Staff photo by Clay Schuldt For the month of April, the 4 Pillars Gallery at The Grand Center for Arts and Culture is featuring six pieces of one-of-a-kind and one-time installation art.

NEW ULM– The 4 Pillars Gallery at The Grand Center for Arts and Culture will be home to a series of six art installations created by MSU-Mankato students for the next month.

A special open house event for the exhibit starts at 7 p.m. Friday, April 1. It is a chance for the public to see these one-of-a-kind installations. Once the installations are taken down, they cannot be reassembled in the same way again.

The MSU art installation exhibit is an annual tradition at The Grand. This year’s theme is an interest in non-traditional materials and a focus on exploration:

• “Epsilon” by Abby Lundebrek. Lundbrek’s piece is a meditation on the relationship between molecules and cells using canvas, paint, yarn and wood.

• “Indoor Camping on a Rainy Night” by Cece Newbauer replicates the childhood activity of making an indoor fort out of household items. A TV tray and other mixed media items are turned over to resemble a campsite.

• “Spills” by Emily Rhoda is a series of paint spills suspended by yarn from the ceiling. Rhoda described the work as impulsive. Each spill is attached to a string to connect one messy thought to another messy thought.

• Nelly Jasinski-Emste’s untiled artwork features trellise, assorted textiles and paper to create construction from deconstructed materials. The piece is intended to remind viewers of the transformation seen in deconstructing things around us.

• Eli Schimming’s “Should I Sit?” is a series of chairs and household items connected by yarn. The yarn creates interesting shapes out of lines, but it also blocks off the chairs. This turns a normally inviting space into a prohibited space.

• “Strawberry Jelly” by Tabitha Bergstrom is a free-form piece made of chicken wire, yarn, ribbon, tissue paper and LED lights. The idea was to use simple materials to create a complex form and leave the rest to the viewer’s imagination.

The installation will be open from Friday, April 1, through Friday, April 29.

The 4 Pillars Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.