The first floor of Business Hall was transformed into the Spring Artist Market on March 28, featuring paintings, clothing, art prints, and jewelry made by more than 30 students. This is the second annual Spring Artist Market organized by the Women of Westby, a club on campus that works to support women and minority artists on and off campus, as well as local charities.
Lilli Lowenhar, a junior at Rowan, is the event planner of Women of Westby and explained that the money made from students renting table space goes towards clubs on campus, the ceramics department, the art department, and The Gallery, an on-campus publication that features student artists.
“Last year, spring was our first time and it started super small, literally in the parking lot of Westby. And now it’s turned into this big amazing thing where we raised a ton of money for clubs on campus,” said Lowenhar.
While there were a variety of art forms on display, one student, senior Tyler Carlozo, decided to take things in a different direction by making Perler bead magnets.
“I thought I’d do something different. I don’t see a lot of people doing that. I have some paintings and some prints of my most recent work and stickers, but Perler beads are easy to get a bunch done and get a lot of stuff out there because I know a lot of people, college students, we don’t have a lot of money,” said Carlozo.
Emma Stankry showed off her creativity through printmaking, stickers, and rings she made out of thrifted buttons. Junior Jenipher Gronvold displayed her ceramic planters and oil paintings.
Many students displayed crochet projects of woodland creatures and coasters, but sophomore Rylie Phillips showcased her immortal crochet flowers.
“You can mix and match, choose maybe just one or a bouquet. If you have an anniversary coming up or a special someone to give it to or even just for yourself. They don’t die so you don’t have to be sad if you can’t keep a plant alive,” Phillips said.
Noor Baig, a studio art major and president of The Gallery publication, talked about the importance of creating opportunities for student artists.
“They can sell all their artwork and the proceeds go directly to them and we don’t take any of it at all. And basically, we’re just all about allowing everybody to practice student artist entrepreneurship,” Baig said.
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