By Meredith Hoffman
DNAInfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA - FIT’s new exhibit "Hurly Burly," which opened this week at the FIT Museum, showcases colorful drawings, sculptures, collages and digital work by more than a dozen graduate illustration students.
The projects, representing the culmination of studies for the 14 students, reflect illustration’s new possibilities in the computer age, said Melanie Reim, the department's chairperson.
"Illustration has changed from just print," said Reim, who's been in the field for 25 years. "Now it's the people who do ideas for storyboards, opening credits, designing toys and designing apps."
The exhibit, which celebrates "a diversity of cultures and markets that include graphic novels, fashion, collage, mythology, costume, journals and more," according to the school's site, is open to the public.
She and other professors encourage students to include animation, toys, or multimedia to accompany their work. Still, Reim said, the heart of illustration remains the same.
"Illustration is pictorial storytelling. It's far more enriching than the click of the camera because you’re looking at how somebody puts the elements together," said Reim, an architect of the five-year-old M.A. program.
Reim also designed a new program to begin in the fall. Next year FIT will replace the M.A. in illustration with an MFA, the first terminal degree ever offered by the school.
"We’re very excited about the new development," said Reim. "Our current students have reenergized their careers and their lives through their study."
"Hurly Burly" will run through July 3 at the Museum at FIT, on W. 27th Street and Seventh Avenue, open Tuesday-Friday 12-8 pm and Saturday 10 am-5 pm. Admission is free.
