Art students on the HWS campus were given a reason to celebrate at the beginning of this school year when the Provenzano Student Gallery opened in the Scandling Center. But the gallery’s team hopes that it will be able to reach the larger student body as well. “The whole point of the Provenzano is to bring the arts campus to the main campus,” says Jimmy Cherry ‘26, co-director of the gallery (along with senior Gretchen Warner). “We want to get more people who may not be art majors interacting with it.” 

Before the Provenzano opened, there was already an art gallery on campus—the Davis Gallery—but as Cherry points out, “A lot of students don’t get the opportunity to go there often.” The Provenzano’s central location makes it much more convenient for students to visit. Additionally, the Davis mainly displays works by outside artists, while so far, the Provenzano has only accepted art made by students. The gallery holds open calls after each exhibition’s theme is announced, and any student can submit their work for consideration. Many of these students are not actually art majors and don’t get many chances to display their work; the Provenzano provides them with a unique opportunity to share it with the entire campus.  

The gallery was created by a group of HWS students and professors, led by Professor Angelique Syzmanek; they cooperated to secure the space in Scandling and to raise enough student interest to get the gallery off the ground. It’s now run entirely by a group of students with no prior experience. Cherry admits that “we all completely jumped into this headfirst. Nobody’s done this before. We’ve all been kind of figuring this out as we go.” Despite their lack of experience, they’ve managed to run two exhibitions so far and are looking forward to the next semester. 

The gallery’s first exhibition theme was “Hands of the Colleges.” It focused on human form and figure, and it also emphasized the fact that all the works were made by HWS students. The current exhibition is based on the theme of “Perception,” displaying the many different ways that our student artists see the world. This exhibition will last through the end of the semester.  

If you are a student artist, consider submitting your work for display at the Provenzano. And if you’re not, stop by after lunch someday. There’s a fantastic artistic scene on this campus that’s worth exploring. 

Elinor is a member of the Class of 2026.

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