Students Collaborate on Tri-campus MERGE Exhibition

Oct 25, 2021

Visual and poetic responses are due by Nov. 19; cash awards are available.

merge exhibition

What does it mean to MERGE?

Students at Cal U, Clarion and Edinboro universities will share their thoughts, feelings and artistic impressions at an exhibition to be held this spring on all three integrating campuses.

“The Western Pennsylvania MERGE” exhibition will feature visual art and poetry created by students – art majors and non-majors alike – in response to one of three prompts:

  • What is your most powerful campus memory?
  • What excites (or terrifies) you about your education?
  • What does MERGE mean to you?

Each visual or poetic response will consist of a two-dimensional square artwork, unframed, ranging from 5-by-5 inches to 10-by-10 inches. A submission could be a photograph, a print, a haiku or a photo of a three-dimensional artwork in clay, metal or other media, for example.

Small cash awards will be given.

Cal U students who wish to take part in the MERGE exhibition should email art professor Laura DeFazio (defazio@calu.edu) by midnight on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. The email should include your email address and cellphone number, plus a photo and a 100-word description of your creation.

Students must submit three copies of their artwork or poetic response, affixing each to a separate piece of foam core or other rigid material. No frames are permitted. The back of each piece should list the student artist’s name, campus, email address and cellphone number.

At Cal U, all three copies should be delivered to DeFazio by noon on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. Organizers have the right to decline any work.

The MERGE exhibition will be held simultaneously at the student gallery in Cal U’s Vulcan Hall, the art gallery in Clarion’s Rena M. Carlson Library, and the Bruce Gallery in Edinboro’s Doucette Hall. Events will be planned so that students at all three campuses can interact

“This is a brilliant way of helping students work through and frame the integration in a constructive way,” said DeFazio, who is working on the project with Cal U students Ritchie Watzlaf and Joshua Getchen.

“It invites students to explore ideas of identity for our campuses, and/or what this merger might mean for them. We are excited to see what this MERGE means to our students, and share it with the community.”