On Friday, Jan. 23, 2015 the All-School Arts Council will debut Arts Fest, an event that will feature all forms of art in Seaver Gallery and the Intimate Theater. The new Arts Fest, which will replace the eight-year-old tradition of Amp’d, will raise money for a charity selected by the All-School Arts Council. This year, the funds raised by Arts Fest will go to Free Arts for Abused Children.
All-School Arts Representative Fiona ’15 explained that Arts Fest will bring more attention to the charity aspect of the event than Amp’d did.
“Amp’d has actually always been a charity event, but I think a lot of people did not know about that at all, and it certainly was not as useful as it could’ve been,” Maguire said.
The All-School Arts Council hopes that the new Arts Fest will result in more donations and higher attendance. They plan to invite a representative from Free Arts for Abused Children to speak at the event, and they would like to display the artwork of the children who benefit from the charity and invite them to attend the event as well.
The All-School Arts Council is coupling their emphasis on charity with their effort to expand the event to include visual artists and performers from both Marlborough and the greater Los Angeles community by contacting student governments of other schools to spread the word to their classes. This initiative will shift the event away from a dependency on Marlborough students and their personal connections. However, the council has been having a difficult time finding people interested in performing dance or spoken word pieces at Arts Fest.
“I think the likelihood of having someone interested in dancing or someone interested in doing a monologue are still pretty low,” 11th Grade Arts Representative Julia ’16 said.
The council decided to reach out to dancers within the Marlborough community, but they are open to any type of dance that can be featured at Arts Fest.
“It could really be anything with multiple people or something that they’ve performed before. It doesn’t matter,” Julia said.
Along with the inclusion of more disciplines of art, the All-School Arts Council expects a greater attendance than previous years.
“If we have a bigger audience, we’ll make more money for your charity,” Head of the Visual Arts Department Gina Woodruff commented.
To accommodate both the bigger audience and the addition of the visual arts to Arts Fest, the All-School Arts Council decided to expand the venue to take place in the Intimate Theater for performing arts and Seaver Gallery for visual arts, and the council has already devised a plan to guide the audience from one part of campus to another. The first half of Arts Fest will take place in Seaver Gallery, where the viewers can see the artwork on display, enjoy refreshments and socialize with each other. Digital artwork will also be an element of Arts Fest, and the council is working on a way to display these pictures.
“We’re most likely going to project images of submitted artwork from students,” Gabby ’15 explained, noting that the Invitational Art Show will be exhibited concurrently with Arts Fest, and, therefore, the council already have submissions from other students to display around campus.
There is not a set agenda that the audience will follow. Guests will be allowed to move around freely.
“We want [Arts Fest] to be flexible and informal and intimate and do whatever will make you enjoy the night,” Julia said.
