By Ashley Marcus
Contributing Writer
Emory's semi-annual Art Club Lock-In drew students together Friday night, Nov. 21 to participate in the club's biggest event of the year, which aims to draw attention to the existing program at Emory. Students were invited to come to the the Visual Arts building with their friends to enjoy free food and to create different modes of visual art.
Emory Arts Club Co-President and Goizueta Business School junior Clare Wang said that, to encourage students to participate and get involved with the visual arts, the event provided participants with free food, art supplies and admission, eliminating money as a deterrent.
She referred to the event as an investment in the students and explained that the Arts Lock-In "brings people out who do not necessarily do art regularly or even think they're 'good' at art."
Students crowded into the venue and enjoyed balloon darts, jewelry making, henna tattoos, ink blowing, still life painting and the newly added coaster creations.
The Lock-In designed the activities in such a way as to offer something that appealed to people's individual interests.
To keep the event interesting, the coordinators tried to add new art stations with each event. In the future, the Art Club Lock-Ins may experience a change far beyond adding new craft stations.
"We're looking to bring in some guest artists, if we can find the connections, and we also really want to do some collaborations with other clubs – maybe a music club, so they can come in and do a performance in the middle of the night," Wang said about potential upcoming plans for the next Lock-In.
The club, limited by their current small venue, is beginning to come up with new ideas to expand this event into something even greater. Though the focus will still remain on the visual arts program, the club looks forward to finding ways to incorporate other forms of art into the event.
In addition to creating a more unique experience, the collaboration with performing arts may attract a larger group of students to come out and get involved, according to Wang.
Jaque Galinski, co-president of the Emory Arts Club and College sophomore, explained that this event is certainly not solely for those with a passion for the arts.
"To see everyone come out and take a few seconds of their time to just relax – you don't really see people relax on the Emory campus that often – it means a lot," Galinski said.
She continued on to say that artists (and bored students looking to escape their rooms on a Friday night) were welcome to enjoy the Lock-In and are encouraged to come enjoy the next event in the spring.
For College freshman Alex Liu, the Arts Lock-In was a chance to participate in the arts for the first time since graduating high school, where he sketched in his free time.
While College senior Alycia Patton said that she thoroughly enjoyed the Lock-In, she found herself overwhelmed by the large turn out and the lack of instructions for the newest art stations. She continued on to say that she found herself intimidated by the talented, more experienced artists and suggests an instructor or laminated instructions at each station.
Patton was not the only one surprised by the amount of people who came out to attend the Lock-In. According to College freshman Ben Goldfein, the event surpassed expectations.
"It was awesome to see how many people participated in the event – I was blown away by the turnout," he said.
– By Ashley Marcus, Contributing Writer
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