ArtsXchange led summer intern to first gallery show

Growing up between Buffalo, New York, and Korea, Debbie Jung always kept a creative tool within reach. When grade school prompts asked what she wanted to be, she didn't hesitate. 

“I would always draw a painter,” Jung said. Her father, a gifted painter himself, framed her childhood artworks and lit that initial spark.

Life eventually steered her toward design at Cornell University and now city planning graduate studies at Georgia Tech. Yet art never left the picture, it just changed forms. In denser cities, street photography was her main outlet, a quick way to catch the rhythm of everyday life on foot. Moving to Atlanta’s driving-centric layout, however, nudged her routine back to the drawing board.

“In Atlanta, I’ve actually tapped more into doing drawing and painting again because I’m not spending as much time walking around on the street,” Jung said. “It’s given me more time to get back into doing things on paper.”

This summer, Jung joined the ArtsXchange team through Georgia Tech’s SCoRE program. While her official assignment was redesigning the website, spending 12 weeks surrounded by working artists began to reignite her desire to create. When the ArtsXchange called for submissions for its juried show, Sonic Impressions: Abstract Art Inspired by Music in July, she decided to stretch her comfort zone and apply.

Translating sound onto canvas allowed Jung to blend her design background with intuitive expression. 

“Art helps me to process what I observe in the environment,” she said. “My piece helped me to process and capture the emotion within music, and the different sounds and sensory experiences, just as I do when I think about how art affects the environment and the people in city planning.”

When her painting was selected for the group exhibition and mounted inside the Jack Sinclair Gallery alongside established and emerging creators, it marked her first time exhibiting fine art in a gallery space.

“The nature of ArtsXchange being a community center made it really accessible for me to feel like I could submit my work,” Jung said. “It was cool to be in a gallery. Now that I’ve done it once, I feel more motivated to keep looking for opportunities to do it again.”

That sense of accessibility sits at the core of the ArtsXchange’s mission. By offering a high-caliber showcase platform, awarding cash prizes, and ensuring artists keep 100 percent of their sales proceeds, the organization actively lowers the barrier to entry for independent working artists. Beyond the physical gallery space, the culture itself created a turning point for Jung.

“It can be scary to go for working in the arts,” she said. “Being around people who have had the courage to really commit to the arts has been really inspiring for me. I feel very encouraged to just think of myself as an artist, and not like, ‘Oh, I just do it on the side.’”

That change in her mindset arrived right on time. 

Jung moved into the new academic year as a Georgia Tech Arts Fellow, where she will receive funding to design a public art installation focused on placemaking and community connection. Her summer at the ArtsXchange did more than put a painting on a wall — it gave a rising artist the confidence to step fully into her gifts.Aside from her own practice, Jung is working toward a career that will allow her to use art and design to create public spaces that help facilitate community bonding. 

“I want to create spaces that help people flourish in all dimensions of a city, whether it’s a neighborhood, a plaza or even a street,” she said. That’s my long-term goal.”