Most students start taking art classes at a young age. They start with macaroni portraits and eventually make the move from crayons to colored pencils. Art is often a required elective all through a person’s K-12 education.
Because Western’s art department only offers studio art classes to art majors, it is sometimes difficult for students to find an outlet for their creative interests. But new students need not worry. Options are available for the casually artistic or those who enjoy being involved with the arts — even if they don’t want to major in it.
Some people may be happy to say they’ve graduated from all the drama that comes with being in high school, but the theater arts department always has room for actors, directors, playwrights and even those who just like setting up lights.
Any student can show up and audition for any role, and a bulletin board is set up outside the theater department’s office where the auditions are posted, said Shelley Jefferson, a student who works in the theater department.
"I would check the board every week, more like every three days," Jefferson said. "There’s always so much going on. If you’re interested in getting roles, you just have to keep getting back to the board."
Students can find acting roles through two outlets: departmental shows and student-run productions, Jefferson said. Mainstage productions are the large shows put on by the department, but the fall and winter shows have already been cast.
The spring show "La Cage Aux Faulles," which means "the birdcage" in French, will likely be cast in late fall quarter this year or winter quarter 2009, she said.
The student-run production companies on campus include Student Theater Productions, Plays 4 Us and the improvisation group Dead Parrots Society.
All three companies have Facebook groups and Jefferson suggested that because the groups don’t meet during the summer, new students should check the Facebook sites. New students can also go to the info fair to get more information about how to get involved with the student-run theater productions, Jefferson said.
Students interested in the visual arts but not wanting to join the major have opportunities to be involved with Western’s gallery. Located in the Fine Arts Building, the gallery hosts a new show every quarter.
The gallery doesn't show student work but rather focuses on exposing students to the work of professional artists, Director Sarah Clark-Langager said.
The upcoming fall show will display works by the faculty teaching the art and graphic design classes.
Clark-Langager said the exhibit will be a unique experience for students to really be able to talk with the artists and see what the faculty members do in their free time.
If these all seem a little out of a new student’s comfort zone, there is always the poster sale in the Viking Union Gallery at the beginning of fall quarter.
Every year Associated Student Productions (ASP) brings in poster company Beyond The Wall to sell posters to Western students.
The poster sale offers a multitude of art prints from classic Monet or Van Gogh paintings to movie posters or pictorials of famous actors and bands. The sale even includes posters of cute kittens and puppies. Students can artistically cover the blank walls of their dorms with a well-placed "Star Wars" movie poster or a pop art print of a chimp wearing headphones.
So fear not, new Western students. Even if taking a drawing or sculpting class is not an activity available to everyone, being involved with the arts still is.
