Gallery East

This archived article was written by: Melissa Spencer

For the past 25 years the College of Eastern Utah has been host to the only fine arts venue in the southeastern part of the state, Gallery East. The director of the gallery Brent Hadock said, “this gallery provides two things, it provides an educational experience for our students and the community in the surrounding area. And its second purpose is to provide a venue for local artists to show their work, thus we try to do at least one local show a year.”
Right now in the gallery there is a show entitled Alumni and Friends. The show is taken mainly from the college’s extensive permanent collection. The pieces in CEUs permanent collection come from a variety of sources including alumni who have donated their work to the college and purchases made from the annual student show each spring semester.
Some of the more interesting art the college owns includes work by Lyn and Dean Fosset, famous local artists and a few paintings from the Great Depression commissioned by the Work Progress Administration. Many of the pieces in the collection are available to be put in offices around campus upon request.
This year the Gallery has moved into a new space in the old SAC from their previous location in the Old Reeves Building. Haddock commented, “at first we weren’t happy with this, but since we’ve been in here and worked with it, we’ve been able to accommodate some things and I think its turned out to be a really nice space for art.” The new gallery features 900 extra square feet, lots of natural light, high ceilings and a more museum feel than the old gallery.
The gallery is financed in three ways: through student fees, grants and community support. Most of the money comes from the students fees, it provides for many of the basic needs of the gallery. “The student fees have been very good to support us all these years,” Haddock said. Grants provided by the Utah Office of Museum Services and the Utah Arts Council provide money to purchase art, buy equipment so that all the art can be matted and framed on campus and take shows to remote locations like Blanding.
The art presently being shown in the gallery will be up until the Christmas break.
In January Gallery East will host a printmaking show by the Southern Graphics Council from Georgia.
February will bring Jean Arnold paintings and March will be a show by Brian Hoover, head of the art department at SUU. In April the biggest show of the year, the Student Art Exhibit will be displayed until the end of the year.