BY KALEIGH SKINNER
kaskinne@go.olemiss.edu
The University of Mississippi Department of Art will showcase its student work this weekend at the Double Decker festival with multiple live demonstrations in Meek Hall on Friday and tents on the Square to sell student work on Saturday.
The Ole Miss Print Club, also known as the Print Rebellion, will host a letterpress demonstration in Room 113 of Meek Hall from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday. Viewers will learn how letterpress works and have the opportunity to participate as well. Participants can print a color on a poster and take it home.
“It’s really fun to show the community what’s going on in the art scene within the art department, and we look at it as an opportunity to broaden their knowledge of what we’re doing,” visual arts specialist Ross Turner said.
The Rebel Sculpture Society will also host demonstrations on the sculpture lawn at Meek Hall from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m Friday. Ole Miss sculpture students will use a cupola furnace to melt aluminum, bronze or iron to make into pieces for viewers to buy and take home.
“We’re going to be melting those types of metals and pouring them into molds,” first-year sculpture graduate student Seth Thibodaux said. “I’m glad I’ll be able to run a furnace for that and just get it out to the public.”
Turner said the public will be able to either create or pick a mold for the molten metal to be poured into and then purchase the piece after it cools and is treated by the sculpture students.
“It’s a lot of fun to watch,” Turner said. “There will be sparks flying everywhere and liquid hot metal coming out all over the place.”
He said the public will not participate in pouring the metal for safety reasons, but the sculpture students who do will wear protective gear to ensure their safety.
Ole Miss ceramics students, called the Mud Daubers, will also be outside Meek Hall from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday for a ceramics demonstration.
On Saturday each group will be selling its works in front of Square Books in tents 96, 97, 98 and 99 during the Double Decker festival.
Art major and co-president of the Mud Daubers Mike Cinelli said their tent will have functional items such as plates, bowls and mugs for sale. All items were made by undergraduate and graduate students at the university.
The Print Rebellion tent will have student artwork, student printmaking artwork and even some professional letterpress work by Cage Free Press, according to Turner.
The Rebel Sculpture Society will also have student work for sale.
