The Art Students Committee, founded 10 years ago by art students at Oberlin College, is an organization that seeks to raise awareness of the arts, bring in more artist lectures, connect students to professors and put on more shows in which students can show their work. The commitee’s current chair is Garrett Miller, a junior studio art and art history double major with a minor in computer science.

In a snowy Sunday afternoon talk, Miller explained to me the ways in which ASC wants to expand upon its goals and work toward a thriving future of the arts at Oberlin College.

One of Miller’s main concerns is the lack of student art exhibits. “There is tons of work being produced in studio art classes,” says Miller, “but hardly any of it is ever seen outside of classroom critiques.” To remedy this, ASC put on a show at the Buick dealership last fall.

Miller wants to expand upon that great success by having more shows in which students can feel confident about showing their artwork. Additionally, Miller is interested in making art more accessible to the entire Oberlin community.

“The art building is far away from the rest of campus, and nearly isolated,” said Miller. “For this reason, many people do not even know that it exists. When I mention Fisher Gallery [the student art space] to people outside of the art department, they rarely know what I am talking about.”

In order to make the art building and Fisher Gallery more visible, Miller is going to create an ASC website that will include directions to Fisher Gallery.

Another problem that Miller has encountered within the art department is professors who are not very committed to showing student work.

“Most professors are working artists themselves, so they are already juggling between their jobs as professors and their careers as artists. It is difficult for them to have time to work on getting student art shown when they are already so busy with their own lives. For this reason it is up to us [the students] to give visibility to student art work!” says Miller.

Important upcoming projects Miller is planning are the rewriting of the ASC charter (last revised in 1997), a rewriting of the budget proposal and a re-defining of the organization’s mission statement.

Also, in light of President Nancy Dye’s decision to cut arts funding, Miller feels that it is crucial for the ASC to become more visible and work harder.

“Oberlin is a unique place where you can get a mixed education. Though it is not the College’s fault that they are in a budget deficit, it is important to think about the ways that the arts have really shaped Oberlin’s identity. If the arts are cut, I fear that Oberlin’s identity will be slowly slipping away as well. We need student involvement right now more than ever.”

Interested in joining ASC? Stop by Wilder Main lobby at 3 PM on Sunday to get involved!