Smeal celebrates Hispanic heritage with art By Allegra O’Neill COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER The Smeal College of Business will kick off its Art in the Artium gallery Friday, with an exhibit honoring National Hispanic Heritage Month. “This exhibit is about strengthening the Smeal community,'’ Marketing Department Staff Assistant Terra Ingram said. “All the artists are Smeal-related —some faculty and some students." The exhibit, which will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, will be held in the Atrium of the Business Building. In an effort to “bring more diversity” to the building, a committee was formed last year and the Art in the Atrium gallery was creat ed, Smeal Information Technology Manager Shuchi Nalepa said. And the inaugural exhibit hopes to do just that diversify the Business Building. “Some of the art will be honoring Hispanic Heritage Month,” Ingram said. “Our hope with this is that we break the barriers between faculty and staff and incorporate everyone involved with Smeal.” The artists involved in this particular exhibit areja combination of undergraduate students, graduate students and instructors, Ingram saia Melanie Versaw (junior-marketing and advertising>-said she is excited to be involved with this exhibit because of her experiences in Mexico. 1 “I contributed a photograph of Chichen Itza, an archeological site built by the Maya civilization 91 Mexico,” Versaw said. “I traveled to Mexico this past January and thought that the main temple Kukulkan, commonly known as ‘EI Castillo’ was beautiful.” Versaw said her work in the exhibit is evi dence of not just a photography hobby, but a potential career. “I have actually opened my own little pho tography business, Mel Versaw Photography,” Versaw said. “I shoot mostly outdoor portraits, but I have shot weddings and a lot of concerts.” Carolyn Todd, a marketing instructor, said she is happy to incorporate her photographs BREAKING BARRIERS If you go What Art in the Atrium’s first exhibit When: 3 to 5 p.m. Friday Where: Business Building “This exhibit is about strengthening the Smeal community. All the artists are Smeal-related some faculty and some students Terra Ingram Marketing Department Staff Assistant depicting Hispanic influence in the United States to the exhibit. “The city of Los Angeles is steeped in Mexican roots and El Pueblo de Los Angeles, where these photos were taken, has an his torical marker commemorating the founding of Los Angeles,” Todd said. “Photography is a passion of mine and it shows through in the classroom through my lectures.” Jennifer Goldberg (junior-marketing) said she is glad to be part of the first exhibit, even though her piece is not related to Hispanic Heritage Month. “I am very interested in fashion illustration and I wanted my piece to have some refer ences to the fashion world,” Goldberg said. Goldberg said she used “pencil and shad ing” as well as a “grid technique” to create her work of art. According to Collegian archives, the gallery hopes to incporporate artwork from non-Smeal artists as well in the future. And some participants said they hoped to provide more art to the new program again soon. “I’m very excited about the Art in the Atrium series and hope to contribute more photos on other themes this year and in the future,” Todd said. To e-mail reporter aposols@psu.edu Courtesy of Melanie Versaw Melanie Versaw (junior-marketing and advertising) took this photo of Chichen Itza during a trip to Mexico earlier this year. It will be a part of the first exhibit in Art in the Atrium.
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