Posted by Kristin Travagline
From Sept. 1 to Sept. 15 student art from the Tabula Rasa Art Installation Pre-Orientation Program for first year students was displayed in the Case Center Gallery.
This Pre-Orientation Program challenges first year students to harness their creative impulses and create artwork through teamwork.
Students do not need to be intended art majors to participate in the Tabula Rasa Pre-Orientation Program. Rather, the program emphasizes critical thinking and team building.
"The program teaches the first year students how to problem solve, deal with other peoples' opinions and get something accomplished. They bond with each other and forget that they're nervous," pre-orientation leader Cami Ledi '11 said.
During this pre-orientation session, the program leaders, Jon Sedor '11 and Ledi, assigned their first year students to groups and gave them the task of picking three random words from a hat.
The first word described the type of object that the students were to build. The second word was an emotion and the third word was a noun. These three words served as their artistic inspiration.
First year student Lauren Brown '14, picked the words "Bratwurst, stress and decorative." Based upon these words Brown's group crafted a sculpture of David Hasselhoff eating a sausage. The sculpture bore the inscription "don't hassel daf hoff." "We had a lot of fun," Brown said.
Another first year student, Becca Silverman '14, picked the words "easy cheese, temple and hope."
Inspired by these words, Silverman's group created a sculpture of a female figure looking toward the heavens with swirling pieces of yarn on top of her head that represent easy cheese.
"We tackled it with teamwork. We thought it would be difficult to make something so sturdy, but it was easier than we thought when everyone was involved," Silverman said.
Both Brown and Silverman confirmed that the Pre-Orientation Program served its purpose in making the first year students feel comfortable on the college campus.
"It's nice to build a foundation for the rest of the school year. It's kind of like we had an older brother and older sister relationship with Cami and Jon," Silverman said.
"Cami and Jon treated us like peers and, to this day, they are our best friends on campus," Silverman said.