West Virginia artist Brian Michael Reed visited the Visual Arts Center Friday to offer some feedback on student capstone projects along with professor and VAC Director Sandra Reed.

Brian Reed is a Clay County native and recently had an exhibit open at the Huntington Museum of Art titled “Brian Michael Reed: A Conversation with the Huntington Museum of Art.”

“I am honored and have been touched by the outreach and interest from the arts communities in Huntington,” Brian Reed said. “My invitation to participate with the college of art students was one of the highlights of the last month’s experiences. The students at the school of art impressed me greatly. I was pleased to see director Sandra Reed’s passionate involvement helping students summarize their experiences at the school of art with a professional development course.”

This checkpoint allows the students to see where they are and what areas have room for improvement, ultimately finalizing their capstone projects before installation. The 18 students are in three groups of six, each group having their work up for a week at a time. The projects contain a variety of mediums, including digital, ceramic and installation pieces.

Brian gave feedback to each student, focusing on their artist statements and other parts of the projects.

“My greatest hope is that students will pick and choose from my comments what felt right for them,” Brian Reed said. “I was happy that each student took very good notes to reference later and I hope they will write me later and ask more follow up questions as they have had more time to think. Art school is a place to experiment and try many new techniques until you can create some systems that help you produce the works you feel communicate your ideas best. I am looking forward to seeing the final exhibitions and hearing from each artist if my comments might have contributed to any evolutions in their works.”

The students have two months to finalize their projects before installation begins in the Carroll Art Gallery located inside the VAC in April.

“Brian added a currency in global perspective,” Sandra Reed said. “Since he has a studio in New York and China, he has seen so many exhibitions as part of his own kind of self-education, and able to bring additional artists’ names or description of work that’s been shown in major museums very recently, it’s bringing a broader scope to the students’ perspective of their work.”

“Young artists need a community of support and encouragement to help them have faith in themselves and their ability to pursue a life within the arts,” Brian Reed said.  “I hope I was able to provide them all with more encouragement and determination to remain creative throughout their lives.”

Hannah Swartz can be contacted at [email protected].