Last week, the art and design department hosted their fourth annual Juried Art Student Invitation, also known as the JASI awards.
Daniel Hall, the IWU galleries curator and art therapy advisor, said that the art and design department divided the different art disciplines into 26 different categories.
“What we did is we divided all the different categories of art that we work with our students into 26 different categories and allow the students to be able to get prizes in each of those categories,” Hall said.
Hall said that JASI is a double jury competition with two rounds that students must go through for their art to be featured in the art gallery and receive an award. During the first round, students are accepted by an art and design faculty member and the second round students are being judged by a jury.
“I am the gallery curator and I select a juror each year,” Hall said. “Typically, I’m looking for someone that has a degree in art, at least a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree if not a Master of Fine Arts degree.”
Candesce Crofford, junior and student curator, said that she enjoyed getting to curate the gallery after the awards.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s a little bit overwhelming at first because there’s so many different types of art and mediums and you have to kind of like guess where things would look best, but I had a really good time,” Crofford said.
Crofford said that she feels the JASI awards allow for students to show their creativity and more personal work outside of the classroom setting.
“I feel like JASI gives students a chance to put in their more personal stuff that they might not be able to do in like a class setting,” Crofford said.
Freshman Abbey Coughenour said that the JASI awards has helped impact her perspective and intentionality on her art in a new way.
“I think it was a really cool opportunity,” Coughenour said. “It kind of gives me more perspectives of being more intentional about what I’m creating.”
Hall said that JASI is helping students think about producing artwork at a higher level and show cases what students can create.
The winning artwork and honorable mentions from each category are currently on display in the Beard Art Center gallery.
