin, and dopamine act by modification of synapses; and modification of synapses is the very root of learning,” according to James Zull’s interview at http://newhorizons.org/neuro/zull_2.htm. Zull is a professor of biology and director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education at Case Western Reserve University.

Due to the nature of creating art, psychologists have found that art carries heavy emotional connotations for both the artist and the viewing participant. Zull went on to explain, “The important idea, then, is that the arts trigger emotion. This could be part of the answer to our question above: what is art? Artists create things that engage others, emotionally. And, of course creating itself is engaging—the artist also feels emotion. The arts, then, change the brain of both the creator, and the consumer.”