It will be art for art’s sake this Alumni Weekend when the third annual Student Art Showcase kicks off on Friday with a series of performances and student art pieces.
Hosted and funded by the CMC Art Council, the Showcase’s goal is to promote student artwork (both visual and performance) on campus with an eye toward installing various visual art pieces in dorms, administrative buildings, the Athenaeum, and elsewhere on campus. The Showcase provides an opportunity for students to display their photos, paintings, prints, and other artworks for the CMC community to appreciate.
“I think we are fortunate enough to see how smart and talented our student body is in the classroom or out on the field, track, courts, etc," says Jessie Capper ’17, co-president with Kris Brackmann ’17 of the Student Art Council. "However, we do not often get the opportunity to recognize some of the other talents that can get overlooked — particularly in the arts.
"The Showcase is our way of providing a fun, relaxing, and exciting way to do this, and we hope the CMC community is just as excited as we are to see the final product this Friday.”
From 8 to 10 p.m. Friday, student art pieces will be on display in the Claremont Hall Lounge and Courtyard during a reception, at which refreshments will be served. A half-hour later, students from the 5Cs will entertain with a cappella singing and open-mic performances of short skits, singing and spoken-word presentations. This is the first year that an open-mic event will be held as part of the Showcase.
“Overall, I think I’m most excited for the CMC community to have this opportunity to see just how talented our student body is,” Capper says. “It is an honor to be surrounded by such a smart, skilled, and involved student body, and I’m looking forward to seeing a snippet of those particularly talented in the arts at the Showcase.”
Brackmann says that she’s looking forward to seeing everything come together. “In the past, the Showcase has always been displayed in the Athenaeum (which is where the art will move to after the event to be displayed for a week), but we hope to attract a lot more people this year by hosting it in a dorm lounge on a Friday night,” she says.
According to Brackmann, there are many students at CMC who individually pursue artistic interests and are quite adept artistically.
“The Showcase is a great way for these students to show off pieces that they have worked on all year in an art class or something they have created on their own time,” Brackmann says. “It’s rewarding for the artists, both the visual and open-mic performers, to have a public space at CMC to share their passions with other students, and it’s fun for the guests to see the amazing work that’s been created while listening to amazing performances.”
Capper says the Art Council was originally formed to expand the presence of visual and performing arts on campus. It does this through engaging painting events, open mics, art showcases, and by funding student artists. “We recently established the Art Council Fund to provide any student the opportunity to create their own form of art that can, in turn, be brought back to CMC’s campus,” she says.
Approved funding requests range from students requesting funding for painting and drawing supplies and/or printing personal photos to attending art classes or museums in the L.A. area. The aim is to create pieces that will be displayed on the CMC campus.
“We also sponsor multiple art components of larger-scale CMC events,” Capper says. “We are currently trying to expand our relations with other 5C art-related resources so as to increase our impact in the Claremont community overall.”
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