College of Visual and Performing Arts announces new name, next exhibition for downtown venue

Monday, March 23, 2009, By News Staff

College of Visual and Performing Arts announces new name, next exhibition for downtown venueMarch 23, 2009Erica Blustesblust@syr.edu

The Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) venue in downtown Syracuse for showcasing the work of the college’s students, faculty, alumni and visiting artists has a new name and an upcoming exhibition.

The space at 307-313 S. Clinton St., formerly called the Hot Shop, will now be known as XL Projects. The new name links the space more closely to one of the college’s smaller exhibition areas on campus, XS Space, which is located in the Dorothea I. Shaffer Art Building. The VPA faculty committee that oversees the use of the downtown exhibition space approved the new name.

“The committee liked the wordplay that XL and XS suggests with ‘excel’ and ‘excess,'” says Dusty Herbig, co-chair of the XL Projects committee and an assistant professor of printmaking in VPA’s School of Art and Design. “The ‘Projects’ portion of the name came after discussions about ways current contemporary exhibition spaces are naming their facilities. Since XL Projects will host exhibitions, performances, discussions, installations and other types of programs, we felt ‘gallery’ or ‘art space’ was too limiting of a description for the multidisciplinary venue.”

XL Projects will present the VPA student and faculty exhibition “Drawing” March 27-April 5, with an opening reception Friday, March 27, from 6-8 p.m. Regular exhibition hours are Wednesday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

VPA inaugurated the venue on Feb. 28 with “Selections,” an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Ludwig Stein, professor of painting and chair of the School of Art and Design’s Department of Art.

For more information on XL Projects and the “Drawing” exhibition, contact Andrew Havenhand, VPA program exhibitions coordinator, at (315) 474-1217 or ahavenhand@yahoo.com.

VPA is committed to the education of cultural leaders who will engage and inspire audiences through performance, visual art, design, scholarship and commentary. The college provides the tools for self-discovery and risk-taking in an environment that thrives on critical thought and action. Learn more at http://vpa.syr.edu.