Last week, PAC held its very first Arts Community Roundtable where students and faculty came together to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the organizations and their collaboration amongst each other and the university.
The night was deemed a success by the student leaders who came out and the PAC executive board that was excited for the night to come into fruition. Marissa Works, president of PAC, was thrilled with the turnout of the night. “It was an honor to have administration from Center for the Performing Arts, School of Music, and School of Theatre present to discuss the state of the arts community,” Works said. “I am excited to continue to host these events because we walked away with some really big takeaways and ideas about how to move forward!”The takeaways included topics of bringing arts to the forefront of the university.
“Some key topics we touched upon included improving communication methods between student artists and the outside community, innovative promotional styles, the arts attracting prospective students, and the need for accessible rehearsal spaces at a small cost,” she said.
Kira Robbins, an executive member of PAC, felt it was so beautiful to see people of different artistic interests come together to support one another. “PAC works really hard to bridge gaps between genres, but sometimes it’s hard to quantify our efforts,” Robbins explained. “Having so many genres in one room proved to us that we all want to see each other succeed.”She gave an example: “One dance representative said she loved this roundtable, encouraging PAC to do more, because it helps her understand both the amazing art happening all over campus as well as the hardships we all go through to do our art here,” Robbins shared.
Mia Zappacosta, a sophomore BFA acting major, was also present at the roundtable and felt the night brought to light an important discussion on arts representation.“It was really interesting to hear about what other’s experiences were and what they may be struggling with in their art form,” she said. “We talked briefly about the separation of the different genres of performing arts, and how we have yet to come up with a good solution to bridging the gaps. We’re all so busy that it can be hard to create events that we can all attend.”
Zappacosta enjoyed the collegiality that ensued by the end of the roundtable.“We all agreed that communication is the only way to create a better community,” she said. “We also agreed that streamlining that communication is essential so that it gets the important information to the most people.”
Hope Falk, Student Engagement Manager of PAC and CPA, is excited to see such results: “Discussion at the roundtable was incredibly fruitful and solidified my belief that PAC is making strides towards a unified and recognized arts community,” she said.PAC is looking forward to continuing these roundtables so we can continue to grow in our arts community and support one another as best as we possibly can.
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