BY JOHN CARTER JR
PHOTOS BY KERISA BROWN
Recently an Art Slam was hosted in and by the Center for Art and Design. The event was administered by Dr. Ziwei Qi and Dr. Hsin-Yen Yang as well as the student group Arts for Social Change, a new group on campus. This exciting event featured a plethora of fun activities for people of different ages to engage in. This included eating delicious food (Chili, sweets, and tasty drinks), karaoke, caricature portraits, and more beautiful art for sale. Professor Amy Schmierbach, sponsor for Arts for Social Change said she felt the turn out was good and she was excited to see so many seats filled.
“Art Slam was a huge success. The students were so excited to raise money for victims of human trafficking and domestic violence,” Amy Schmierbach, professor of Art, said.
Multiple individuals throughout the night engaged in some lively karaoke and made the event feel even more alive. From Gangnam style to “Make A Man Out of You” from Mulan the song selections were varied and had guests feeling welcome.
The event was hosted to raise funds for survivors of domestic violence. There were many different avenues to support this cause fairly priced meal tickets, purchasable art, and even personalized caricatures. Junior Madelyne Artman was in dedication for the cause was using her exquisite talents in drawing these caricatures of patrons of the art slam. Madelyne eagerly and craftily designed multiple adorable designs.
Half of the proceeds of this art event are donated to the social program developed by Dr. Ziwei Qi, assistant professor of criminal justice, and Dr. Hsin-Yen Yang, associate professor of communication studies.
“Art for Social Change is such a wonderful organization that uses aesthetic and emotions powers to engage the community members and raise awareness of important social issues,” Dr. Yang said. “Dr. Ziwei Qi and I launched our project to create a social enterprise to provide economic independence to domestic violence and human trafficking survivors last year. We are honored to be chosen as the recipient of half of the proceeds of the Art Slam event in November. We look forward to seeing more events like Art Slam on campus and in our community.”
The proceeds were to support both Arts for Social Change and a social program called From Victims to Social Entrepreneurs, which is a program for the support of victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. The event was truly a successful one and hope to see more events like these, and potentially more art slam events in particular.
Arts for Social Change is a new university-wide organization at FHSU. This groups main goal is to collaborate with members of the university and community to promote positive change, growth, and awareness through the arts. If your organization would like to participate in future collaborations with Arts for Social Change please contact, organization president, Madelyn Artman at mrartman@mail.fhsu.edu or Amy Schmierbach, sponsor, at ajschmierbach@fhsu.edu.