Bluffton University to exhibit alumna’s ‘Art and Soul’

“Art and Soul: A Collaboration of Spirits,” a collection of drawings by 1989 Bluffton alumna Joanne Von Sossan, will be on display beginning Monday, Oct. 1, in the Grace Albrecht Gallery of the university’s Sauder Visual Arts Center.

The exhibit is free and open to the public through Oct. 26. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 1-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. A reception with the artist will be held from 9:30-11 a.m. Homecoming Saturday, Oct. 13.

Two years after graduating from Bluffton with a bachelor’s degree in art education, Von Sossan moved to the Dayton area to teach art. She is now in her 22nd year of teaching visual arts to students in grades 1-8 at St. Peter School in Huber Heights. “Art and Soul,” featuring large-scale drawings of the same model over a number of years, was her first solo show, premiering in 2010.

Von Sossan also gives private studio lessons and, for the last 18 years, has coordinated the annual Creative Spirit Art Exhibit, a show including more than 1,000 pieces of art from students in Dayton-area Catholic schools.