The 57th Annual Juried Student Exhibition Awards Ceremony hosted by Michael Flanagan, the Tyler Art Gallery director, showcased student-made art and ended with award givers presenting the honors to deserving artists. 

Active faculty in the Oswego State Art Department do not aid in choosing pieces for the exhibition, rather it is juried by a professional artist who has not been associated with the campus for several years to reduce the likelihood that the juror would have a personal bias toward picking certain artist’s pieces, Flanagan said. 

This year’s exhibition was juried by Caroline Hayward, a 2003 Oswego State alumna, who received a bachelor of fine arts concentrating in ceramics with a minor in art history. Hayward was unable to attend the Awards Ceremony due to it being rescheduled because of the weather. She sent her regards and “props” to participants and recipients of the awards via the gallery assistant, Joey Sweener. 

“We have to recognize that this institution is one that supports the arts and support starts right at the top of the President’s Office,” Flanagan said. “Each year for over 30 years we have had Presidential Purchase Awards and those are a special honor for a student because those pieces become part of the college’s permanent art collection.”

The first recipient of the Presidential purchase Award, chosen by Oswego State President Deborah Stanley, was senior fine arts major, Edward Arena, for his charcoal self-portrait. The second recipient of the Presidential Purchase Award was Pragya Pahari, Graphics and Media graduate student. 

Sofia Perez was awarded the sole Juror Award and was one of five recipients of the Al Bremner Award. 

The Al Bremner Award is annually given to five art students in honor of Bremner, a long-time art department faculty member from the 1960s. 

The Juror Award is the achievement decided upon by that year’s juror. 

Megan Rafferty, an art student and Andrea Rafferty, a zoology major at Oswego State attended the art gallery in order to support fellow student artists, as Megan herself had two pieces displayed proudly at the gallery. 

Both of Megan Rafferty’s pieces were black and white photographs, one entitled “Temple” and the other “Loki.” 

“Loki” is a photographed depiction of her sister’s snake wreathing about Andrea Rafferty’s intricately tattooed arm. 

The significance of Megan’s photograph personally lies in the connection it symbolizes. 

“This snake was actually special to me because it was the first snake that remembered me, I can handle snakes because [Loki] was so chill,” Megan said. 

Megan focuses on monochromatic photography and likes to work with mixed media by painting on top of her black and white photos, sometimes adding color with acrylic. 

Megan explained a project she is working on now is another monochromatic photograph of a waterfall. 

Megan has begun to add blue paint atop the photo where the waterfall is featured, adding the mixed media element and providing a sense of depth and movement to the photo. 

The Tyler Art Gallery director is responsible for keeping a “varied and interesting schedule of exhibits during the academic year, usually, seven to eight exhibits that change every six weeks or so,” Flanagan said. “We have balanced exhibition schedule between student shows, art students getting bachelor degrees are required to participate in a show.” 

The subsequent gallery show will be a faculty exhibit featuring a professor on sabbatical.  

Photo by Hannah Leonard | The Oswegonian