Artoberfest kicks off fall season for Caine College of the Arts
This Saturday kicked off the first ever “Artoberfest,” hosted by the Caine College of the Arts in the Kent Concert Hall foyer. Visitors had the chance to view and buy prints from students showcasing their art, eat bratwursts and listen to live music from student musicians.
“Artoberfest is an effort to have the closest replication of an Oktoberfest on the campus of Utah State University, plus art,” said Samuel Wright, CCA senator and founder of the event.
Held on a by-week of college football, Artoberfest was scheduled at the tail end of September instead of October to avoid conflicting with football games, Wright said. It was also for a better likelihood of nice weather, but a rainy forecast caused the location to be changed from outside on the Performance Hall promenade to inside the Kent Concert Hall foyer. Another reason for this specific timing was for its close proximity to the Dean’s Convocation, usually held the first week of October.
“I wanted to time it along with him so we kind of have a couple of events in the Caine college around the same time,” Wright said. “Generally after the Dean’s Convocation, he does Dogs with the Dean, but we took Dogs with the Dean and put it in Artoberfest and so we have Brats with the Boss.”
In addition to bratwurst, which was free for USU students and two dollars for the public, apple-beer was served as a substitution for alcoholic beer. It was poured by an Oktoberfest-style tap system and distributed by the Utah State Student Associate Officers. The tap system was created by the Dining Service who also donated all the apple-beer to the event.
“The student art council has been a huge player in helping prepare for this,” Wright said on the planning of Artoberfest. He said the set up was also in part thanks to CCA production services, which provided the tables, chairs and sound equipment for the afternoon.
Inside the foyer, 27 booths showed off digitally-made and ink artwork, ceramics, jewelry and more. One student sold henna tattoos at her booth.
“People love the henna,” said Brianne Johnson, a freshman studying social work. Johnson worked the henna booth while her friend gave the tattoos. “It’s really unique because everyone else has different stuff they’re selling — shoes, cards, pottery — and henna is just something super unique and way cool.”
In addition to the many vendors and food, six different performing groups provided live music while students played with puppies from the Puppies-for-Rent booth and participated in a chalk drawing competition.
“It’s really important to highlight what the students can do,” said Michelle Carbajal, a sophomore in interior design. “There is a lot of talent here at USU and we need to show that off. We need to showcase it, so this is a really fun way to do it. It’s amazing to see how the community and the students and everybody just got so excited about it.”
Kimberly Jackson, a junior in theater technology and design, and Erika Christensen, a sophomore in science education, won the chalk drawing competition with of an image of Husky dogs playing in a pile of leaves.
“It would have been good to do it outside if the weather ever held,” Jackson said. “But it worked inside, too. They did a good job adapting it last minute.”
Artoberfest was created as a way to promote art students and give visual artists a venue to showcase their work to the public and other students, like the music department does with their concerts and the theater department does with their productions, Wright said.
“The main idea was to create a forum for artists to sell to the public,” Wright said.
Wright said he also wanted to give people a chance to get to know CCA better before Arts Week in January, and to give the community an opportunity to support students and artists coming out of USU.
Utah State alumn David Tulchure agreed.
“It’s good for them to have an opportunity to show the work that they have,” Tulchure said. “It’s also good for the students and the rest of the community to have an opportunity to see the talent and people who are here at USU.”
Wright dubbed USU’s first-ever Artoberfest for USU a success. He said he hopes CCA brings Artoberfest back next year so more vendors can showcase their work to the public.
“I hope the senator who follows me realizes that … this is an event that is absolutely unique to the Caine College of the Arts and it’s absolutely needed to get our names out there,” Wright said. “I hope in five years from now it is one of those top university events that everyone just expects to happen like the Howl, like Homecoming, like A-day. I just want future art senators to know this is bigger than Arts week, this is more necessary than arts week.”
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