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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1985)
suoiionpojd A^jjjDnlD /CjISJaAIUfl IVW SBX3X JB SJJV MSC committees bring art to A&M By TRICIA PARKER Staff Writer Art, said philosopher John Dewey, is an experience, and a measure of the quality of a civilization. To some, this puts Texas A&M near Snook on the civilization scale. In fact, arts — performing, visual and literary — are thriving on a small scale at the University. While committees like OP AS and Town Hall bring symphonies, ballets and concerts, other lesser known committees in the MSC, including the Visual Arts Committee and the Literary Arts Committee work to make art accessible to students and faculty on an daily basis. Joe Arredondo, coordinator of Uni versity Art Exhibits, says art isn't something to be cordonned off for one week a year or restricted to an occasional trip to a museum. "Art's Week, what's that?," he says. "Does that mean everyone is supposed to go out and hang pic tures? No, art is part of our daily life. It is part of life." Arredondo coordinates exhibits in five galleries across campus. These include the Helen Perry exhibit now in the MSC gallery, the Benz floral collection in the horticulture build ing, an art faculty exhibit in Rudder Exhibit hall, as well as displays in the medical school and Langford Ar chitecture Center. "Art has gotten very trendy," he says. "When I got into this years ago you couldn't get anyone into a mu seum. Now, if you go on a Saturday, they're always full. It's like plants a few years ago, when everyone really got into them." He says he is pleased with the heightened awareness of art here at A&M. "I think it is very encouraging that the Dean of Medicine is interested in art, that the Dean of Agriculture thinks art is important," he says. "I think it is very encouraging that there is an interest in aestheticism in subjects not normally associated with art." Arredondo says he wants to give faculty and students at A&M a view of art that is more integrated with their everyday lives. "Art is about experience," he says. "It's more than painting. It is the performing arts, sculpture and writing, and triggering the aesthetic sensibilities." Pat Zinn, special event coordina tor for the Visual Arts Committee, says before they can trigger any one's aesthetic sensibilities they must attract them to the galleries in the first place. "No one is going to make them come in and see pictures they don't want to see," he says. "Instead of making people come to us, like we have in the past, we want to go out to them. Visual Arts, which is in charge of procuring and promoting shows for able to beg from a private collection. The collection, which visited the Kimball Museum of Art in Dallas last year, will be accompanied by films, lectures and videos from the Japa nese consulate. The next exhibit, from Nov. 14-20, will be a video installation, de signed to involve the viewer. The walls of the gallery will be covered up, and a camera focused on a pres sure plate will operate when the viewer steps on the plate. By looking at a monitor, the viewer will interact with the camera, creating video art. "I don't expect everyone will like it," Zinn says, "but I want to offer the opportunity for people to see and to learn that art can be in many differ ent forms." The third exhibit from Nov. 21 until the end of the term, will be pieces of art created by local women who conduct tours of Rudder Exhibit Hall 'Art has gotten very trendy. When I got into this years ago you couldn't get anyone into a museum. Now, if you go on a Saturday, they're always full. It's like plants a few years ago, when everyone really got into them."- Joe Arredondo, University Art Exhibits coordinator. the MSC Gallery, sifts through sug gestions and picks out shows, book ing the biggest two to three years in advance. To get exhibits of high quality and diversity, they beg and borrow collections whenever they can. "There was one guy last year who billed himself as the Rembrandt of the '80s but his work wasn't so great," Zinn says. "Otherwise we go to the museums and beg. We want to have something for everyone." Zinn says some people are put off by art because they think they won't understand it. "But art doesn't have to be deep in symbolism," he says. "It should evoke a gut reaction, either 'I love it,' or 'I hate it.'" Coming Oct. 9-13, is a sword col lection which the committee was collections. Called a docent display, it will include the best pieces sub mitted to the committee. Zinn says he would like to see large exhibits integrating all the gal leries on campus and art not re stricted to the exhibit halls. "We want to expand across camp us," Zinn says. "Not necessarily ex hibit-wise but with other forms of art like sculptures bn the lawn or chalk drawings (on sidewalks). We've done performance pieces here, and whether people realize it or not, they're being exposed to art." Exposure to art is the first step in educating people about it, says Carol Ross, vice-president of special events for the Visual Arts Commit tee. "Folks here are not ignoramuses," she says. "They just haven't been exposed to art. You have to learn vi sual literacy, start with a sense of aesthetics and move from there." For Arts Week, the committee plans to increase awareness by dis playing abstract art, created by new members of the committee, behind the Academic Building every day, says committee chairman Emily Lee. "We want some reaction from the campus," she says. "Some reaction — whether positive or negative —it's still a reaction. Instead of ignoring what's happening around us, to get people to open up and let the world in." The committee also hopes to dis play student art on easels in the MSC lounge and asks interested stu dents to bring their pieces by. Ross says she thinks arts at A&M are be coming more popular because the demographics of A&M are chang ing. "More and more folks coming to A&M are interested in the soft sci ences," she says. "Before, the stu dent body was always fairly homog enous but now it's becoming more diverse." This diversity includes the growth of the Literary Arts Committee which had its genesis in a sub-committee of Visual Arts. Paul Henry, adviser for the committee, says it provides a service for young writers that didn't previously exist. The committee, which produces the literary magazine Litmus, spon sors workshops and seminars, Henry says, and hopes to bring in professional writers to work with committee members. "They're trying to develop the committee in two ways," he says. "First, to broaden the literary experi ence for the whole university and second to develop the individual committee members' interest and ta lent." Because the committee is still small, Henry says everyone has a chance to get involved. "Here they have the opportunity to roll up their sleeves up and really get with it," he says. □ at ease the place to see and be seen to advertise call 845-2611 BULIMIA/ANOREXIA IS WASTING A WOMAN YOU KNOW... You may think she has every advantage. But she hides a secret food obsession that is destroying her health and happiness. She binges, fasts, vomits, takes laxatives, and exercises in a frenzy to fight the panic of feeling "fat." Too many bright young women plunge into this downward spiral. Some die. 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