Unleashing Artistic Expression at AUP
In honor of AUP’s 60th anniversary, AUP held a Spring Arts Festival to showcase performing arts on campus. Organized and produced by the VIVRE Performing Arts club, the festival presented student-led and/or student-created theater, dance, film, and fine art.
Image Credit: Cire Taal
VIVRE, founded in the fall of 2021, is the first organization at AUP to cover the different disciplines of the performing arts. “VIVRE was founded to fill the lack of performing arts on campus,” said organization chair Hera Soysal. “Performing arts are essential as a part of our liberal arts curriculum, but also for students to have an outlet.”
VIVRE is acutely aware of the importance of showcasing the performing arts to students and the AUP community at large. The Arts Festival was meant to hopefully “continue to grow and unite the community through the arts, but also push for an increased role for the arts in the curriculum,” said Soysal.
As a commemoration of the university’s 60th anniversary, the festival was also an important opportunity to show trustees and donors the importance of having dedicated facilities and spaces to continue the arts at AUP. Eventually, VIVRE hopes to create a community-wide space for the arts similar to organizations like AUP Student Media.
Image credit: Rebecca Deuchler
The Spring Arts Festival is meant to reflect the opinions and feelings of students, especially in the context of the pandemic and the last two years of a 'new normal'. Events included the Headspace Music Concert consisting of a mix of covers and original songs, a Musical Theatre Review, plays like the fast-paced and comedic Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged, and various film screenings.
For VIVRE, the Arts Festival was at its core a way for empower students and their voices. “There is nothing that gives more confidence to students than the performing arts, while building a safe community to share their thoughts, visions and ideas of the world around them," said Soysal.
