NE Campus has been without an art gallery since it opened in 1968, and students and faculty expressed frustrations that they are missing a space to show their work.
TR, SE and South campuses each have an art gallery or corridor that invites students and faculty to showcase their art in a professional and appreciative setting.
“On multiple occasions over those years, different higher administrators, different supervisors, different persons, students, faculty alike, have asked about what could we envision?” NE art department chair Suzanne Perez said.
NE Campus was TCC’s second campus to open, coming shortly after South Campus. It is the only one besides NW lacking a dedicated space for artwork, and NW’s is already in the works.
The Collegian reached out to Chancellor Elva LeBlanc and Vice Chancellor of Communications and External Affairs Reginald Gates but has not received comment.
Perez, who has worked for TCC since 2000, said NE faculty over the past few decades have expressed concern for an art gallery not existing on their campus.
The NE art department works hard to ensure that each student and faculty member feels both appreciated and showcased despite not having a gallery space, she said.
“The NE Campus art department is designed to first address or enhance people’s experiences in the visual arts,” Perez said. “We satisfy a lot of need perhaps in the core curriculum because we offer art appreciation, art history.”
An addition to a separate facility for the visual and performing arts department would provide enough space for an art gallery, she said. Currently, there is not enough space to add an art gallery to NE, so a separate facility may be ideal to benefit all performing and visual arts students.
“Our goal is to enrich the lives of our students and community, to afford them chances to explore their own creative impulses, learn some skill sets that maybe they started and maybe have abandoned or just are intrigued by,” Perez said.
Perez also said the college offers credit hours for art classes that count as electives as well as degree plans for art majors.
Art faculty on other campuses also support a NE gallery. Matthew Jones, a SE adjunct art instructor, said a permanent gallery would serve as a platform for student expression and introduce them to professionalism.
SE displays its students’ artwork in a hallway called an Art Corridor rather than a distinct gallery.
“There are two different kinds of art spaces we want to talk about,” Jones said. “We have just a regular gallery space, which is any kind of area where we can display art, that’s very helpful to the students so they can see what their artwork looks like on the wall in a more professional setting.”
Any kind of gallery space for students is appreciated by the campus, but a formal gallery is preferred, he said.
“Professional gallery spaces are also important for the students to have because it brings in outside artists so they can see different examples of how the professionals actually do it,” Jones said.
Other faculty members said students would acquire benefits such as confidence, validation, skill improvement and exposure to the art community.
NE art associate professor Andrew Stalder said the gallery would foster a sense of belonging for those who find art as a creative outlet.
“A permanent gallery would serve as a platform for student expression, interdisciplinary learning and campus–wide cultural enrichment while also fostering a sense of belonging, inspiring creativity and contributing positively to campus life and the broader community,” Stalder said.
He also said with the proper facilities, art students will receive needed validation and recognition, which would increase their confidence in their work.
An art gallery would also provide a larger area for students and the community to use for various events and shows.
“Campus engagement serves as a hub for events, discussions and creative community- building,” Stalder said.
South fine arts department chair Joshua Goode said he sees firsthand how the gallery on his campus benefits and supports student success.
“The gallery enhances learning by offering real-world exposure to professional art practices, hosting dynamic exhibitions and fostering creative dialogue among students, faculty and visiting artists,” Goode said.
Penelope Bisbee, gallery coordinator on SE, said although she wishes her campus had an enclosed, professional gallery, she is grateful that her campus at least has something compared to NE.
“I feel like any school that offers studio art classes should have some kind of gallery because sort of like the end step when you’re making art is that you put it out into the world,” Bisbee said. “If you don’t offer that, you’re missing a step there.”
When art is displayed on NE, it is typically done in a classroom or in a regular hallway between classrooms and bathrooms. This is seen as not ideal due to the possibility of theft and lack of space for most art, some art students and faculty said.
Crissy de la Torre is a continuing education student currently enrolled in ceramics and music classes. She said she didn’t realize what the art department had to offer until she started exploring the fine arts building on campus.
“I just thought it was theater, and there’s a whole art building back over here,” de la Torre said. “Advertisement for the programs would be really helpful in getting more involvement.”
Ivette Ramos, a ceramics II student, said a NE art gallery would help her peers become more comfortable in their art.
“Because if the students are really concentrated in become an artist, this can be something that they can experiment and be the first gallery that they can introduce and know how the process and what they need to have in record in the experience,” Ramos said.
Isabel Guerrero, another Ceramics I student, said she feels more confident in her work when it is shown outside of the learning space.
“It feels nice when your stuff is on display and you can be really proud of your work,” Guerrero said. “And like for me, I just take it home and I’m like, but I want to show multiple people my work, so it would be nice to be able to have a place where you can be like ‘Hey, this is something I worked a long time on,’ because I know for a lot of us we spend hours on our work.”
Callie Davis, a continuing education student, said a gallery would be good for NE because students would be exposed to the professional realm of the art world and give them a taste of what their future could look like.
“We have a couple of people in here taking classes that are so talented, and they are going to go on to bigger things,” she said.
Mary Becker, a NE art associate professor, started as an adjunct in 2009 and said even then she was seeking information on an art gallery.
“There have been multiple discussions about it,” Becker said. “At one point, we even had funding I think from North Richland Hills to build a gallery, and we don’t know what happened.”
Perez said NE also lacks space and depth for its art department.
“We don’t have storage facilities. We have storage capabilities limited to the materials and the works produced in our classrooms,” she said. “So, in addition to the actual physical footprint of a gallery, our concerns are about security, lighting, access to the space that is only designated for those purposes.”
