Art Students Collective creates space for artists to connect, build community
The Art Students Collective is a new undergraduate club that organizes open discussions for students who are serious about visual arts. The Collective's goal is to create a welcoming environment from students of different disciplines to come together and engage with art as a reality rather than just a pastime.
"Bruin minds joined together in jump-starting a new student arts movement.
Formed in April, the Art Students Collective hopes to include all undergraduate students who are passionate about art. Co-founder Marie Tagudena (left), a third-year art student, works on a project with new member and third-year art student Mayra Jimenez (left center), along with the two other co-founders, third-year art student Brenda Barrios (right center) and first-year art student Armando Perez (right). (Courtesy of Marie Tagudena) In April, several UCLA art students created the Art Students Collective, an undergraduate club that organizes open discussions for students who are serious about visual arts. Armando Perez, one of the founders of the Art Students Collective and a first-year art student, said the collective seeks to create a community that engages with art as a reality rather than just a pastime.
“(We) wanted a place to connect with other artists to talk about art, to learn about different ideas, different approaches, and just have a variety of conversations that would inspire different approaches to art and build a community,” Perez said. “The Art Students Collective came together in the sense that we wanted to build a community where students from all disciplines could talk about art.”
Specifically, Perez said the founders wanted to fill in the lack of support for the artistic community at UCLA by taking artists away from the overwhelming stress of social distancing and Zoom classes to engage with art on a social level. This engagement recreates the excitement that the founders had for art when they came to UCLA, he said. Since there was a lack of an engaging artistic community, Perez said the founders wanted to create a collective to foster this safe community for art students.
The club aims to create an inviting space for people to come together and grow as artists, said co-founder of the club Marie Tagudena. Through the exposure to different experiences, techniques and approaches to art, the third-year art student said this space gives artists the motivation and freedom to experiment with different forms of expression."— Kevin Lin, May 25, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
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