Major: Art History with a Studio Art Minor
Class Year: 2017
Hometown: Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
1. What do you do on campus?
I’m the President of the Gallery Engagement Team, a Junior Fellow for the Arts Residential College, a Lifeguard at the Kinney Natatorium, part of the Student Art Association and I’m also involved with running Empty Bowls this semester.
2. How did you get involved with Empty Bowls?
Empty Bowls was really big in my hometown so I was involved with it all throughout high school. I didn’t even know that we did it here at Bucknell until a friend in my sorority, Abby Schell, told me about it. She was actually responsible for bringing it to Bucknell with some of her friends but she went abroad this semester so she asked me to keep it up while she was away!
3. Where do you see the future of Empty Bowls going during your time on campus, within the year, and 10 years from now?
I think for how recently it was brought to campus, Empty Bowls is pretty well known and can only become more popular. I would love for the majority of campus to not only know that it exists but that it promotes such a good cause. I would also love for the Lewisburg community to get more involved in Empty Bowls. Our dinner is on March 19th, everyone should go! Here’s the link to the Bucknell website for Empty Bowls that has all of the information: http://www.bucknell.edu/EmptyBowls
4. How has your passion for art led you to get involved in other things on campus, like the Gallery Engagement Team?
The Gallery Engagement Team is probably the thing that I’m most involved with on campus. Museums and galleries are my happy place and the Samek Art Museum was one of the biggest factors in my decision to come to Bucknell. As a first-year student I knew that I wanted to get involved with the Museum in any way that I could and that’s how I found out about the Gallery Engagement Team. I found so much happiness in the Samek so I thought there were bound to be other students that would enjoy it just as much as I do yet they just don’t know about it. That’s the main point of the Gallery Engagement Team: to try and connect the student body to the Samek Art Museum and hopefully open their eyes to what an amazing resource it is on campus (and off campus with the Downtown Gallery!).
5. How would you like to see Bucknell students get more involved with art on campus? What do you think the Gallery Engagement Team could do to help this situation?
I don’t think that Bucknell is considered an “artsy” school by any means but I do know that people greatly underestimate the number of students here that truly appreciate the arts. Being a Junior Fellow for Arts Res has really helped to connect me with some amazing student artists on campus but there are definitely still people that would really love all that the Samek Art Museum has to offer. I think it is really important for the Gallery Engagement Team to start getting their name out there through social media and events, shameless plug here: come to our Spring Gala on April 10th in the Samek Art Museum (3rd Floor ELC) from 6-8pm), which will in turn get the name of the Samek Art Museum out there. The more people that know about the Museum the better and I can honestly say I have never encountered a person that has been disappointed by a trip up to the Samek.
6. If you could choose one piece of artwork to own and have in your, well, dorm-room and then home, what would it be and why?
While it kills me to have to pick just one I would have to say that I would probably choose Claude Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies that is hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Claude Monet is my favorite painter of all time and this is probably the painting that inspired me the most to become a painter myself.
7. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In ten years I see myself in New York City, hopefully working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is my favorite Museum in the entire world and it has always been my dream to work there.
Quick Qs:
· One Word to Describe Empty Bowls: Fun!
· Artwork from Snapchat Drawing or Instagram Filters: A well done Snapchat masterpiece cannot be topped.
· Number One Bucket-List Item: Go to France (I will when I study abroad there next spring!)
· Three Fun Facts:
1. I really love cats
2. I’m a Lifeguard Instructor
3. I’m one-quarter Taiwanese (even though no one ever believes me when I tell them.)