Inset: Artist Drew Pardy installs a chine-colle piece at Pulp Gallery

Prof. Marc Losier and his students developed the first-ever community exhibition space dedicated to visual arts students in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Christened "PULP," the space opened in April 2019 in the Millbrook Mall in Corner Brook.

Prof. Losier of Grenfell's visual arts program said he's always had a desire to develop community engagement initiatives that foster professional development opportunities for young student artists.

"PULP is a window for both the local and broader Canadian art community into our program and the great work our students and alumni are doing," he said.

Prof. Losier received university Public Engagement Quickstart funding, as well as a Teaching and Learning Award and assistance from Grenfell's Vice-President's Office in support of the initiative. In a special topics course offered a few years ago, his students – Emily Critch, Emily Clark, and Tyrone Kelly – focused on community engagement in the arts. They formed a student gallery working group to develop the future gallery's mandate and guiding principles, espousing ideals for diversity and inclusivity. The name for the space, PULP, resonates with both the community's history of the mill, and also as a material that is in-progress, and as yet unfinished.

PULP opened with a show titled "around the throat of a flower," a phrase borrowed from the poem The Dandelion Killers by Al Pittman, that negotiates the dynamic, yet complicated, relationship that humans have with their environment and the natural world, explained visiting curator and visual arts alumna Emily Critch (BFA 2018).

In the initial stages of planning, Prof. Losier stressed the importance of students having a physical presence off-campus to strengthen the relationship with the arts community, adding another artist resource within Corner Brook, providing vital exposure to the talented emerging artists of our VA program, and providing our students professional learning opportunities as both exhibiting artists and gallery staff.