Museum Student Assocation’s goal is to bring together the student art scene

When sophomore fashion design and finance major Hilary Dell transferred to Kent State, she found campus was missing something Miami University had – a student museum association. So a year and a half ago, she started one.

Now the Museum Student Association has 60 members and is hosting its first major event, the KSU Creative Arts Festival.

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Kent State Museum in Rockwell Hall. Admission is free, and there will be free food and live music from The Speedbumps, Pete Nischt, David Ullman and Abby Kondas.

“We started trying to get into the student art scene, but we didn’t see an event that really brought together all the students’ media and allowed them to sell their work and keep 100 percent of the profits,” said Dell, who also serves as the organization’s president. “We’re just trying to create an event that really benefits student artists.”

Dell said they started planning the event toward the end of last August and started asking for submissions right before the end of the fall semester.

“It would probably take other more established clubs less time,” she said with a laugh. “But we really wanted to make it special – the best that we could.”

Dell approached and received the support of Jean Druesedow, director of the Kent State University Museum.

“Anything that encourages students to go outside the normal track is an important part of college life,” Druesedow said.

The work in the show was judged by five graduate students from the school of art. She also said there are 29 pieces in the show accepted from more than 100 submissions, including weavings, paintings, photographs, screenprints, video, ceramic and jewelry.

“It’s always exciting to see student work. Some students might be writing papers in sciences or history and these folks are making art,” Druesedow said. “And I think that you need to learn how to view and appreciate and understand the kinds of things other people are doing.”

Dell said she hopes this event will successfully bring together students from all different departments, and to raise awareness about the museum itself.

“A lot of students don’t know about the museum,” Dell said. “So it’s a good opportunity to combine those things. We hope people would want to come back to the museum, so it could be something that goes on for a very long time.”

Contact School of Art and VCD reporter Leslie Cusano at [email protected].