Campus will become art gallery for FOTA 2006

Fashion, ballroom dancing, Lego sculpture, singing and photography will fill the quads and buildings at the University next week, as University students participate in the annual Festival of the Arts.

“We are turning the entire campus into an art gallery,” said Claire Mazur, FOTA Executive Director and College fourth-year. “You just can’t avoid the art. It’s everywhere.”

FOTA 2006 will kick off with a launch party from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. on Saturday, May 13, in the Hutchinson Courtyard, complete with music, refreshments, a makeup artist and a student fashion show. The festival will culminate on Sunday, May 21.

FOTA 2006 will feature undergraduate student art that is “all over the map,” Mazur said. This year will include performance art, photography, poetry reading, handmade wind chimes, break dancing and a pop-up book theater piece featuring a student-crafted pop-up book as big as the stage.

“We really try to construct FOTA in a way that everyone can appreciate it,” Mazur said. “You don’t have to be an art connoisseur; it’s art, but it’s understandable and accessible.”

In addition to Mazur, eight other College students make up the FOTA board of directors. During the Fall Quarter, they solicit students to pitch ideas and concepts for the festival. “We really encourage anyone and everyone with any kind of idea to apply to participate,” Mazur said. “No matter how obscure they may believe it to be, we welcome them.”

The University of Chicago Arts Planning Council and the Student Government fund the students’ work that is selected for the event, Mazur noted.

“We hope that students think of FOTA as one of those great events in the spring to look forward to every year,” she said. “There’s a passion for art on this campus and it’s great to see that during the Festival of the Arts.”

A detailed schedule for FOTA 2006 and additional information is available at http://fota.uchicago.edu.