Teacher Curates Art Show

Art teacher Adam Finkelston is curating an art exhibition Friday. It will be in conjunction with his literary art magazine, The Hand. He will host the show with fellow co-editor and print maker James Mira and gallery director Rebecca Foley.

Foley is a gallery director at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. She was the one who secured the space, the Potter Hall Gallery. Foley has been receiving framed pieces of art for the past few weeks and storing them, while Finkelston works on the logistics of the event by talking to the artists and informing them of deadlines. Preparations for this have been going on since last summer. But Finkelston and Mira didn’t always know if this was going to be possible.

“We had an idea that we would eventually like to do an exhibition in conjunction with the magazine at a point,” Finkelston said. “[But] we didn’t know how long that would be.”

After some time, things began to work out for them. Foley, a photographer, had been in the magazine before. When she became gallery director, she contacted Finkelston and Mira.

About 30 pieces of art will be displayed. The featured artists are from all over the world, including Egypt, Scotland and others from different states in the U.S. All of the artwork can be found in the magazine, and some of the artists have been featured numerous times in the publication. However, for others this is their first time.

The featured art will mainly be photographs and prints. It will be a variety of techniques, from different kinds of photographic prints, to printmaking prints.

“I’m really, really excited,” Finkelston said. “I’m proud of the variety. I’m proud of the quality, and I’m just really excited about the show.”