By Nia Mwangi

Staff Writer

Every spring, the College of Visual and Performing Arts starts off the semester serving and inspiring high school students through ArtsRush–a full-day immersive experience with the arts at UMHB. ArtsRush is meant to give prospective students who may want to attend UMHB a day of experiencing what it would be like as a student. While expecting around 125 people, 175 people ended up participating in the event. 

There are two sections. One section is focused on art and design, and the second on musical arts. The faculty and staff of the College of Visual and Preforming Arts prepared meticulously for this event.  

“There’s a lot that is unseen to make it look how it does on the day of,” Stephanie Chambers, the art department chair of the College of Visual & Performing Arts, said, “from creating all of the marketing material and being able to troubleshoot day of to making sure the cafeteria can feed 200 people.” 

On Jan. 23, ArtsRush started and the workshops began at 9 a.m. The event had morning and an afternoon workshops that connected to each other. An example is the Raku Glazing and Firing workshop with Professor Dave Hill, which consisted of glazing small pots that were previously made on pottery wheels, waiting for that glaze to dry, and then heating it in a kiln to make it into a permanent pot. While workshops were going on, the art studios were open to any student who wanted to bring their own supplies and work on their own projects.  

Along with the faculty and student workers, ten volunteers helped lead and guide others in workshops. Natalie Flynn, senior art education major, expressed how she thought helping the Sketchbook Making workshop went. 

“I felt like it went really good.” Flynn said. “There were a bunch of kids who came back to make more sketchbooks, and even some of the high school teachers did it with us and were like, ‘Oh! This was super fun. We’ll have to do this in our own classes.’” 

After a full day of workshops, lunch, a campus tour, and a Q and A section with student workers, ArtsRush ended with a gallery reception of the works completed by all the high school students that day. Cameron Garcia, an art department studio worker who has been helping out with all four ArtsRushes, stated the reception as his favorite part that day.  

“I loved seeing them show off what they had worked on that day,” Garcia said. “I saw some really talented students’ work, and that was fun to see.”