Senior Lauren Biritz’s piece, “Times Square,” faces out toward the crowded Chancellor’s Arts Showcase on Friday, Feb. 23, at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, Mo. Biritz’s piece was made out of a recycled billboard. “I’ve just always loved making things with my hands,” Biritz said. “I really like thinking outside of the box. Once I get an idea, I can’t stop until it’s done, so it’s just kind of like a rush.”
Art-loving folks in Columbia gathered to honor the work of MU students in the College of Arts and Science with an open exhibit and live performances
The Missouri Theatre lobby was filled with displays of MU students’ artwork along with its typical eager audience members as art-lovers alike gathered for the annual Chancellor’s Art Showcase.
Chancellor’s Arts Showcase visitors walk around the crowded Missouri Theatre lobby. Students displayed visual art including textile and apparel management, theater and architecture. The auditorium also featured stage performances later in the night.
About 650 people attended the Feb. 23 program, which featured creative works from 100 MU students in the MU College of Arts and Science.
To start off the night, attendees could explore an exhibit showcasing work from the MU Department of Architectural Studies, School of Visual Studies, Department of Theatre and Department of Textile and Apparel Management.
Meaghan Fleming, a MU senior showing off her work, is majoring in digital storytelling and art. Her piece at the showcase was a sculpture of a backpack holding tombstones. Fleming said the piece was her way of representing school shootings and the weight they cause students to carry.
“The tombstone itself is much larger than the backpack to show that it doesn’t belong there, but it’s become very normalized in our society that we just move on,” Fleming said.
Fleming said that sharing their work allows students to connect with their community and audience.
“I never realized how important it was to talk to them in person,” Fleming said. “So many people resonate with the piece.”
The sculpture stuck out to one individual in particular: Laura Clubb, who traveled to Columbia from Cape Girardeau, Missouri to support her daughter, junior Elizabeth Clubb.
“I love the story behind that because think about how important backpacks are – not just in this context, but on the weekends we put food in them,” Clubb said.
Visual studies major Elizabeth Clubb discusses her work with an event attendee in the Missouri Theatre during the Chancellor’s Arts Showcase. Clubb’s wooden and soapstone statue, “Hand in Hand,” was among other visual art pieces featured at the showcase.
Clubb and other attendees wandered through the lobby exploring set designs, outfits, sculptures and paintings. The various artworks exemplify the beauty of the event.
“It’s really great to get all these creative people in one place,” Sydney Brockman, senior textile and apparel management major at MU, said.
The dress Brockman showed off was a labor of love, dedicating 12 hours solely to hand-beading the fabric to emulate 20th-century entertainer Ginger Rogers, her inspiration for the design.
Students like Brockman and her creative peers are not strangers to tireless and passionate work.
MU senior and architectural studies major Sam Gandhi featured his thesis project. The assignment prompted students to create an urban infill in Brentwood, Missouri.
“This is a piece of my soul,” Gandhi said. “The work always is.”
Gandhi said that he and other architecture students take pride in their work because they know they are helping a community.
“I think it’s a beautiful thing that we get to do something that’s hard and rewarding and difficult that both solves a problem and allows us to stay grounded as humans,” Gandhi said.
Following the exhibit was a series of live performances from the School of Music and the Theatre department. Two MU chorale ensembles, Sankofa Chorale and Concert Chorale, kicked off the live show. The latter debuted Sinquefield Composition Prize winner, Seda Balci’s, original composition.
The Sinquefield Composition Prize has been an MU tradition since 2004. The award grants the recipient the opportunity to compose an original piece for MU’s large ensemble as well as have it performed and recorded.
The creators of the competition, Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, are grateful for donations that make this chance for academic growth possible.
“I can go back and sit in the audience and realize that this piece would never have been written unless Rex and I were funded,” Jeanne said.
After intermission, audience members returned to their seats for live musical and monologue performances by the Department of Theatre.
The goal of the night was that attendees walked away with a newfound appreciation for the arts. Dean of the College of Arts and Science Cooper Drury knows that it is important for the community to see what students are creating.
“Behind everything that you will experience tonight is a student who has appeared here exploring their curiosities, their learning, growing and their thriving,” Drury said. “Art, in all of its forms, enhances our lives.”
Edited by Alex Goldstein | agoldstein@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Sterling Sewell | ssewell@themaneater.com
Edited by Scout Hudson | shudson@themaneater.com