‘Where the Sidewalk Ends, Spring 2023 BFA Exit Show’ celebrates graduating students

Ushering in graduation season, the Lamar Dodd School of Art proudly presents Where the Sidewalk Ends, BFA Spring 2023 Exit Show in the Dodd Galleries, an exhibition organized by and featuring the work of 42 graduating BFA students. This exhibition marks a milestone for studio art undergraduates completing their studies at the Dodd.

To accommodate the volume of art on display, the exhibition is split into two rounds. The first group’s opening reception will be held on Friday, April 7th from 6 to 8 pm and will be on view through April 13th. The second group’s opening reception will be held on Friday, April 21st from 6 to 8 pm and will be on view through April 27th. Where The Sidewalk Ends is free to attend and features an array of work, including ceramics, painting, metalwork, photography, and more.

Student artists will be showcasing disparate ideas across a variety of practices and media. Artists featured in the show include Wakefield Ausband, whose paintings blend elements of landscape and architectural forms into dynamic, expressive explorations of abstraction. Painter TM Pruitt presents a series of table paintings formed through the collage of personal memory and experience. Jeweler Sarah Baird takes inspiration from childhood games she played and diaries she kept, abstracting traumatic experiences from childhood into wearable jewelry.

The exhibition title Where The Sidewalk Ends is a reference to Shel Silverstein’s poem of the same name. Catie Cook, an exhibiting artist, commented on the resonance of the show’s title, “there couldn’t be a more perfect metaphor for the period of transition from college to real life. This exit show is the culmination of our work at The Lamar Dodd and, in many ways, the end of an era. I think we can all, on some level, relate to the sentiments Silverstein put forward in his poem.”

Read a brief excerpt below —

“Yes, we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

For the children, they mark, and the children, they know

The place where the sidewalk ends.”

What lies ahead is unknown, full of excitement and possibility. As their sidewalk ends, graduating students are mourning a closing chapter in their arts education while embracing an open future inviting many possibilities.

Instructor Jaime Bull, who is curating the exhibition and has guided this cohort of students in the spring capstone exit course, remarked, “What an exciting semester — team-teaching with fellow instructor Maria Artemis, working with this group of inspiring artists who are engaged in conversations ranging from the climate crisis to dreams and nightmares to identity to exploring personal relationships and so much more. These two rounds of exhibitions, featuring exceptionally talented artists, are going to be stellar and should not be missed.”

Show 1

Opening reception — Friday, April 7, 6 – 8 pm

On view — April 7 – 13, 2023

Jacqueline Adams
Wakefield Ausband
Thomas Brock
Jordan Campbell
Catie Cook
Jake Dean
Temple Douglass
Kiry Head
Emma Knapp
Sarah Landmesser
Rachel Leyers
Eli Macdonald
Caroline May
Angelica Millen
Riley Parker
Ellery Payne
Zach Thompson
Siana Tupper

Show 2

Opening reception — Friday, April 21, 6 – 8 pm

On view — April 21 – 27, 2023

Sarah Baird
William Ballard
Graham Beveridge
Nathan Beveridge
Jackie Foley
Jasmine Fox
Tayler Harben
Ella Hopkins
Ben Knerler
SangBin Lee
Caitlin Marsh
Emilie Moon
Aidan Mooney
Zoie Oliver
Isabella Owens
Maggie Pennington
Jean Perkerson
Claire Power
TM Pruitt
Maya Ragbeer
Madison Riner
Grace Sizemore
Hannah Thigpen
Quynh Tien Tran