Celebrating the Arts

By Broadside Staff Writer Marian McLaughlin

The College of Visual and Performing Arts put on their first annual 24-hour arts marathon, Making Connections, held this past weekend. Activities began at 8 a.m. last Friday, but coordinators arrived hours before that, running on little sleep as they prepared the open studios for participants.

Erwin Thamm, a printmaking major, was one of those early arrivers. He had to help Professor Helen Frederick get all of the ink, papers and presses ready, since printmaking was one of the first activities of the day. The printmakers were showing people how to make monoprints and silkscreen images, which were all going to be part of handmade visual books. At one table, a few students were putting together these books by folding and gluing different varieties of paper together. Some of the more advanced students were working on their projects, allowing participants to observe how they made etchings and operated their equipment.

In the Performing Arts Building, there was a selection of music and dance classes open for observation all day. This was a great opportunity for people to get a feel for the performing arts classes and to see students and professors in action. There were lecture-based classes, like Music Fundamentals, that took place earlier in the morning, while master classes and workshops dominated the afternoon. The master classes were rather small, only focusing on one instrument, like Linda Monson’s piano repertoire class. Lab orchestras were much larger since a symphony of instruments took part in the class.

In the dance studios, professor Karen Reedy disrupted a large group of advanced dancers. They practiced modern dance movements to the slow, steady melody of a piano. After observing the class for a while, participants were given a list of emotions, or rasas, and were asked to shout out a different emotion every few minutes. The dancers were supposed to react to the chosen emotion and interpret it through movement. Reedy told observers that “with moods, the dancers will change their qualities.” As “grief” was selected, the dancers moved about sluggishly, and as “wonder” was picked, they leapt around with great strides. About 10 different emotions were covered during this dance experimen, and the participants were in control of the energy in the room.

Down in the theater, people made masks out of tinfoil, masking tape, paper, cardboard and other materials. These were later used in the photography studio to create self-portraits. Sue Wrbican, a photography professor, put together a slide show that demonstrated how masks have been used throughout photography as elements of mystery, identity and humor. After educating mask-makers on some interesting topics, Wrbican led them outside so they could make visual narratives and self-portraits of them in their masks.

After all mediums in the areas had been explored through the marathon, a parade took place as the final event. A group of students, teachers and bystanders marched down University Drive to Old Town Fairfax, creating the first annual winter sidewalk parade that supported the art departments at George Mason University. All night long, the sculpture studio remained open and people welded together sculptures for the parade. There were crazy contraptions of altered shopping carts and handmade bicycles which people rode in the parade. Everything that was carried and made was put into a gallery at the intersection of University Drive and North Street for display.

The purpose of the marathon, the parade and the gallery was to learn more about different studies, meet new people and to bridge the connection between Mason and its surrounding communities.