The 2018 Senior Art Exhibition began on Friday, Feb. 23 and showcased artwork from five Baldwin Wallace seniors. 

The Senior Art Exhibition was held in Fawick Gallery in the Kleist Center for Art and Drama from Feb. 23 to March 21 and was smaller than usual, featuring only five artists. This year’s participating seniors include: Megan O’Connell, Shelby Musarra, Celeste Stauber, Sam Gorczyca, and Felicia Crane. The seniors involved had been working on the art featured in the show for the past two years.  

“If you have free time, you’re not doing it right,” said Celeste Stauber, one of the senior artists featured in the show.  

The Senior Art Exhibition is held yearly, said Stauber, and it holds importance for the participating seniors as it is the culmination of the work they have done while attending Baldwin Wallace, coupled with the fact that their artwork is on display and being judged. For many studio art majors, the exhibition is considered to be more important than graduation.  

The seniors agreed that one of the most important things they have learned from their time at Baldwin Wallace, and in their time preparing for the show, is all of the different approaches toward creating art. Each professor they have had, Stauber said, has brought their own personal experience into the art they teach, and learning all of these different approaches is something each senior will take away with them.   

“Mankind can be so horrible in some ways, but art brings about the possibility for beauty and truth of the human experience,” said Steve Ziebarth, a professor of art at Baldwin Wallace, on why he believes art to be important for the world. “Young artists typically challenge the older generation with new ideas. That’s exactly what we’ve seen at this years’ show.”  

Ziebarth said that each year, seniors participating in the Senior Art Exhibition raise the bar to outdo the previous year, and he believes that to be the case for this year’s show as well.     

“The world is built on creativity,” said Rich Cihlar, the office manager of the studio art department at Baldwin Wallace, “Artists design almost everything you see around you. Without artists, the world we live in would be pretty black and white.”  

Cihlar recalls that one of his favorite parts of working with this year’s seniors has been seeing them come full circle and growing from students into professionals.  

“It is important to have an end goal,” said Cihlar, and the Senior Art Exhibition serves, in part, as a means of accomplishing that end goal.  

The seniors agreed about how important it is to build a portfolio and that the Exhibition, along with the other art they’ve completed over the course of their time at Baldwin Wallace, are a great means of building their portfolios for after they graduate. To the seniors, art is a way to share your own viewpoint with others, and one of the most satisfying parts of the show was, “seeing all of the art come together.”