It’s the end of another semester and with it comes finals, holiday plans and the SVSU BFA show.

This year, four students will be showing their work in this show, whose focus includes the long-standing traditions of painting and sculpture, to the relatively younger field of graphic design.

The four students presenting are Jon Elliot, Patricia McDonald, Olivia Nixon and Samuel Dantuma.

Patricia McDonald focused her BFA on sculpture and has exhibited her work in a number of other shows during her time at SVSU.

She recognized a difference with this show, however.

“With other shows, you just kind of send it in and leave the work with them,” she explained.  “This has lots of hands on work — it’s stressful, but it prepares me for grad school.”

The BFA show is the culmination of BFA students work after their time here at SVSU.

The program itself is highly selective and there is a great deal of work involved, both from students and faculty to reach this point.

Alaina Plowdrey, director of the Art Gallery, commented on that process.

“Students have lots of different interviews.  They meet with me a few months prior and also submit their artist statement for approval by three different faculty advisers, then they have to get overall approval from the department chair Hideki Kihata.”

Despite the elaborate details required for the show, Plowdrey praised the opportunities offered for the students.

“The students put everything together and that’s huge.  They’re using their creative problem solving skills, and half the battle is figuring out how the viewer will look at their work.”

Another of the students, Olivia Nixon, whose focus is in graphic design, also had to think a lot about how the viewer would react to her work.

She had shown more fine art pieces in the past and found the more open-ended graphic design project more challenging, but also more enjoyable.

She focused her work on infographics or graphics designed to specifically convey information in a visually accessible way.

“The idea is to make info un-boring,” she said.

Her topic is hair because of how universal and relevant to someone’s identity it is. All her information is written by her and from scientific sources.

“I’m excited to talk and explain things to everyone,” McDonald said. “It’s four years of my life on display here.”

Nixon also commented on the length of the commitment she and the other students have made to this.

“This is all we’ve been thinking about for the last one and half to two years,” she said. “We’ll be proud of each other.”

This isn’t the only opportunity for art students to show on campus, though.

SVSU also holds an annual student show at the end of the entire school year where any art or graphic design student is permitted to enter.

Nixon emphasized how important it is for students to enter shows like that during college.

“There’s no reason not to submit at least one piece,” she said. “In the real world, there’s a lot of hoops to jump through but here, it’s so easy.”

Plowdrey also gave some tips for students considering showing.

“Make sure your work is clean and ready to hang, and think how the viewer will see it,” she said. “Judges can tell if you are purposely controlling your audience or not.”

Regardless of this, everyone involved with the BFA show is encouraging people to come see it.

Nixon mentioned how, many times, students think they aren’t interested in art, but emphasized that the gallery has a lot of unexpected pieces.

“You’ll be interacting more than you think,” she said.

Plowdrey has also been actively seeking to engage students during her short time so far as gallery director, and is passionate about how students should support each other here on campus.

“No matter what degree you’re going into, one glance at a color of text can spur on a whole new thought,” she said. “You never know when the next inspiration is going to come.”

The reception is Thursday, Dec. 5 from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the gallery in Arbury. The exhibit is free. Food will be provided.