Second year MFA student Roshan Ganu ’20 has had a busy couple months. A miniature artist, illustrator and storyteller, her work was selected by the SooVAC Gallery in Minneapolis for a solo show which opened on February 15th 2020. The selection was done by juror Esther Callahan who is an independent curator in the Twin Cities, among many other things. The idea was a partnership between the MCAD MFA program and SooVAC Gallery, as a part of the Launch Programming initiated by director Ellen Mueller.

Her show titled Perceiving Places : Through Our Tenderness ties into the larger narrative in her work: notions of place and transformation of a foreign land into a familiar place. This theme pushed Ganu to explore the power of our senses and how smell, sound and lighting can contribute to our spatial experience. “Through a diorama, the intention was to investigate the different aspects of a space that help us find a sense of home. I first presented the diorama without any smell and then with the smell of a mowed lawn. The audience’s reaction was starkly different with the smell,” Ganu said.

Sarah Kuenzler of SOTA podcast interviewed Ganu based on her show at SooVAC where they chatted about Ganu’s journalism background, the importance of language in her work and her use of paper maché as a way to tie it all together. “I am so thankful to Sarah and SOTA Podcast for giving me the opportunity to talk about my work. Everyone back home in Goa and Mumbai were excited to get a glimpse of the art world here,” Ganu said.

“The SooVAC show was an excellent opportunity for me to intrinsically understand how a gallery show is constructed from scratch. Also the artist talk on March 1st was a great way to meet my audience and answer questions!” As a follow up to the opening of Perceiving Place: Through Our Tenderness, Ganu was in conversation with curator and juror Esther Callahan, where they spoke about storytelling and the influence of Indian folk traditions on Ganu’s work.

Launch programming is the brainchild of director of the MFA program Ellen Mueller and her team. When asked about the initiative, Mueller said, “Launch Programming is vital to the MCAD MFA community because it responds to the immediate professional needs of our students and recent alumni in the form of exclusive networking and CV-building opportunities. Each Launch Program acts as a marker of excellence, and connects our students and alumni with those who will help their careers grow well into the future.” Mueller reiterated that in this way, Launch Programming distinguishes the MCAD MFA from other graduate programs by demonstrating our on-going commitment to our graduates’ success, both before and after graduation.

When asked about the upcoming launch programming opportunities, Mueller said, “I’m very excited about our upcoming Launch Programs, which include a solo exhibition at Rochester Art Center in May/June, two Arrowmont workshops this summer where Emma Beatrez ’20 and Shirin Ghoraishi’20 will be participants, and a week-long summer experience at Mildred’s Lane where Heather Lamanno ’19 will be a resident.

Photos provided by Roshan Ganu

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