Columbia Student-Run “Hokin Honors” Exhibit Returns in Virtual Format

"A Penny For My Thoughts," by Amanda Johnson ’21 Hokin Honors 2021: "A Penny For My Thoughts," by Amanda Johnson ’21
"Danger Stranger" by Amber Warfield ’21 Hokin Honors 2021: "Danger Stranger" by Amber Warfield ’21
Columbia College Chicago’s student art exhibit to open online for second consecutive year

Columbia College Chicago will open its 28th annual “Hokin Honors” exhibit online on May 10, 2021. The annual event, which is entirely run by Columbia students, showcases outstanding projects by the school’s graduating seniors.

Each year, students are recognized for their outstanding achievements in their department and field of study. They are then nominated by a faculty member to showcase their work in Columbia’s annual “Hokin Honors” event, bringing forth a collection of exemplary work representing that year’s graduating class while demonstrating a diverse set of skills and talents.

The Hokin gallery is curated, produced, and managed by Columbia College Chicago students enrolled in the Gallery Management Practicum, a course that offers hands-on experience in the development, curation, installation, and operation of exhibitions, programs, and events.

“This semester's class had three core teams working on different exhibitions, each led by a graduate student,” says Alissa Klaus, a graduate student in the Master of Arts Management program who is serving as team lead for the “Hokin Honors” 2021 exhibit. Four undergraduate students make up the rest of the “Hokin Honors” core team helping facilitate this year’s event. “We divided the departments between the five of us and each worked from start to finish on our different departments from requesting nominations to gathering student submissions to website creation. The class is open to students from all departments.”

Fourteen academic departments will be represented at this year’s exhibit. Displayed works will be from students in the following departments:

  • Art and Art History 
  • Audio and Acoustic Arts 
  • Business and Entrepreneurship 
  • Cinema and TV 
  • Communications 
  • Creative Writing 
  • Dance 
  • Design 
  • Fashion 
  • Interactive Arts and Media 
  • Music 
  • Photography
  • Sciences and Math 
  • Theatre 

As with last year’s exhibit, this year’s event will be held online for safety precautions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The event is expected to return to an in-person format next year.

“As a virtual exhibition, we are able to include large bodies of photographs, videos of students playing instruments and games that they have designed and built, audio recordings, and scholarly reports and presentations without being confined to the designated space of the Hokin gallery,” says Klaus.

“The ‘Hokin Honors’ exhibition uplifts student work while showing off some of the best talent at Columbia and breaking down traditional boundaries between disciplines and departments. For the first time, this year’s show includes quotes from teachers about why they nominated each student. The quotes juxtaposed with the works speak volumes about the quality of students at Columbia,” says Klaus. “The virtual exhibition also allowed the team to present large bodies of photographs, videos of students playing instruments and games that they have designed and built, audio recordings, and scholarly reports and presentations in ways that best fit each project's unique needs. There are a lot of exciting, thought-provoking, timely, and powerful projects that are worth checking out.”

For more information on “Hokin Honors” and additional exhibits at the Hokin, visit the Hokin gallery website.

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Daisy Franco
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dfranco@colum.edu

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