By Megan Kirby
The River Club was full of activity this past weekend as students hunted for cheap art supplies and dozens of companies unloaded discounted – or free – products at the second annual SCAD Art Materials Trade Show. Canson, Golden Artist’s Colors, Prismacolor, and Faber-Castell were in attendance, to name a few, as well as SCAD alumnus Lance Main’s Occhuzzie Paint Company, which specializes in handmade oil colors. Students, as well as the general public, picked through piles of sketchbooks and rows of brushes, under signs proclaiming things like “Wow! 75% Off Retail Price!” or “Open Stock Round Brushes: $4 each!”
The Art Materials Trade Show, sponsored in part by Binders Art & Frame, presented a rare opportunity for students, already so familiar with the products on display, to meet the people behind them. At the Canson booth, for example, reps could be overheard extolling the company’s over 400-year history of papermaking. At General Pencil, a young company spokesman enticed students into learning about “advances to the product line” with the promise of free Layout and Carbon Sketch pencils. Strapped-for-cash students can buy their supplies early into the quarter at lower prices than they’ll find at Ex Libris or Primary Arts Supply.
Artist “Dre” the use of Montana brand spray paint at the Art Materials Trade Show.
Aside from the actual buying and selling taking place at the River Club, the Trade Show took a number of other forms. SCAD arranged and hosted a series of lectures, seminars and roundtable discussions, from Oct. 1-5. Starting things off, three speakers from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. spoke on the history and conservation of works in their care. One such speaker, Michael Skalka, a conservation administrator at the National Gallery, lectured about materials available to artists working in the 19 and 20th centuries. This overt reference to the modern-day artists’ market taking place at the River Club was well timed; when the Trade Show doors opened on Friday morning, not only had the lectures occurred, but many company spokespeople had made visits to classrooms at Wallin and Anderson. These visits, though obviously for the purpose of generating interest in products for sale, also served as a reminder of the event, and an enticement for more free samples, the first of which were doled out at the end of their short presentations.
A final leg of the Trade Show weekend took place at Corbin, Alexander and Bergen Halls. Fourteen different workshops, taught by SCAD professors and open to the general public, were held on Friday and Saturday. These workshops covered subjects such as bookmaking, digital printing, monotype and encaustic painting and cost about $75 for SCAD students and about $100 for the general public.
Photos by Mathias Hungler.
