Students sculpt peanut butter in Art Olympics

The athletic action in Turin, Italy, ended last week, but the IU School of Fine Arts held its own version of the Olympics Saturday.\nStudents participated in the Art Olympics, a test for the artistic athletes of IU at the Lodge, on Sixth and Walnut streets. With a motto of "only the gutsiest artists will survive," the Art Olympics brought together many students and faculty of the School of Fine Arts to compete against each other in challenging yet playful events. The evening began with a condensed opening ceremony complete with American flags and a fake Olympic torch. \nThe competitors were divided into red and blue teams, each comprised of five students and faculty members from the School of Fine Arts. They competed in five different events consisting of sculptures made with candy and peanut butter, Pictionary with challenging phrases such as "barbershop quartet" and "Chuck E. Cheese's ball-pit," a color-mixing contest to perfectly match fruit examples, art trivia in which silly string replaced buzzers and a pot-throwing competition that included a blindfolded round. \nThe competitors of the pot-throwing event were shown an example of a vase and then were forced to replicate it blindly. The experienced sculptors were able to create near-replicas within 10 minutes.\nAnnouncers playfully recounted the events with sarcastic comments, lightheartedly mocking sports announcers by pointing out competitors' form and skill.\nMultiple representatives of the Fine Arts Student Association pitched in for an evening of laughter and good spirits. The audience was encouraged to support its team of choice by sporting red or blue bands and blowing the whistles that were provided for them. The onlookers were also invited to applaud their choice for the winner when the judges were having difficulty reaching agreements. The teams were full of energy and chants of "r-e-d" or "go blue" were heard all throughout the events.\nStudent Justin Pollard of the blue team, and winner of the pot-throwing competition, joked about his opponent. "(He better) put up or shut up," he said before their event began. \nLike the other students participating, Pollard said he gladly accepted his invitation to the Art Olympics, eager to support the event and have a good time. \nThe blue team won the most events, but members of both teams received multiple awards of gold and silver, to the tune of Queen's "We Are the Champions" blasting over the speakers.\nThis is the first year that the Art Olympics has made an appearance in ArtsWeek, a 22-year tradition that takes places in every form of art across Bloomington. Judge Dawn Whetzel said she found the Art Olympics a good way of showing the diversity within the fine arts program.\n"It allows people to see an enthusiastic approach to art," she said.