If it weren’t for a scholarship, Caleigh Gabel wouldn’t have been able to attend Kansas City Art Institute. The Lee’s Summit senior in ceramics enjoys creating arts and crafts with glitter and sparkle but, four years ago, an expensive art school education seemed out of reach.
“It’s made a huge difference,” Gabel said. “My student loans are — I mean, they're still student loans — but they are definitely a lower number had I not had any scholarship at all.”
KCAI’s scholarship fund paid for close to 75% of Gabel’s tuition, she said, and it came at a critical time.
On Thursday, the school will host ARTPOP, a ticketed event that raises money for scholarships like the one Gabel received. The cross-campus celebration is an invitation for art collectors to meet students, mingle with faculty, and view and purchase artwork. The benefit event also kicks off the spring end-of-semester student art sale, which runs through May 11.
“A big part of being an artist is being able to sell your work, and to sort of sell yourself,” Gabel said. “We get the opportunity to do that with the patrons that come to our shows, and that has just been a really rewarding experience.
Working in her ceramics department studio, Gabel has translated her affection for shiny objects into an array of glittery vases. She spent the spring semester experimenting on a series of work that, at first glance, appear to be covered in clear water droplets.
“My whole senior year was very exciting,” Gabel said as she added a piece of clear glass to the vase in progress on her workbench.
“It's made me find new pieces of myself,” Gabel said. “Being in this type of environment really primes you to go into the real world, and for us to become art professionals in our field for our futures.”
'A night of a good time'
Hailey Sybl Slaughter, a senior in the sculpture department, said ARTPOP is a night of fun after an intense year of creating.
"There's music, there's a lot of fun things for people to do, and all of the students enjoy dressing up," Slaughter said. "You can see all of the art, like you would at the normal end of semester show, but there's more life and energy and food and drink, and everyone is just locked in for a night of a good time.”
Slaughter said when she was looking at art schools four years ago, as a high school senior, cost was a major factor.
“The scholarships have made basically all the difference,” she said.
Slaughter, from Olathe, creates sculptural works with ceramic faces that peek out from mounds of felted wool.
"Each of them have their own distinct personalities with green ceramic sprouts or iridescent angel wings," Slaughter said.
She said spending time in the sculpture department expanded her wheelhouse, and she picked up skills in woodwork, ceramics and sewing.
“The opportunity to come here with a scholarship that could support me and I could attend and be close to home, that meant a lot. It takes a huge weight off of your shoulders,” she said.
Chadwick Brooks, assistant vice president of Institutional Advancement said all of the school's 745 students receive scholarship money based on their portfolios and grade point average.
“Scholarships are incredibly important to our students,” Brooks said. “We have a diverse group of students that come, and we really nurture them, help them stay connected in our community and get through the undergraduate program.”
Brooks said the event, which is in its eighth year, also gives students a chance to receive real world feedback for their work.
“It is a roving art festival where you get to pop into studios and departments and really see what the students are doing,” Brooks said. “At ARTPOP, you are the first people to see the end-of-semester exhibition, and the first to be able to purchase the pieces as well.”
Learning to talk about artwork
In another ceramics studio, Roberto Gomez was busy cleaning up his workspace. The senior creates work drawn from some of the Saturday morning cartoons he watched when he was younger.
“There's a story within all my pieces and I pull from the resilience of cartoons — like how they are able to, like, get hit or blow up and then bounce back right up,” he said.
Art shows have been a way for Gomez to become more comfortable interacting with potential patrons. He said he sometimes gets a little nervous talking about his work.
“If you're making personal work, it's very personal to you, and it's hard to open up sometimes,” Gomez said. “But don't take yourself too seriously, have a good time with it, and you'll be good.”
It’s the kind of experience Brooks said makes collecting art more meaningful.
"A collector once said that you're not collecting pieces, you're collecting community, and it's about the artist and the experience you have talking with them,” Brooks said. “That's the part that really is lasting.”
ARTPOP, 6-9 p.m. Thursday, May 8 on the campus of Kansas City Art Institute, 4415 Warwick Blvd., Kansas City, Missouri 64111. Tickets are $75.
