Visual Arts League | Graphic by Bethany Althauser | The Wright State Guardian
As a new campus organization, the Visual Arts League is full speed ahead as they explore visual art from photos to puzzles in their weekly meetings.
How the organization formed
If students made their own bouncy ball at Fall Fest, they have already interacted with a Visual Arts League project once before.
“Our main goal is to provide spaces and community projects for students and alumni to engage with the arts as well as to provide a deeper exploration of the local art scene in and around the Wright State area,” the organization’s Engage page reads.
Senior Trevor Montei, who is completing their Bachelor of Fine Arts, originally got together with a group of friends to discuss their fine arts classes, which eventually evolved into wanting to create a student organization. By summer of 2021, the league was established and became an official student organization in the fall of 2022.
Despite being a new and lesser-known organization, the league boasts almost fifty members.
Montei continues as the president of the league, providing a safe space for anyone interested in the arts.
“It’s, as accurately as possible, to represent my peers and these students that are within the Visual Arts League as well as to provide a safe and responsible place for any person, not just Fine Arts people, to explore the arts and their self image and what they achieve through the arts,” Montei said.
While students can present their own individual work, students in the league often work collaboratively on projects as well during weekly meetings.
Making art and connections
Following Robert's Rules of Order, the organization’s meetings typically start with introductions, then the group opens the forum to an activity. Typically, this means addressing old and new business and addressing any conflicts in the introduction. The open forum includes any members who want to present their work and participate in an optional critique.
The activity portion is a collaborative activity potentially around the month’s theme, but it can also be something more casual, like a game of Pictionary. Current members vote on each theme. October’s theme is an intersection of three themes: pin-up, mythology and bones.
“We work collaboratively with one another to better ourselves and to prop each other up through the visual arts,” Montei said.
One of the most recent collaborative projects is a twist of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” where members made a section of the painting in their own style then pasted them together to create a mod-podge of individual styles.
Other projects included a drip-paint painting with a swinging bucket in association with the College of Liberal Arts for Family Weekend and the make-your-own bouncy ball project at Fall Fest 2023.
Senior and Fine Arts major April Gullet is the current treasurer for the Visual Arts League.
“Out of the things that we’ve done so far, my favorite is a field trip to the art museum in Indianapolis that a small group of us did last spring semester. It was amazing to be able to bring people to see works of art that they probably would not have known,” Gullet said.
Montei hopes to acquire a “mess-room” for the league in the future so the group can create bigger and messier projects.
Any student of any major is welcome to attend the weekly league meetings on Thursdays at 7 p.m. in the Creative Arts Center Room 335.
