(Baton Rouge) – The LSU School of Art is celebrating the opening of a new and unique exhibition space in the LSU Museum of Art at the Shaw Center for the Arts that will be dedicated to the works of current and former faculty and students of the school.

The new space, LSU Art Past and Present, is a flexible, ever‐evolving gallery that opens with a reception from 6‐8 PM on Friday September 5. Its inaugural exhibition will feature the works of current professors Kelli Scott Kelley, Michael Crespo and Robert Hausey, as well as past professors Paul Dufour, Caroline Durieux, Armin Scheler and Duncan Ferguson. The mixture of diverse prints, paintings and sculptures created by these artists celebrates the innovation and creativity that have been the foundation of the LSU art program through the years.

“We wanted people to recognize the importance and crucial nature of what LSU art has meant to our community,” says Tom Livesay, executive director of the LSU Museum of Art. “LSU art has been far more dynamic and influential than most people realize, and this is the ideal venue to showcase that work.”
The featured artists in the upcoming exhibition were chosen because of a common thread that runs through their works. Though their styles and missions vary widely, they all find inspiration in the natural world and use animal and human imagery in their work.

Administrators and faculty at the School of Art are particularly enthusiastic about the new initiative because it reaffirms the cooperative bonds between the LSU College of Art and Design and the LSU Museum of Art. It also provides the School with a much‐welcomed opportunity to reach out to the Baton Rouge community in a broader way.

“We tend to do things on our own in a closet without telling anybody and the museum has a tremendous promotional machine and membership base,” says Rod Parker, interim director of the LSU School of Art. “So we’re excited about being able to work together and we see this opening as symbolic of the commitment to fulfill the potential of the downtown museum that the community has been waiting for.”

The exhibition is just the first of many at the gallery and runs through Nov. 1.