By Olivia Semsel, Arts Management Intern
Our fifth Student Response Exhibition, Outside the Box, is open, and you can come check out the unique creations of 34 students (and vote for your favorite)!
This is our next post in a series featuring the student artists who have created one or more pieces displayed in Outside the Box.
Meet our featured artist, Elizabeth Grace Huddleston!
Elizabeth Grace is a Senior Urban & Regional Planning Major, with minors in French and Individualized Studies, from Oxford, OH!
She came to Miami because it was a good value and she could graduate with minimal debt. In Oxford, Elizabeth Grace is involved in the Public Arts Commission of Oxford, and the Oxford Community Arts Center. She enjoys practicing ceramics, paper-making, photography, and cycling. Her favorite genre of art is Environmental/Land Art, and her dream job is to be the Programming Director for an Arts or Environmental Organization, or be the mayor of a college town!
The Student Response Exhibition asked students to think beyond physical limits with the concept of a box. For Elizabeth Grace’s piece, titled R1E T5, she states,
“This paper quilt is an investigation into the nature of surveying and platting. Beginning in Eastern Ohio, surveyors divided the country into six-mile squares. These squares, or townships, are the result of the Federal Land Ordinance of 1785 and subsequent Public Land Survey System. Miami University was established by the same ordinance. “Ohio’s College Township” was known to surveyors as R1E T5. Elizabeth Grace re-contextualizes this history by abstracting the actions of platting into the traditionally feminine craft of quilting. Equal squares of papers in differing fibers, textures, and colors are used to represent the natural topography, population, and use for each township. The randomized and distributed placement of each township in this quilted map is intentional, creating a fictitious but believable ‘landscape.'”
Come see the exhibition and vote for your top three favorites! Voting will continue until April 6 and the exhibition celebration and awards ceremony will be held on April 9, from 7-9 p.m.
