UH Arts Open House paints campus red

Art from all disciplines came together Thursday afternoon as UH hosted its fourth annual Arts Open House in the Fine Arts Quadrangle.

“(The Open House) is held to bring some sort of exposure to the arts on campus and make sure that everyone is collaborating in a positive, energetic way — just spend a day having fun and hopefully get students who are not involved, necessarily in the arts, to come out and see what we have to offer,” said Jana Jackson, director for marketing and communications for UH Arts.

The fair offered free food catered by Freebirds World Burrito, screen-printed T-shirts, literary readings and improvisation skits by student theater groups Glaundor and Phortasics. The Moores School of Music groups Jazz Sextet and Men of Moores provided the evening’s soundtrack.

“What we try to do is give everyone a snippet of what the arts are like at the University and also give all the departments a chance to showcase what’s coming up for them — kind of give out their season previews, talk about the upcoming programming and make sure people know about it,” said Nicole Romano, communications director of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

“Our biggest challenge is getting student involvement, so we want to make sure that students on the campus — not just in the arts program, but from all over — can participate and be part of all the programming that’s happening and all these great departments.”

There were booths that promoted art organizations and services at the University like the architecture program, art and music libraries, Moores Opera House and the undergraduate literary journal “Glass Mountain.”

Students participated in a craft station decorating masks and poets from the Inprint reading series, an independent literary arts non-profit organization in association with the UH Creative Writing Program and Brazos Bookstore, wrote poetry based on prompts given by students.

“It really was informative, and I feel like I know about (the arts programs) more now,” said chemistry sophomore Victoria Malkowski.

The Anthem — a Houston rock band comprised largely of UH alumni — closed the night.

“This is probably our 10th time to play at the University of Houston, and we absolutely love playing here — especially because I graduated here — so I bleed red for the Cougars,” said Micaiah Walker, The Anthem’s vocalist.

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