By Pauline Miller
In the depths of Princeton High School, hidden behind two wide, black doors, lies the Numina Gallery, gaping like a cave and blindingly white, so that it almost glows upon entrance. This obscure and usually empty space is often overlooked by students who pass it daily on their way to gym, but if Alessia Arregui ’11 and Gaby Shypula ’12 have anything to do with it, Numina will soon become common knowledge to Princeton High School students.
The two girls, who are the co-presidents of the club, are branching out this year, getting everyone in the community involved with gallery and not just student artists at the school. “There’s a lot more interest this year, I think,” said Shypula, “We have a lot more planned and we’re going more places.”
Last year, the space was used daily by the AP art history classes at the high school, which inhibited the amount of use that the space could be used for regarding shows. “We had all of this energy, last year, to do everything, but we couldn’t really have an exhibition at all besides the opening because it was closed for the class.” Explained Arregui. That energy has doubled since last year, and as a result, Numina has drawn up quite the to-do list. They’re pretty much booked for the rest of the year, with plans for a Black and White show, a teacher and professional show and an environmental show for Earth Day n on top of the end of the year shows for the art students at the school.
They’ve already put on a collaborative show, which exhibited the work of M. Cassagne’s 5A French class, who created posters as a project to go along with the Jaques Brel performance that the PHS choir put on. This show also unveiled a new opportunity for both Numina and the curriculum at Princeton High School n integrating schoolwork with art and gallery life.
The freshman English teachers have also signed up to use the space to display work from the annual Odyssey project. “Teachers are gonna use the show as a way to motivate the kids to do well for this project.” Explained Arregui. “There’s limited space, so we’ll only be showing the best projects.”
The girls are hoping that the Odyssey show will help put Numina on the map for the freshman, which would then carry through for their next four years. While a lot of upperclassmen are aware of what Numina is, many of the younger students aren’t aware of the gallery unless they take a visual arts class of some kind at the school. Lily Rosen ’11, a member of Numina, thinks that the educational projects are an important step for the gallery. “At a school like Princeton High School, there’s a lot of focus on the academics, like English and the sciences, and not as much on art.” She said. “These shows are important because it’ll keep the students from disregarding the arts.”
Numina is also going to become more integrated with the community as a whole. “For the Black and White show, we’ve invited Stuart, [West Windsor-Plainsboro] North and Princeton Day School to show work along with the PHS students,” Said Shypula, “[Numina is] pretty much the only formal setting that people can show [their work], but we’re not the only school that has artists.” Hannah Milner ’11, a fellow club member who often helps transform the gallery from an empty white space to an oasis of artwork by participating in setting up for the shows, believes that by expanding beyond PHS, “Numina will bring together our surrounding community of artists, and we’ll get to see what other work and artists are out there.”
Not only will this draw attention to the gallery from a bunch of different sources, which Shypula thinks will be “good for marketing,” and the co-presidents are also hoping to make a more friendly relationship between the schools through artwork. “The whole point of our collaborative projects is that our school don’t really interact with each other [besides in] competitions and sports, so by doing something where we’re working together, we actually get to know them.” Said Arregui.
On top of making connections with other schools, Numina will also be connecting with professional artists in the community. The proposed teacher and professional show would feature both working artists who teach at the high school and professional artists from around Princeton. Mollie Murphy teaches Studio Art 2D I and II and is also a practicing artist, and she is planning on submitting “recent pieces” of her work to this show, which she explained were “installations, so they involve everything n painting, sculpture.”
Murphy believes that this professional show will give Numina a leg up in the art scene of Princeton. “At the openings, people come and each of those people brings people.” She said, which is exactly what Shypula and Arregui are hoping for. “It’ll be more professional than the student shows, so more people who are serious about their work will feel more comfortable showing at Numina.” Said Shypula, hopefully. “Maybe in the future, professional artists will contact us asking to showcase their work.”
With this abundance of creative energy, which will soon be pulsing from the heart of the building through the multitude of shows, Numina is bound to draw attention from every which way. Without a doubt, it will soon be pulled from the pits of being just “two black doors” to becoming more like it’s namesake – an area of creative energy and genius.