Student Council and the Arts & Sciences Council have joined forces to fund Minds Wide Open, a statewide event celebrating the artistic contributions of women 40 years after the University admitted its first full class of female undergraduate students.
The free performance will begin Saturday at 1 p.m. in Old Cabell Hall and is open to the public.
"We're bringing dancers, community members, performers, students and faculty to celebrate this one concept and think about women in the arts and giving them an opportunity to network and be creative together and send what they're doing individually into a community effort," said Jenny Smith, Council's Student Arts Committee co-chair. "We've joined as part of a statewide celebration of art ... It has enormous potential to have an impact to how students look at art."
As part of the celebration, there will be performances from groups such as the Virginia Dance Company, along with a collaborative performance of female a capella groups such as the Virginia Belles, the Virginia Women's Chorus and the University Singers. The performances will allow participants to reflect on a personal history of women at the University, Smith said, adding that she hopes the event will become an annual staple for students and other community members.
"Although we are comprised of dancers, singers and visual artists, all those parts can come together to become a cohesive whole - you just need to give them the opportunity to do so," Smith said.\nThe event is unique from the 19 others planned across the state in that it is completely student-run.
"It's a student-initiated, student-planned, student-run event," Smith said. "It's almost entirely funded by student activity funds. We applied for funds through the student activities fee appropriations process within Student Council."
In addition, the Student Activities Center will fund a corresponding reception because SAF funds do not cover food costs, Smith said.
Beyond highlighting the contributions of women, the event also poses an ever more far-ranging opportunity to showcase the diversity of art, Smith said.
"This is sending a message to the U.Va and its wider community that art has a place at the University that does not belong in an academic department," Smith said. "We have the student community that's very vibrant and diverse and we've ... given them an opportunity to celebrate themselves and women at the University to celebrate the broad range of talent."
Danna Thomas, chair of the University's Minds Wide Open event, said the idea for the event came about serendipitously in September through an Internet search to unite two of her main interests: arts and studies in women in gender. From there, she contacted the statewide coordinator of Minds Wide Open and found that no such program existed in Charlottesville. Smith, who said Minds Wide Open presented a great opportunity for a partnership among the Arts & Sciences Council, Student Council and the broader University arts community, added that major planning for Saturday began in November with a recruitment process.
"It started very spontaneously," Smith said. "Student Council was able to bring a lot to the table to bring people to the art groups in terms of funding and rallying the community and making it a University-wide event."
Arts & Sciences Council funded $1,250 of the project, Thomas said, while Council provided for about $6,000 of the event's total budget. Event organizers also got Albemarle County involved in the final project.
"We received interest in the Albemarle County school system and we will showcase the artwork of fourth-grade girls around Albemarle in the art gallery following the performances," Thomas said.\nPotential artistic and historical impacts aside, Smith said Saturday will offer Council an opportunity to further its outreach efforts in a different venue than usual.
"It's an opportunity to bring everybody together under one roof at one time," Thomas said, "to showcase the dynamic community that we have at U.Va. and bring awareness to art at the University of Virginia under an important theme"
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