Experiencing the arts

Mercyhurst’s annual Literary Festival will be coming to a close on Thursday with Arts on the Hill and the unveiling of this year’s Lumen.

Arts on the Hill is an new Mercyhurst celebration that will give all students a chance to experience “the Arts from A to Z.” The event take place in Garvey Park from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. In case of rainy weather, it will be moved to the Student Union Great Room.

Kerry Schroeder, senior Dance major, and Jodi Staniunas-Hopper, director of the Graphic Design Program, are in charge of the event planning this year.

“After Arts on the Hill was such a success last year, we wanted to bring it back this year even better,” Schroeder said.

The event last year had such a large turnout with the students and faculty.

“Our purpose is to increase student awareness and appreciation for the arts. To accomplish that in a creative, festive environment makes the experience one you won’t want to miss,” said Staniunas-Hopper.

The main idea behind the event is to promote the arts all around campus and to highlight the art programs that Mercyhurst offers.

“We have so many amazing arts programs here at Mercyhurst, and it is so rewarding to share them with the entire student body,” Schroeder said.

The festivities at the event will include decorating the sidewalk with chalk art, coloring books, decorating a pointe shoe, cut-out poetry, two open mic sessions and much more. Students and faculty can watch the chamber orchestra practice in the Performing Arts Center from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and attend the Black and White Salon in the dance space from 6:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m.

“We hope that this event will continue to raise awareness for the arts, and increase the attendance to arts events on campus.” Schroeder said.

The unveiling of the student creative magazine Lumen and student awards is also slated to take place that evening to wrap up an art-filled day.

Lumen is Mercyhurst’s student-created literary and fine arts magazine. It began as a journal for creative writing years ago, and has since evolved into much more. Lumen includes not only creative writing, but is now in an interactive multimedia format that combines visual art, music, dance, poetry and fiction.

Produced by students from all around campus, the literary work constantly receives awards for its imposing content and unparalleled design. This year, the editors-in-chief of Lumen are senior English majors Naomi Greenstein and Megan Pacileo. The designers this year include senior Graphic Design students Jeff Annuziata, Kelsey Mader and Sabiha Mahmud.

Lastly, to be featured on this evening will be the presentation of the P. Barry McAndrew Writing Awards for this year. These awards are for the three best examples of student creative writing and the best critical essay on literature. The three awards will honor P. Barry McAndrew, a retired Mercyhurst English Department professor.

McAndrew was an extremely dedicated Mercyhurst staff member who taught here for over 40 years. The awards are cash prizes that have been donated by the McAndrew family.

Following the awards, all Mercyhurst students are invited and encouraged to share any of their works during an open mic session.