The 10th annual Arts on the Millrace juried outdoor art show was held on Saturday. It brings fine art vendors together to sell and showcase their work. 

Founders Adrienne Nesbitt and Brad Hunsberger are both Goshen College alumni, as are many of the artists. “You can walk amongst the booths and there’s a high percentage of artists who are living and working in Goshen who are Goshen College Alumni,” Nesbitt said. GC’s Music Together program, a childhood music and movement class, also holds their end of summer celebration to open the live music at the event. 

This year, GC’s Art Club had a booth organized by junior Joseph Mounsithiraj, an art major and a leader of the club. He was excited to create an opportunity for student work to get out into the community. 

Organizing, though, “was kind of a nightmare,” Mounsithiraj said. He spoke with Nesbitt, and while “she was more than happy to get us in,” Mounsithiraj still had hurdles to jump. “Getting people to do it and the entry fee were the two biggest headaches,” he said. 

“At the start of the year, not many people have work,” he said. The two artists who joined him each had collections they did in past semesters, but others would have needed more time. 

Mounsithiraj also wishes GC could have paid the entry fee so that he was not paying out of pocket, particularly since he sees the club’s participation as community outreach. “It’s getting Goshen College arts visible to the community,” he said, but the fee “is not an incentive to want to do it.” He hopes that with more proactive planning GC will help with funding next year. For now, Mounsithiraj is out $150.

Mounsithiraj enjoys abstractions. He starts with an object or an emotion, and then finds components that work well together to convey it conceptually. Once finished, he does not like to explain the meaning. 

“If you have to think about it for yourself, you create your own meaning … and that way you have a personal connection with [it].”  

He brought a collection of his aluminum and steel sculptures to the event.

Emma Zuercher also participated in the Art Club booth. Zuercher, a 2023 GC graduate, is still taking sculpture classes. She brought wall piece sculptures as well as miniature versions of Reginald, her sculpture of a crane that is currently installed in downtown Goshen. Numerous people recognized Reginald from seeing the larger version. “I think it was fun for them to meet the person behind the sculpture and it was really fun for me to meet them,” she said.

Saige Lind, a senior graphic design major, rounded out the trio of GC artists. She contributed art of another medium: ceramics. Lind brought a collection of clay mugs she made in class last year to the sale. “I enjoyed talking to people about my work and observing the wide variety of media and styles present at the festival,” Lind said. It was her first time selling at an art show. “I would definitely do it again if given the chance.”

Mounsithiraj is optimistic there will be more chances. “This year it was tough because it was so last minute, but hopefully we’d have anyone who’s interested in arts be able to show stuff,” he said. “A lot of people, Goshen alums in particular, are excited to see students out doing stuff, even if it was just the three of us.”

Upcoming art outreach opportunities include the First Friday artist tour of downtown on Oct. 6 and the GC student art sale at the end of each semester. Interested students are encouraged to reach out to Mounsithiraj or Professor Sara Method for more information. 

 

A correction was made on Oct. 3, 2023: An earlier version of this article misspelled Adrienne Nesbitt’s and Brad Hunsberger’s last names.