St. Thomas community members had a chance to experience a wealth of local art while also celebrating a milestone Saturday.

The 10th annual Fall Art Tour celebrated a decade of art with a guided bus tour featuring 10 local schools’ art exhibitions within the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities and the College Art Gallery Collaborative, an ACTC program that promotes visual art-related activities.

The free tour provided transportation with each stop offering a guided tour of the school’s art gallery, refreshments and music.

St. Thomas showcased the “Face of Faith, Sacred Works” collection in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center. Two graduate students, Kathryn Carrier and TongTong Guo narrated the Asmat Art Gallery display and explaining the “Among the Asmat: The Schneebaum Perspective” exhibit on display.

Augsburg College, Bethel University, Concordia University, Hamline University, Macalester College, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, St. Catherine University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Northwestern (Minn.) and St. Thomas all participated in the event.

Additionally, Bethel, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Northwestern teamed up on a pop-up exhibition on University Avenue.

The tour had three coach buses that stopped at up to six galleries, and a student guide stayed at each exhibition for approximately 30 minutes.

Julie Risser, director of the American Museum of Asmat Art on St. Thomas’ campus, said she was thrilled that the gallery got exposure through the tour.

“It’s a great way to share the collection, especially with students in the ACTC school system because we have something that other schools do not have,” Risser said.

Carrier said guiding the tour is a tool she can learn from to enhance her skills in the art department.

“I’m constantly learning; questions that we are receiving are ones we have never really thought of ourselves. It’s always great to get a fresh eye and have these questions brought up that you would never think of,” Carrier said.

Sophomore Macauley Garrett said the guides were helpful.

“The tour allowed me to see the different artworks at different schools I would have never been able to see,” Garrett said.

Exhibition and Programs Manager Susan Focke said having guides boosted the tour’s success after last year’s first attempt at a guided tour.

“People seem to love a guided tour. They all just have a blast,” Focke said. “They have something in common to begin with- they like art, and they want to look around.”

Although the tour attracts an array of ages, Focke said students were the tour’s target audience.

“(The tour) was started for students- to get students on campus, let them acclimate and then get them out and see the other colleges and see what they have to offer,” Focke said.

ACTC funded the tour, and individual schools were responsible for providing refreshments and music.

Carrier said she sees the art tour as an aid to the art history department’s community.

“When people are coming through a tour and brought here specifically, I think there probably is a better chance to bringing others back and sharing that experience with other people,” Carrier said. “(Through the tour) we have people who want to know about the art and ask about the art and share it afterwards.”

Johnnay Leenay can be reached at leen1980@stthomas.edu.