What is Postcrypt?
Postcrypt Art Gallery is a unique space on the Columbia University campus designed to provide student artists and curators with the opportunity to create, curate, and exhibit their work. Since its inception in 1989, when an enterprising group of Columbia undergraduate students took the initiative to transform the unused basement space of the St. Paul's Chapel into an exhibition space, the Postcrypt Art Gallery has been the artistic pulse of the Columbia campus. The gallery serves as the only gallery space exclusively dedicated to the exhibition of undergraduate art, and student artists from CC, BC, GS, and SEAS are provided with the opportunity to exhibit their work, regardless of their involvement with the Visual Arts Department. We are also the only group on campus which provides students with firsthand knowledge about the inner workings and daily functions of running an art gallery.
Get Involved
Curators, artists, organizers, and new ideas are always welcome. Come to our weekly meetings or email our president, Matt Raibert, for more information about how you can get involved with Postcrypt Art Gallery.
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What do we do?
Members of Postcrypt take part in a variety of activities that range from curatorial duties, handling art, planning gallery openings, designing publicity materials for upcoming shows and events, preparing and maintaining the gallery space, going on field trips to museums and galleries, attending lectures, and having fun at our openings.
Postcrypt Art Gallery hosts three or four curated exhibitions per semester. Each show takes at least one month to plan, and culminates in a gallery opening in our exhibition space in the basement of St. Paul's Chapel. Exhibitions stay up for three weeks and are broken down in time to install the next show.
In addition to these curated shows, we host two One Night Stands per semester. A One Night Stand is an art exhibition which is not curated, but is open to all students of CC, BC, and SEAS, who may enter any work of art on the night before the opening of the exhibit. This is an "open-mic-night" for artists, performers, and musicians to share their work.