'U' arts advances into electronic age

Art stew has been brewing in Ann Arbor for years now, and the University is invariably tossing in new ingredients. With the current focus on digital media, many artists have been turning to technology to enhance and even operate their work. Formal art training at the University has come a long way.

Established in 1954 as the College of Architecture and Design, the School of Art became independent in 1974. Renamed the School of Art and Design in 1995, the industrial and graphic design programs have taken off, and many courses in digital media and new genres have recently been added to the school. While students receive instruction in almost all traditional art fields, they also have access to new materials.

Computer art facilities on North Campus and at the New Media Center on East University offer students access to new materials and allow them to give new form to their work.

"The University may be on to something," said '98 alum Jacquelene Steele, who was a general studies major at the School of Art and Design, "There's a certain level of cluelessness about technology at the art school, but they're working on it. I only wish they had started all this earlier."

Many University projects urging the growth and development of new genres, digital and multi-media have sprung up in the past few years, finding fresh ways to merge traditional media with the wave of the future. Linda's Place, a year-old computer environment housed in the North Campus Media Union, is dedicated to interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Technology and creative minds merge there to create hybrid collaborative media such as virtual performances and interactive installation.

"We're a gathering place," said program coordinator Linda Kendall. "Flexibly equipped to facilitate creative productivity across disciplines."

Linda's Place supports a variety of creative Macintosh activities, including audio and video recording, imaging, digitizing and editing, and to top all that off, they've even got a big shiny virtual sound booth called the V-Room.

The city of Ann Arbor itself has always been a piquant haven of creative energy. With deep roots in culture and craft, the city is famous for the annual Street Art Fair where artisans and craftspersons, bauble-makers and performers alike have been filling the campus streets and drawing impressive crowds since 1959. Galleries exhibiting such art forms as paintings, sculpture and jewelry abound, but many of the newer exhibition spaces in Ann Arbor offer alternatives to the commercial art market.

Zoom gallery, launched in April by University '95 alumnae Todd Cashbaugh and School of Art graduate student Heather Boykin, is one of the non-profit contemporary art spaces which plans on showcasing the best and the brightest of student and local art.

"We plan to work closely with local artists, the School of Art and Design, and the new Matrix gallery on Fourth Street to develop more of a community of artists and galleries in our area," says Cashbaugh, who also coordinates exhibitions at the Slusser and Media Union Galleries on North Campus, "we would also like to foster more of a link to the Detroit art community than currently exists in Ann Arbor."

Zoom is open to artists in all mediums, individual and group shows.

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