You are here

Community Outreach

There are opportunities year-round for members of the community, both professional artists and art lovers, to get involved with the Department of Visual Arts.

Marais Press

Marais Press is an editioning press housed in the Department of Visual Arts. The mission of Marais Press is to raise funds for student art scholarships through the sales of prints, to encourage the experimentation, and foster artist/student collaborations in the printmaking medium within an atmosphere that is free from the pressures of a commercial atelier and to affect students and the public through contact with professional artists and the eloquence of their art.

Each year 5 to 12 artists are invited to Marais Press for the production of print editions. During their time at Marais Press, the artists collaborate with the printmaking students in the Department of Visual Arts in the production of printed editions, typically 1 to 2 editions, as well as present printmaking demonstrations and/or lectures for the faculty and students in the department and University, as well as members of the general public.

Marais Press maintains a standard policy of collaboration. The printmaking shop is an extension of the artist’s studio. It is a hospitable place in which to work and a place that promotes artistic risk-taking and also embraces technology in order to take advantage of the full range of possibilities that the printmaking media provides, both traditionally and alternatively. Marais Press has collaborated with more then 200 artists, published 100 editions, and involved more then 100 students in printmaking projects.

Department of Visual Arts Summer Camp

The department offers a summer art camp that provides hands-on workshops covering the elements of art and allows for the exploration of distinctly different mediums in one week’s time. Students work with department faculty to independently and collaboratively produce one-of-a-kind works of art and expand upon their knowledge of studio art.

These workshops are designed to provide participants challenging experiences for first-time participants and those who have previously attended. No high school art experience is required to attend this workshop. At the end of the workshop the department hosts an exhibition of the students work that made during the workshop for for parents, faculty and workshop participants. To learn more, contact the Department of Visual Arts.

Art Education Outreach Programs

The Department of Visual Arts art education program provides hands-on-workshops with community programs in Lafayette. These workshops give our art education students the opportunity to use skills developed within the classroom to teach art lessons that are both creative and that demand personal investment. These workshops give children an unquenchable desire to learn, provide a knowledge and an ongoing development of individual and communal art making endeavors that spark imagination and illuminate possibility for one’s self and others.

Sale of Student Work

In the Department of Visual Arts, they are multiple opportunities to purchase the high quality work that our students have produced. Every December, we have a ceramics sale and jewelry sale; every October, our printmaking students design and print Halloween designs for the annual T-shirt sale.