Ian MacDonald — Staff Writer 

The art gallery in the campus center is packed with sculptures by artist Stephanie Barrick. Barrick calls these sculptures “wearable art,” made to spread the word of God. The display will be open until Dec. 14. 

Gallery director David Platter first reached out to Barrick while attending the Christians Individual Arts (CIVA) convention. He flew there, met her, and invited her to show her work at Dordt University. The project came to a halt in the fall semester of 2021, but picked back up again over this past summer. 

“We had about three or four calls that lasted four hours in the summer and maybe even longer than that,” Platter said. “There was a lot of uncertainty until she got on campus.” 

Platter served as a go-between for Barrick and Dordt. He coordinated with the senior seminar class of the art department and got multiple seniors to help with moving, assembling, and modeling the sculptures. 

Barrick also came to Platter with the idea to make a production using the sculptures for an ad and video for her website. After some consideration, Platter came to Mark Volkers, a digital media professor at Dordt. 

Volkers mentored Platter when he first arrived at Dordt five years ago, and their established relationship enhanced the production process. 

“I asked a lot of people about the production, but the difference is Mark stayed interested in the project and I knew it was someone who would work hard at it,” Platter said. 

Once Volkers got involved, he went to his students. Volkers’ Advanced Film and Video Production class of eight students helped with the project. 

The students worked on many aspects of filmmaking during the project: lighting, sound, and filming. Volkers was open to hear ideas from the students and their viewpoints on different shots. 

After finishing filming, students entered the post-production stage. The class split into partner pairings to come up with their own vision of the project. Volkers will send each individual cut to Barrick to see what aspects she likes from each. 

Neither Platter nor Volkers have heard of a time when this kind of collaboration between the digital media and art departments came to Dordt. Both are very happy to be a part of it. 

“It’s a very unique situation,” Volkers said. “When Platter came to me with the idea of the production, I knew we had to do it.” 

Barrick’s production will be finished within a few weeks and will be available for viewing on her website.

Photo credit: Dordt University