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Find your creative niche with the Student Arts Movement Showcase

Student Arts Movement
The Student Arts Movement will put on its showcase on March 7 in the Great Hall. Photo courtesy of Student Arts Movement.

All different kinds of art, from a cappella to the visual and literary arts, will be coming together on March 7 to showcase the arts community at UNC. 

Senior Will Leitch, an executive officer for the event's host organization, the Student Arts Movement, said that the aim of the showcase is to foster collaboration between different art groups. He said while the communities borrow from each other, they want to create a more supportive environment. 

“This event is really supposed to just bring all of those arts groups together to pay attention to each other and show support to each other, and then that way, that can foster a better community among arts groups overall moving forward,” Leitch said.

Leitch said that the first two hours will be dedicated to performance-oriented groups, such as dance teams Bhangra Elite and Moonlight Dance Crew. After this, there will be an hour-long reception dedicated to visual and literary arts. 

“I think the most exciting thing is that it is one of the few opportunities on campus to see some of the great, talented work that happens for free,” Leitch said. “And you’re not only supporting one type of art or one group, you’re supporting the arts overall.”

Many different kinds of organizations will be at the showcase, including Blank Canvas, the largest student-run dance group on campus.

“Blank Canvas is an organization that allows dancers from all different backgrounds to come, so some people are dancing for the first time and some people are dancing for the tenth year of their life.” said first-year Cayla Ifill, a member of Blank Canvas. “... I think that it’ll show audiences that anybody can dance.”

Ifill said that this showcase helps show students that they don’t have to have professional training and hopefully inspires them to try something new.

“This is a liberal arts institution, so it’s really important that we bring to light not just visual art, but things like dance and music that are also considered art,” said Ifill. “That’s what we stand for at Chapel Hill.”

This purpose of this art showcase is to not only increase collaboration and support between arts organizations on campus, but to create awareness of the diverse student talent on campus and encourage attendees to support campus arts, as well.

Junior Bailey Elrod, one of the co-founders of the Student Arts Movement, said that people should come to this showcase because of the large amount of creative energy on campus. She said that there is art being created on UNC's campus everyday that deserves to be celebrated. 

“Student arts organizations work with very little to create a lot. Students don’t get paid to create art in student arts organizations, so they’re creating this, full of passion and care for what they do and for honing their craft, so I think that people should come see this to see the amazing creative energy that the University has," Elrod said. 

The showcase will take place from from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Great Hall in the Student Union.

arts@dailytarheel.com

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