Marist’s Art and Digital Media Faculty Show Benefits Staff and Students Alike

Ed Smith's bronze pieces, along with other faculty members' work at the Faculty Art Show. Photo by Ava Battinelli '26.

From Amy Finke’s photography to Ed Smith’s bronze sculptures, and Julia Whitney Barnes’ cyanotype paintings to Steve Petruccio’s illustrations, the Art and Digital Media Faculty Show has a little bit of everything from Marist University’s art and digital media faculty members. 

The gallery was open from Sept. 24 to Oct. 17. The primary purpose is to expose professors’ work to the Marist community, in order for students to make informed decisions about who they’d like to learn from. This way, students can see what professors excel in certain areas, and base their class selection on the work the professors have produced. 

The show also acts as a medium to expose the community to digital art and media, as an up-and-coming form of art. When Smith, current Gallery Director and Professor of Art at Marist, first put on the show, digital media played a subset part in the gallery, but as time goes on, it plays a larger and larger role. For example, Professor of Digital Media, Matt Frieburghaus, has a video projected on the back wall of the gallery. 

As Gallery Director, Smith is responsible for curating galleries, so each year, a team of students is hired to learn how to assemble a gallery under Smith’s tutelage. 

The director teaches students the essential aspects of a gallery, such as correct heights and pronunciation of the pieces, but also focuses on the little details, such as the correct way to put a nail on the wall and extract it. 

“A lot of these kids who work for me, historically, go on to work in New York Art galleries... They become curators and directors of galleries and places all over. So they learn from me, about how to do this and how you negotiate this strange world of art,” Smith said. 

This year, Smith’s team is made up of almost entirely new hires. In past years, Smith tended to hire freshmen and sophomores so they could grow and learn through their Marist career, but with a large graduating class last year, Smith was left with only one experienced worker. 

This presented a challenge not only for Smith but the students alike. 

“And as you well know, while it's nice to learn from your professors, you learn as much from your peers,” he said. They can't learn from their peers because they only have one student, Emma McCormack, who was able to stay.”

Smith noted that sometimes the students must rearrange and revamp the gallery up to six times before they’ve done it correctly. 

“And the students rise to that occasion, and that's a beautiful thing,” he said. 

Smith has been the gallery director for over 22 years, as far back as when Steel Plant was actually a steel plant. Ultimately, when the fashion department acquired the building, it held one of the largest galleries in the Hudson Valley. 

When the Steel Plant was under renovation, the gallery moved to 51 Fulton, which meant a much smaller space. Once it was time to move back to Steel Plant, the gallery space was different; not as idiosyncratic as it was, Smith noted. 

“Now it's more of a beautiful white cube. So the show has changed because the space has changed. The faculty has changed; I’m one of the very last of the faculty who were at the beginning of Steel Plant,” he said. “So the character of the work has changed as well.”

Smith’s work, however, has remained consistent. The artist works with lost wax-casting, an ancient process of creating metal sculptures through a mold. Smith’s pieces have been cast around the globe, from Nebraska to as far as Europe. 

Smith said, “The staff that I work with and the students who work with me are just marvelous young people who are very attentive, who learn and who are very, very serious.”