Exhibit gives art school grand kickoff

VIRGINIA BEACH

The 100-plus community leaders and media members at the private grand opening of The Art Institute of Virginia Beach last Thursday must have felt: What wasn't to like?

Guests could help themselves to a chocolate fountain and wine, as well as free food and desserts from restaurants in Town Center, where the school is located. A Bollywood-style dancer underscored the international flavor of the evening on the second floor, where design and media arts classes are taught.

On the third floor, site of the culinary curriculum, chefs demonstrated techniques.

The vibe was warm and friendly. The look of the school is cool design moderne, with lots of stainless steel, black and red.

But what is this new school?

To begin with, it is not related to the Art Institute of Chicago, which is as much museum as school. And it's definitely not one of those schools advertised on a matchpad, asking you to copy a cartoon and mail it in, then get billed for home study.

The Art Institute is part of a network of schools owned by Education Management Corp. These schools are fully accredited colleges of applied arts, including culinary arts, fashion and graphic design, advertising, Web design and interactive media. A student can earn an associate's or a bachelor's degree. The emphasis is on career, so students are prepared in ways that help lead to job placement, including resume writing and public speaking.

The network has its origins in the 1921 founding of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, explained Marilyn Burstein, president of the new Beach branch, which she said was the 45th institute to open when classes started Jan. 11. (The 46th institute is about to kick off in San Antonio, she said.)

Part of how a new institute makes its presence known in a community is to reach out and draw people and organizations in. The Beach school has done that with its public gallery, which surrounds the first-floor reception area and is as accessible as a storefront shop.

With glass walls on two sides, the showcase is highly visible to passers-by. Andi Helfant-Frye, a Virginia Beach artist who teaches at the institute, organized and installed the first show and said she expects to continue putting together the shows. She also is the owner of Helfant-Frye Fine Arts, a gallery at Pembroke Mall.

On display are 43 works by 23 top area artists. Most of these artists also are known as teachers or gallerists or for their civic activities.

Highlights include a piece by painter Sheila Giolitti in her new direction, which appears to be a painted surface topped with layers of clear fiberglass or a similar substance. Her "A Place Without Time" looks more born of the earth than from art materials.

Michele Barnes' small encaustic images of the root systems of plants are good examples of the type of imagery that works well with the waxy encaustic method. Wayne Potrafka found a unique art surface by transforming throwaway Styrofoam trays into canvases to be incised and painted.

A lot of the artists displayed have impressive pedigrees. Bob Lerner was a Look magazine photographer from 1951 to 1971. Fiber artist Lynne Sward has contributed work to international traveling shows, as has pointillist Kathy Jublou.

Anyone entering might be stopped hard, however, by a 84-inch-wide mixed media image on unstretched canvas by Donna Iona Drozda, titled "The Wish-Fulfilling Tree." With flowers and a deer and a tree, the work is an appealing, upbeat composition that doesn't easily give up its deeper significance.

Drozda, who attended the opening, was willing to explain. She said the work is from her "Follow the Moon" series inspired by Buddhist philosophy. The main idea is that a person's thoughts become manifest, Drozda said. The shape of her tree was inspired by a wishbone.

Sward said she was honored to be part of the institute's inaugural show. "Everybody wants to be involved in something that's a first. It's a beautiful gallery in the daytime. Really good light.

"I've lived in Virginia Beach since 1969. It's time for us to really get cultural." She sees the art institute as a step in that direction.

Teresa Annas, (757) 446-2485, teresa.annas@pilotonline.com