Students are coming together to create art in response to gun violence.
Morgan Haney, music theater senior, is leading the project in the wake of the school shooting Feb. 14 at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people were killed.
Haney organized a Facebook group called “Art Against Gun Violence” and encouraged students to submit paintings, plays, monologues, and other pieces of art for an on-campus event.
Attendees will be able to walk across the quad to view art and watch theater performances by students. The event is tentatively scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Friday on the quad.
Haney said she was inspired to create the event during a class with Christine Albright-Tufts, visiting assistant professor of acting.
“She was checking in with us about how the school shooting had been affecting us, and we got to talking about the responsibilities of artists in times like this,” Haney said.
Haney said Albright-Tufts brought up many plays written about school shootings and gun violence, suggesting students produce a staged reading.
“That really hit me because I think that the idea of giving artists the opportunity to respond can be really healing for the artists and also for the people watching,” she said.
Students are working on original devising and movement pieces to showcase at the event. Haney is looking into collaborating with other student organizations.
“Art Against Gun Violence just became an open call for whoever wants to do whatever. As long it’s just art and it pertains to gun violence, it’s fair game,” Haney said. “It’s really just giving people a place to showcase and all of that, and the response from the student body has just been absolutely incredible.”
Elaine Weatherby, acting senior, is creating original paintings to showcase at the event.
“A lot of what I create is abstract,” Weatherby said. “I deal with a lot of anxiety, and, with the recent events going on in society, I think the messages that I am able to convey in my paintings can help depict that, but also inspire hope and creativity.”
Haney found several scripts on gun violence to be performed at the event. She acquired many scripts from New Play Exchange, an online forum with a yearly subscription to new theatrical works.
“There’s also a book called 24 Gun Control Plays, and they’re not really like full plays, they’re two-person scenes or monologues,” Haney said. “Some of them came from that, and some were script suggestions from Chris Albright.”
Weatherby said the campus community needs an event like this.
“I know that artists are some of the most powerful people in the world and carry so much creative responsibility, so I think it’s really important that artists come together and initiate ideas and inspire people who want to create and want to help and really make a movement,” Weatherby said.
Interested students can join the Facebook group or message Haney through Facebook Messenger.
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