Richard Catangay-LiewThe nude model portrait created in Elysia Tegart’s final art class of her degree was one of many artistic works on display at the Pride Art Night. Having previously been involved in queer art nights, Tegart said she’s happy to see the event develop now that U of A Pride Week hosts one on campus.
“(Inclusivity) has been a huge focus these last few years and I feel like it’s really starting to pay off,” Tegart said. “Making sure to reach out hands to other groups on campus is expanding the general community here.”
The first on-campus Pride Art Night took over Dewey’s on Saturday, March 12, and brought Pride Week to a close with art, poetry and musical performances from the campus community.
Besides viewing the displays, the 150 attendees could engage their own artistic side with paper, markers and a magnetic rainbow poetry board. The idea with Pride Art Night was to create an interactive art experience, Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services equity advisor Chris Daberer said.
“We wanted people to show up, have some fun, have some free food, mingle, and then have a couple opportunities to express themselves,” Daberer said. “This is why we have the paper so that people can cut it out and create on. We have the rainbow magnetic poetry and also we have one station set up where people can just slam poem it up.”
Vice-President (Student Life)-elect Francesca El Ghossein was drawing at the interactive art tables along with several other guests. Sketching floral patterns on her colored paper, El Ghossein said she was positively surprised by the turnout.
“I think there’s a lot of folks from different communities on campus,” El Ghossein said. “I’m glad to see that this event brought these different communities together to show their support for the LGTBQ communities on campus.”
