In the wake of the devastating earthquake that ravaged Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, the residents of the Tufts Arts Haus have taken an innovative approach to fundraising: putting art at the center of their charitable efforts to support victims of the disaster. The Arts Haus, a special interest house located at 37 Sawyer Ave., will host the gallery show "There's No Place Like Haus" on March 4 at 7 p.m. The event will benefit Partners In Health, a charitable organization that provides health care to the world's poor in Haiti, Peru and Siberia.
The show will feature more than 60 works of art for sale created by Tufts students in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) dual-degree program and faculty members from the SMFA. In an attempt to make the works accessible to college students, the organizers decided to price all of the pieces below $60. The works, which include paintings, prints, collages and photographs, will be on display on the house's first and third floors as well as the central staircase. The event will also include refreshments and live music.
Emily Cohane-Mann, co-president of the Arts Haus and a fourth-year student in the Tufts dual-degree program with the SMFA, explained how Partners In Health was chosen for the night.
"It's based in Boston, and they've been established in Haiti for some time ... It's a well-known, local, well-established, reputable organization," Cohane-Mann said.
Cohane-Mann indicated that the show was also designed to generate interest in the Arts Haus and unite two different academic communities.
"Part of the idea of having this show was to bring together those two communities," Cohane-Mann said. "Because, as a combined degree student, [I know] they're very separate, and a lot of really different kinds of people go to the two schools ... so hopefully we'll get a bunch of SMFA kids here."
In the art world, gallery openings are often synonymous with high-priced pieces, but Cohane-Mann stressed that the relatively low price point for the works in this event was intentional.
"The idea was that there's kind of a lack of art-making and art-absorbing going on the Tufts campus, so we wanted people to feel like it was accessible [for them to] have art of their own," Cohane-Mann said. "In some of the cases, we're selling the work [at this event] for less then it actually cost to create."
While normal gallery opening events generally mark the beginning of extended shows that are displayed for weeks at a time, that will not be the case in the Arts Haus. Since the works for this event are hung throughout the home — "All the space we have that isn't people's bedrooms," according to Cohane-Mann — this show will only be held on Thursday night.
According to Luke Boelitz, a sophomore and resident of the Arts Haus, the building's residents are looking forward to Thursday night's event. "We discussed it as a house, and everyone's really behind it. We're definitely excited," Boelitz said.
Like many residents, Boelitz has works of his own in the show. He contributed two photographs from a course he took last year and one that he created for this show from photographs he took while in Hawaii.
"I think it's rare to see a show that really is soliciting work from everyone, from students who work in all different sorts of media and who work at all different levels," Boelitz said.
Aside from works completed by residents of the Art Haus and other art-related courses of study, the show will also feature works by students who are not studying art, including Ian MacLellan, a sophomore who is a geology and biology double major.
After he discovered the event through Tuftslife.com, MacLellan became interested in the showing at the Arts Haus because of the event's charitable aspect and because it represents one of the few opportunities for students to exhibit their artwork on campus.
"I think it's a rare opportunity at Tufts because there aren't very many opportunities to show work [here]," MacLellan said. "I think it's something we should try to do in the future. Not just when disasters happen, but just in general."
Most of the show's works were in place earlier this week, which led to some pre-sale speculation amongst the members of the Arts Haus.
"A lot of people in the house already have their eye on certain things ... [and] we're already having to make rules about whether people can buy things ahead of time or not, which they're not going to be able to," Cohane-Mann said. "I think that bodes well for how [the event] is going to go."
