Pitt Presents Studio Arts Wyoming Field Study Exhibition Jan. 12-28

PITTSBURGH—An exhibition featuring the work of Pitt art students inspired by the High Plains near Rock River, Wy., will take place Jan. 12-28 in Pitt’s University Art Gallery, Frick Fine Arts Building, 650 Schenley Dr., Oakland. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday. An opening reception is scheduled for 4 p.m. Jan. 12; the student artists will be on hand to discuss their work at noon Jan. 26. All events are free and open to the public. 

The four students participated in an intensive three-credit, 16-day studio arts field study on the Cook Ranch—4,700 acres of land rich with dinosaur fossils and donated to Pitt in 2006 by Wyoming rancher Allen Cook. The art course overlapped with a Pitt paleoecology course; both courses are offered through Pitt’s University Honors College as part of an ongoing commitment by the University to use the land for education and research. 

The art students, three seniors and one postbaccalaureate, worked in drawing, painting, sculpture, and digital imaging under the supervision of Prof. Delanie Jenkins, chair of Pitt’s Department of Studio Arts. A 1919-era bank building in Rock River served as the artists’ studio.

“It was amazing to watch the students struggle with their sense of time, place, and landscape, in relation to their own work,” said Jenkins. She called the experience a “microcosm of graduate school,” similar to a Master of Fine Arts program with a dedicated studio space and a community of peers engaged in similar work. 

The summer 2010 class was the second Studio Arts Wyoming Field Study. A third session is planned by the University Honors College and Department of Studio Arts for this summer. 

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