Just steps off the Fine Arts Plaza, the ArtShop at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design has opened to the public and will host its Grand Opening during the IU Arts and Humanities Council’s First Thursdays festival on Thursday, October 3, from 4 to 7 p.m.
A vibrant hub for the arts and humanities at the heart of campus, the ArtShop enlivens the first floor of the Fine Arts Building, providing a welcoming presence, gathering spot, and convenient source for art supplies, artistic gifts, stationery, and student artwork for sale, along with snacks and coffee.
The ArtShop at the Eskenazi School reënvisions the Friends of Art Bookshop, a fixture of the Fine Arts Building for over 50 years. A reconfiguration of several rooms on the east side of the building’s foyer, the ArtShop offers a more accessible location with expanded display and storage space. Transforming a bookstore into an art supply store, the ArtShop now stocks the bespoke material kits required for the school’s studio art courses along with the cards, gifts, and snacks that earned the Friends of Art a loyal following. With more space, the new venue can offer a wider selection of food items and display student artwork for sale.
The Friends of Art Bookshop was established in the 1960s by a group of patrons committed to funding student scholarships and increasing the visibility of the arts on campus and in the community. The shop stocked textbooks and other art books at a time when the school of art comprised the departments of both studio art and art history. The late Rita Grunwald, patron of the school’s Grunwald Gallery of Art, was one of the charter members of the Friends of Art and volunteered in the shop for 25 years.
The ArtShop honors the Friends of Art’s legacy of representing and supporting the arts on the Bloomington campus and hopes to advance it by creating a welcoming presence on the Fine Arts Plaza, serving as a liaison for communications and events coordination, and attracting a broad campus clientele for student artwork and thoughtfully curated merchandise.
Regularly open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the ArtShop hosts its Grand Opening during the First Thursdays festival, October 3 from 4 to 7 p.m., during which the first 50 visitors will receive a new ArtShop swag bag. Visitors to the Fine Arts Building during the festival may take advantage of extended hours in the Grunwald Gallery to view two exhibitions -- “Blurring the Lines: Art at the Intersection of Human and Artificial Creativity” and “Intimate Alchemy: David Levinthal’s XXX Polaroids” -- and in the school’s student-run Tangent Gallery, showing “Gaining Traction,” a second year M.F.A. show, and “A Garden of Little Guys” a mixed media juried show.
The First Thursday festival will also provide a convenient way to get acquainted with two Eskenazi student-led organizations, the school’s chapter of the International Interior Design Association and the Retail Studies Organization, members of which will staff information tables in front of the Fine Arts Building. Still, other students and faculty will be representing the Eskenazi School’s Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design area at the event with interactive demos.
