Many students will walk past the art hallway while heading to Building A. With large glass doors, it can be hard to miss once inside the art hallway. This room has been home to students, staff, and multiple artists’ work throughout the years.
The room is known as the Art Exhibition Room, or to some professors, the gallery. The gallery is in Building C, Room C200, and for most art students, this is one of the few ways students can network with other artists during their spring and fall semesters.
Perry Pollock, an art professor at Harper, says how impressive the entries are.
“I would say that we do a really super good job. I’m always impressed with each year when we have our students show,” Pollock explains. “I think the work is very, very high quality.”
The Art Exhibition room has held shows during the Fall and Spring semesters. The gallery provides a room for Harper art students and other artists as well to display their work for all students to appreciate. The student juried show ends on May 8th, 2025, and could be the last time to see all the students’ works of art for this year’s selected artists. Every Spring semester at Harper, they have a show based on Harper students’ submissions dating all the way back to Spring 2004.
Art Professor Jason Poet says that the gallery is a necessity.
“We really feel strongly that a gallery is an important part of our program,” Peot says.
It is important to remember that the room had not always been a room dedicated to displaying art. The Art Exhibition room was taken from the old painting studio by splitting the two rooms. The original painting studio was made smaller to accommodate the new venue for artists’ work.
“The painting room was just that big. So the Art Department just decided, you know what, we should just make our own gallery,” Peot explains.
The artwork is hung on the walls of the room. While some artists have created sculptures to be seen from pedestals. Many student artists will take pride in being chosen to be displayed in the gallery. Over the years, the gallery has become a motivator for many students to create art.
Grace Haapapuro, a student graduating with an Associate in Arts, talks about her work being shown.
“Well, I am proud of my work and I wanna give it a chance to be seen by people. It helps me to network with other artists and kind of get my work out there,” Haapapuro says.
Most art students love to display their work in the Student Juried Exhibition. Harper art students can win prizes from the juried show, happening on April 21st through May 8th, 2025. This show can help students find more connections outside of Harper College.
The gallery can offer a great chance at receiving extra credit. A student can simply submit a piece of art from the class for the student juried exhibition each spring. This can provide students with a great incentive to not only create some good art, but hopefully win prizes.
“I think it’s fairly easy, as long as you can get a form from your instructor; otherwise, I’m not sure where people could find it, but I have always gotten mine from my teachers,” mentions Haapapuro.
The form is an overview of the art piece and what the piece is about. The form will provide lines for dimensions of the art piece and what media was used for the art piece. This is to provide an accurate and accommodating section of the gallery for the art piece when displayed or reviewed by the jury.
It may be an old building, but there is something new inside each day. According to Harper professors, the gallery has changed a lot over the years. From changing the lighting in the room to adding electrical outlets.
“We’ve made it much better over the years from how it started. So right now, we’re all pretty satisfied with the way it looks and how it is able to accommodate a pretty wide range of work, including installation work,” Pollock explains.
Peot explained what his favorite part of hosting the room was.
“I like meeting with the artists. Before every show, like a year before, you try to go do studio visits, and go to other studios and hang out with them, see all their work, and pick out which work is gonna end up in the gallery. I think that’s a lot of fun.. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of fun.”
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