A permanent showcase of student art pieces will be inaugurated at the Leipzig Study Abroad location, for the first time.

ACU purchased a villa in Leipzig in 2017 and moved to it in spring 2018.  At this point, the villa lacked artwork and decorating. Therefore, it was appropriate to outfit the villa with pieces produced by ACU art and design majors said Stephen Shewmaker, executive director of the center for international education.

“They [ACU Art and Design] were interested in offering a program to Leipzig and we decided together to tweak that a little bit where students would actually be creating pieces,” said Shewmaker.

These pieces would then be left at the villa to permanently hang.

In May of 2019, 16 ACU students partook in a program known as the Leipzig Studio Residency. These students were specially selected for this elite group based on their ability and temperament for the program.

“I couldn’t have asked for better students,” Dan McGregor, professor of the department of art and design, said.

This program is the first ever summer art and design program that has visited Germany, whereas the others before have visited Italy and England.  This course, like others, gave these study abroad students course credit for an outdoor course on site.  However, this program is the first of its kind that required students to create a number of works, some of which would be for the direct purpose of permanent showings in the Leipzig villa.

Each student had to produce 20 art works, five of which had to be black with the other 15 being in color. These works to be showcased consists of paintings and drawings of various shapes, colors, types, and sizes. The pieces have been matted, framed and will be hung up when the current study abroad group is away on their program to Greece.

The uniqueness of this program rests in that it allows students to have their works as permanent pieces of a collection, whereas normally this opportunity is only presented to those who are professionals, and who have their art pieces purchased by an institution.  Dan McGregor selected some of these pieces for the exhibition based upon best effort, the best showcase of student abilities, and what would represent a good mix of work for the exhibit.

A selection of the remaining pieces of work were brought back to ACU and will be exhibited in an upcoming non-permanent gallery in late October of this year.

In addition, Shewmaker expressed the possibility of similar programs being done in the future in locations such as Oxford and Montevideo, as well as a return to Leipzig.