Vassar Artists’ Group: building an inclusive and accessible community around art

Drawing I is one of Vassar College’s most coveted classes. A year-long course, it is the key that unlocks the rest of the studio art department for students. But it is not easy to get. If pre-registration is not on your side as a student artist, or if you just want to continue creating art as a hobby, then look no further than the Vassar Artists’ Group. Known simply as VAG on campus, the Vassar Artists’ Group is a student-led organization building an inclusive and accessible community around art. 

VAG is best known at Vassar for the Deece (unofficial name for the college’s dining hall) exhibit and collaborations with other student organizations at Vassar such as Students for Justice in Palestine and the Working Students Coalition. The group also holds open studio hours in the basement of one of Vassar’s most allegedly haunted buildings, where any student and faculty member of the college can come and create art. I spoke with co-founder and committee chair Gracie Chang ‘26 along with current co-presidents Will Luber ‘27 and Leo Valenti ‘26 about the Vassar Artists’ Group, art accessibility, and building community.

What exactly is the Vassar Artists Group?

GC: The Vassar Artists Group is the student-led art club on campus, and it was started with the mission to make creating art more accessible to the Vassar community. We offer free art supplies and space for anyone, regardless of your major or if you’re a professor or faculty member, to come and make art with us. Also, VAG has recently been doing a lot of collabs, which is super exciting to bring art into more parts of campus. 

LV: It’s cool because it shows that a lot of other student orgs want to do art stuff, but I guess don’t have the materials. So I’m glad we can provide that. Plus other events and exhibitions and things. 

GC: Yes, exhibition opportunities and opportunities to do more than just make art, but, like, to curate, and do your own projects. If anyone on campus wants to do a project, if they want to do an installation or something, they can. 

WL: Something we’ve realized over the last year is that there’s the Vassar Artists Group Executive Board (EB) that serves as the administrative functioning, but then also a lot of people consider themselves a part of VAG as a general board. Truly anyone who does anything with the club or even is just on the email list is a part of it. 

Do you guys have any standout examples of collabs that you’ve done?

WL: I feel like our most notable project is not necessarily a collab, but it’s collabing with campus, like the Deece [Note: “Deece” is the unofficial name for Vassar’s dining hall, the Gordon Commons] exhibit. But one of our most popular ones we did–We did a workshop on protest art with SJP and that was super successful. Last year, we also did one with the Working Students Coalition where we did a printmaking workshop. I have a lot of people who have been asking to bring that back. But just looking at how we can spread awareness about other clubs and their missions has been really fun, because art is such an important mode of spreading information and creating change.

VAG currently operates in Blodgett Hall, but where exactly did it start?

GC: It’s crazy. It started in Rocky (Rockefeller Hall). In the beginning, we didn’t even reserve the rooms. We just kind of showed up to the classrooms and hoped that they were not reserved. That was spring of 2023, I think. And then we held all of the meetings in Rocky until I moved to Lathrop [House] our sophomore year. Then, through being on the house team and knowing Dylan Stratton [the house advisor], we started meeting in the Lathrop multipurpose room. But it was getting really exhausting because we were storing all the art supplies in my closet. We’d take several trips down because I lived on the fourth floor. It was a lot– and we didn’t even have that many supplies at that point. It was just paper and markers and maybe some paint.

What motivated you guys originally to start Vassar Artist Group?

GC: I think Phineas (co-founder) and I had shared the frustration of not being able to access art spaces on campus because neither of us were in Drawing I, and the class is such a huge commitment. I came to Vassar thinking, “I’m not going to be a studio art major, I’m just going to take art classes.” And then I didn’t get into drawing, and I didn’t realize I was a year-long commitment, and I didn’t realize that this year-long commitment unlocked everything else in the department. And also, just the shock that there was no art club at Vassar. 

LN: That is actually shocking that there wasn’t one before. 

GC: Or, like, there was one, but I think it went defunct because it kind of just, like, lost traction or something. The people all got busy and graduated.

What roadblocks or challenges have there been in terms of being able to operate in the way that you would like? 

WL: For me, personally, doing treasurer last year was super eye opening to how kind of the Vassar Student Association (VSA) functions as a whole. But I think what we forget, too, is that art supplies are expensive and it’s really, really expensive to have to continue to replenish– and that’s the hard part about making an accessible arts community. Especially since we’ve recently started implementing a studio to check out policy where people can come in and then check out supplies and use them, bring them home, and bring them back in two weeks. I mean, it’s a lot of work for us to manage that and then also continue to pay for it. And then also when it comes to on-campus stuff, like putting up exhibits, there’s a lot of extra fees to pay the people to help us, and it all comes out of our budget.

LV: It’s true though. Like, it’s a Vassar building, and we just pay for the whole thing.

Would you say that the Deece exhibit is your favorite “big thing” that you do?

GC: I would say it’s my favorite to look at, and it’s my least favorite to organize. 

LV: Yeah, it’s a lot of work. And I actually think year after year, it’s gotten more fun and easier, still stressful. But the first week was really rough.. 

GC: Oh my God. Sorry, I was telling someone the other day about that one time, Leo, where me, you and Phineas were in the architecture studio, because I had an architect project due, and it was like, maybe 3 in the morning. I ended up sleeping and, you guys were like trying to 

figure out the measurements in the wee hours of the night– it was bad.It was bad. It was the due date of the measurements or something. 

WL: Yeah, putting it together is growth. But this semester, we’ve had so many people. We printed [the art] so massive this semester, which we thought was a mistake because now we have a very limited budget, but at the same time, everyone’s come up to me and been like, “this is the best of these exhibits I’ve seen.” It’s just so big and it takes so much space, it’s awesome. 

LN: It’s something that everyone at Vassar loves. I love it. And it just sort of becomes such an integral part of your day only having one dining hall. It’s amazing. 

Leo and Gracie, you guys are about to graduate… What legacy are you leaving behind? Where do you see this going in the future?

GC: I would hope it carries on. I also have taken a step back this semester and for the rest of the year. I just contribute a little bit. But I’m really proud of everything that I’ve been seeing happening. Will and Leo have been doing a really great job. Like, not only running the org, but also cultivating a really, really strong and executive board, which is really awesome to see. That is the legacy that I wanted to leave, this passion– not just from me, but from other people who want to do this and want to spread the community and art accessibility. So I hope it keeps going for as long as it can. 

WL: I’m going to cry, man. 

LV: I want the org to be whatever the people who are there, when they’re there, want. Because we won’t be part of it anymore, and I think that’s okay. That’s good. But also, I want to leave behind an org where people want to be in it and feel like it’s adding to their lives. I feel like we’re at a place right now where it is, and that’s something I’m really happy about. I hope that continues in the future when I’m not here. 

WL: Well, being here next year, I will probably not continue my reign as president. I’m going abroad next semester, so this is like my one semester to live in that glory. But, like we were talking about at the beginning, a lot of people consider being a part of the general board and being a part of the club, which is so cool. It’s something that I think we hadn’t really realized was a thing. And when we were actually doing recruitment this semester, we had to really think, “okay, what’s the difference between being on the general board and being on the EB?” Like, what does that look like? And so I think as we strengthen in numbers and slowly accumulate more resources and have the option to be able to give outward supplies, we’re creating more of an arts making space as opposed to just an administrative space where we just handle art on campus. But I think one of the, like, really long term goals for VAG that we’ve talked about a lot is just kind of like continuing to foster like a community where people feel like they can come and make art with other people who love to make art or have never made art before, just making that a possibility on campus. 

LV: And that was one of the reasons that I wanted to get involved. I like making art with people and I wanted a community to make art with. That’s something I’d like to see continue going forward. And obviously you can’t force community, but we want to create a space where people feel like they can come and meet other artists and hang out and make art and not be nervous.