The Visual Arts Society (VAS) hosted its bi-annual Art Night this past Thursday, April 14, at Clark Hall. Fort building, mural painting and T-shirt printing were among the popular events for students.

Each semester, the VAS puts together Art Night in an attempt to raise awareness and interest in the visual arts department. The event acts as a social gathering for the art majors to meet-and-greet with each other, but is not exclusive to art students. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

“I would really like for anyone and everyone to come,” said Leicester Mitchell, senior graphic design and photography major and president of the VAS. “It’s all about raising interest. We want people to know that we’re here and that this is something interesting they can get involved with. We do this every semester, and I would love it, absolutely love it, if more and more people came out.”

After free pizza, chips and drinks were served, a fort building competition, which was the first event of Art Night, was set up in the Clark Hall courtyard. Students were split into two teams, team Slumville, captained by new media and animation junior Jonathan Kendall and team Fort The Win, led by drawing and painting junior Paul Todd. The teams lined up behind a starting line and had to race to a pile of cardboard boxes to snag material for their respective forts. The forts were judged on structural integrity, design and innovation. Teams had approximately 30 minutes to complete their forts before a team of judges declared Slumville the winning team.

The next big event of the night was the painting of a mural in the painting lab on the second floor of Clark Hall. A number of students collaborated in the process. As the night dwindled down, graphic design junior Amanda Zell and new media and animation junior Laura Moore led a group of students in filming a short stop-motion film.

Throughout the night, silkscreen printed T-shirts were on sale in the printmaking lab upstairs in Clark Hall. Students could pick an available design printed on clothing they provided for $3 or purchase a T-shirt for $5.

“I think it was pretty successful,” said Mitchell, speaking on the night. “We had a few issues getting it together this year, but we do it every semester so we couldn’t back out.”

Be on the lookout for posters and flyers around campus next semester to find out when the next Art Night will be. More information about the VAS can be found by searching for VAS – Visual Arts Society on Facebook or by attending their meetings on Mondays at 5 p.m. in the photography lab located in the Clark Hall Annex, Room 102.