Portfolio: a free, student-funded online art gallery

You no longer have to make a trip to the art gallery to see the remarkable artwork produced by Concordia’s Fine Arts undergraduate students. Portfolio is a free, student-funded website that showcases everything from student photography and painting to sculpture and installation. All at the click of a mouse.

Sean Yendrys designed the tinfoil backdrops for the POP Loft venue as a collaboration between Art Matters and POP Montreal in October, 2010. This photo was taken during the Deerhoof performance.

Portfolio was created as an initiative of Concordia’s Fine Arts Reading Room (FARR), a student-run space on the 2nd floor of the Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex. There, students can find an extensive selection of art-related books, periodicals and magazines.

FARR’s newest resource is Portfolio, where students can upload their work simply by creating an online profile.

The profile is essentially a digital exhibit of selected works, an online curriculum vitae that can continually be updated and modified. Displayed works are not restricted to any one medium, but can be images, videos, or audio clips.

Zoë Ritts, Portfolio Project Coordinator, and Claire Forsyth, FARR manager, are also both Fine Arts students. Although FARR had been considering the idea of Portfolio for some time, Ritts and Forsyth were responsible for getting the project off the ground this year.

“The site is, of course, free, and aimed at being very easy to use while maintaining a professional tone,” says Ritts. “We wanted to make a website that students could proudly refer other artists or institutions to.”

In addition, Portfolio also bolsters a sense of community within the Fine Arts Faculty.

“Students can, basically for the first time beyond the classroom in such an accessible format, see what their peers are creating and engage with each other,” says Ritts.
 
Before the website launched on April 1, the main forum for students to showcase their work publicly was the VAV Gallery, a student exhibition space located in the Visual Arts Building. But to reach a wider audience, Fine Arts students knew they had to expand their presence online. The idea for Portfolio was born from the emergence of an online culture and the need to connect with communities through digital avenues.

“For the first time, Fine Arts students and the community can really turn to a catalogue of what the school produced — it’s just a generally beneficial resource,” says Ritts.


Related links:
•    Portfolio
•    Concordia’s Fine Arts Reading Room