On a sunny September day —the first Thursday of the month — crowds of students gathered to partake in the First Thursday Festival to celebrate the arts and humanities on campus. The air was filled with music blaring from speakers and karaoke performers joined the stage. The street was filled with sidewalk chalk and booths with smiling volunteers, who cheerfully invited students to learn more about their organizations.
First Thursdays, presented by IU’s Arts and Humanities Council, showcases student artists, campus organizations, arts and humanities departments and greater Bloomington programs and resources. The first festival of the year took place Sept. 6.
IU junior Grace Belt said she enjoyed the festival for showcasing what IU has to offer.
“I'm really enjoying getting to see what's happening on campus and what I can join and what exists here for students,” Belt said. “My favorite has been the fashion booth because they're giving out free T-shirts that we get to upcycle, and I think that is just so neat and cool.”
IU senior Cam Wareham said First Thursday helps build a sense of community on campus.
“There's so many different both academic and nonacademic organizations represented here and also just organizations from the wider community,” Wareham said. “It's a great way to bring people from all over Bloomington and IU together.”
The festival provides a fun way to kick off the school year with activities, student art vendors and opportunities for students to interact with campus services and organizations. The Black Film Center and Archive had a table at the festival, which was run by the center’s staff and had a monitor playing clips from Black films. The volunteers handed out merchandise like buttons and pens with the festival’s logo. Ja Quita Joy Roberts, the center’s finance and office administrator, told attendees about the center and what is has to offer.
“Many of our collection items can't be found anywhere else in the world. So to really, you know, encourage people to learn about that and be in at events like this, to introduce them to the BFCA, it's unmatched,” Roberts said. “We come to them, and we want people to come to us, but we’ll come to you.”
The Department for Slavic Languages also had a booth at the festival to bring visibility to the five Slavic languages offered at IU, as well as their culture courses.
Craig Cravens teaches Czech in the Slavic languages department and shared that he hopes being at First Thursdays will bring more visibility to the department and build community.
“Well, we just like to be visible and someone like you comes along and sees it, even if you're not interested,” Cravens said. “Maybe you'll tell someone, ‘Oh, wait. Did you know they teach Polish here? I didn't know that.’ So, we just try to keep visible.”
Svitlana Melnyk, a Ukrainian lecturer in the Slavic languages department echoed Cravens’ point.
“Through this and through our cultural events we hope to build a larger community,” Melnyk said.
The festival also provides a space for student artists to sell their work and be seen by the local community. Evelynn Gray, a letterpress printing BFA, had prints of her work available to sell at Thursday’s festival. She said she decided to sell her work at the festival after other BFA students chose to participate.
“I love seeing people walk by and say, ‘that's really cool!’” Gray said. “It's a really good place to come and sell because people from school and people from the community come in.”
Students attending the festival also heared from cultural centers that have a presence on campus. Katelyn Wo, a student assistant at the Asian Culture Center, wants to bring in more people to the culture center’s community events.
“I’ve definitely seen people who haven’t gone to the ACC this year, maybe have been wanting to but just didn't know how to get involved.” Wo said. “So, this is a really good way for us to get them excited about our events and just connect with people and make them come.”
Wo has been working for the center for four years and described some of the culture center’s upcoming events, such as Mahjong Mondays, Asian American and Pacific Islander bookclub, and cooking demonstrations.
“We'll have various things throughout the year, so yeah, I'm really excited,” Wo said.
First Thursdays will return at 4 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Fine Arts Plaza.
