Art by Chris Chen
In an age in which STEM fields are lauded as the end all be all of education, it’s wonderful that a liberal arts university such as Pepperdine still holds onto the importance of art in the education system through both the curriculum, the Center for the Arts and other institutions. As Pepperdine students, it’s important that we work to encourage and support the art around us, because it’s not only entertaining, it’s beneficial to our academic process and to our minds.
There have been countless studies on the importance of fine arts education, primarily with younger students. “10 Salient Studies on the Arts in Education” from the Online Colleges discusses 10 of these studies. They include studies on how integrating fine arts with other subjects can help raise achievement levels, and how an arts education can help rewire the brain in positive ways.
For college students, studying and appreciating the fine arts is just as important. “A lot of what artists do is tell stories. They help us make sense of our world, and they broaden our experience and understanding,” Barbara Pey wrote in “The Value and Importance of the Arts and the Humanities in Education and Life” in the Huffington Post, published in September 2014. Through the different fine art showcases, the Pepperdine community has many opportunities to witness and be moved by art.
The fine arts at Pepperdine are powerful motivators for the community to come together, create beautiful memories and begin powerful conversations about human nature. There are many different ways to support the fine arts here at Pepperdine.
Case in point: the seventh annual Reelstories this past weekend. The event brought out some of the best in Pepperdine student film production, and wowed the viewers who were lucky enough to watch.
Another one of these events, Dance In Flight, shows off the best Pepperdine has to offer in dance performance. With auditions in September and practices every week and weekend throughout the year until the performance in February, to say these dancers are dedicated is an understatement, and it shows.
More than 20 years after the program first began, DIF dancers perform to sold-out audiences and boldly showcase the talent of Pepperdine students. This year’s DIF Director Melinda Marciano said this year’s theme is “what it means to be human.” No doubt, the performance will be a sight to see.
Songfest, which is March 15 – 19 this year, is the epitome of community involvement. It brings together fraternities and sororities and anyone else who wants to join a singing dance-off competition. The students who join spend weeks learning to dance and sing, and through all of this, students make lasting friendships.
The next big event is the Senior Art Exhibition from April 14 – 30, when artists of various media showcase their pieces at the Weisman Museum. This art will be the best on campus, maybe even better than Mr. Andy Warhol’s art (though it’s hard to top his Campbell’s soup cans). These pieces push the limits of art and are the capstones for senior Art majors. The art shown here will be provocative and beautiful, as they will be the best from the students so far.
Pepperdine offers a lot of other unique opportunities for the students to show how they excel outside of the classroom. Events like New Music or Music at Three let student composers play music in the concert hall for anyone to listen. Expressionists Magazine, the Pepperdine literary mag, publishes some of the best student poetry, fiction and photography. Other events can be found on the Pepperdine website.
Through conversation and experiences, we grow and help each other excel in and out of the classroom. In a sense, we helped shape those art installations, dances and films. The arts produced at Pepperdine aren’t for the artists to create; they’re for the community’s consciousness to be expanded.
More than that however, the fact art at Pepperdine is expressed in such a myriad of ways truly brings the campus together. Pablo Picasso once said, “Art washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life,” so it’s only right that we do our best to shake off some of the dust on our lives and go out to see the art our fellow students have poured their hearts and souls into.
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