As part of this year’s Homecoming weekend, Cairn University’s Department of Visual Arts (DoVA) celebrated its 10th anniversary with an alumni exhibition in the Connie A. Eastburn Gallery. Featuring graphic design, fine arts, digital media, and crafts, the exhibition brought graduates together to share their work and reconnect.
The evening was as much a reunion as it was an exhibition. Alumni admired one another’s work and caught up on life since graduation. The time also offered alumni a space to reflect on what they learned during their time at Cairn.
Since its founding, DoVA aimed to create a community centered on a shared faith and love of art. Department outings like Art Night send students off campus to share a meal and fellowship, while museum trips to nearby cities allow students to explore new artists and styles. Student galleries and the Student Visual Arts Society, a student-led art club, give students the opportunity to showcase their work and learn from one another. That sense of belonging and community continues across class years. This semester, during the first week of classes, current seniors visited a freshman art class to introduce themselves and invite the new students into the department’s community.
The evening highlighted the many paths alumni have taken since graduating. Exhibitors are now working as full-time artists, graphic designers, art teachers, children’s book authors, art therapists, and ministry students. Some are building businesses of their own, while others are pursuing graduate degrees.
Faculty member Matt Stemler, now in his 29th year of teaching visual arts from a biblical perspective, helped shape DoVA in its first decade. Faculty members Cayla Belser and Andrea Fiori were crucial in developing the department into what it is today. Stemler shared, “Pausing to celebrate wasn’t about putting a mark at the end of a measured time, but about calibrating for the next generation of artists to come.”
DoVA’s next decade will look much like its first: training artists to use their gifts in service to Christ and others.
