The Visual Arts Guild (VAG) welcomed the Calvin community on Dec. 1 for “Subarts: Pomegranates in the Sky,” a night of food, visual art and music in the Spoelhof Center basement. As the guild’s fall arts show, the event showcased student submissions across a variety of media.

Normally used for painting and drawing courses, the building transformed into a venue for displaying student art. Paintings, charcoal drawings and digital works hung along the hallways, while the painting studio housed ceramic pieces and mixed media creations, as well as a few more paintings. Senior Molly DeDona’s “Whimsical Landscape Series,” a group of ceramic sculptures, stood on raised platforms at the room’s center.

“These forms were greatly inspired by Pictured Rocks up in Munising, Mich., which is near the cabin my extended family owns,” the artist said. “This is the first exhibition outside of my [Bachelor of Fine Arts] review that my pieces were in, so it was exciting … to have fellow peers be able to see them.”

As attendees wandered through the displays, they enjoyed Mediterranean food from a table catered by the Pita House. After piling their plates with falafel, baba ganoush, hummus and baklava, many chose to settle in the drawing studio and listen to student musicians from the Pop Music Guild. Brendan Murphy and Alejandra Crevier sang and played the guitar, and William VanZytveld played piano selections.

Outside the drawing studio, attendees had the chance to buy prints of student artwork, such as sketches of Harry Potter characters and abstract paintings.
“I think people enjoyed the opportunity to buy works from the artists,” said VAG president Bekah Inman, a senior.

The event also included a ceramics sale benefiting the West Michigan branch of Feeding America, a national network of food pantries. Down the hall, other volunteers sold the year’s T-shirt, designed by Inman, which showed pomegranate seeds transforming into stars.

Attendees could also buy vintage T-shirts from previous Subarts shows — many also designed by Inman — for a discounted price. They left the event with reminders of previous show themes, including “Farenheit // Celsius” (Spring 2013), “Macabre” (Fall 2015),  “15 Years of Too Many Dinner Parties” (Spring 2016) and “Ode to My Imaginary Friend” (Spring 2017).

“We had too many of [the vintage T-shirts] and needed them to go. We still have too many of them and need them to go,” laughed Inman.

Both Inman and DeDona appreciated seeing non-art majors, who rarely venture into the Spoelhof Center’s lower levels, at the event.

“The art basement does not get much traffic, so it is always refreshing to see new faces down there,” said DeDona.

Inman enjoyed overhearing attendees from all over campus converse about their friends’ work and examine “what was pleasing to them visually.”

“I always appreciate when other majors can participate in those discussions,” she said.

VAG will host another Subarts show in the spring and will announce its theme early next semester.