The Student Art Society aimed to display student textile art through their gallery which featured a variety of different styles and themes.
On Wednesday, April 10 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. SAS transformed the student-run Boxx Gallery into a diverse display of talents within textiles, including crochet and fashion pieces.
President of the Student Art Society Jane Grabowski, ’24, said she spearheaded the project to bring opportunities for people to learn about how galleries work in terms of installing and de-installing artwork.
“I want it to be a nice community space where people can come together and share about art,” Grabowski said. “I am really interested in DIY community art spaces and I want the Boxx Gallery to be that.”
Bridgette Reeb, ’25, said she submitted a green crochet shawl, “Dewdrops at Daybreak,” and shared that her art usually has a level of personal significance to it.
“I started it during the pandemic when I was living alone in the middle of Southwest Georgia,” Reeb said. “I had a friend named Julie Aggie who was very kind to me and even though we had a lot of theological differences, she was a very kind person and she always commented very positively on the stuff I did.”
Aggie died from cancer during the pandemic, so Reeb continued the shawl, as she had been planning to gift it to Aggie.
“I think I was thinking of her basically every time I picked it up,” Reeb said. “We all lost people but she had a really tough time and her family really relied on her.”
Because the gallery did not have an information placard for the pieces, Reeb said the exhibition felt like indirect emotional communication.
“It is a way of being intimate with others without being completely intimate with them,” Reeb said. “I am glad that there is a space like the Boxx Gallery and an organization like the Student Art Society because I think it is a really important opportunity for people to be able to feel as though their artwork is valid.”
Reese Forella, ’27, said her journey in crafting her crochet flowers began in high school when she had to submit a project and felt she had an interest in crochet.
“I purchased all the materials and I just watched YouTube videos to follow along,” Forella said. “It probably took three weeks to make all of those.”
Reese said that while a main gallery exists, she thinks the Boxx Gallery is valuable because it is important to display non-traditional academics.
“That’s how people express themselves and it is what they’re good at so I think it’s really nice to have a space that honors that,” Forella said. “I am just proud that they look like flowers because the project was very ambitious for me and it took a lot of time and I am very good at running out of patience.”
Alyssa Gent, ’27, said the Boxx Gallery was their first experience submitting artwork to a show and gained practice from being included. While not everyone’s work was created specifically for the art gallery, Gent’s work was created for the showing.
“I didn’t expect a lot of feedback because I had gone to take a picture with my parents and then go home,” Gent said. “But when people saw me take a picture with my art I was bombarded with compliments.”
Much of Gent’s inspiration came from having to create a piece for the gallery because she usually has a higher creative drive when under pressure.
“I had only decided to start making it 48 hours before it was due and so like I hadn’t created anything that fast in a while,” Gent said. “It is not necessarily artist block, just sort of lack of inspiration in the first place because I don’t desire to create all the time.”
Gent said they think having art galleries is important at Allegheny because it is a liberal arts college.
“I think for the most part it’s not fostered to the point it could be but I think the art galleries really create a creative space that seems like a characteristic that should be more prevalent here,” Gent said.
