According to Gogel and Conrad, exhibition spaces are a means of creating a cohesive and interactive community among the many students who love visual arts but are not VES concentrators.

“More art spaces would build stronger relationships between the public arts, humanities and higher education,” Gogel says.

Still, some say that these more quirky public display spaces won’t fill the need for more traditional gallery space.

According to Mergel, displaying art in public places limits an artist’s freedom of expression and is logistically more difficult to execute.

“People entering galleries make the conscious decision to view and interact with what is on the walls,” she says. “It’s an art safe zone, where the artist can hang what he likes with no concerns that the public will be shocked because they didn’t expect it.”

Rather than campaigning for public art, Mergel says she believes existing gallery space for students could be used more efficiently and that the resources should be better shared among houses.

Garcia also says that existing gallery space could be better employed—and that VES could play a more visible role in organizing and promoting student exhibitions.

VES Chair Marjorie Garber calls the inability of student artists to show their work “a real problem.”

She envisions a “secondary exhibition space analogous to the [Loeb Experimental Theater]” where students could show their work for a week.

Building such a space isn’t easy; McCormick adds that safety is also an important concern when finding and creating new display spaces.

“We need more space to display student work, but people need to be thoughtful about safety,” she says. “The space needs a fire exit, for example, and needs to be secure enough where there is little chance of the student’s work being stolen.”

McCormick says technical constraints—like lighting and wall room—make it hard to simply use other spaces as makeshift display spaces.

“Not every place you find makes a good gallery,” she says.

—Staff writer Kimberly A. Kicenuik can be reached at kicenuik@fas.harvard.edu.