Interactive art event shines spotlight on community view
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Mural from the Big Art Bang 2012.
Submitted photo.
Big Art Bang 2012.
Submitted photo.
Sustainability and community are the heart of this year’s interactive art event, the Big Art Bang 3.
Local residents are invited to join Ivy Tech students for the third annual Big Art Bang from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Ivy Tech Community College Columbus/Franklin campus.
The free, all-day event, “Sustainability of Our Community,” is made possible by a grant from the Indiana Arts Commission.
The Big Art Bang offers a collaborative environment between students and professionals that promotes critical thinking, networking and leadership, said Lloyd Brooks, program chair for visual communications at Ivy Tech.
Students from various disciplines, including interior design and visual arts, are given the opportunity to apply the skills they are learning in the classroom to real-world issues in the community through a series of workshops, Brooks said.
This year’s workshops are centered around the conceptual planning of a community center in the Lincoln-Central neighborhood.
Diane Doup, outreach coordinator of the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center, will kick off the day’s events with a keynote address in the Columbus Learning Center lecture hall.
“This project is a practical application of what the students are learning. And demonstrates how those lessons can be implemented in the community,” Doup said.
One such workshop, “Historic Preservation Case Study,” will be presented by Cynthia Brubaker, a historic preservationist and instructor of architecture at Ball State University. Brubaker will guide students through an exploration of how they may adapt an existing building in the Lincoln-Central neighborhood to a community center.
“Everything this year is conceptual, but it illustrates how students from various disciplines can come together and work for a common goal,” Brooks said.
Another workshop, “Family Portraits,” gives photography students the chance to provide families from the Lincoln-Central neighborhood with a family portrait they normally may not be able to afford, Brooks said.
Additional workshops include urban gardening, repurposing items for the conceptualized community center, a cooking class, and a fashion show featuring items made from repurposed materials, Brooks said.
Jan Banister, program chair for interior design at Ivy Tech, said the event is also an exercise for students in the importance of communication.
“Designers do not work in a vacuum,” Banister said. “And though they may not work directly with one another, everything dovetails in the end.”
Banister hopes this event leads to a long-term relationship with LCNFC and others in the community.
“We hope that having students out in the community is encouraging to others,” Banister said.
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