Taken by: Maggie Carter
Taken by: Maggie Carter
The Arts West center is located on the Elon University Campus and is a facility used for all types of different art such as ceramics, photography, painting, digital art, and art history. The faculty in the art center is very focused on using art as a form of expression rather than just a material thing. The classes are very small and the studios are of very high quality. The technology is always kept up to date, so the students are using the best of the best. In the digital art center, lines of Mac Computers fill the room with the latest photo editing software. It’s not just the quality of the materials they have at the center that makes it so wonderful, but also the quality of the faculty.
The faculty comprises of remarkable teachers that are engaging, inspiring, and highly respected scholars. Ken Hassell is the associate professor of photography, who is a Southern Arts Fellow and a North Carolina Arts Council Fellow. Professor L.M. Wood is a North Carolina Arts Fellowship Recipient. Professor Shawn Tucker is the department’s chair and is very accomplished. The Arts West Center has many other faculty members that achieved much throughout their career and continue to do so in the Elon community.
In the center there are two exhibition spaces for the students to display all of their newest work. Justin Goodall (’05) once said, “At so many schools, art is framed in the academy and solidified in the critique. At Elon, there is a holistic approach that combines technical advancement with critical ideas that produces a student who is not only a craftsperson, but an intellectual artist as well”. The art center is for students, but there are many different cultural events open to the public that the students prepare, show their work in, and give lectures. Tickets for these art shows or lectures are on sale at the ticket box office located in the theater arts center and are usually around ten to twelve dollars. The Arts West center is a great place to go to see student’s work and become a little more cultured.
