Student art organization to host first showing

Sam Markel
Wed, 20 Nov 2019 03:16:39 +0000
Arts & Life, Entertainment, Events, News, club, dance, Fall Informal Showing, hale hall, MLK Jr. Lounge, ohio state, ohio state university, osu, performance, student organization, talent, The Black Arts Group

Davianna Green, The Black Arts Group secondary leader, and Alex Christmas, the president, hope to provide opportunities for black students to showcase their talents at the first Fall Informal Showing in Hale Hall Nov. 24. Credit: Sam Markel | Lantern Reporter

Members of a new student organization hope to bring diverse artists and mediums to the university arts community this week with its first event.

The Black Arts Group is hosting its inaugural Fall Informal Showing Sunday in Hale Hall with the goal of providing opportunities for black artists on campus to showcase their talents, Alex Christmas, a Ph.D. student in dance and president of the club, said.?

The lineup is not set, but the show will likely feature a combination of dancers, spoken-word artists and musicians from The Black Arts Group, as well as artists who apply to perform on the group’s website, Christmas said.?

“This is an effort to pull all the arts together in one effort to show this is what we do as a community and how we can grow and interact as one another,” Christmas said.?

The number of performers and their performance length is unclear, with no specific time slot for each artist or act, Christmas said.

“It’s one of those things where it’s our first run. We’re gonna try it out,” Christmas said.?

The Black Arts Group is focused on bringing people from all disciplines of art together to share their work in meetings, have public showings and collaborate, Davianna Green, a master of fine arts student in dance and secondary leader of the group, said.?

While there have been black arts groups in the past dedicated to specific artistic abilities such as dance or poetry, Christmas said she wanted to make a group that was more open to a variety of skills.?

The club held its first meeting Oct. 1 and received approval as an official student organization Oct. 31, she said in an email.?

Green said that because she and Christmas made the transition directly into graduate school from undergrad, they have a close connection to undergraduate members.?

“Sometimes there are different communities, and they have different needs, but for the most part, when it comes to art, we can all collaborate, and so I think having a group that allows for collaboration across arts and across degree programs is really specific and needed as well,” Green said.?

Christmas said the club is hoping to expand its membership, as many students are interested in joining, but are either unsure or have conflicting schedules.?

“Because we’re reaching a large population of graduate and undergraduate students, people are busy, so we want people to be able to choose their level of involvement and really make sure that the group can work for whoever wants to be a part of it,” Christmas said.?

In the future, Christmas said she wants the club to hold regular showings, plan workshops and get more involved in the community. In order to keep the organization as accessible as possible, she said there will be no dues.

The Fall Informal Showing will begin at 4 p.m. Sunday in Hale Hall’s MLK Jr. Lounge in Room 132. The event is free.

Applications to perform in the show can be found at https://theblackartsgroup.wixsite.com/theblackartsgroup.