There’s no better way to get into the Halloween spirit than to add a touch of art to your night.
A Very Artsy Halloween, held Oct. 24 at Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG), not only got students to come out to the gallery, but encouraged them to unleash their creativity by dressing up as their favourite artists or art pieces.
The night consisted of music that blasted through speakers, dancing, classic horror films that were projected throughout the party and, last but not least, a Halloween masks station that really got the creative juices flowing.
Although this event was a great way to come together and spend an art-filled night of partying and mingling, there was more to it than that, according to Leona Nikolic, one of the art history students who worked on the creative side of the event.
She said it was a way of creating more of an appreciation for art and, more importantly, a way of getting people to leave their comfort zones and broaden their horizons.
“The gallery has a lot of trouble getting students to come to it,” Nikolic said. “Even though it’s right on campus, right by residence, virtually no students come.”
Nikolic said it’s a big issue—one the gallery has been working on addressing.
Fiona Wright, the education and community outreach manager at the gallery, is in charge of encouraging students to come to the gallery and, in general, promoting it as a space. For the event, Wright oversaw all the planning to make sure that everything was feasible and safe.
“We definitely want to have more student art-making events here,” she said.
As for Nikolic, that was the main reason for her organizing the party.
“We want to get people into the gallery so that they’ll want to come back,” Nikolic said. “We want them to see that it’s not just like a serious, pretentious, artsy space, but somewhere that they can come and have fun.”
But the process of planning the party was not a simple one, Nikolic said. While the idea came up last year and Wright had mentioned her interest in hosting a party, Nikolic said the process was still very rushed near the end.
And managing a tight deadline wasn’t the only issue that can pop up when planning a party in a gallery.
“It always depends on the exhibitions though,” said Wright. “We were lucky that there was a lot of empty space on the walls and in the main room, so it was perfect for a party. Sometimes though, there are lots of paintings and temporary walls that divide up the space. So it all depends.”
Despite the possible roadblocks, the event ended as a success and, more importantly said Wright, sparked more ideas for the future.
“We were really impressed by the turn-out and we would love to do something similar in the future,” she said.
