Arts advocates strive for unity

The campus arts community is thriving, but something is amiss.

With student-run performances happening almost every weekend and more than 70 culture and arts groups registered with the Student Union, rarely is there time when a campus stage is not in use.

The reopening of Memorial Hall is being called the first step toward creating a gathering place for student and professional performances on campus.

Yet there is still a problem.

“There are tons of events going on right now, but there’s no central location to find out what’s going on,” said Student Body President Seth Dearmin.

He and Adrian Johnston, student body vice president, said last school year that they would work to improve what has been called UNC’s fractured arts community.

Communication among student arts groups is not ideal, and many have voiced frustration with the difficulty of publicizing events.

Last school year, arts advocates for student government organized two forums to discuss the problems endemic to the University arts community. Among them were a lack of communication or collaboration between different art fields and scant publicity in The Daily Tar Heel.

Dearmin said he and Johnston have been talking to Emil Kang, executive director for the arts, about ways to integrate the thriving arts community. He said they have discussed the idea of creating a Web site for student arts events.

They also have been working with Molly Stapleton, chairwoman of the arts advocacy committee of student government, to discuss plans to bring campus arts groups together.

Stapleton said that arts forums would continue throughout the year and that they will serve as a point of interaction between groups.

“I’m just hoping that the leaders of all the different arts groups will be able to come to the meetings.”

Johnston, who attended an arts advocacy forum in April, said a new Web site for campus events would be a boon for student performers.

The Carolina Union Activities Board also will be a major source for arts and cultural events this year, said CUAB President Jonathon Benson.

“I’m definitely a fan of combining resources and working together because everybody’s better in that situation,” he said.

Benson said CUAB plans to work with other groups to capitalize on campus resources.

“A lot of the people that we have who are arts chairs, they have all these ideas and they do think about the rest of the community, because that’s definitely something they want to talk about,” he said.

Dearmin said that despite complications associated with performing arts organizations, they make up one of campus’ strongest groups.

“I think with all the groups on campus, the arts groups have the most momentum going.”

Contact the A&E Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.