Students merge art, food, and light in spring Saint Michael’s McCarthy Art Gallery lineup

Each spring, Saint Michael’s College Art & Design seniors have the unique opportunity to plan, create, and show a solo art exhibit in the College’s on-campus gallery.

The opportunity provided by Saint Michael’s is not one offered to many undergraduates at other colleges and universities. It’s meant to be the culmination of their education at St. Mike’s coupled with a close-to-professional experience of showing off their work.

An art piece from the exhibit “La Nostalgia,” featuring the work of Gabriella Tribelli ’25. (Photo by Riley Treegoob ’26)

This spring, 18 students plan to show their art in some way – through a solo exhibit in the McCarthy Art Gallery, a pop-up shop, a book launch, or a light installation in McCarthy’s Trap Door Theater. It’s one of the biggest groups of Art & Design seniors that Saint Michael’s has seen exhibit in the spring, according to Brian Collier, who directs the College’s Art & Design program.

“Most of the other colleges that I’ve been affiliated with don’t have the kind of time or space to give their students solo shows – mostly group shows,” Collier said. “So that’s a really rare thing that we have to offer here, and something that should be celebrated.”

Collier, who often acts as the gallery curator for these senior capstone projects, guides students throughout the process.

“Some students are really focused on painting or sculpture or drawing or video or whatever, so they come to me,” Collier said. “It’s completely self-directed that senior year. They have different deadlines throughout the fall semester for presenting completed work and then having critiques and kind of making sure they’re on track to create a cohesive body of work that’s worthy of a gallery exhibition.”

Senior art exhibitioner Christianna Bostley ’25 (left) talks with Art History Professor Terry Kinder (right). (Photo by Riley Treegoob ’26)

Christianna Bostley ’25, double majoring in Art & Design and Equity Studies, recently had her exhibit “Fatal Foods” on view in January. This exhibit featured a variety of different foods that Bostley is severely allergic to. She said her idea for the exhibit kind of started as a joke because of how many allergies she has.

“I could just paint all my allergies, because I have, like, a super long list,” she said.

Included in Bostley’s final paintings were almonds, peanuts, Brazil nuts, eggs, pecans, pistachios, and peas.

She said that having the gallery reception was a surreal experience.

“I also spent so much time painting and hand painting, like I’d be so close and careful with all the lines,” Bostley said. “People going up really close, to like, recognize that and to appreciate all the colors, because I had hand mixed the majority of the colors…was just so spectacular.”

Senior art exhibitioner Christianna Bostley ’25 (left) talks with Art History Professor Terry Kinder (right). (Photo by Riley Treegoob ’26)

The Art & Design department at Saint Michael’s fosters a deep sense of community for students, Bostley said.

“It’s really important to me that I go support all of my fellow students, especially because they showed up for mine, and I just felt so appreciated,” she said.   

Scott Gausland ’25, majoring in Art & Design, is taking a different approach to the final art project. He is making his own cookbook that comes from his own personal and familial history with food.   

Gausland said he has experience in graphic design and that he also enjoys book design, and this project is a fusion of his passions for both cooking and art. For the layout of the cookbook, Gausland has four different sections: breakfast, appetizers, Sunday meals, and desserts. He said a lot of recipes coming from his family sparked his inspiration, in addition to cooking methods he took away from his semester abroad in Denmark.  

“For each page, there’s a big photo that I took of the dish, and then on the other side is a little story about its relevance to me,” he said.  

A photo from the cookbook “Mixed,” which is the senior art capstone project for Art and Design major Scott Gausland ’25. (Photo courtesy McCarthy Art Gallery)

Since Gausland is taking a particularly unique route to his final project as his “gallery” will come in the form of a book launch held in Dion Student Center rather than McCarthy Arts Center.  

“I’m going to have some tables with my cookbooks and page layouts,” Gausland said. “And then obviously there’s going to be food for everyone to enjoy. But I really want mine to be a welcoming community space for people to enjoy the food and then hopefully talk about the book that I created.”  

There will be a variety of different exhibits from students in McCarthy Arts Center until May 9th, in addition to other events, like Gausland’s, on campus throughout the rest of the semester. Collier said he’s excited for everyone to see the students’ final work. 

“You can see the joy even when somebody’s really struggled, just the joy of having your work up in a formalized space like that, like a real gallery, is always a surreal time,” Collier said.  

More information about the exhibits on display in the McCarthy Art Gallery can be found here.>>