To showcase these various forms of art across campus the Carolina Union Activities Board held a tour of hidden art on Tuesday afternoon. The tour included oil paintings, charcoal works and etchings owned by the University, the artists or private donors.
"We decided to do this because there's so much art that goes unappreciated on campus because people just don't know about it," said Jenny Blankenship, CUAB committee member and art history major.
Blankenship and senior psychology major Lisa Wald organized the two-hour tour, which visited various campus locations that showcase artwork. The walk began at the Ackland Art Museum, and other stops included Morehead Planetarium and Wilson Library.
But many went unvisited because of the vast number of galleries and exhibits at UNC. "We're talking about doing this again in the spring because there are so many places we can't get to in one day," Wald said.
The tour shuffled across North and Middle campuses and found a portrait from Rembrandt's studio in the Planetarium's rotunda.
Another stop on the tour was the Center for International Studies Gallery, which hosts InternationArt, an ongoing rotating exhibit. Local artist Laura Farrow is the featured artist in the Center, and her work reflects a recent spiritual journey to India, said Tessa Dean, who guided the center's part of the tour.
The guides at each location were eager to inform the group of future exhibits and gallery visiting hours, expressing the lack of attention paid to campus art.
Baxley met the tour in Wilson Library. Perusing through the new exhibit of naturalist studies, the tour group got a privileged look at several pieces not usually available for public viewing, including a watercolor by Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
As many of the tour's artwork was "found," so were several of the University's galleries.
"I've never been up to Wilson Library," junior Kinsey Christiansen said. "I just never knew how much they had."
Wrapping up the tour, the attendees gathered in the Union Art Gallery for refreshments and a look at the latest student exhibition, an off-beat collection of collage works by David Townsend. Townsend, now an artist displayed on campus himself, expressed many of the feelings that prompted the tour.
"I check out the art here (in the Union Art Gallery) and at Hanes Art Center, but other than that, I don't know where to look for the art on campus," he said.
To that statement a tour participant replied, "See, you should have gone on the tour."
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
