The third annual Druid City Arts Festival, a celebration of local music, art and storytelling in downtown Tuscaloosa, will take place on March 24. This year, a Kickoff Week of free on-campus arts awareness events will precede the festival from March 19 to 22.
Creative Campus worked in conjunction with the Student Government Association in order to put on the events leading up to DCAF.
Peyton Falkenburg, SGA director of programming and advancement, said he is glad for the arts to gain more visual representation on campus.
“It’s great to have something focused on the arts,” said Falkenburg. “That’s [an area] that’s sometimes overlooked.”
The schedule of free arts awareness events will begin on Monday from 12 to 2 p.m. with a creative writing and spoken word reading at the Ferguson Promenade, for which Creative Campus is now accepting and reviewing submissions on its website.
Tuesday, Alpha Psi Omega, a theatre honor society, will put on a guerrilla-style performance from 7 to 10 p.m. at Manderson Landing Park.
Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., studio art majors will participate in a live art creation in the cherry tree grove at the corner of University and Stadium Drive next to Bruno Library. While the artists are working, students will have the chance to watch them create and listen to live poetry reading.
Ashton Huggins, a sophomore majoring in studio art, said the live art creation is a great opportunity for artists to share their work and perspectives on art.
“I think art is all about interpretation, and each person has a different interpretation of it,” Huggins said.
The on-campus portion of the arts celebration will culminate in a poetry march Thursday at 7 p.m. Student poets will recite original poetry as they lead the march, which will begin at KD Park on Hackberry Lane and will end at Maxwell Hall, where there will be a poetry creation following the march.
Creative Campus will also present a Music Crawl on Friday, March 23, which will be the official after-party of the Tuscaloosa Get Up benefit hosted by wellthatscool.com. Music Crawl will showcase local bands and will take place at Tuscaloosa venues The Jupiter, Bo’s, Coppertop and Green Bar. Bands will begin performing at 10:30 p.m.
Kirkland Back, SGA senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, organized the week of events with the hope that it will raise awareness for art and artists at UA.
“I felt like there was so much art that never exited the building it was created in,” she said. “I felt that if I gave people’s art the opportunity to be larger than their class [assignment], they would take advantage of it.”
Junior American studies major Leslie Grant said the incorporation of on-campus events would likely increase attendance and participation at Druid City Arts Festival.
“I think it’s definitely a good way to try to get more students involved if you do stuff on campus. I think they’ll definitely see an increase in people,” she said.
Ben Pockstaller, a sophomore majoring in journalism, attended the arts festival last year and said that Kickoff Week will be a good preview for this year’s DCAF.
“I think it will be a great way for everyone to see what the festival is going to be like this year and that it will be a unique and fun experience for everyone who attends,” he said.
Druid City Arts Festival will take place on Saturday, March 24 in Government Plaza in downtown Tuscaloosa from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. This event is open to all ages and is free to the public. More information about Kickoff Week events is available at uacreativecampus.org.
