The Sheehan Gallery will open its final installment for the semester, the Fourth Annual Juried Winter Student Art Salon on Saturday, Dec. 4. While most of the gallery’s exhibits contain works from professional artists, this installment contains works from student art majors as well as non-majors taking art classes.

“It’s a really cool experience, and it feels really special to have a piece featured in in such a professional way,” said ’10 alumni Curtis Reid, who will be featured in the gallery exhibit.

Senior Teresa Hughes believes that the gallery allows for students the chance to learn how gallery showcases work without the pressure.

“It’s a really good starting point for people wanting to go into the art business, which is not always emphasized in classes,” said Hughes. “This type of show [teaches] you how to apply and present work in a professional realm but in a relaxed ‘Whitman’ way.”

While the relatively new exhibit accepts many pieces, Assistant Professor of Art Michelle Acuff believes that the event balances this acceptance with some selectivity.

“It’s something the [art department] faculty has gone back and forth on, since it gets really crowded with many pieces in it, and too many pieces can weaken the show,” said Acuff. “Every year the faculty sets out to . . . jury the show, and emulate a profession situation in which an entrant may or many not get into.”

This balance ensures that talented students across academic departments have the chance to display their artwork, with a variety of awards given to the best works.

“The jurying process is not about gatekeeping, but awarding: [last year] cash awards were given for the best work,” said Acuff.

However, even if students do not get awarded a prize, the chance to display their work in this setting has many perks.

“Since the event is a community event, Walla Walla residents come to admire the work. Last year a student sold his work because someone liked it so much,” said Hughes. “[The student] didn’t even expect it, and it wouldn’t have been sold if he didn’t get the chance to display [his work].”

Aside from the immediate benefit to students whose works will be shown in the gallery, the exhibit also offers the general student body the chance to see the creative talent at Whitman.

“What’s unique about [the installment] is that there are intermediate and advanced level students who are not art majors . . . but have works that are really strong,” said Acuff. “One thing that’s really powerful to me is seeing the content of one course show up in another course . . . when it naturally happens, that connection across disciplines . . . it’s really exciting.”

“The salon offers this great window into these talents that a lot of people at Whitman have,” said Curtis. “Whitman is very academically-minded and focused, and you don’t always know . . . people’s hobbies and talents in other areas. This [event] highlights the diversity of skills and interests throughout the student body.”

Another major difference and opportunity this gallery offers is the diversity of artistic mediums and materials.

“Most of the time . . . individual artists come in and do an installment, and they have a general theme and cohesion. Here, it’s more an eclectic gathering of pieces, an artistic sampler of sorts,” said Curtis.

Hughes agrees.

“There’s a real diversity in the pieces [displayed in the salon],” she said. “There are people from sculpture classes, paintings, drawings: pretty much everything.”

Book arts, new media such as digital and video art, as well as other experimental forms have also been included in previous years. This diversity gives students the opportunity to see the amount of nontraditional mediums within the visual art world.

“It highlights all the different mediums and ways art students work with materials, and gives you a sense of all the possibilities in art,” said Curtis.

The salon’s opening reception will occur on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 3 p.m. in Sheehan Gallery.