Arts Week: an invitation to dream

You may have been approached by clowns, had your dinner interrupted by tap dancers in the Garden Room or listened to a variety of student bands while enjoying a barbeque dinner courtesy of Wood Dining Services all within the last week. All of these things, and many others, are signs of a new tradition emerging on campus at the hands of a few creative, motivated students: Arts Week.Arts Week began as the brainchild of Charlotte McIvor '04. As President of the Muhlenberg Theatre Association (MTA), McIvor is very close to the arts: specifically, to the Theatre and English Departments. During her four years at the College, McIvor began to notice that the various artistic departments seemed to lack intercommunication. The Art, English, Music, Theatre and Dance Departments all have to share many of the same classroom, performance and exhibition spaces and are in the same two connected buildings on campus; yet it is common for one department to be completely unaware of another's events.

McIvor also noticed that many students hold total misconceptions about the students in the other departments. McIvor explained, "Arts are not divided disciplines, but are really interconnected." Since this important interconnection was missing, she thought something needed to be done to unite the arts programs at the College.

On a campus-wide level, McIvor noted a general dichotomy between the two sides of campus. She and fellow Arts Week organizers believe that this division needs to be jostled. As Caitlin Mahoney '04, who is responsible for the scheduling and specifics regarding the Arts Week events, says, Arts Week is, in part, about "bringing arts to the other side of Chew Street."

McIvor, Mahoney and their fellow workers wanted to make the campus see art in a new light by presenting it to the people who rarely get to see it. McIvor commented that part of her idea was to see "what would happen if arts were in everybody's faces." Mahoney also explained that the "arts aren't closed off" and that the week is meant to make everyone on campus feel that they are "welcome to join in."

The concept of Arts Week was also inspired in McIvor from a Shel Silverstein poem (found on the back of the Arts Week t-shirts) that McIvor was using in the creative drama class for children that she teaches. The poem is called "Invitation" and goes like this: "If you are a dreamer, come in / If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, / A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer... / If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire / For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. / Come in! / Come in!"

McIvor saw this poem and knew that she wanted to celebrate art, bring it into as many people's lives as possible and create a dialogue and a movement about the place of art in all of our lives. Her greatest hope is that, "People [will] entertain for just one instant that art can expand your vision of the world."

The birth of Arts Week began when McIvor brought her idea up at an MTA Executive Board meeting and was well-received by all of the members. Matt Freeman '06 jumped wholeheartedly into the idea and told McIvor that he would undertake the organization of the event if she would handle the writing and creating of its existence. This duo then recruited Mahoney to handle the difficult task of scheduling, Suzi Toman '07 to do the poster design, Sarah Hutchison '04 to handle the t-shirt sales, Kristyn Brady '05 helped to bring in the Muhlenberg Dance Association (MDA) and various other people to work the donation table, plan and participate in actual events and just generally help out.

Once the dream came into being, this group of artists could not be more content. Happiness was the general feeling from all those involved in the planning of Arts Week when the opening night picnic found people from all walks of campus "chowin' down and rockin' out," as Mahoney put it.

Arts Week is an eye-opener for people who think that the arts are foreign, inaccessible and only for those "artsy-types," but it is also a community service-based effort.

The proceeds from the donation table, which is set up throughout the week in Seegers, as well as the profits from the sale of the Arts Week t-shirts for $10 each, go directly to the Boys and Girls Club of Allentown. This particular organization, which is a favorite of McIvor, Freeman and various other MTA members, is dedicated to bringing collaboration and creativity (two major components of Arts Week) into the lives of youth, making it the perfect complement.

The first annual Arts Weeks festivities will close this Friday, April 23, following the opening of The Seagull, the last production of the MTA season. A gala and reception in the Trexler Pavilion will be an appropriate end to such a successful week.