For advertising, marketing, design, or recruiting firms, a difficult and expensive task can be locating and assessing potential employees. Sacred Heart University's Art & Design has a solution to this challenge—on Wednesday, April 27th the Department of Art & Design will present its 2005 graduating class of Graphic Designers, Illustrators and Studio Artists at the 13th Annual Senior Portfolio Night. Students will present portfolios of their artwork from 4:30–8:00 PM at the Art & Design Department located at 101 Oakview Drive in Trumbull, Conn. (Please note that the Senior Portfolio Night is being held at SHU's Trumbull Campus--not on the main campus in Fairfield.) Refreshments and music will accompany the evening's event, which is free and open to the public.

Sacred Heart University's Art & Design program has rapidly evolved into the region's premier design program. Students graduating from this program are prepared to immediately assume positions in the professional environment in Fairfield County and beyond. Senior Portfolio Night is an opportunity for design, advertising, and marketing professionals to view the work of exciting young professionals, speak with them in an informal setting, and learn how the University's Art & Design program can serve the local and regional business community.

In addition to viewing the work of our seniors, design and marketing firms can learn more about Sacred Heart University's exciting internship program. This year there were about ten students serving as interns at a variety of companies, including some of the largest and most innovative firms in Fairfield County.

According to Assistant Professor of Art and Design and the students' illustration instructor, Jack de Graffenried, “Since the inception of the Senior Portfolio Night in 1992, I have had the pleasure to witness the continued growth of our department through the works of our students. During these evenings, students are given the opportunity to display and discuss their artwork to professionals in graphic design, illustration and education. The quality of the student artwork is quite impressive representing work not only executed in the classroom, but also in assignments as intern graphic designers. Select works have been exhibited as well, in nationally juried illustration exhibitions.”

Department of Art and Design Chair Stefan Buda adds, “This event represents an increased effort by all of our department faculty members to prepare students for the rigors of employment searches during a difficult economy. To that end we have developed a growing internship program that has led directly to sixty percent of senior designers from the last two graduating classes to be either hired prior to graduation or very shortly thereafter.”

For students wishing to pursue post-graduate degrees in Art Education or Art Therapy, internships with area institutions were obtained with the assistance of Associate Professor Ted Gutswa. These internships have included working with such distinguished institutions as the Kennedy Center and Bridgeport Hospital.

To get to the Sacred Heart University Art & Design Department in Trumbull, take the Merritt Parkway to Exit 48 (Main Street). Go South on Main Street to the first traffic light, past the Westfield Mall. Then, take a left at the next traffic light onto Old Town Road. Go to the third stop sign and turn left onto Oakview Drive. Sacred Heart University is the last driveway on the left with a sign on the entrance. Parking is available to the left of the building. The Art & Design Department is located on the second floor at the top of the stairs.

Contact: Funda Alp (alpf@sacredheart.edu)

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