Gallery r showcases process of unfinished art

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Elizabeth Torgerson-Lamark

Glass bird by Meng Du, a graduate student in RIT’s glass program

Unwrap your imagination this holiday season and discover the real story behind those finished pieces of art you find in museums, galleries and collections.

Graduate students from Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Crafts are exploring the artistic strategies behind jewelry, glass, ceramics and furniture design in a new exhibition, “Creative Process: From ideation to realization,” at Gallery r, 100 College Ave. The show begins with a First Friday artist reception from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Dec. 7, and runs through Jan. 4.

“This unusual exhibition will provide a rare window into the creative processes that our students engage in every day,” says Robin Cass, chair of RIT’s School for American Crafts. “Visitors will get to see drawings, models, and experiments; the raw evidence of ideas taking shape in clay, wood, metal and glass.”

Zerbe Sodervick, Gallery r coordinator and director of extended studies at RIT, says works of art can be appreciated from all states of development.

“It is rare when galleries share the preliminaries for art, craft and design work,” Sodervick says. “The raw beginnings, the research for delineating conceptual thinking, producing ideation drawings, moquettes and models are those privileged glimpses at what is promised to evolve.”

Gallery r is a student-run metro showcase administrated by RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences. The gallery is open for the holiday season from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, offers handicap access, and parking curbside and free in adjoining parking lots on College Avenue. For more information, call 585-256-3312 or e-mail galleryr99@gmail.com.