VUWSA puts arts and culture on Victoria’s social canvas

VUWSA puts arts and culture on Victoria’s social canvas

Yesterday, Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA) announced its first-ever ArtsWeek.

With a week-long line-up of more than a dozen – mostly free – events, including a film scoring workshop, hip hop dance class, stand-up comedy workshop, theatre, art tour, and visual arts, there’s something for almost everyone.

‘We’re excited about ArtsWeek. It’s a great week to support and celebrate student arts and culture, and to create awareness around the successes of our musicians, writers, artists and performers,’ says Jonathan Gee, VUWSA’s President.

‘ArtsWeek not only highlights the incredible talent and cultural diversity in our communities, but it provides opportunities for students to experiment, learn and participate in the arts.’

With the university’s own New Zealand School of Music, Recreation Centre, Victoria clubs; Adam Art Gallery and local businesses such as, Bats Theatre, VKs Comedy & Blues Bar involved, participants can get a feel for the diverse selection of artistic and cultural events the university and city have to offer.

‘Victoria University is home to so much of our city’s arts, culture and music – a lot of it is at the core of student life. It was an obvious decision to dedicate a week to celebrating it all,’ says Nathaniel Manning, VUWSA’s Engagement Vice President.

But there’s more to it for VUWSA than just creating a week-long line-up of artistic and cultural events – as much fun as it is. Creating ArtsWeek is part of their larger strategy of putting culture on the university’s diverse social canvas.

‘We’ve been focusing on how we can give more recognition across the university to arts and culture. That’s why we organised ArtsWeek, in addition to organising a new awards ceremony, the Gold and Supreme Club Awards, that acknowledges cultural successes too,’ says Manning.

For years Victoria University has celebrated top sporting successes from the university’s athletes through the Blues Awards. However, until this year, Victoria was the only university left in the country that did not acknowledge cultural successes.

‘The Gold and Supreme Club Awards will align Victoria University with the other countries around the country. It will recognise the cultural successes that students at the university participate in,’ advises Manning.

‘Along with recognising cultural successes through the Gold Awards, we’ll also be recognising some of the amazing clubs we have on campus through the Supreme Club Awards; with nearly 150 clubs on campus they are core to the student experience.’

VUWSA will be accepting nominations through their website for the Gold and Supreme Club Awards from Monday 22 August.

For more information about the Gold and Supreme Club Awards, emailcommunications@vuwsa.org.nz

To see the entire ArtsWeek event line up, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1192018304171308/

ENDS

© Scoop Media