BY KAHLA STATEMA | The Statesman
UMD’s Department of Art and Design is opening their doors across campus to host their annual Open Studio event on Saturday April 23, which will also feature this year’s Student Exhibition Reception and Awards Ceremony.
“It’s a day where we open up all of our art and design space and we invite the community to the campus to come in and see what we do here,” Jamie Ratliff, event organizer for Open Studio, said.
Different activities such as photo booths, henna tattoos, stop motion animation and interactive painting will be offered for the community to enjoy. Artwork will also be for sale.
“There’s going to be really fun activities for the public to participate in, like sculpture molding and ceramic wheel throwing,” Ratliff said.
There will be a group of people painting a large canvas with a camera taking pictures every 20 to 30 seconds. The pictures will be edited into a video to show the progression throughout the day.
“In our MMad Lab, which is our motion and media digital laboratory, our media arts club is going to be there with digital projections that you can physically interact with,” Ratliff said. “So when you stand in front of them and kind of move your arms, the codes and projections pick up your movement and you make things happen based on the movement of your body.”
Art and Design students will be demonstrating many different art processes throughout campus, such as printmaking, welding and digital art techniques.
Open Studio runs from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Afterward, the Annual Student Exhibition Reception will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Live music and an awards ceremony for exhibition prizes and students receiving scholarships for Art and Design will take place at 5 p.m. All of the events will be taking place throughout the Humanities Building at UMD.