The Arties, John Brown University’s annual red-carpet awards show organized by the Visual Arts Foundry, will be held tomorrow.
The Arties is a student-led Oscars-style awards show intended to honor student excellence in the visual arts, music and theatre and communication departments. Prizes are awarded to nominees in each department, as well as students who submitted their work to the student works show.
Awards are given to students “who are considered the best of the best in terms of the work they produce, and who demonstrate JBU’s mission of head, heart and hand by glorifying God through their art,” Emma Pell, leader of the Student Filmmaker Society, said.
This year’s theme is 1960s mod. “We’re kind of running with the idea of the ’60s fashion and the culture that they had,” Ashlyn Bockstanz, junior graphic design major, said.
Members of Foundry have been preparing for the Arties since October. “It’s been really cool. I have a great team of photographers that I work with. We had a vision of taking photos of JBU students and recreating posters which we styled and recreated based off of the styles of the ’60s,” Bockstanz said.
Pell, who helped with the Arties the past two years, said that because the Arties are being held earlier this year, getting everything ready has been hectic.
“Everyone on the Visual Art Foundry has been working really hard on everything from designing posters, to deciding the theme, figuring out food, getting decorations, making the Artie’s statues, getting the venue ready, etc. It takes a lot of work, and I’m very thankful to be part of such a great, hardworking team,” she said.
Grace Nast, senior photography major, has also been preparing for the Arties and has been nominated for Photographer of the Year. “The art department doesn’t have a lot of formal events like this. Everyone always looks forward to it. It’s a major goal to be nominated for the arties,” she said.
“Winners will be determined by a panel of non-JBU faculty judges [who] are usually professionals in a certain discipline, i.e. cinema, theatre, etc.,” Pell said.
The entire campus is invited to attend the event, which will be held in the Berry Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m.
“Honestly there’s a really good selection of nominees this year. I would encourage students who are not artists to get involved,” Nast said.