By Samantha Drumm
Hometown Weekly Staff
On Thursday, July 16, the Zullo Gallery hosted the reception for MassArt Inspiration–the third show the gallery has hosted featuring exclusively MassArt students.
16 recent graduates created 58 original pieces as part of the course Professional Studio Freelance under the guidance of award-winning artist Irena Roman; this exhibition, their final assignment, was the students’ first feature in a professional gallery.
Throughout the semester, students faced the challenge of tailoring their artwork to meet the specific needs and desires of a given client. This client could be a publisher, a gallerist, a manufacturer, or even a corporation or small business. Each assignment immersed these highly motivated illustration seniors with a professional objective, requiring them to communicate with the client, accept suggestions and criticism, redirect and revise their work as necessary, meet deadlines, and follow through at completion.
An array of assignments throughout the course refined students’ ability to collaborate with the community; studies featured a magazine assignment, public art projects for Great Barrington and The W.E.B. Dubois Freedom Center, and, of course, the gallery opening.
“This was the impetus behind the course,” Roman emphasizes, “to teach students how to become a professional, how to start to think like a professional, how to figure out what questions to ask when you get a job, how to work with clients.”
Roman explains that these challenges require students to work to gain a leg up. “The one thing that separates everybody from everybody else graduating from art school is having things that are actually real assignments from clients, things that have been printed, that are utilized somehow, having a show,” elaborates Irena. “They have a resume immediately before they even graduate.” The course also gives graduates an idea of what art they may pursue in their future.
“They engage in a type of illustration that they necessarily didn't think that they were interested in and then find it interesting,” Irena elaborates.But the breadth of what the course achieves, particularly the uniqueness of offering a gallery opening, couldn’t be achieved by Irena alone.
Executive Director of the Zullo Art Gallery, Bill Pope, has always wanted to feature art school students in an exhibition. But the logistics always muddled the end goal–it was difficult to find an initial contact, and students and professors are both busy. Then, Pope discovered Roman (who had several watercolor pieces featured in the Zullo) was teaching at MassArt. From there, things fell into place.
This being the third time MassArt students have showcased their work at the Zullo (the first being MassArt Provocation in 2017), Pope has had time to improve his assignment: tasking the students with a theme that their work must adhere to.
His objective is simple: to select a subject that will force students to dig deep, reflect upon their insights and experiences, and produce some intriguing artwork in the process.
This semester, Pope and Roman assigned sources of personal inspiration.
Although students were given the freedom to employ any medium, Pope offered a list of possible topics to fuel the creative process. These suggestions included historical figures, family, friends, neighbors, fictional characters, places, experiences, events–anything that struck students as a source of inspiration.
What’s annually most interesting to Pope is the disparity between his suggestions and the art he receives in return.
“I very rarely get anything that I think I'm going to get,” Bill explains. “ For this show, I fed them some ideas about historical figures and people. I got very little of that. There was an awful lot of very personal stuff–many artists drew from their childhood.”
Artist and recent graduate Moogy Logan displays her Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse–a set of four adorable, brightly colored illustrations representing pestilence, war, famine, and death. Moogy shares she wanted to find the good, even cuteness, in bad things–inspired by the emotional upheavals she experienced throughout COVID.
The course was out of Moogy’s comfort zone, which is just why she selected it.
“I haven't been in a gallery outside of a school space; it’s really exciting,” Logan shares. “I'm really proud of myself.”
Moogy’s classmate, Parker Cook, displays a series of three-dimensional cartoon-style sculptures.
Cook hails the course as a rare real-world artist experience, something most art schools don’t supply. Mediating creativity while collaborating with a gallerist was a challenge that taught these real-world skills.
“I always just make what I like and what I'm thinking about at the moment,” shares Logan on personal inspiration. “If I have a job or an assignment and I can tell that I'm not into it, I always have a sense of how I can spin things to still have my own voice in it, even if it might be part of a big gallery or published for a magazine article—I still want it to be something I like and am interested in making.”
Unique sources of inspiration are rife in the young artists' work. While the gallery typically features older artists, Pope explains that bringing in recent graduates is part of the nature of the Zullo–to explore new areas, bringing in new, interesting art we’re not used to seeing.
The Zullo, like these new graduates, is in a newly marked period of growth and inspiration.
Board chair Jerry Potts shares that after nearly 40 years in this location, The Zullo purchased the building just last year.
The purchase has afforded the organization a breadth of new opportunities.
While renting the space, they faced a Catch-22, as they could not apply for grants without ownership.
Now, the organization is working towards ADA compliance and fundraising to add an elevator. Along with the deck party they are planning for Medfield’s 375th, locals can also support by visiting the gallery on its summer Thursdays, where they can purchase fresh food, beer, and wine, and enjoy the MassArt Inspiration show.
This is not just a unique way to experience the Zullo; it's a relaxing rooftop perspective of Medfield’s Downtown.
“When we moved in here, the deck was just a rubber roof,” reminisces Pope. “We built the deck because even though we could go out there, it wasn’t open to the public. Opening the space was a wonderful experience–it’s never grown old for me. When people walk out for the first time and see it, seeing their expressions…it's wonderful.”
The space, often hailed as a local hidden gem, is changing continuously. Pope shares that while they love being a gem, they are ready to outgrow the hidden part.
Along with improving the space's accessibility, the organization is working with the Mass Cultural Council and adding Friday to the regular hours outside of summer Thursdays.
The Zullo is always free to attend, although donations are always encouraged as they work on adding the elevator and other accessibility measures. For those looking to visit, the space is open Friday through Sunday 12-5, or for Summer Deck Nights at 6 pm on July 30, August 13, and August 27.
The show is full circle–a space that hosts classes for elementary-age artists and gallery shows for more experienced artists, currently exhibits the work of artists just setting off in their careers. This, the graduates' final assignment, is their first art show. Throughout these unique and lively pieces, the inspiration drawn from childhood is palpable, almost crawling off the pages and out of three-dimensional pieces.
Each artist offers a unique interpretation of the assignment through a broad range of mediums and designs. The result is a diverse body of works that provides insight into where each artist finds inspiration.
The exhibition, on display through August 23, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12-5, and on Thursday evenings, is best paired with refreshments while watching our town from the vantage point of the deck on a summer Thursday; watching cars whiz by as Memo concerts set up and shake down while experiencing these vibrant and vivacious works by a new generation of young artists.
