VAG has a new studio. VAG has new members. VAG has a new exhibit covering the familiar walls of Gordon Commons. So what is VAG and what does all this newness mean? I got lunch with Molly Ardren ’25 and Octavia Cordes ’26 at a tiny table in Vassar Artist Group’s (VAG) deliberately chosen exhibition space to ask them about their novel roles as executive members of VAG. Much like most of the student body, VAG’s first show introduced Ardren and Cordes to the organization. In fact, Ardren was one of the artists whose work was displayed, which led to her forming friendships with the three founders, Gracie Chang ’26, Leo Valenti ’26 and Phineas Cashman ’26. As someone who has spent hours coloring and writing in VAG’s new studio, Room 19 in the Blodgett Hall basement, I wanted to ask what the vision for the space was. “The goal of the new studio space is just to make art more accessible at Vassar. To really, like, have access to art supplies here, you have to be like a major or correlate. To even take any art classes you have to take a full year Drawing I class, which understandably kind of turns a lot of people away,” Ardren explained. This accessibility issue is something VAG resolves by offering any studio visitors free materials and a space to make art that does not have to be “academic” or “perfect.”
Another use for the space is to house and nurture the organization’s many collaborations. Cordes shared that she and Ardren are running a project in April which the new studio helps facilitate. “We’re working with the Poughkeepsie High School and we’re having 12 or so students come to the studio every Friday to work with us for a few hours. It’s nice that we have that space instead of needing to book a room and the uncertainty that there’s going to be something unavailable. I think it makes us so much more flexible in working with other organizations and other people.”
VAG and its members have worked with House Teams and Students for Justice in Palestine, and are even working with the College on mural projects. Collaborations are at the core of the organization’s spirit and VAG relies on Vassar’s tight-knit student body to bring them to life. Cordes mentioned that they can bring up people they want to work with and the organization plans for it. Ardren agreed saying, “I feel like that’s like one of the really cool parts about going to a school like Vassar in general. Like a small school where everyone knows each other. Sometimes that sucks but sometimes it’s the best in that you kind of meet people who have, like, niche interests and get to work on collabs that are crazy.”
When I asked both artists what drew them to VAG in the first place, Cordes mentioned this atmosphere of open-mindedness and respect. VAG emphasizes that they are open to anyone and all art. “I saw it as the most nonspecific art group. It’s nice to have that openness so anybody can come and do anything and get any supplies, it doesn’t feel like you’re separating people by interest,” she said. VAG allows everyone’s art—an art major or not—to be recognized by the Brewer community by showing off the unique pieces at the heart of Vassar College, the fluorescently lit Gordon Commons. Being the campus’s only dining hall, you are bound to enter Gordon Commons at some point, and VAG has brilliantly taken advantage of all that hungry foot-traffic. Like Ardren, if you have your piece in a VAG show, you can count on most of the Vassar community having seen your work. “I’ve never had people approach me the same way and be like, ‘I didn’t know that you were the fish girl.’ ‘I didn’t know that you made that fish.’ ‘I love that piece.’” She even had a Brewer abroad reach out and ask if they could quote her poem that accompanied her piece in the show for an assignment.
The VAG executive board is a reflection of its diverse approaches to and interests in art, and so their independently held hours in the VAG studio represent that individuality. Cordes shared that she prefers an unstructured approach to her hours. “I don’t usually go with a plan. I’m there basically to just help them find things and sort of give them access to supplies… I put them [the art pieces] on the wall because we like to add to the space to beautify the space and make it like a community space. That’s the beauty of studio hours, you go and do whatever you want.” Ardren unveiled an upcoming transformation of her studio hours thanks to the printing press she built herself. “I’m going to bring it in so that people have the opportunity to make prints because that is typically a super inaccessible, expensive form of making art. Bringing that in and giving people like that opportunity would be really exciting,” she explained. In just these responses you can see that VAG’s members and contributors share a consensus: Art is many things and artists are all people.
VAG’s new show, titled “Come-Together,” centers love and relationality, allowing Brewers to experience these concepts through the works of their peers. And they will not have to go out of their way to do so, they can do it over waffle fries and cookies. This is a semester of firsts for VAG, but with the organization’s popularity on campus and dedicated members, I am excited to see newness become the norm. After all, it is a community of art-loving, creativity driven, community building innovators.
