The colorful posters advertising the Spring Arts Festival - made with bright markers and featuring a stylized yet childish drawing of a hallway - aptly convey the enthusiastic fun and inclusiveness of the third annual event, which will transform the Main Green into a public carnival for the arts Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. The festival boasts an afternoon filled with creativity and art-filled frivolity.
The festival "will be a day for the arts on Main Green," said Jessica Chaney '07, head of the Student Creative Arts Council, the student group that organized the event. "Basically, the SCAC throws different events to bring all of the arts together."
This year's festival boasts a henna artist, portrait and caricature sketch artists from Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design, silk screening, a West African dance workshop and a performance by a leading hammer dulcimer player. Bands The Trolleys and Cult Sleepover will set the ambience with their music.
And there will even be a chance to eat art. "We are going to bake a canvas-sized cookie and people can decorate it with icing. They can eat their work," said Chloe Malle '08, who will head the SCAC next year.
Student artists will have the opportunity to sell their work at the first annual Student Art Sale. "The art sale is really important," Malle said. "Everyone - even people who have never taken an art class or don't consider themselves artists - can bring whatever they want to sell and can pick their price."
"Our main goal is to involve all students," said Lydia Denkler '07, a member of the SCAC. Indeed, including all students is one of the main goals of the SCAC, a group started three years ago by Professor of Visual Arts Richard Fishman. The heads of various art departments form the Creative Arts Council, which is complemented by the student branch, said Anna Hermann '08, a member of the SCAC.
"We want to create forums to foster connections between different art (forms)," Malle said.
"Eventually, there will be a creative arts center at Brown," Chaney said. "Our ultimate goal is to blend the arts. Currently, there are visual art and physics (cross-registered) classes. We want to expand that."
With the Spring Arts Festival, the SCAC hopes to involve all students, even those not particularly interested in art, to experiment with their creativity and bond with the Brown community, Chaney said.
"Because it's in such a public space, it's important not just for people who are interested in art but (also for people who) are excited to be on the Main Green on a Saturday," Malle said.
