For the past nine years, the Senior Show has taken place in the Nancy Lincoln Gallery, but this year, for the first time, the exhibit will take place in several locations around campus in addition to the gallery.

The artwork on view was made by students taking Senior Studio, which aims to create and environment for young artists that closely resembles that of a professional working arts; no projects are assigned. Students set up their own workspaces and develop their own artistic practice. They make art daily, research the work of professional artists, reflect about their work on a blog, participate in critiques, read about the creative process, and discuss their work with each other. The class is a department wide effort, and is taught by David Ingenthron and Rebecca Roberts, with consultation from Sejal Patel. As well, eight of the artists are “lifers” and several others began their visual arts studies at Beaver with Amy Winston in the Middle School.

The artists in this year’s show are an artistically diverse group of people. Some have been taking art classes their whole lives; some came to see themselves as artists just in the last year or two. If you were to wander through the studio spaces over the past several months, you would have seen them drawing, painting, making collages, and building three dimensional objects. You would also have seen them asking each other for advice, breaking glass, writing about their ideas, wrapping body parts in packing tape, reading, having meltdowns, occasionally singing, and often complimenting each other on good work. This group of young artists has gotten a taste of what it’s like to be a working artist, and all the ups and downs that entails. They had to figure out how to start, when to finish, when something was working, and when to scrap what they were doing and move on.

Watch the following video to see more of the Senior Studio process, and visit the Nancy Lincoln Gallery between now and June 12 to see the final products and learn more about each individual artist.

Artists featured in the Senior Show 2016: