The new art loft, located next to the James Kaneko Gallery, was opened this semester by the American River College Fine Arts Club for students to work on their art projects.
It is mainly a free space for art students to work on assignments and art projects, but other students can work there too.
Art club students are free to work in the art loft during the open schedule and other times there isn’t a class in session.
To use the art loft, students have to be a member of the fine arts club and sign a waiver in agreement with the rules of use.
The loft is located on the second story in art classroom 504 in the Fine and Applied Arts area, next to the Kaneko.
Painting classes that were previously held in classroom 504 were moved to the arts and science building, making the art loft in the room available for use.
Many ARC students and members of the art club worked hard over the summer to make the upstairs space available for art students to work in.
Blanca Bastida, president of the art club, came up with the idea to utilize the loft and make it available mainly for art students to work in.
“The art loft was a project that came up over the summer,” Bastida said. “We wanted to make it into a place where artists could work, or just regular students that come up here to take a break.”
Bastida worked alongside instructional assistant Dolores White, art department chair Jodie Hooker and faculty advisers Patricia Wood and Craig Martinez to make the loft open for student use.
According to Bastida, the art loft was empty before they decided to make use of it for students to come up and work on their things.
Brad Carps, who had his art displayed in the ARC library stairwell earlier this fall, uses the art loft to work on his art.
“Its one of the best places to get the best natural light on campus,” Carps said of the loft.
(Photo by Lidiya Grib)
The upstairs loft has large windows on one side of the room, lighting it up and creating a lighting that is enjoyed by the artists.
“The art loft is basically an open art lab for members of the fine arts club to go to work on their projects,” Carps went on to say.
Carps explained that he used to work in the library before the art loft was made available.
“There’s a whole bunch of computer science labs, for example, but there wasn’t an area for artists to just go and draw,” Carps said.
“It’s a fun place to work and you can also do homework in there too,” Carps said.
Aerial Sudds, ARC student and vice president of the art club, took part in helping to make the art loft ready and available for student use.
“The art loft has been up there for ages, but it didn’t get the use it deserves at all because the lighting up there is so juicy.”
Sudds uses the art loft to work on her paintings for her painting class on campus.
“I sometimes come early before my painting class and go up there and paint,” Sudds said.
Sudds described working in there as “a very calm and collective environment”.
“It’s really cool working with other artists up there,” Sudds said. “Especially everyone just gets together and works on these little wood blocks”.
Erica Campbell is another vice president of the art club, and she contributed in making the art loft ready for student use.
“It’s so sunny and nice up there,” Campbell said of the space that she uses to work on her art.
Campbell talked about improvements that they planned on making to the art loft to make the loft more inviting.
“We want to put some plants up there to make it more inviting,” Campbell said. “We’re (also) looking to see if we can get more time opened up”.
Campbell hosts painting workshops using wood blocks on Fridays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the art loft.
“Brad Carps and Max Marchol have been cutting up (the wood blocks) for us and we do these mini works of art on the blocks to sell for a fundraiser,” she explained.
They have club meetings in the art loft, on the first week of every month; Mondays at 5 p.m. and Thursdays at 11:30 a.m.
The art loft open schedule for this semester is on Monday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Friday from 9-4 p.m.
