OTC Fine Arts Gallery reopens tonight

Summer vacation is over and that means the OTC Fine Arts Gallery will reopen tonight for First Friday Art Walk as it embarks on an ambitious season of exhibits and presentations.

Located on the third floor of the Gillioz Theater in downtown Springfield, the gallery will present “Art as Therapy: Therapy as Art” by Cassie Dennis-Elson and Rachel Nelson. Both women are trained counselors who use art as a tool to communicate with clients about feelings and emotions.

Kathlene Allie, OTC art instructor and manager of the gallery, said the exhibit was designed to inform visitors, especially students, about art therapy.

“There are a lot of students interested in art therapy or music therapy as a major. Finding places offering such classes are hard to find. I knew Cassie and Rachel would be here for the exhibit,” Allie said, who has known Dennis-Elson, a Springfield native, for several years.

Students and other guests will be able to meet and talk to Dennis-Elson and Nelson at the gallery from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. today.

Following tonight’s premiere, the gallery will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays, except for First Friday events, when the gallery will remain open until 10 p.m.

Allie said visitors can look forward to a number of other interesting exhibits for upcoming Art Walks, which are held on the first Friday of the month.

In October, there will be a show of visual, musical and theatrical work by OTC’s full-time and adjunct faculty.

In November, an exhibit of photographs by Clarrisa French is scheduled for the gallery. French is a former editor of the Springfield Business Journal and, for the last three years, has worked as communications director for the Art Walk.

In December and May, OTC art students will present their visual, musical and theatrical works.

Allie said the gallery and the students are helping get the word out that the OTC Fine Arts program is growing.

“We are teaching people that we are here. It’s a real program,” Allie said.

Steve Koehler is coordinator of publications for Ozarks Technical Community College. Contact him at koehlers@otc.edu.