Art is fun to create and to look at. But can it help educate as well? Can art bring a community together? Rowan’s Art Gallery at 301 High Street aims to do just that. 

Mary Salvante, the Director and Chief Curator at Rowan University’s Art Gallery and Museum, wears many hats. 

“As Director, I’m basically overseeing all operations for this space, and we also have a space in Westby Hall that is currently going under renovation so that is not actually open,” Salvante said. “So I am tasked with fulfilling the mission of our unit. I manage all of the budgetary and financial requirements, grant writing, and oversee staff.” 

Salvante’s responsibilities include researching artists.

“Part of that curatorial process is coming up with concepts and themes for the exhibitions, and finding the artists think best fill that theme,” Salvante said. “Then I work with the artist to determine what artwork we want to put in and then start to develop the show from there.”

The Gallery uses many different themes to be as diverse as possible. Salvante tries to bring in different areas of study for Rowan’s students. 

“We’ve had exhibitions that explore technology in art, and we’ve collaborated with the engineering department in that way. Our themes are also culturally based, where we’ll be looking at gender and racial equality issues, also many times our exhibitions explore historical themes like the current show that we have up right now. The themes, as they change, can be a resource for these academic areas to bring their classes, have students come and many times they’ll do projects based on the exhibitions” Salvante said. 

Salvante has made it a goal to bring both the Rowan community and the Glassboro community into the art space.

“With students, we like to communicate to Rowan that we really function as an extension of the classroom and so our exhibitions,” Salvante said, “they can decipher it from a different lens. It’s all about what they respond to it as rather than what someone is telling them to think.”

Art, Salvante believes, helps individuals to navigate and understand the world. But this doesn’t just happen overnight. Salvante is looking for themes and working with artists to plan exhibitions often up to two years in advance. 

“The artists that we’re bringing here show at major museums and major art galleries throughout the country so they’re very busy and might have scheduled events two years out, or they’re selling so frequently they don’t have work to show and have to make new work” Salvante said. 

Currently, the Gallery is holding space for a photography exhibition by Wendel White, a New Jersey-based photographer. The exhibition involves three bodies of White’s work that are meant to “bring the past forward,” according to Salvante.

“Folding Time is collectively how he’s brought the past forward and it’s kind of meshed with current ideologies as well as what’s happened in the past… the results are these haunting objects against this black background that just engulfs you, pulls you into the image, and you start to discover what they are,” Salvante said.

Salvante is aware of the effect that art can have on a person.

“Art is a vehicle to communicate to the public… It’s a non-threatening space, no one is dictating how to feel about any of this, you can decide for yourself, but it does provide information and communicate information that individuals may not have been aware of,” Salvante said. “Sometimes an image may resonate more deeply and stay with you for longer than reading a paragraph in a book.”

The work doesn’t stop with Wendel White for Rowan’s High Street Gallery. In November, a new exhibition will be on display. This one follows artists of Mexican descent as well. 

“Their work speaks to cultural norms; how culture is celebrated through certain types of imagery,” Salvante said about the November exhibition. “The January show will be very interesting. It’s another sort of black history show but scheduled intentionally to be part of black history month. The show will be four former black panther artists and a look at their work during the time of the black panthers and the work they’re doing today.”

A lot of time is spent curating events like Folding Time and Mary Salvante, in partnership with Rowan University, is seeking to diversify student learning through these exhibitions.  

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