Recognizing both her artistic talent and potential, the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) awarded Amy Archambault ’08, studio supervisor of the Millard Art Center and lecturer in visual arts at the College of the Holy Cross, a grant in sculpture and design. With an award of $7,500, Archambault plans to pursue several artistic projects and to acquire new materials, as well as studio and storage spaces.
A 2008 graduate of Holy Cross, Archambault returned to Holy Cross as a member of the faculty after receiving her M.F.A. from the University in Pennsylvania in 2011. Archambault’s large-scale installations and inspective mixed media drawings and paintings uncover playful and unconventional activations of sites and structures that are seemingly void of human intervention. Now, with her art, she interrogates the limits and opportunities of structures in space. “I am naïve to the accepted methods of building a jungle gym, a fort or even exercise equipment,” she explains. “I continue to rig up a mutation of these familiar entities.”
Here at Holy Cross, she mentors students, oversees studio spaces and the functionality of the Millard Art Center, maintains equipment, organizes inventory and assists faculty. She says that Millard “may be one of the smaller units on campus, but it houses exceptional and reputable faculty, mentors and practicing artists.”
Reflecting on the visual arts department’s dedication to the liberal arts, Archambault says she strives to provide students with “a creative experience that challenges them to generate connections to their additional interests.” And though she admits that making art can be technical and strenuous, or even critically challenging, she does not underestimate the value of good, old-fashioned enjoyment. “We have fun,” she says. “I believe it is important for students to have fun while learning.”
Archambault has exhibited her work in galleries throughout the northeast. She was recently featured in a solo exhibition at the Mill Gallery in Hartford, Conn. In 2011, Archambault was awarded the Christopher Leland Lyon Memorial Scholarship from the University of Pennsylvania, and most recently, was featured in Pulse Magazine for its “Up & Coming Local Artists” outlook in Central Massachusetts in 2012.
Her work will be on display in “Spark: A Celebration of Alumnae Artists from Holy Cross,” on view from March 14 – April 12, at the Cantor Art Gallery. For the exhibition Archambault has created a large-scale installation, titled, “You can Survive” in which she has retrofitted a Subaru station wagon with all the equipment of a bomb shelter.
Archambault resides in North Chelmsford, Mass.
The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) is a state agency that promotes excellence, access, education, and diversity in the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences to improve the quality of life for all Massachusetts residents and contribute to the economic vitality of local communities.
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