Event organizers and artists talk about Inkfest, which will take place on Feb.13 and Feb. 14, and how it excites community within Columbia.

Transcript:

0:06: Welcome back to Chronversations, 

0:08: I’m your host, Levi Libson. 

0:11: One amazing aspect of college is not just the freedom to choose your trajectory and shoot for it, but especially having the chance to fully exercise our skills in an environment that promotes it. 

0:20: For musicians, that might be releasing your first song to the world — 

0:24: for filmmakers, it might be getting on set and having your input heard. 

0:28: Any form of demonstration routinely proves itself to be an incredible source of motivation and affirmation that what you’re doing counts. 

0:35: This February 13th, the Illustration Student Group is hosting its annual Ink Fest, an event for artists to promote and sell their work to a specific theme. 

0:43: This year, I spoke with President of ISG Eddie Stevenson, as well as head of volunteers, Maggie Greenleaf, about what it takes to set up an event like this and why you should really go. 

0:54: Okay, so my name is Maggie Greenleaf. 

0:56: I am the student outreach team at ISG, or Illustration Student Group. 

1:00: I’m Eddie Stevenson and I am the current president of the Illustration Student Group. 

1:04: What kind of impact do you hope this event has on people attending? 

1:07: I’m gonna be quite honest with you, I feel like it’s definitely going to have a very positive impact. This is going to be a really big event where students and alumni are going to be able to network, get to know other artists, and along with that, you’re able to make so much money off of it, which I think is just very unique and different in comparison to a lot of other events. 

1:30: The most exciting thing I would definitely say is ensuring that artists are able to come back, circle back and learn how to improve next year 

1:39: and beyond that. I think it’s just really special to be able to kind of let people dip their toes in before going off into the deep end. 

1:47: We really just want people to walk away from this event, both being involved and as attendees, and be like, “Wow, there’s so much art in this world. 

1:55: Art is so cool.” And them seeing that there are so many opportunities on campus for you to get really safe

2:04: experience. 

2:05: This isn’t “if you don’t sell a lot of stuff, you won’t even break even with your table,” 

2:10: the tables are $5 to $10 each. 

2:13: So, if this is something that truly interests you, what would everyone involved in Ink Fest say? 

2:18: I don’t hesitate. 

2:19: I feel like the worst thing that you can do is hesitate and not do it, because if you don’t try, you’re never going to know if you really like it or not. 

2:27: So I think it’s very important to say, “Hey, I’m unsure about this, 

2:31: I want to sign up just to get more information on it.” And then from there, just move forward. Quite frankly, all of the e-board members genuinely want to see people succeed as well, so it’s honestly a really, really good feeling to see all of these people so excited. 

2:46: As well as speaking to Eddie and Maggie, I also individually interviewed two participating artists, Amaya Gusman and Laisha Adame, to get the insider gist on how these events function. 

2:56: So my name is Laisha Adame, my major is illustration, 

3:01: I’m a junior, my pronouns are she/her. 

3:03: I’m just curious, what’s the process oof getting into Ink Fest like? 

3:08: So the process was them announcing it and you immediately apply. 

3:13: You give them your name, your pronouns, everything — your major. Then, you give them either a portfolio or your social media handle. 

3:21: I don’t have a portfolio, so I gave them my social media handle and made sure all the pretty art that I have was up front. 

3:28: They want to make sure they know what you’re selling, what you’re planning to sell, if this is your first time selling.

3:34: It really isn’t just what you have in your portfolio or social media. 

3:37: They look if you have finished, completed illustrations and not just simple sketches. 

3:43: I’m Amaya, Amaya Gusman —

3:46: a lot of my friends call me Goose. 

3:48: I am a senior illustration major and marketing minor, and my pronouns are she/her. 

3:53: What does participating in Inkfest mean to you? 

3:56: It means a lot. 

3:57: I’ve participated in Inkfest for the past 3 years. 

4:01: It’s been really fun getting to talk to everyone that comes by my table, and of course it’s a great feeling to have someone love your work enough to buy it from you — 

4:10: it’s a really fun feeling. This is my first year doing a full table, so I’ll be by myself for most of it, but I shared a table for the past two years with friends. It was really nice to sit there for hours just talking to them. It’s a really fun, engaging

4:26: experience. 

4:27: This year, over 100 artists are participating in Ink Fest with the theme being Fruitiger Aero.  4:32: With it being such a massive event, and to leave this episode on a final note, I wanted to ask everyone what Ink Fest says about where Columbia’s creative culture is right now.

4:42: I’d say that it’s so student-motivated. All the time, Christopher Eliopoulos, our advisor, is telling us how there’s so many faculty coming to him and saying, “How do you get students to do Ink Fest?”

4:55: And he’s like, “They just do it.” 

4:57: Right now in the artist world, it’s very difficult to get jobs. So getting this big, old event where people can make a bit of cash,

5:04: get some networking in and have a community, 

5:06: I think is really fun and I’m very excited for it. 

5:09: Ink Fest stands for illustration and crafts, 

5:12: so anyone that can create anything can come together and do something. 

5:16: I feel like that’s very much what Columbia is — coming together and celebrating. 

5:25: Make sure to stay up to date with campus and metro news at columbiachronicle.com. 

5:30: I’m Levi Libson. 

5:31: Thanks for listening. 

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