New collaboration to benefit Wright State visual arts students, Dayton Society of Artists

Wright State University visual arts students will receive guidance and experience from local professional artists thanks to a new collaboration with the Dayton Society of Artists (DSA).

The society will benefit, too, by being able to use the Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries in the Creative Arts Center on Wright State’s Dayton Campus.

Julie Riley, president of the Dayton Society of Artists, will give a workshop on becoming a self-sustaining artist on Thursday, Sept. 26, from 6-8 p.m. in the gallery. She said she will tell Wright State art students “how marketing and business knowledge is important.”

The event is open to the public; registration is $5 through daytondsa.org. Wright State students can attend for free with a Wright1 Card.

The collaboration is a win-win, said Tracy Longley-Cook, professor of art in Wright State’s School of Fine and Performing Arts. The more than 100 students in the school’s visual arts program, which is composed of photography, printmaking, drawing, painting and sculpture, will benefit from rubbing artistic elbows with those in the Dayton Society of Artists.

“This is an opportunity for our students to learn about this organization and become student members,” Longley-Cook said. “After they graduate, they’ll have a place to keep practicing and showing their art.”

While giving talks at the Dayton Society of Artists, Glen Cebulash, professor of art at Wright State, struck upon the idea of a collaboration with Wright State.

“They could use the space that we have, and we can get more people who are interested in the arts to take greater advantage of our gallery,” he said. “A number of members of DSA are Wright State grads so there always has been a connection between the two institutions.”

During the summer Wright State hosted an event at the Stein Galleries that drew many local artists members, laying the groundwork for the collaboration.

“This collaboration is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” said Marsha Pippenger, immediate past president of the Dayton Society of Artists board who received a Master of Humanities with a concentration in art from 2007 Wright State.

“Our mutual hope is to get the art students more involved in local arts,” said Pippenger, a former adjunct instructor in art history at Wright State. “We have a huge arts community here. DSA is a good place for them to start. This is an opportunity for them to show their work at exhibitions and shows.”

The benefit goes beyond art for art’s sake. Pippenger said the collaboration will help students understand the business component.

“There’s a lot to selling art that’s not addressed in an undergraduate art program,” she said. “How to keep track of sales, how to market themselves, what’s the best route for them to sell their work. We have a wealth of knowledge for them to tap into in that respect. They’ll benefit from our struggles.”

She added, “I don’t know of any college that requires a fine arts student to take a basic accounting class or business 101. We would’ve gone kicking and screaming to a class like that.”

“Art making is individualistic in a lot of ways,” Cebulash said. “It’s not like theater or music, where you’re working with others. This opportunity for our students to become part of the visual arts community is really important.”

He concluded, “This collaboration is a very natural one for Dayton.”