Newsletter
Samantha Niemann
Lancaster
Interdisciplinary Studies
Leadership Track
Starting Art Appreciation
For my EDGE project I started an Art Appreciation club at Southern Utah University. The club is designed so that all types of art majors can join. During club meetings we are going to give constructive criticism to our peers about various projects they are working on. During meetings we will also be learning a little bit about the top artists in mediums that are represented within the club members. The club is meant to instruct and help all art majors at SUU.
Things do not always go as planned, so I had to do some improvising. The approval of Art Appreciation was taking a very long time to go through, so I had to change my project to the process of creating a club at Southern Utah University. Creating a club takes some work, you have to have at least 10 members, and adviser and you have to have a written constitution. Once you have all those things, you are able to send in an application to SUUSA. SUUSA then takes all your information and decides whether or not the club will be approved.
The inspiration for this club came from my love of the arts. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with all types of art such as: painting, photography, dance, sculpting and many others. I have also always had the desire to lead. I had never been the leader of a group though, so I was unsure how to do so successfully. Because of my two main desires, I decided to create a club that could satisfy both my love for the arts and my dream to lead.
During the creation of this club I had some difficulties. My very first problem I encountered was writing the constitution for the club. I could not find a template on what it was supposed to look like, or say. I solved this problem by looking at a well known club on campus and using their constitution as a template for my constitution. I also had a short drawback, in which time I was having a hard time finding an adviser for the club. After asking around I emailed a professor telling him about my club, and eventually asking for him to be our adviser, which he agreed to do.
My biggest challenge during the creation of Art Appreciation was getting the approval of the club. It seemed to be taking quite awhile for the approval to come through, so I contacted every person I could think of, several times. I would email SUUSA almost every week asking for a status update and I would receive a non-descriptive answer back. Two months after I submitted my application I still had not gotten approval. I went to visit the director of Student involvement and leadership in person, which got them moving on the approval of the club.
My project was beneficial to Southern Utah University and it's art students. It benefits SUU because they are able to add Art Appreciation to its long list of clubs and organizations on campus. It is beneficial to the art students at SUU for a few reasons. The main reason is that the art students will be getting help on projects they are working on, as well as having an organization to add to their resumes. Art Appreciation will be beneficial to anyone who joins it.
The creation of Art Appreciation has benefitted me as well. This club has helped me overcome my fear of public speaking by forcing me to contact those in charge via email and in person. It has also helped me learn more about leading a group of people productively. It helped me lead by giving me the chance to push those in charge to move forward and get things done. Although the project changed, I still benefitted from the outcome.
