Wednesday, Oct 29, 2014
Bridging the gap between majors with pencils, paint and paper.
by Natasha Fuller
Dreaming of becoming a pastry chef his senior year of high school and entering 91 as a business major, senior Louis Esposito never imagined he would end up as a Visual Arts Major and co-founder of the 91 Art Society.
With its home base located in the Rider Fine Arts building, room 353, the Art Society meets on Wednesdays to draw, paint, talk, and get their creative juices flowing in a comfortable and supportive environment. Esposito says the Art Society was founded “so that people who are not in the program can join us and be able to draw, paint and learn about art.” The visual arts may be primarily a solitary art form, but Esposito says, “You need to have personal friends with whom you can talk about art, because it can be a very lonely life working in a studio all day.”
While the majority of the Art Society is composed of Visual Art majors, the club welcomes students from every major. Senior Kaitlin Hampshire is a double major in History and Fine Arts and a two-year member of the Art Society.
“Anyone who has an appreciation for art is welcome,” says Hampshire. “We love to bring in more people!”
While the Art Society provides a fostering studio environment for students of all majors, its reach goes beyond the doors of Fine Arts 353.
“It’s not just about painting in the studio, it’s also about having connections,” says Esposito. Last November, the Art Society participated in its first Trenton ArtWorks public art show, and this year its members plan to do the same. Using a variety of mediums, the Art Society will present their paper-based artwork at the Art All Day show in Trenton on November 8. This show gives the students the opportunity to present their work in a public space, which they may otherwise never get to do.
The members also find time to step outside the studio to visit and learn from other artists.
“We have plans to go see the Matisse cut-out show,” says Esposito. “Along with that we also go to the Met and to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.”
Through their artistic exploration in the studio and historical understanding of the visual arts, the Rider Art Society impacts the student’s education in many ways.
“The Art Society has taught me how to see the beauty in every work of art as well as how to climb into the mind of the artist and figure out what they were thinking,” says Hampshire. “But the most important thing it has taught me is that you might not have known as much as you thought you did.”
The Art Society whose advisor is Professor Deborah Rosenthal, invites the students of 91 and Westminster Choir College to learn about art and develop their artistic skills at the weekly meetings on the Lawrenceville campus in Fine Arts 353 on Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. Open model sessions will be held on November 5 and 19 from 3 to 5 p.m. in Fine Arts 353. Bring your own supplies. Contact Louis Esposito at espositol@rider.edu for questions or more information on the 91 Art Society.
The Trenton ArtWorks Art All Day exhibit will be held on Saturday, November 8 from 12 to 8 p.m. Learn more at