Student Art Installation Transforms Vacant Space in Wellesley Center

Reacting to Space, Students Create an Installation for The Wellesley Community Art Project

Students in Assistant Professor of Art Daniela Rivera's Advanced Drawing class have left their mark on a vacant storefront in Wellesley Center. The students spent two hours on November 19 in the empty retail space creating an installation by reacting to the space through drawing.

The work, now on display at 98 Central St. (between Mini Luxe & Boloco), was created as part of the Wellesley Community Art Project, a "collaboration between community artists, retail property owners and the Town of Wellesley,"

"Through repetitive and rhythmic marks the artists will attempt to create a piece that will generate a new visualization and experience of the space," Rivera wrote in a description of the project for The Wellesley Community Art Project blog, hosted by the Wellesley Townsman and Wicked Local.

Rivera went on to discribe the inspiration for the project; "As a starting point for this collaboration students reacted to short stories written by Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar. Rather than creating illustrations for his narratives, the artists will attempt to embody through drawing and installation, the experiences and sensations produced by the text."

According to a course description, Advanced Drawing is a class aimed towards helping advanced art students develop greater visual, conceptual and spatial flexibility. The course explores drawing as a critical thinking process as well as an art form.

For more about the Wellesley Community Art Project, read "Local Art Fills Vacant Wellesley Storefronts" in the Wellesley Townsman. To see photos from the Wellesley student installation at 98 Central street, view "Making Art Together," a photo gallery on Boston.com.