This Thursday, March 4, the University’s Arts Coalition Collective held their first official meeting, billed as the beginning of a physical and personal exchange of artistic ideas through collaboration and conversation.
Helen Handelman ’16 publicized the event and is the point person for the Collective. She described her motivations for getting the collective started.
“I was abroad last semester studying theater in Moscow, and most of the art and the theater that I experienced while I was there was super interdisciplinary and really broke down boundaries,” Handelman said. “I was really struck by how, in thinking about being back at [the University], everything was so confined within its own art.”
She talked about the divides between different artistic groups, such as film students and theater students, saying that although so many people are interested in different art forms, everything feels really distinct.
She spoke to her idea of creating a more interconnected space within the arts community.
“Since the arts are such a challenging field to even be interested in, I feel like there should be way more support, and way more communication between everybody,” Handelman said. “I wanted to start something that would do that.”
She expressed the hope that this collective would allow students to come together in groups and start creative processes on various projects that would continue over the course of the semester. She specified that the goal would not necessarily be a specific final product because that could end up stunting creativity.
Handelman also talked about her own experience at the University and personal understanding of the need for student collaboration.
“I’ve definitely done some dance, some visual art, and I write a little bit, but on campus I definitely do mostly theater,” Handelman said. “I love all the arts, but I’m more involved in the theater community. That’s also why I want to do this, because I don’t understand why that means I can really only engage with those artists.”
The collective already has Student Budget Committee funding, which Handelman hopes can go into supplies and directly promote the creation of projects during the rest of the semester. Ideally, the Collective would hold showcases of the finished projects.
Over spring break, she hopes to pair people off or put them into small groups so they can start collaborating as soon as possible, acknowledging that many of these students have limited free time.
Handelman emphasized that the collaboration is open to people with a wide range of experience in the arts.
“It’s open to anyone of any [skill] level,” Handelman said. “You don’t have to be an artist, you can doodle, or you can write haikus…. It can be anything. It’s just to get people talking and thinking a little about how to meet and collaborate with other people.”
Jess Cummings ’17 expressed an idea to the group tentatively, entitled, “One Week of Fun,” comparing it to “theater intensive,” which is when students return to campus a week early during winter break and rehearse for a play or some other performance.
She explained what her idea would entail.
“I thought it would be really cool if we could get a big group of people back early,” Cummings said. “Over break, everyone [could] collect different items, different ideas. My idea was things that little kids use to make forts, and arts and crafts, and bring all this stuff together and just…make something, in that week. [We would be] focusing on creating art with each other and putting on whatever that performance was in the beginning of the semester.”
Caroline Shadle ’16 spoke more generally about her reasons for joining the collective.
“What [I’m] interested in is getting to know other people across different disciplines, and I thought this would be a good space to do that,” Shadle said. “I know a few people in the theater community, but I feel like there is definitely a divide, and I wanted to find ways to break [that] down and realize that everyone’s working to make cool artistic projects, and maybe if we just talked about them, or learned a little bit more about what other people were doing, then we could collaborate in some more interesting ways. Even if we’re not necessarily doing collaborative projects, also getting to know one another…in different communities that tend to be sectioned off, socially and creatively.”
Lauren Langer ’16 described her idea involving other artistic mediums and comedy.
“I want to have an alternative comedy night, [including] dancing, singing, or drawing in the form of cartoons,” Langer said. “Instead of traditional standup, sketch, or improv–maybe ventriloquist acts, or character-based comedy that would be [similar to] standup–trying to integrate different arts into comedy.”
Handelman emphasized that the collective is essentially a campus-wide community project.
“This whole collective really depends on what the people who are in it want it to be,” Handelman said.
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