GREENFIELD — Greenfield Community College held its annual ArtsNight celebration last week, representing the culmination of months of work and creative efforts by students and faculty.

The free event was held in the campus’ South Wing and showcased hundreds of works completed during the fall and spring semesters.

“It’s phenomenal,” Art Department faculty member Kelly Popoff said as people mingled, sampled refreshments and admired the art in the South Gallery. The event, which serves as the opening reception for the Art Department’s annual Student Art Exhibit that will remain on display through May 8, featured performances as well as the “cover reveal” for the latest edition of “Plum,” GCC’s literary magazine.

“The outpouring of support for the visual art students was palpable,” Jen Simms, who chairs the Art Department, wrote in an email following Thursday’s ArtsNight. “The Student Art Exhibition is a true celebration of the hard work that our students undertake in the studios. At the end of the night, one of our first-year students came up to me and was so overjoyed that people were truly interested in knowing more about the content of their work.

“I witnessed the joy on our students’ faces as they pointed out their work to their friends and families,” she continued. “I feel such gratitude that my colleagues and I can hold space for our students in this way — it truly is transformative for them.”

One of the artists with work on display was 19-year-old art major Olivia Vassar. The gallery contained several of her pieces, including three paintings featuring eerie green fish.

“Fish have been a theme in some of my works and I’ve just incorporated them,” she said. “For … almost half my life I’ve been taking a yearly trip with my with friends to Lake Champlain. ... We basically sit out on the boat all day for like a week and we’re just fishing. ... I feel like I like how interpretable it is, just using fish — just hearing what different people feel when they see what I’m making. And I think it’s kind of fun.”

Some admirers stopped to compliment Vassar. She said the ArtsNight celebration was going off without a hitch.

“I think it’s really awesome. It might even be better than last year. There’s a lot of variety, I feel like, which is really, really nice,” she said. “There’s just a lot of stunning pieces, and I love seeing the new artists who come in and what they bring.”

Matthew Shippee, chair of the Music Department, said the celebration was an enormous success and a wonderful way for more people to find out about GCC’s programs.

“A warm and enthusiastic audience rewarded music students for a semester of hard work preparing for spring concerts,” he said in a statement.

Tom Geha, who chairs the Theater Department, said the event is a true celebration of the visual and performing arts.

“It’s one of my favorite nights of the year. We, in the theater, are always excited to preview our spring theater production during ArtsNight, as we open the following night,” he said. “The buzz in the air during ArtsNight is electric. A wonderful showcase of all the inspiration and talent in the valley.”

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.