The Georgetown University Student Association Senate Subcommittee on Creative Expression organized the first Georgetown Arts Week this week to generate visibility for different arts groups on campus.
“There’s a small community [at Georgetown] that knows about [the arts] and is involved with it, but our goal is to bring the arts community to all of Georgetown,” said Melissa Frazee (COL ’16), a member of the Creative Expression subcommittee.
The decision to create an Arts Week stemmed from a subcommittee report on the “State of the Arts and Creative Expression.” According to GUSA Senators Jonathan Thrall (SFS ’17) and Andrew Walker (SFS ’16), who founded the subcommittee, feedback from multiple art groups led them to conclude that arts groups felt unnoticed on campus and wanted more funding.
“[Art groups wanted] visibility and help with publicity and collaboration with different groups,” said Walker. “We thought Arts Week would be the best way to achieve that.”
In planning the event, according to Walker, the subcommittee noticed that many performances and shows were already occurring around the same dates, including the a cappella Spring Sing concert and the play She Loves Me, and decided to form the week around these events by featuring other events like Open Mic Nights in Uncommon Grounds and a cappella performances at Lauinger Library.
The primary goal of arts week, according to the subcommittee, is to draw attention to all of the different arts groups on campus and to the accessibility of these events.
“While this is only a week, we’re really hoping that this isn’t the only time that people care about the arts on campus,” said Walker.
