Four years of hard work in Dickinson’s art department came to a poignant culmination this past Friday, April 28, with the opening of the exhibition “In More Ways Than One.”

Five studio art majors, Talia Amorosano ’17, Willa Hut ’17, Rachel Rectenwald ’17, Megan Robitaille ’17 and Noah Thompson ’17, presented their respective theses at the Weiss Center for the Arts to a reception of students, faculty, relatives and members of the Carlisle community.

The seniors began the process in the fall semester with a studio seminar comprised of critiques, selected readings, museum visits and artist interviews. In the spring, those same seniors continued that critique-based sequence while preparing a fully developed thesis work for the exhibition. Also included in the curricula were their descriptions for the supplemental catalog handed out at the show in which students described their personal connections to their works, which included collages, a painting on plexiglass and a shrine dedicated to a broken Xbox console.

Amorosano, whose work combined digital photography and spray-painted objects, thought that the camaraderie of the majors was the largest benefit to the process: “we all have such different styles, philosophies and methods but are able to challenge and help each other out along the way.”

Other students used diverse mediums to express themselves. Thompson’s feature included an array of photographs representing queer identity of different time periods. Photography as a passion did not develop for Thompson until Dickinson after encouragement from a professor propelled him to pursue the technique. “My studio practice, along with my English studies, have served as an opportunity to learn more about a lineage of queer art and literature and finding out how I can carry my identity through my work.” Photographs featured several Dickinson students portrayed in intimacy, with costumes derived from the Victorian era thru the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

The exhibition inspired some rising seniors who plan on stepping into these shoes next year, such as Amanda Paterson ’18: “it really motivated me to move out of my comfort zone by considering working in more innovative mediums. It’s amazing how much one can mature artistically in just a year thorough the artistic collaboration of their peers and professors.”

The students’ art will be on display until May 20.