Beauty in Repetition

Interdisciplinary artist Shailee Thakkar brought her work on volume and accumulation to Dana Hall as the latest Scattergood-Moore Artist-in-Residence. During the month of September, she lived on campus, used the Dana Hall Art Gallery as a studio, and worked with students in Studio Art, Exploring Design and ArtLAB on various projects.

She began a gallery window installation made up of translucent sticky notes where the student-artists focused on creating quick, hand-drawn sketches. They then moved to large-scale white squares where they picked a theme and repeated it to fill up the space. “They weren’t chasing perfection,” Thakkar said, “and once they started, some students wanted to change their mind and start over, but the goal was to keep at it, finish it and move on.”

The students also gained experience installing a gallery show. With Thakkar’s help, they learned to use a level, hang artwork and curate a space — even get on a ladder and adjust lighting — for their show “Strength in Numbers,” featuring nearly 40 artists.

“I enjoyed getting to know the students,” Thakkar said. “The art exhibition assignment was a good way to find out about their interests, but I really enjoyed attending the students’ sporting events, talking about their families and eating meals with them. Some of the students are away from home for the first time and others are making plans to go to college. It was a range of experiences shared, and I enjoyed making these connections. The residency ended up being a wonderful catalyst for that.”

The Artist-in-Residence Program was established in 2016 by a Dana Hall alumna in honor of long-time Dana art teacher Gene Scattergood-Moore to bring in up-and-coming artists to show their work and collaborate with students. Thakkar is the seventh artist-in-residence to visit Dana Hall through this program.

“Since we began the program, students have enjoyed meeting the artists who have visited campus, learning about their studio practice and seeing their work in progress,” said Michael Frassinelli, Visual Arts Department Head. “We were especially lucky this year because Ms. Thakkar helped to inspire the students to create their own work, which was included in the gallery show.”