Gallery Education

The Atkinson Gallery is a Learning Laboratory.

Education Programs:

Gallery tours & discussions: The gallery director leads College classes and community groups in discussions of current exhibits with a focus on visual literacy and critical thinking. Recent groups tours have been from the Studio Art, Art History, English and Spanish departments, as well as from regional high schools and senior centers.
Artist lectures: The gallery, with the art department, also hosts a series of public lectures by artists and art historians regarding their work and current issues in the field.
In-class critiques with gallery director/visiting artists: The gallery director and visiting artists lead and/or participate in in-class critiques of student work — providing the experience of professional studio visits for our students.
In-class lectures on contemporary art related to course subject area: The gallery director collaborates with faculty across campus to plan custom contemporary art lectures that directly relate to their courses. For example, for an English class beginning to read, Middle Passage, the gallery director led a facilitated conversation about five contemporary artists who address the legacy and impact of slavery in their work.
Internship program: Each year interns are selected through a competitive process to work in the gallery gaining hands-on training in curating, marketing, exhibition design, and arts administration.

Professional Artist Exhibits:

Each year, the Atkinson Gallery presents up to 5 exhibits of work by professional contemporary artists from around the region, the nation and the world. These exhibits provide students with the opportunity to engage with expert examples of what is taught in the classroom.

Student Artist Exhibits:

Annual Student Exhibition: Each year we offer students the opportunity of participating in a professional art exhibition with works that were produced as part of their coursework at SBCC.

2024 Annual Student Exhibition and Scholarship Announcement
April 17 - May 10, 2024
Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony: Wednesday, April 17th, 3:30-5:30 pm

STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS:

Applicants for this year's Annual Student Exhibition will need to submit an application with a Google Slides link of their work (maximum five pieces) to the gallery director by Friday, March 15th, 2024. Please include Image, Title, Date, Medium, Dimensions and Class for which the work was made. If you have any questions please email Gallery Director John Connelly: [email protected]
Atkinson Gallery Annex: The gallery's Curatorial Outreach and Education intern curates — from conceptualization to execution — exhibitions of fellow students’ work for various Gallery Annexes. Please keep a look out for announcements on Canvas regarding open calls for Annex Exhibitions.

Student Scholarships:

Students applying for Art Department scholarships must submit a digital portfolio of four (4) pieces of artwork by Friday, March 1, 2024. Instructions on how to submit your application through NextGen Scholarship Manager can be found in the link below. All scholarship applicants will be automatically considered for the Annual Student Exhibition. If you do not want your scholarship submissions to also be considered for the student show please indicate this in your application.

You can find more information on SBCC Scholarships here.

Please note: Art scholarships and awards are based either solely, or in major part, on merit, portfolio review, and faculty recommendation. Regardless, applicants for either the Luria or Osborne Scholarships must complete the financial portion of the scholarship application.

Scholarships for 2023-24:
Eli Luria Honorary Scholarship in Studio Art
Adrian "Ozz" Osborne Memorial Art Scholarship
Frederick and Ursula Perl Endowed Art Scholarship
Mary D Thompson Studio Art Scholarship
Ventura Potters Guild Award in Ceramics

Please be sure to include full caption details in your submissions, including title, date, medium and dimensions (height x width x depth) and arrange to take good quality photographs of the finished work. For questions regarding photography please ask your instructors for guidance.

Announcement of scholarship recipients will be announced at the opening of the Annual Student Exhibition which will take place on Wednesday, April 17th, 2024, at 4:00 pm.