The hype about the upcoming River Campus has been so thick you could paddle your canoe for days and still not reach the other side. You'd simply crawl at a snail's pace through the superdense anticipation that has manifested itself into physical reality.

Now that's a cumbersome metaphor.

I must say, the hype is for good reason. Ask just about anyone with a stake in the local arts culture and they'll tell you they see the River Campus as the savior of Southeast Missouri culture. Not only will the facility present some rather intriguing cultural events, the hope is its existence in downtown Cape Girardeau will spur the further growth of our cultural climate. Time will tell.

But in all the talk, all the ultrahype surrounding the River Campus, it seems one group has been left out -- the massive crop of visual art students at Southeast Missouri State University who will benefit from, and deserve to have, the River Campus.

When we talk about the arts at the university, it seems that the conversation always drifts to either music or theater or dance, hardly ever to the visual arts. I'm partly to blame for that, since I'm the one responsible for communicating information to you, the reader. However, I also can't deny that it's a lot harder to get readers excited about the visual arts than it is about performances. There's just something about seeing live, moving art that's a lot different than quietly observing the static, visual art that most artists create, I guess.

Point being, we laud the music and theater programs at Southeast over and over again, while forgetting the whole time that student artists are laboring away in classrooms and studios, producing work of the same quality in a different format.

Every now and then those students get recognized, like this week. On Wednesday Southeast's massive student art show opened with an afternoon reception at the Southeast Missouri Regional Museum on the university campus. When I say massive, I'm not kidding.

Earlier in the week I reported the number of pieces in the show at 120 based on some incorrect information. Truth is, 140 pieces are in the show.

All the entries were juried into the exhibition. Not just any art was thrown into this thing, folks. This stuff is for real.

Nor were these just your typical paintings and drawings. Sculptures (one that really stands out is the sharp, pyramid-shaped tower of Nate Pierce called "The Way It Is"), ceramics (check out Stu Hao's stoneware pieces), fibers (I've always been intrigued by Molly Summers' work, regardless of the fact that she's a friend of mine) and even videos made up the bulk of quality work.

These students are pushing the boundaries of art, not just being confined to one or two stale, old genres. Rochelle Steffen's Best of Show-winning video "Cairo Lost" is a prime example. Steffen took a trip to Cairo and filmed some striking scenes at the old, abandoned hospital, using an iMovie filter to give the images that rustic, ghostly feel. She deserved her award, no matter how much the spotlight made her squirm (if you know Rochelle, you know what I'm talking about).

I'm leaving a lot of great students out of the praise. Just know there are many, many more. Art lovers should know about these students. Go to the student show this month and see for yourself. I'll guarantee you it's the best exhibition you've seen in Cape Girardeau in a long time.

Which brings us to the problem -- locals have few chances throughout the year to view the work of Southeast students. These students are isolated, many blocks from the downtown arts hub, with no gallery to call their own.

Change is on the way, though. Southeast's growing art program has added six to nine new students each year for the past nine years and the number of students at Southeast art classes grows 11 percent each year, department chairman Pat Reagan told me. And this growing program, which has long languished in the shadow of the performing arts, is about to get new digs.

Sure, theater and dance will have a new performance hall to play with at the River Campus. But the art department is getting something nice from the deal, too -- enhanced studio space and its own gallery.

Art students don't have their own gallery on campus, space is just too tight. "We're kind of beggars to the museum," Reagan jokes, and she's right. The art department has to try to squeeze in its exhibitions between regular museum exhibits.

But with its new gallery, student work and work from guest artists will be exhibited constantly, at a location right on the river, which Reagan calls the "seat of our long-term cultural development."

No longer will Southeast's art program be isolated from the cultural renaissance (to use a great cliche) that's happening downtown. They'll be right in the thick of it, where they deserve to be. After August, you art lovers may have another stop on First Fridays, where you can find a huge variety of traditional and contemporary art you won't see anywhere else in Cape Girar-deau. "Refreshing," would be the correct word.

If you ask me, it's about time.

We're lucky to have talented students in many fields at our university, and art is no exception. In the meantime, go see what I'm talking about at the museum on the university campus. See you in August at the River Campus.

Matt Sanders is the Arts & Leisure editor for the Southeast Missourian and the editor of OFF Magazine.