NDSU’s Barry Hall, home to the College of Business, now features student artwork thanks to a collaboration between the college and the Department of Visual Arts.
Scott Beaulier, dean of business, contacted Meghan Kirkwood, assistant professor of visual arts, to develop site-specific student artwork for a newly constructed wall in the Barry Hall atrium.
Students toured the area and sent a survey to business students, faculty and staff to assess their preferences for photo subjects and asked about attributes of the college that could be useful to the students in planning their projects.
The projects took half of a semester to complete. Participating students were enrolled in an advanced darkroom class, which means they were hand printing their images with a chemical process.
“Darkroom prints are black and white and have both a richer tonal range and are more archival than inkjet prints,” said Kirkwood. “They are also much more labor intensive.”
Students shot and developed their film for the project and critiqued their images with Kirkwood, Beaulier and their classmates.
The students who have artwork displayed are majoring in a number of areas, including art, communications, journalism, political science and psychology.
“Collaborating with the College of Business challenged students to make something in response to the needs of a space and a community that was new to them,” said Kirkwood. “The students were asked to create professional-level photographs and they truly rose to the occasion.
The plan is for the photographs to be on permanent display.
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