Downstairs in the University Center on the Downtown campus, students are typically studying or hanging out. But during First Fridays, the usually quiet room was filled with art, music and dancing for the 5th Urban Gallery Exhibition.
The exhibition, put on by the College of Public Programs, Downtown Programming and Activities Board and Fair Trade Café, is part of Actions, Advocacy and Arts, which informs students and the community of important issues through art. This year’s theme was “An open mind is a canvas for change.”
The gallery displayed art by students from Barrett, the Honors College, and South Mountain High School, as well as ASU Emeritus faculty artists and Phoenix artists. All eight floors of the University Center showcased art from the artists.
Malissa Geer, community engagement liaison at the College of Public Programs, was the key organizer of the event.
“The arts give this broad group of people a reason to come down to the University to check it out, to find an anchor here like to identify with a piece of artwork or with a different performer,” Geer said.
The lobby displayed art from the honors students and South Mountain High School students. The second floor had art from the For Our Eyes Community Cohesion and South Mountain High School. The fourth through eighth floors held the art of the Emeritus faculty artists.
The event started at 6 p.m. with hip-hop dancing and music.
A breakdancing group, Sound in Color, took the floor twice. Two dancers applied paint to their hands and feet and began to dance with a palette underneath them to create art in a new way.
Across the street at Civic Space Park, there were performances by hip-hop dance crews, contemporary dancers, and local bands Peachcake and Dearspeak.
Jennifer Kitson, events and special programs coordinator for Barrett, the Honors College at the Downtown campus, coordinated all the Barrett student art.
“We accepted 9 to 10 artists — a lot of them have submitted multiple pieces,” Kitson said.
The art ranged from photos to paintings to drawings.
Anthony Cinquepalmi, a creative writing freshman, said he has been doing photography since high school and his photographs were showcased at the event.
“There are a lot of great artists out of the 60,000 or so students at ASU, so spreading the word is good,” Cinquepalmi said.
The event came to a close at 9 p.m., but the art will continue to be displayed at the University Center until later this year.
Reach the reporter at mpareval@asu.edu.
