Step into a world of artistic wonder with the School of Visual and Performing Arts. This month marks their Annual Student Show.

Program Coordinator and Gallery Director for Art & Design Dr. Mark Rigsby described the intensity of the submission process.

“Some of the students…they may have spent, you know, 15 to 30 minutes on it,” he explained. “Other projects…they may have spent months on that.”

Students from across the school’s disciplines submitted hundreds of works of art from a variety of mediums. The submissions categories are foundations, drawing, painting, ceramic, sculpture, and graphic design. Students could submit up to five original works made since March of last year. They all had to be class projects.

The artworks are currently on display in the Gallery of Art & Design in the George Hurst Building. It is open to the public for free from 10am until 5pm. The last day to view the artwork is April 5.

To evaluate the diversity of works provided, the showcase has an interdisciplinary team of jurors. This year’s jurors are all alumni from the University of Southern Mississippi: sculptor Jason Kimes, art instructor Melanie Eubanks, and creative director of RARE Design Ethan Manning. They selected the works based on craftsmanship, design, quality, and more.

The art on display showcases a variety of skill sets. There are posters, advertisements, magazines, film trailers, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and more.

Junior Dakota Owens has three pieces in the showcase: a poster, a steel sculpture, and the packaging he designed for a fictional food truck. He designed the poster in Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. He made the sculpture of molded and melted sheets of iron. Owens is a graphic design major hoping to work in advertising. He appreciates the school’s interdisciplinary arts curriculum.

“I like being able to have a variety of different backgrounds, like drawing and painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design – I like that our program has all those different avenues to it,” he said.

Rigsby and Owens both spoke on how important it is for the general public to engage with art.

“I think we’re all impacted by the arts, whether it’s music, theater, dance, visual art,” Rigsby said. “…art is all around us. Art is what makes, in many ways, life worth living.”

Owens echoed similar sentiments.

“I feel like art is very human,” he said. “It’s something that everyone participates in without realizing.”