by Katrina Vastag
This summer, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) has put on an interactive exhibit — a Drawing Lab that allows visitors to not only admire art, but also create it. This exhibit, which opened May 17 and will be available to patrons until Aug. 25, is meant to inspire people of all ages to get involved in both the viewing and the making of art.
The exhibit features a central piece entitled “I See the Fish, Finally,” which is a collective drawing done by eight U students. These students worked on the project simultaneously during a three-day drawing marathon, in which they etched charcoal onto the Drawing Lab canvas. The students started out by drawing simple lines and shapes and worked with each other to create the artwork.
“Everybody had equal parts [and you] can’t tell where one specific artist was,” said Alyce Carrier, a senior in ceramics. “Everyone can draw. When there’s no pressure to make something magnificent, that’s when the best work comes out.”
The eight students who created the central drawing for the exhibit were selected from a variety of majors. Jake Chamberlain, a senior in film and anthropology, found out about the project through a flier posted in the film building on campus.
“I definitely feel like my outlook on drawing has expanded from this experience … and I really enjoyed working on the project,” Chamberlain said.
Kerry O’Grady, Director of Education for UMFA, curated the Drawing Lab along with the exhibition designer, Sarah Palmer, and many others from the U’s education department.
“I really love the idea of interactive participatory exhibitions that engage everyone and provide an opportunity for creativity,” O’Grady said.
The exhibit consists of various stations, including a table drawing station, a tape station and a metamorphosis scroll. Each station has text describing what it is and offers loose instructions for the viewer.
The tape exhibit encourages individuals to create images and art with colored rolls of tape. Participants are able to do so by pasting images on the provided platform. The tape exhibit, in particular, is meant to express that drawing isn’t confined to a pencil and paper.
“That’s one challenge of our exhibition – to help people understand that they’re not expected to adhere to the traditional rules of drawing,” O’Grady said.
The idea behind every station in the Drawing Lab is to provide a new way to “think outside the box.”
“We really want to inspire individual creativity and provide a platform for brainstorming,” O’Grady said. “The whole idea of the exhibit is that it’s for everybody and we want people to get involved. We all have creativity in us, we all have ideas … so why not let that happen here? We’d like to invite our guests to be the artists.”
While the exhibit is meant to encourage students to get involved in the museum on campus, it is also intended to engage families. People of all ages every day interact with the exhibit. Whether a guest is a young child or a senior citizen, anyone can utilize the Drawing Lab.
Elizabeth Brown, a staff member of the Alzheimer’s Association in Utah, expressed how the Drawing Lab is perfect for her clients. Brown says that the Alzheimer’s Association visits UMFA frequently to “take advantage of the art.” She mentioned that her group especially enjoyed the Drawing Lab.
“The quiet atmosphere is very alluring and comforting,” Brown said. “There’s no clutter and [there are] very little distractions.”
The Drawing Lab is not limited to those with a background in art. On the contrary, this exhibit is meant to invite ingenuity from every individual who visits the museum.
k.vastag@chronicle.utah.edu