Updated: March 10, 2020 at 2:49 p.m.
The Textile Museum and the Student Association’s GW Arts Committee will celebrate student artists this week in the second-ever Art Walk, which will now be held annually and be expanded to include more student work.
Committee members and Textile Museum officials expanded Art Walk – an opportunity for community members to survey GW’s art galleries – to include a Day of the Arts Thursday featuring more student performances and art sales, following the large attendance of the first event in 2019. Textile Museum Director John Wetenhall said they hope the event will be an opportunity for community members to further recognize students’ artistic talents and the “rich and diverse cultural” content offered across campus.
“It’s an evening of exploration and fun that should be, we hope, a source of GW community pride,” Wetenhall said in an email. “We at the museum look forward to welcoming all.”
Lori Kartchner, the museum’s curator of education, said she hopes the event will serve as a “fun” way for students to explore lesser-known Foggy Bottom museums and galleries.
“We wanted to raise awareness about all kinds of creativity happening on campus – from the professional exhibitions to student artwork, music, dance and more,” she said in an email.
Kartchner said the event will kick off Thursday afternoon when interested community members will be invited to explore the museum and Gallery 102, a contemporary art gallery located in Smith Hall of Art. She said participants can purchase works at a student art sale and engage in discussions at the gallery before heading to the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design’s Flagg Building for a party with food and music.
Kartchner said she hopes officials provide more funding for this year’s event to grow the collection the group can display in future Art Walks.
“We want people to realize that GW has an incredible array of performing artists from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and GW student organizations,” she said.
Jenna Campolieto, an outreach and programming assistant at the Textile Museum who helped plan last year’s event, said officials were surprised that a large portion of the 300 total attendees from the District were not from the GW community. She said the turnout prompted organizers to show off the “great things” students are producing at this week’s Art Walk.
“This year’s event is going to be hopefully bigger than last year’s event,” she said. “A lot of it is really similar to last year’s event, but the most exciting addition this year is that we’re doing student art sales as part of the event.”
Campolieto said about 15 student artists will display their work at the Textile Museum to kick off the Art Walk Thursday. Event attendees will be provided with maps of the exhibits in the Textile Museum, Gallery 102 and the Flagg Building, she said.
Campolieto said organizers are posting on social media and notifying resident advisers to inform students in residence halls.
“It’s a really cool opportunity to connect with people from the D.C. community who want to see the art that’s on campus, who want to know what students are up to and who maybe want to buy student art and see student performances,” she said.
Campolieto said the event was funded entirely through financial contributions from campus museums and about $100 from the SA, a “grassroots effort” from students involved in the planning.
“It’s been really exciting to see how amped up everyone is to have this opportunity,” she said. “Hopefully as we continue to move forward anyone who’s interested in making art will feel like they have this space to showcase themselves and their talents.”
Hannah Clayton, the director of the SA’s Arts Committee who helped plan the Day of the Arts, said the idea for adding the Day of the Arts this year came from a committee member who proposed creating an event celebrating art and art students like Harvard University’s Arts First Festival.
The SA committee hosted an Arts Week in 2018, featuring student organizations that put on a dozen musical performances, plays and other arts activities.
“I noticed just how Corcoran students are swept under the rug a lot of the time, and I wanted to emphasize their presence on campus and show that this campus is full of great and diverse students that have different interests that aren’t necessarily associated with politics,” Clayton said.
She said about 10 groups signed up to perform in the first Day of the Arts this spring, but the committee might hold the event over a weekend in the future when students are more available to attract more attendees.
“I think it was hard to get people on board, to understand that this is an event created by students for students, not a professionally designed event but something that’s needed,” she said.
Clayton said she expects about 400 or 500 people to appear for this year’s event throughout the day.
“I think a lot of students really like what we’re doing and want this to be an annual thing, and I think that’s really cool,” she said.
This post has been updated to correct the following:
The Hatchet incorrectly reported that Gallery 102 is located in the Flagg Building. It is located in the Smith Hall of Art. We regret this error.
