JustArts lets university faculty, staff show off artistic side

The exhibition will be on display until Oct. 26

Paintings by a psychology professor and a choreographer and photographs by a marketing professional are just a few examples of the works on display in JustArts, the faculty and staff arts exhibition at Brandeis.

Conducted every other year, the exhibition offers employees of the university an opportunity to put their artistic side on display. The works can be seen in the Dreitzer Gallery at Spingold Theater Center.

"JustArts is that rare Brandeis event that invites faculty and staff to participate and share something of themselves. I watch people take it in and I hear them remark on the craftsmanship, or the perspective of the maker being a scientist or a librarian or a researcher," said Ingrid Schorr, associate director of the Office of the Arts. "Some of the artists are very accomplished, showing their work around the world. Others are still learning and practicing. Regardless, read their statements in the gallery and you'll see how often they refer to love, or pleasure, or challenge."

Mick Watson has been a psychology professor at Brandeis for 37 years, but he's also an intense painter, when he has the time for it. He'll be showing pastel paintings of Pueblo pottery.

"I'm sort of sporatic. I'll go like mad for a week, and then I'll get busy and I won't have time for it," Watson said. "I just get carried away with it. I embrace a full experience and forget everything else."

Watson, who is a member of the Wellesley Society of Artists and has previously participated in showings, has been painting for about 30 years. He was initially drawn to the process, but as his collection of work grew, so did a desire to show it to others.

"There comes a point where you say, 'somebody ought to see these,'" he said.

For Susan Dibble, painting and her other passion, theater and dance, feed off of each other. The paintings she is showing at JustArts were created while developing "Shoes On Shoes Off," a production she created and directed that was performed at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass. Dibble is the Barbara Sherman '54 and Malcolm L. Sherman Director of Theater Arts at Brandeis.

"I started the paintings last winter, then started thinking about the music and then the story I wanted to tell," Dibble said. "They really started feeding each other."

Monika Bach Schroeder is the assistant director of marketing at the Hiatt Career Center, but she has also worked as a freelance photographer. She will be showing photos from a recent trip to Malawi.

"This is a great chance to showcase something outside my job that I am also really passionate about," Bach Schroeder said.

JustArts will hold an opening reception Wednesday, Oct. 8 from 12-1:30 p.m. The exhibition will remain on display in Dreitzer Gallery through Oct. 26.