The Portfolio Center debuted this year’s annual Albert P. Weisman exhibit in The Arcade, the college’s new gallery, located in the 618 S. Michigan Ave. building on the second floor.

The exhibition,  which was held on Oct. 12, has been a Columbia tradition for the past 35 years, and is an opportunity for undergraduate and recent alumni to showcase their work from October through December.  Weisman applicants submit their emerging work, along with a proposal, and compete for funding to support their art. The winning submissions are then chosen by a panel, which was selected by the Portfolio Center that later awards the students with grant money to complete their series.

Neysa Page-Lieberman, the director for the exhibition and performance spaces, said that there was high demand for a new area that would accommodate the growing number of students applying for the grant.

“In the past couple of years, the show has been outgrowing the space,” Page-Lieberman said. “Folks from the Portfolio Center who actually put on the exhibit had been asking us if there was any way to get a bigger space. It’s a really nice, clean, sleek and professional environment, so we are excited.”

Although the gallery space was built with new media and technology exhibitions in mind, the space allows for other student work to be displayed, particularly for

this event.

Zak Jablow, a Columbia alumnus and adjunct faculty member, has a documentary in the exhibit. He said if it weren’t for the additional funding, the project wouldn’t be in the place it is now.

Jablow’s documentary,  Life and Lyrics,  is a collaboration between himself and a close friend and recent Columbia graduate Nick Terry.  The documentary,  which was the Weisman’s first ever Arts, Entertainment and Media Management submission, puts the focus on local musicians with diverse styles of music.

“We would spend [a] whole day with the artist, pick their brain, let them act up and be who they are,” Jablow said. “Their personality side shows more than [their] serious side, so there’s more of a connection with who they are as an artist to understand where their music comes from.”

The duo’s project is ongoing, and they are currently in talks with various networks to discuss syndication.

“Hopefully we’ll become some sort of Internet phenomenon someday,” Jablow joked.

The gallery mostly consists of photography, but it also displays work ranging from handmade books, charcoal drawings and mixed media installations to an artifact display, in which the student gathered trinkets from three different Chicago-based antique and thrift shops.

Mark Porter, the gallery coordinator, helped not only with the physical installation of the gallery, but also assisted the students in conceptualizing how to set up their work so it was visually appealing.

“[The students] approached me with work they’d like to display and I gave them suggestions as to how they’d present work in the space,” Porter said. “They come up with a list and we kind of went from there.”

Tim Long, director for the Portfolio Center, said the exhibit has worked as a huge stepping stone for a lot of artists in the past.

Some of the better known artists and Columbia graduates that have been featured in the Weisman exhibit in the past are Curtis Mann, who now owns galleries internationally, along with George Tillman, who has produced Hollywood films such as Soul Food, Men of Honor, Barbershop and his most recent release, Notorious,  a biopic of the life of rap artist The Notorious B.I.G.

“I hope students will go to the exhibit and see some of the best work and see that it is possible for them too,” Long said.

The Albert P. Weisman exhibition opened on Oct. 12 and will run until Dec. 12. An opening reception was held on Oct. 13.

For more information on the guidelines for the application process, visit Colum.edu/Students/Care/Portfolio_Center/Weisman.