Commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Dordt College campus event—student graphic design

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—Dordt College Event Graphics (vinyl banners)
This banner series was initially designed in fall 2012 and continues to be used each year.
Kuyper Apartments (the stage area)
Each banner is w 42 inches x 130 inches

The MLK banners graphic design group for 2012:
Andrew Steendam, Darin Lammers, Mandy Faber, Cait Vaags, Ashley Viet, Nathan Morehead.

Quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.:

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. 

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Objects for Collective Inquiry: Sara Alsum-Wassenaar presents art exhibit at Dordt College

Sara Alsum-Wassenaar, artist. Top photograph is a gallery installation and above is a Salad Foraging Bowl (detail) being used in the process of gathering a weed salad.

Traditionally, the newest member of Dordt’s art faculty is invited to have a solo exhibition.  As a result the community is invited to attend the solo art exhibition by Sara Alsum-Wassenaar, assistant professor of art at Dordt College. The show is on display in the college’s Campus Center Art Gallery until February 1.

Alsum-Wassenaar has created an exhibit that showcases how “built and natural environments interrupt one another, the spaces where human intervention interacts with creation.” Her artwork includes objects such as sewing, ceramics, and bike building, to name a few.

“The work explores basic human needs and fulfills them within a regional environment through a process of labor,” says Alsum-Wassenaar. “They invite foraging and object making, reveal relationships between bodies and land, and compress the space between humans and their habitat by using a mediated form, like clay or a bicycle. Through this mediation the handmade landscape is domesticated.” In a statement about her show Alsum-Wassenaar writes the following:

These objects cultivate alternative modes of occupying spaces where the built and natural environment interrupt one another, the spaces where human intervention interacts with creation. These objects facilitate a relationship between the handmade and the land by utilizing traditional craft methods including metalworking, pottery, woodworking, and sewing -processes that can be produced on an individual level. Objects are designed, made or hybridized on an individual scale in response to specific land-use requirements. The work explores basic human needs and fulfills them within a regional environment through a process of labor. They invite foraging and object making, reveal relationships between bodies and land, and compress the space between humans and their habitat by using a mediated form, like clay or a bicycle. Through this mediation the handmade landscape is domesticated.

Alsum-Wassenaar has a B.S. in psychology and art from Hope College, an M.Ed. in secondary education from Grand Valley State University, and an M.F.A. in new media from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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2014 Dordt Northwestern Student Juried Art Show.

Copy is from Dordt College publicity:

The annual Dordt/Northwestern Student Art Exhibit is an opportunity for students from both schools to share their best artwork of the year in a combined exhibit. This student-selected and juried exhibit will be on display in the Dordt College Campus Center Art Gallery this past December. 

This joint exhibit by Dordt College and Northwestern College art students has been an annual tradition since 1999. The colleges alternate hosting the exhibit, with Dordt students selecting the Northwestern art that will be shown and Northwestern students selecting the Dordt art that is shown.

Below is a Dordt Diamond interview with David Versluis gallery coordinator.

Q. Can you explain a little about how this show works? I know the students from each college choose pieces from the other college to be shown, but how much of a role do the professors play?

A. The works selected for recognition showcase the imagination and technical abilities of Dordt/NWC students. The pieces featured in the show are produced mainly in art studio classes. Every year the show is initially organized independently by the art faculties from both colleges who then develop a schedule. The art gallery coordinators administer calls for artwork from each school and student jurors are asked to serve.

The fact that the jurors are students evaluating the artwork from the other school is very unique. This year with the show being hosted by Dordt, members of the Art Senior Seminar class were asked to curate the installation. The design and layout of the artwork in the gallery space is sensitive and thoughtful — Rebekah Dykhuizen, Melissa Brantsen, Bridget Rowe, Hayley Dahl, and Aubrey Pasker were attentive to the details and did a very fine job. I, along with Kit Drennon did the installation.

What do you think students (the students who will have their work shown) can learn from this exhibition or how can they benefit from it?

This is an experience for students from both schools to gather in community to review the artwork of their peers, which has great value. Viewers can discover the variety of visual art being generated by our students and see how the art has the technical skill and conceptual capacity that speaks to them.

Q. Why do you think Dordt students should care about this exhibition? Why should they know about it?

A. While this show is interestingly competitive it’s also indicative of the relational attitudes between two Christian colleges that are in fairly close proximity to one other. As a result this show helps build community by mixing artwork from both schools; it is more community service-focused and less about self-centric art-making, which seems paradoxical.

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