TRYathlon

Semester 3

As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of five art events during my first semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers.

TRYathlon 1: Stamp Gallery

Event Logistics September 18, 2023, Stamp Gallery, What We Do After

TRYathlon category #visualart

In Stamp’s gallery, a new exhibit curated by students of UMD has taken over, reflecting the complex situations and identity crosses of the campus population. The exhibit focuses around a key idea: critical compassion. Choosing pieces from a wide range of artists- they deliberately found ones that showed feelings such as joy and resilience. I went to visit the gallery exhibition today, and was really excited about the pieces I saw. The ideas of celebrating who we are and connecting with our identities through art is something that I see reflected time and time again within Art Scholars. In Art Scholars we are always doing activities designed to connect with each other through different art mediums as well as the feedback process. Like the artworks on display in the gallery- we all come from different backgrounds and experiences, but are all still able to learn from each other through art. The gallery covers a variety of topics as well, such as radical Black joy, womanhood, and climate change. Though some of these themes are only relatable to some people- other ones such as climate change are ones we all are and will experience. The works remind us just as Art Scholars that it is better to come together in the face of adversity than to stray.

TRYathlon II: So I Married An Axe Murderer

Event Logistics October 14, 2023, Baltimore, MD

Pentathlon category #film

I kept asking my mom all week what she wanted to do for her birthday on Saturday- and she could never give me an answer up until the day of. We ended up deciding to watch a movie of her choice in the evening, and after a few minutes of thinking she chose “So I Married An Axe Murderer,” a Mike Meyers classic. Although I had never seen the movie, I was very familiar with the script as my Mom quotes from it constantly. It’s funny that my siblings and I had never seen it considering the amount of times my mom talked about it. It's safe to say that we were missing out, as the movie was hilarious from start to finish. It is the definition of goofy, with a beat poet main character who suspects that his fiancee is a mysterious serial killer called “Mrs.X.” It would’ve been a great film on its own, but it held even more meaning knowing it was something my mom loved so much. I also loved how the movie didn’t take itself too seriously, and was able to just be weird and silly without having to have some deeper meaning. I think that that's a good reminder with art and one that I think about a lot in Scholars- art doesn’t have to always be meaningful in the sense that there is a lot of deep thought behind it, sometimes it can just be for fun.

TRYathlon III: Pottery Class

Event Logistics November 18, 2023, Studio A

Pentathlon category #artscholars #visualart

When I attended the pottery workshop at Studio A, I hadn’t done pottery since fifth grade in art class. It was really exciting to get back into the medium even though it had been years. I was surprised at how much I remembered about making pinch pots and scoring. However, I still learned a ton about the process of creating pottery in other forms such as the coiling method. The most fun part about this workshop though was that I was doing it with my friends in Art Scholars. Due to our busy schedules we don’t get to spend a lot of time together outside of colloquium, so this hour was really nice to get to spend. Since Art Scholars is all about connecting with each other through art, getting to try something new all together and make mistakes throughout the process was so meaningful. Art Scholars is such a wonderful community of people that I feel such privilege to get to be a part of. Getting to experiment with mediums I normally wouldn't be so freeing if you let go of any expectations, and even though I had done pottery before I still felt this to be true. I am so glad I signed up for this workshop and broadened my horizons.