Most fine art can be found behind glass, or at galleries. Oregon State University-Cascades decided to try something a little different when it began to showcase faculty art.

Last fall, the Bend university opened a faculty art exhibit in the campus residence hall’s mailroom, where all students, not just art majors, can see what their professors create as artists in their own right.

Kirsteen Wolf, campus logistics manager, and Andrew Lorish, instructor in arts, media and technology, were the main organizers behind making this unconventional gallery a reality.

“I had a poster of the Postman portrait (Vincent Van Gogh’s “Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin”) hung up in the mailroom, and I started a conversation around having art there,” Wolf said. Lorish got in touch with art faculty, while Wolf got permission from Steve Pitman, interim chief operations officer.

The first show was hung last summer, featuring art instructor Breezy Winters’ work.

OSU-Cascades doesn’t have an official gallery space for staff and students, and faculty were looking for an opportunity to show student and staff work, said Lorish.

“It’s an opportunity to gaze at art,” said Wolf, whose mother and grandmother are both artists. “If you’re drawn to a particular piece of art, you’re able to see it every day.”

Lorish emphasized the importance of students having variety in the artwork they see. Students need permission to be curious, and to view art from different backgrounds and educational approaches, he said. “It’s important for students to see what staff do.”

“There’s no theme to the gallery. The strength of a small department is variety. So, we’ve had photos and abstracts and the spring will be graphics and media,” said Lorish. Fellow art instructor Kiel Fletcher and Lorish will show their work in the spring.

Next fall, Lorish is looking forward to bringing in work from a designer and a sculptor.

The gallery’s current artist, Erin Bodfish, is a first-year art history and studio art instructor at OSU-Cascades. She said it’s both fun and daunting to put her work up where students can see it. “It’s a fun opportunity to convert the space,” she said.

Bodfish’s displayed abstract paintings are from three separate series of work.

“Students can see a personal glimpse into what I think about and what I teach,” she said.

Bodfish was pleased to be asked to show work in the mailroom gallery. “I’m interested in pop-up shows and alternative spaces to traditional galleries,” she said. “It deconstructs traditional understanding of what art has to be and how it has to be displayed.”

Lorish is a printmaker, and Bodfish noted that in the spring, students will be able to see how the printmaking techniques they learn in class are used in the field.

Gallery lights will also be added to the exhibit in the next few months.

OSU-Cascades paid for a cable-and-rail system to be installed recently, which allows differently sized pieces of artwork to be hung without putting holes in the wall. A bar runs along the wall, and a clip and cable are attached to each piece of artwork so they can be hung professionally.

“It has the potential to engage the community,” said Wolf. “We have a team here that makes it exciting.”