Loyola University’s Crown Center Gallery allowed students and professional artists the opportunity to share wall space. However, that harmonious union may be broken with the gallery’s closing.Loyola’s Crown Center Gallery, 1001 W. Loyola Ave., will host its last show at the end of fall 2009. Seniors in Loyola’s Fine Arts Department are now left in limbo until the university finds a new space for spring’s senior exhibit. The university had planned to provide adequate space in its remodeled Mundelein Center, 1032 W. Sheridan Road, but that plan was never finalized. Now, the six other Humanities Departments will take the Crown Center Gallery to compensate for its increase in faculty.Sara Gabel, chairwoman of Loyola’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts, said the department is close to finding a replacement for students, but are still assessing possibilities.“We will be able to make an announcement about where the show will be held before the semester is out,” Gabel said. “We’ve given ourselves that deadline, but we’re just gathering information right now. There’s a lot of just checking the cost—cost of equipment, cost of installation.”For the past three years, the space has grown and drawn large crowds. Nicole Ferentz, director of the Fine Arts Department, has chosen exhibits for Crown Gallery for the past two years with another faculty member and graduate student, Brenda Brammel. Ferentz said she understands the school is juggling moving departments and handling renovation, but the lack of notification was frustrating.“The Crown Gallery was part of the Fine Arts Department for many decades, but I would be happy to let it go and have a new gallery,” Ferentz said. “That’s not what happened. No suggestion was made that was that practical.”Brammel said the recent shows in the space were building up a more varied audience. She said she remembers being a student at Loyola in 2006 when shows saw little attention outside of the student body.“Not too many people went to gallery openings unless it was a senior show or a student show,” Brammel said. “At a gallery opening, there would be maybe five people there, but we started having events at the shows and getting in really good stuff.”Part of the gallery’s focus was to reach out to the greater Roger’s Park art community and connect those artists to students. As part of the program, artists featured in exhibits would interact with students in Q-and-A format sessions with them. The university is currently considering using the Ralph Arnold Fine Arts Annex, 1131 W. Sheridan Ave., but the issue the school now faces is that space is not equipped for professional shows.“That would reduce a scope of our gallery to student projects which might be what happens, but we’ve been doing more than that for decades,” Ferentz said.Brammel said she remembers many of the shows fondly. One she especially liked was the edible art contest where she made a Fruit Roll-Up Mona Lisa for the exhibit. It is currently hanging on Ferentz’s office wall.Another show she remembers well was in October 2008, which featured printmaker Amos Kennedy. Kennedy’s affordable posters differentiate themselves from other art in their use of political and racial commentary. He said the lack of a better space for community artists works against the university’s mission to educate its students in the arts. However, he said that won’t stop artists from coming to the university.“If a person is a professional and has a passion for what they do, the space will not prevent them from showing their work so students can see it,” Kennedy said. “If you really like what you’re doing, you put it up in the bathroom so students can see it just in defiance of that.”The final show in Crown Center Gallery will feature the art of Sister Mary Corita, a Catholic nun and teacher. The show’s final day is set for March 5, 2010.
