The Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) transformed into a music stage, an art class, and a space for student leadership on March 21.
Every year, CUAG collaborates with campus groups like the Campus Activity Board (CAB) and the art history undergraduate society (CAHUS) to plan the annual Spring Art Party.
The initiative is a “student takeover,” Fiona Wright, CUAG student and public programs coordinator, said.
“Students come up with the art activity—they invite the performers,” she said.
Thursday’s art party featured Ottawa dream-pop band Sparklesaurus and Adam Blasl, singer-songwriter and a Carleton student.
“It’s always a pleasure to perform,” Blasl said. “I tend to be a quiet person most of the time but singing literally gives me a voice. It allows me to be loud when most of the time I’m afraid to be.”
Before the main acts, partygoers got nifty at an embroidery workshop organized by the CAHUS. The art society chose embrodiering because it was a relaxed, stress-relieving form of art, Midruan Murugathasan, social media coordinator for CAHUS, said.
“It doesn’t have to be a cookie cutter artform,” he said.
“I like working with students who already have a position that . . . they’ve actively taken on,” Wright said. The gallery usually collaborates with the same student groups.
She said the art party encourages students to get involved and take on leadership roles.
“My role is just to facilitate that,” Wright said. CUAG pays the acts and gets the supplies needed for the art workshop. The students behind the event get experience in event planning.
Another main goal behind the Spring Art Party is to attract visitors—students and the public—to the gallery.
“We have to work pretty hard to get Carleton people in here,” Wright said with a laugh.
Most of the art displayed in the gallery this spring are paintings by Métis artist Christi Belcourt. The paintings showcase the last 25 years of Belcourt’s work, portraying her Métis knowledge and worldview.
Other paintings are a collaborative effort with Isaac Murdoch, an Ojibwe artist, which combine Belcourt’s Métis experience with Murdoch’s Ojibwe teachings.
“I was really happy with how everything went,” Wright said. “I loved the energy of the whole event.”
Wright said, as cliché as it sounds, art galleries are a space of “gathering and building community.”
Wright said she believes that art should be part of everyone’s education, “no matter what discipline they’re studying.” Art galleries are a place where learning happens, according to her.
“University is when you’re figuring out how to be in the world,” Wright said. One main goal of the art gallery, she added, is to spur “awe-inspiring or unexpected encounters with art that make us question what we know or what we’re learning about.”
CUAG’s spring exhibits are on exhibit until April 28.
Image provided
