Peace, quiet, and artistry are now on display just a few steps away from the Laney Quad. Laney College’s June Steingart Art Gallery is hosting Clay Paper Wood, a new exhibit that showcases everything the Art Department has to offer. The exhibit highlights ceramics, prints, and woodworks by Laney’s advanced student-artists, and features the works of over 20 Laney Ceramics, Printmaking, and Wood Technology students.
The gallery hosted a busy reception on March 5, where the Peralta community had an opportunity to meet the artists, learn about the works, and even purchase pieces for themselves.
Gallery Manager Susanna Stromberg said a goal of Clay Paper Wood is to illustrate the many ways that Laney’s Career and Technical Education programs merge skilled craftsmanship and fine art. Laney students might be aware of other more visible CTE programs like Carpentry, which constructs a house in the middle of campus as part of their curriculum. But they might not know about Wood Technology, which teaches students the skills needed to create furniture and other wooden fine art pieces.
“Just because you’re in a career technology track does not mean you’re not bringing that creative voice to the Laney community,” Laney Art Department Chair and Ceramics instructor MC Bassett said.
Located in the lobby of Laney Tower, the June Steingart Art Gallery serves the college’s diverse student population, with its variety of ages and life experiences. The artists exhibited in Clay Paper Wood reflect the same diversity. They’re all advanced Laney Art students, some well into their art careers and others showing their works in a gallery space for the first time.
“With this exhibit, I think that anyone who comes to see it will find something that they can get interested in,” Laney Printmaking instructor Alex Echevarria said.
This show follows the success of Hands On: The Art & Craft of Carpentry, Fabrication Lab & Wood Technology, a previous exhibit which centered on wood as the art medium. This led the Art Department to organize Clay, Paper, Wood as a way to further highlight the craft-based media their students have been creating.
Advanced Printmaking student Julie Bongers creates monotypes, often made with secondhand inks and paper found on the street in an effort to be environmentally conscious. She depicts California’s native plants, using the plants themselves.
“I only use native plants,” Bongers said, “because I don’t feel like people appreciate them. They’re so unbelievably beautiful, and we just don’t even see them – we’re so used to daffodils here.“
Another goal of the exhibit is to prepare students to show their work elsewhere. From its detailed curation to its connection to potential patrons, the June Steingart Art Gallery functions like any other gallery would. The exhibit will serve as documentation they can use for submission to future exhibitions, residencies, and grants. To prepare for Clay Paper Wood, student-artists learned how to write about their work for a gallery audience.
“We have amazing resources here at Laney,” Echevarria said. “I just hope it inspires people – that they respond to the work on a level that maybe they’ll be inspired to consider taking a class or just try to make something on their own.”
Budget cuts loom over the Laney Art Department as Peralta faces financial uncertainty. According to Bassett, Laney is working with district partners and other creative departments at Peralta to find a sustainable path forward. She hopes that Clay Paper Wood can serve as an example of how the gallery can be a hub, not just for the Laney community, but for all Peralta students.
Later in the spring, the Art Department will host its second annual Juried Student Exhibition that will be open to submissions from all Peralta students. Laney faculty will serve as curators, selecting the pieces that will appear in the final exhibit. This process, known as a “call for entry,” mirrors the art industry standard.
“I think the service that the gallery space presents for the community is not only to represent the creative voices at Laney,” Bassett said, “but really to give people respite in a time of great change. […] The gallery is where we can all go to find a bit of peace.”
Clay Paper Wood is on view in the June Steingart Art Gallery at Laney College from Feb. 18 to March 26, 2025.
