The emotional residue of a generational culture clash. The impact of incarceration. Ancient symbolism alive in a modern world.

Seventeen seniors in programs ranging from motion graphics to painting to jewelry-making revealed their visual and verbal thoughts on these topics and more in this year’s Point of Departure exhibition.

Participation in the exhibition is a graduation requirement both for art and for graphic and animation design majors. It’s an 18-month process of submitting proposals, gathering feedback, creating artwork and going through the process of preparing for a professional show held each spring at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts.

Due to the coronavirus, the 2020 show was mounted in the LCVA’s online gallery, but the exhibition is no less powerful in that format than it would have been in person. And the online format has the added advantage of making the students’ work accessible to a wider audience, said Kelly Nelson, professor of art education and printmaking.

“We spend a lot of time helping students hone their work for the exhibition but just as important is the experience they get in the art Professional Practices class taught by Angela Bubash, where they learn how to interact with a professional museum, how to prepare artwork for a show, how to do the paperwork,” said Nelson. “This is what they’ll be doing after they graduate.”—Sabrina Brown