Fine Arts Gallery to host Art Walk exhibit

Few people are more excited about the upcoming First Friday Art Walk than Kat Allie because of the attention it will bring to the OTC Fine Arts department and gallery housed on the third floor of the Gillioz Theater.

Allie is the fine arts instructor and manager of the college’s Fine Arts Gallery, which will be home of the 10-year anniversary art contest and exhibition of Art Walk.

“I asked to be host of the event. We are a community college. We are very supportive of the community and the arts,” said Allie, who has been with OTC since 2006.

Art Walk is celebrating the 10-year anniversary with an art contest and exhibit at the gallery. The juried contest will award cash prizes along with a People’s Choice Award chosen by visitors to the winning artworks.

A large crowd is expected to walk through the OTC Gallery Friday.

“We have gotten a lot of people who come up who are really surprised. They are discovering us for the first time during Art Walk.”

The college moved its fine arts program to the Gillioz in the fall of 2007, and Allie, who studied photography and painting at Pittsburg State University and earned her master’s from there, helped Cathy Clemens, Division Chair of Humanities and Fine Arts, establish studio art classes at OTC.

She produces works of art with a painting style called encaustic that involves the use of a special heated medium to create her works of art with propane torches and heat guns

Her work has been displayed at the Springfield-Branson National Airport, OTC and at Obelisk Home furnishings gallery. She conducts workshops throughout the area.

Allie is proud of how far the OTC Fine Arts Department has come since moving to the Gillioz.

“It’s awesome to be a part of the program here. It’s meant everything to come here. We are officially a fine arts department. It’s been really, really exciting. We’ve been so busy, it’s hard to take time to reflect,” she said.

And Friday night could be Allie’s busiest night ever.

Steve Koehler is coordinator of media relations at Ozarks Technical Community College.