ASU’s Art Fest: A Success

Art Fest PosterOn February 12, the ASU Tempe campus played host to the annual ASU School of Art: Student Art Fest at the Neeb Plaza. The promotional poster was inviting—”Tickle all your senses,” it read—a colorful display of art students practicing their crafts with utter concentration. I arrived to Neeb Plaza, excited to take a look at what the School of Art has been doing this semester, and was greeted by a Volkswagen Beetle, charmingly vandalized by other passersby. It was the perfect introduction into the art scene here at ASU. The Beetle was decorated with all sorts of designs and messages, a piece of art contributed to by any ASU student that had something to add.

Fourteen student art clubs from metal, wood and fibers, painting, printmaking and drawing to ceramics, photography and foundry presented their work at the Art Fest. The students proudly invited interested peers to sign up for club newsletters and offered samples of their work. The Wood and Fibers Club displayed elegant bracelets printed with their club logo of a tree, while the Ceramics Club provided kiln-fired bowls and painted statues, and the Printmaking Club handed out Valentine’s Day-themed postcards.

Ceramics ClubEach club had a few students demonstrating their trades. The ASU Metal Club demonstrated the process of burning simple patterns onto metal through the use of stencils. A Ceramics Club member slowly crafted a pot on the spinning wheel. The Photography Club took pictures of volunteers with a Polaroid camera and invited people to view their gallery showings at Gallery 100 and Step Gallery, just off of the ASU Tempe campus. A table was set aside for Utrecht, the student-friendly art store found at the corner of Rural and University, where they offered art advice and free student discount cards to be used for any artist’s next purchase. They also had a display board where an enterprising artist could splash a bit of paint on the increasingly messy collage.

The Art Fest ran from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., after which students were invited to attend a gallery crawl. Galleries attended include Gallery 100, Harry Wood Gallery, Northlight Gallery, and Step Gallery, all of which are within walking distance of the Tempe campus.

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5 thoughts on “ASU’s Art Fest: A Success

  • March 21, 2013 at 9:19 pm
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    I also regret that I did not go. I would have loved to see the demonstrations of ASU’s art clubs. I don’t know that I would have let the Photography club take my Polaroid picture (cameras aren’t always fair to me).

  • March 27, 2013 at 12:51 pm
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    Very interesting! I happened to walk by towards the end of the Art Fest and I admired the Volxswagon Beetle that had been written and drawn on, but I was unaware there was so much going on behind the scenes! I love the idea of the gallery crawl, that would have been interesting to do.
    Thank you for reporting on the event!

  • October 11, 2013 at 10:17 am
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    This sounds like so much fun, hopefully I am able to attend the next one I love art and always want to experience new art forms and rediscover what artists are doing with the old forms.

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