Leah Perri/Winonan

The Winona State University art department held the annual “ArtMuse: A Student Juried Exhibition” March 24 through April 3 in Watkins Gallery.

The showing was unique in welcoming students of all backgrounds and majors to submit their artwork to be displayed in the campus gallery.

The opening ceremony for the event was held on Wednesday, March 26, with six Winona State students earning awards: Courtney Gueneveur in first, Lena Yong in second, Joel Jannetto in third, Bibek Shrestha and Steve Ayres with Honorable Mention pieces, as well as Jose Dominguez II earning the People’s Choice Award.

This year’s juror was Jason Pearson, Curator of Education at the Rochester Art Center. The event juror chooses the winners based on the artist’s aesthetic and professionalism.

Kathleen Peterson, Winona State arts administrator, said she believes the event helps provide a well-rounded college experience for students—to which the arts are integral.

“Encouraging a passion for the arts is part of being a supportive community,” she said. “[ArtMuse] is a great way for students of any major who have a passion for visual arts to display their work.”

While the majority of students who submitted artwork were indeed studio art or graphic design majors, one student, Nicole Cullinan, who submitted two pieces in the show, is a mass communication major.

Cullinan, who uses photography as a creative outlet, believes you shouldn’t have to major in the subject in order to make art.

“The title of a major does not solely define the creativity or talent of a person,” she says. “Anyone can be creative, so it’s important to have events like these open to everyone.”

Student artwork ranged in content as well as in artistic medium. Students made use of a variety of materials, including pen drawings and pencil sketches, complex burned woodcarvings, ceramic pieces, impressionistic paintings, print pieces and photography images, and even abstract sculptures.

Second-place winner Yong used felt fabric and acrylic yarn to create an image she felt could be applicable to anyone’s life, titled “Everything in Between.”

“I wanted to create something that could potentially be used in health facilities to help someone reflect on his or herself,” she says. “I didn’t want to make the meaning too specific, because I wanted my audience to be given the chance to bring in their own meaning.”

Honorable mention winner Dominguez also wanted his piece to evoke an emotional response in his audience.

Dominguez, whose illustration depicted a brokenhearted man clinging to a cactus woman, simply used black ink on a manila folder matted with a piece of cardboard.

“I like to twist and exaggerate experiences into these illustrations that hopefully tell a story or feeling that others can relate to,” he says. “Sometimes we crave or think we need something that is bad for us or that brings us pain, yet we still cling to it.”

Whether a fancy blue ribbon hung beneath a student’s artwork or not, the students involved in ArtMuse found it to be a rewarding and enriching experience, one many will participate in again in the future.

As Dominguez said, art flourishes a culture and gives people a voice to express their ideas and opinions about the world around them.