Springtime at Hopkins is a magical season. As temperatures rise and students eagerly escape from indoors, the brilliant sunshine, fresh, green grass and exploding magnolia trees bring out the weathered beauty of the campus's red-brick buildings. What could be a more perfect backdrop to a brand new artists market on campus?
On Friday, April 6, 2012, the First Friday Artists Market was held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the first time on the Levering Hall patio. According to an article published on April 5, 2012 by the JHU Gazette, sophomore Alex Dash, an International Studies major and budding artist, "wanted to create a venue where students can show off their artistic talents to the rest of the university community." For a small registration fee, student artists of all types can not only sell their work, but also submit one piece into a university-wide competition for a chance to receive a cash prize.
Take junior Chloe Pelletier, for instance. This art history and museums and society minor jumped at the amazing opportunity to showcase her artwork, especially after having done so all throughout high school. She clearly has raw talent, which she has further refined by taking painting classes at Hopkins. Her hand-painted stemware, bookmarks and jewelry boxes are painted with degrees of professionalism, precision and style that only come with experience.
She produces all of her artwork in her apartment and utilizes a very unique system to produce it. For the painted stemware, she explains, "I paint it with a special enamel and preheat the oven so [the glasses] don't shatter." Such a delicate and potentially dangerous system calls for the utmost attention and care. Luckily, Pelletier says with a chuckle, "No explosions yet!"
For an artists market being held for the very first time, Pelletier liked that there was "no pressure to sell a lot," which made for a stress-free environment. She also commended the group's Facebook page and the Student Government Association for posting the event online. At the time, she could not think of ways to improve the event.
It is odd that Pelletier could not think of any recommendations. For such a beautiful morning, only a handful of students stopped by over the course of 30 minutes. Even after passing by the patio just an hour later at 11:30 a.m., attendance was not huge. Maybe the event should have started later in the day when students were less likely to be in class. More people would certainly have come to the market, and the artists would not have wasted their time.
One of the other artists, Ace Chung, a fifth-year graduate student in Hopkins's Material Science and Engineering program, was disappointed with how the event was advertised. He felt that no one knew that its Facebook page existed, and that people probably just deleted the "Today's Annoucements" emails where it was listed. He said, "The only way people knew about this event was by word of mouth."
This may have been another reason why attendance was relatively light in the morning. If the event's planners continue to hold the event from 10 - 4, they need to brainstorm more effective ways to reach out to the student body and encourage more people who do not have morning classes to come. Attendance will always fluctuate on some days more than others, but general awareness certainly needs to increase.
The artists themselves might have a shared role in increasing attendance by producing work that speaks to their audience. Chung's work, for example, while visually impactful with its explosion of fluorescent paint, is confusing. He describes it as a "parody of pop culture," but a college-age viewer might have trouble finding the overall significance of a mouse head painted on top of Audrey Hepburn's body. Chung clearly has drive and will "keep painting and practicing a lot more," but he should think more about the actual content of his paintings in order to attract a larger audience.
Finally, it might be nice to see more than just visual artists at future events. Perhaps an improvement in advertising could encourage writers, musicians, etc. to showcase their talents as well. The market already has a solid base of visual artists, but it needs to open some more doors so that other aspiring artists can have their time in the spotlight.
As the first Friday of each month comes and goes, it will be interesting to see if the First Fridays Artists Market, which started off as one person's dream, will become a well-loved, school-wide tradition in the future. For more information about the market, visit https://www.facebook.com/FirstFridayArtistsMarketJHU or email art@jhusga.com.
