Students take over Serena Building for night of experiential art

Not every art exhibition includes a gorilla playing ping pong. Southeast Missouri State University students have put together Open Serena, an art show where Serena Building is filled with various art pieces and performances.

"We try to make it as wild and crazy of an experience as we can, just to give it a little more personality and make it something that you've never experienced before and probably won't experience again," Devin Niswonger, a senior art education major, said.

Niswonger said the event, which will take place Thursday night is a student-run show, not sponsored by any organization or the art department. Niswonger, along with other students and with guidance from sculpture professor Chris Wubbena, decided to take on the challenge of putting together the eclectic show.

"We want to open this building and create an experience that you'll never see again," Wubbena said. "If we do it right, it will always change per iteration of groups of students that come together like Terry [Davis], Devin, Kelsey [Rost], Vatchae [Sams], all of them. It will always be something different. It may be weird, it may be absurd, it may be Dadaist in a way, but that's what we want, because we really want to challenge people to expand and become experiential in the things that they do."

Open Serena got its start around 10 years ago, when Wubbena first started teaching at Southeast. He saw the art studio space in Serena was spread out in the building, with not much art in between. He thought about finding a way to liven the space and bring art to the entire building.

"I went to grad school in San Francisco, and artists throughout San Francisco would open their studios for people to come and see their artwork for one night," Wubbena said. "I also wanted to kind of blend it with this idea of squats from Italy. People would take over these abandoned buildings and make them art centers for the night or a weekend. You might see a film up on the third floor or a performance or whatever. That's where this idea of Open Serena comes from."

The show will include a large collaborative art piece located in the painting room for visitors to draw or paint on during the event. There also will be a non-poetry reading, where people will read aloud a mailing list or ways to cook a potato. Lacy Bockhoff will show glitch art, art that looks like electronic monitor errors, with dance students dancing interpretively to the art.

Kelsey Rost, a commercial photography student who has been involved with planning the event, said there will be a schedule of performances throughout the night that will culminate in a finale at the end of the event. She said she will be a fortune teller who will tell people's fortunes toward the beginning of the show and will then wander Serena in character.

Niswonger said the group of students has been trying hard to keep the event organized and to progress further every time they meet, instead of just coming up with ideas that aren't followed through. Rost added that the group of around 15 to 20 students has been able to collaborate well.

"We've been in planning for about a month now and we meet a couple times a week," Rost said. "Apparently, this is the most any group has ever met and planned an Open Serena."

The event will allow art students to sell their work at a Show and Sell, something Niswonger said is a rare opportunity for students who aren't involved with other organizations. Rost also mentioned free food will be available at the event.

Terry Davis, a BFA art student also involved with planning the event, said Open Serena is a way for students to see different art practices and see the different forms art can take.

"For me, the first time I came to an Open Serena, I was blown away," Davis said. "I had no idea that performance could be an art form or that huge drawing installations could be a thing or that painting with your beard could also be art. I think that's what makes it so important for me. It really opens the doors to what is possible, and that's what coming to college and learning about this art practice is about."