CBU art students create sculpture for Riverside’s Festival of Lights

Twelve students, enrolled in Advanced Art (Art 300) at California Baptist University, worked diligently this fall semester to turn a sketch art concept into a sculpture just in time for Riverside’s annual Festival of Lights.

The sculpture, titled “The Ship,” is a collection of symmetric cones that weave and extend to the sky with Christmas lights adorning its journey. The teal color represents the cool water that the ship will face on its voyage. The sculpture now resides outside the Riverside Art Museum, located on the corner of Lime Street and Mission Inn Boulevard in downtown Riverside, where it is scheduled to remain into March 2018.

Each participating student sketched an idea for the art project and the class then narrowed it down to one, said Kristi Lippire, associate professor of visual arts at CBU. The students then had to decide what materials to use to create a sculpture within an assigned budget.

“They had to make design choices together as a team, make alterations as they progressed, learn how to be flexible and deal with change,” Lippire said. “There’s a lot of problem-solving on the way, and they had to brainstorm together and come to agreement.”

The students settled on wire mesh covered with paper mache to create their art sculpture.

Michaela VanSant, a visual arts junior, said she enjoyed the planning and discovery phase of the project.  

“It’s not just making what we want. It’s understanding what does the public want,” VanSant said. “How can we embody the spirit of this event in our sculpture while still keeping our ideas and our vision?”

The project gave the students valuable real-world experience, Lippire said.

“It’s important to do community outreach, to get ourselves out of the classroom as much as possible, and think about what people will want to see as they walk around the city,” Lippire said.