Collective Differences

The Collective Differences art exhibit will be held on April 19, 2017 at 7p.m. in the Campus Center ballrooms. This art exhibit will incorporate not only art students, but also everyone on campus who has a talent they would like to share. Unlike the other art exhibits that are held on UWG’s campus, the event is spearheaded by the students. The student organization, The Collective, is putting on the event as their last big bang of the semester. 

 The Collective Differences art exhibit will be held in sections. Each section will showcase a different talent. The organizations secured every ballroom in the student center so they could spread each talent into different rooms. “We will have a modeling and fashion room as well as a live art exhibit with live performances and photography,” said Jimmy Hutchful. “Every room is going to have a different feel and vibe but it will all be under the same theme of putting thing together that are clearly different and showing that they can all come together.” 

The Collective has been around since 2001 and still has the same values today that were in place when they were founded. “The Collective has always been dedicated to giving students an outlet to express themselves through their talents from every realm,” said Hutchful, President of The Collective. The Collective stays true to their purpose by putting on many events during the school year. “Our most popular events are our open-mic nights and potluck cyphers,” said Hutchful. “We are always excited to have different artists and producers around the city come out and get together to showcase their talents.” The organization tries to have at least two events every month but this is their first art exhibit. 

Imari Boyd, the fundraising chair for The Collective, came up with the idea for the exhibit. According to the flier, the Collective Differences Art Exhibit is dedicated to being an outlet for students to express their real experiences through various art forms. “We’re bringing people together who have different talents, abilities, strengths and weaknesses and through their differences we are providing a place where they can showcase it and people can appreciate them and enjoy,” said Hutchful. 

The Collective teamed up with Models and Business and The Art Student Union to put on this event. All of these organizations are geared towards the arts and focus on helping students showcase their talents. Auditions for the event were held over a 3-day span and was judged by members of each organization’s e-board. The judges chose 15-20 participants based on the talents they portrayed and their willingness to display their talents live in a crowd full of people.  

The art exhibit is a free event so all the organization wants from the student body is their support and appreciation for the talents that will be on display. “We wanted people to be able to come out and enjoy no matter what,” said Hutchful. “Since this is our last event of this school year, we decided free entry would be best.” The Collective and their collaborators involved are more focused on putting on a great event with great vibes than charging an entry fee. The organizations and other participants have all worked hard to put this event together so the participants can do what they do best.