April 30, 2021 will mark the launch of this year’s Tang Party, the annual end-of-year ode to Skidmore students’ unabashed funk and creativity. In the past, multi-colored sheets have given marbled walls to the pondside gazebo while, across the green, quasi-Transavantgarde drawings were projected onto the Tang’s exterior walls, breathing life into the once-blank bricks. Though the pandemic curbed the event in 2020, the Tang Party is now set to make a hearty comeback; this year’s event will feature a diverse array of pieces—from sound art, to documentary film, to textile installations—all while adhering to pandemic-prompted safety regulations. The Tang Party’s undeniable “cool factor” is only amplified by the fact that, to borrow the words of Skidmore senior Charlotte Squire, “It’s by students and for students… entirely student-run and entirely populated by student work.”
A few weeks away from graduation, Squire is now a public programming intern at the Tang Museum and a key organizer for the upcoming Tang Party. Working alongside Tang’s assistant director for public engagement, Tom Yoshikami, Squire is quite the humble-yet-self-assured coordinative Renaissance woman; her responsibilities entail everything from marketing to crunching numbers to helping student artists smooth out any technological hiccups—in a nutshell, as Squire says, she does “a little bit of everything”, and she loves it.
“[The Tang Party] is kind of my big project,” she grinned. “It’s awesome to get to have that level of involvement in this huge schoolwide event that has so many participants.”
Her obvious dedication makes it unsurprising—though nonetheless admirable—that behind Squire’s organizational role is a deep, earnest, and longstanding admiration for the Tang Party, which she attended for the first time two years ago. A bright-eyed sophomore transfer student, Squire was immediately awestruck by the artists’ creativity.
“I really liked that a lot of it was just strange and very much out there, and [that] there was a space for people who didn’t want to do things that might be more conventional,” Squire reflected. Her eyes sparkled as she recalled one of her favorite pieces from past years: an immersive, animation-meets-installation style piece by the now-graduated Fiona McLaughlin, ’20, called “something along the lines of ‘The Worst Party I’ve Ever Been To,’” according to Squire.
“There was, you know, the pong table, the crushed red SOLO cups, [and] the gross, weird, stained couch,” she laughed, all of this perfectly capturing the experience of “that terrible party that we’ve all been to.”
Of course, Squire’s deep understanding of the Tang Party’s unique essence—in tandem with the incredible work of the artists and other coordinators—ensures that this event will certainly not be that aforementioned “terrible party.” For not only is the Tang Party unconventional, but furthermore, it is boundary-pushing, immersive, and interrogative, though not without a refreshing edge of deliciously clever humor. While the details of this year’s pieces are best kept under wraps until their official debut, students can nevertheless expect an evening brimming with spellbinding art. Additionally, the event’s fifteen student artists will be there themselves, milling around with eventgoers and giving students a wonderfully intimate, up-close, and personalized experience. Still yet, while the Tang Party is emblematic of the colorful “CTM” logos splashed across campus and the “Keep Skid Weird” sidewalk chalk scrawled on the concrete pillar by the library, the Tang Party is, at its core, just that—a party, a celebration—that prioritizes the commemoration of Skidmore students’ immense and powerful creativity over all else.
Admission to the Tang Party is free, but spots must be reserved ahead of time as per COVID-19 protocols. To register for the event, click here, or visit https://tang.skidmore.edu/calendar/1407-tang-party.
Cover photo by Andrzej Pilarczyk.