Exhibition displays work from Ohio State auxiliary faculty and staff

Merijn van der Heijden has been the director of Urban Arts Space at The Ohio State University since 2018. The annual Department of Art Auxiliary Faculty and Staff Exhibition long predates her, she said.

“It’s an annual commitment we’ve made,” she said. “It’s a legacy project from a previous director, a long time ago, even before Urban Arts Space existed.”

The exhibition features work from art department staff and associated faculty. This year, 14 artists are participating in the show, on view in Hopkins Hall Gallery through April 25. The gallery is one of two spaces run by Urban Arts Space. The other is in downtown Columbus’ Lazarus building.

Many department staff members are artists themselves but, in their day-to-day roles, don’t have a chance to share their work.

Kate Durham, Urban Arts Space’s administrative assistant, is showing a piece for the first time this year. “under ohio stars” is a quilt-style cyanotype collage with coffee, sodium borate, twine, clothespins and nails.

“It’s important for artists who are more established in their careers to not only have the opportunity to show their work but to create space for a dialogue with emerging artists,” she said.

Van der Heijden agrees that student artists benefit from seeing exhibitions like this one.

“It makes sense to show students this kind of connection that we, as professionals, have to the arts,” she said. “It’s not just that we advocate on behalf of our students, but we also are actively involved in the profession in one way or another. And from an artist’s point of view, perhaps someone working with students in an administrative capacity, this gives them a chance to showcase their thinking and their mediums, the ways in which they engage in the arts themselves.”

Beyond that, she hopes that students will see that art is a lifelong learning process.

“People talk about talent, but I don’t love that term,” she said. “I think there is a misconception around the arts that you have talent or you don’t. We show that many of these skills can be taught or developed, too.”

Sahar Tarighi, a post-MFA scholar in the department, has experienced this firsthand.

“As artists, our work is shaped by the contexts we live in – our personal histories, social environments and global events,” she said. “That evolution doesn’t stop after school; in fact, it often deepens as we encounter new challenges, materials and perspectives.”

Tarighi is presenting two works in the exhibition: “Run for our right,” a video, and “Eternal Bloom of Şiler شلێر,” a ceramic, sand, foam and fabric sculpture.

She is excited to participate in the exhibition and sees it as a chance to contribute to the university’s creative community. She also views it as an opportunity to demonstrate openness and vulnerability as an artist.

“This [ongoing process] shows that making art is not about perfection or arriving at fixed answers but about continuously questioning, experimenting and refining our voice. I think students benefit from seeing that artists are learning and growing – struggling with ideas, pushing boundaries and taking creative risks.”

In addition to art students, van der Heijden hopes to reach another audience: campus visitors.

“Casual visitors in our buildings are important,” she said. “I think universities can be perceived as inaccessible to outsiders. Having exhibitions like these, that are open and free to the public, that allows for a broader public to engage.”

She continued, “I think about parents, people who work at the university, students, all just having the opportunity for a chance encounter with work in which they may see themselves.”