Candy wrappers, mandolins, thread, pieces of steel and photos taken via iPhone line the gallery full of professors’ artwork.

Creativity that is often only displayed for their students in the classroom is now gracing the School of Art Gallery located on the second floor of the Art Building. The biennial Faculty Show kicked off Tuesday and will be open to the public for about a month.

The show’s reception occurred Thursday with an audience consisting of artists, students and residents of both the Kent community and other surrounding areas.

Anderson Turner, director of galleries in the School of Art, expected a big turnout for the reception, but he prefers to judge the success of each gallery on what happens in the following weeks.

“I tend to judge shows after receptions to see how well they’ve been received,” Turner said. “It’s more impressive to see who shows up on a Wednesday morning.”

The gallery includes artwork by all the full-time professors as well as some of those who work part-time in the School of Art.

“A lot of times they don’t get to see what their teachers are doing,” Turner said. He believes that this show offers students an opportunity to do just that.

Although the formal theme of a faculty show only occurs every two years, Turner said various faculty members still contribute their work to other shows displayed in the gallery.

One of the artists on display, assistant professor Mark Schatz, also currently has a solo show in the Downtown Gallery in Kent. His piece entitled “Damage: 1.03.2012” seems to literally be part of the wall it hangs upon in the School of Art Gallery, making it appear to be a wonderfully colorful decay between a display of instruments and a clay-fired vase.

Another eye-catching piece hangs from the ceiling in the center of the room. Just because it’s “Untitled” doesn’t mean that Professor Rebecca Cross’s work goes unnoticed. It is a wonderful display of silk that has been dyed several colors and hung from various points to create a disheveled look.

Professor Janice Lessman-Moss also chose fabric as a medium in her piece “#397 Only Passing Through/Blue.” She weaved together nylon and linen to create a large blue piece of work hung upon the gallery wall.

Also using thread was part-time Professor Christine Gorbach, but she chose to do it in a less traditional way. Gorbach used acrylic paints on a canvas where she also sewed thread squares of various colors into the bottom half.

In addition to canvas pieces and those of fabric material, there were also many photographs. “Untitled” by Albert Reischuck documents a curly headed young girl who appears to be receiving a haircut. One student amongst a group of observers, who prefers to remain anonymous, claims that this young girl was Reischuck’s daughter and explained that she knew this after taking his class.

Other works such as a collage of photos taken from an iPhone are on display with additional unique pieces. These works can be viewed from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and the exhibit will be available until Feb. 10.

Contact Rachel Campbell at [email protected].