CultureFest will enable students to experience the cultural diversity that makes IU an internationally distinct university. Open to students will be eight cultural areas to explore, not to forget the free food and activities available, such as henna tattoos and salsa dancing.
It will take over the vicinity of Showalter Fountain Thursday. Both IU Auditorium and IU Art Museum will hold First Year Experience festivities.
Brian Morin, FYE’s assistant director, said CultureFest’s main duty is to reach out to first-year students.
“The whole week is to set forth a challenge to them,” he said. It’s to make them learn the relationship between sharing their story and listening to the stories of others, he said.
At its peak, the outdoor event will approach close to 5,000 students.
However, once the event trickles down, people don’t have far to go to continue their ?activities.
IU Art Museum will sponsor an after-party from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Adelheid Gealt, director of IU Art Museum, said the event will act as a way for students to wind down.
“I think it’s just a chance for everybody to celebrate what they’ve already ?experienced,” she said.
In general, she estimated several hundred people attend. “It’s open to all the students,” Gealt said.
Much like CultureFest, which takes months to plan, Gealt said the event planning takes all summer.
“We’ve been doing this for a number of years,” she said.
Students can anticipate free art, music and food. Art from around the world will be exhibited and the electronic group PRXZM will provide music for the night.
The goal of the event is to get people familiar with IU Art Museum, especially freshman Gealt said.
According to its website, the IU Art Museum’s collections include more than 40,000 objects covering nearly every art-producing culture throughout history.
These objects range from ancient gold jewelry and African masks to paintings by Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso.
The after-party is the latest of special events hosted by IU Art Museum, the previous one being “The Language of Color” hosted in early August.
Though the after party is notably smaller than the main event, it offers the same end goal of all FYE events.
The goal is to get students acclimated and comfortable with the traditions and culture of Welcome Week, Morin said.
“Welcome Week is all part of orientation,” he said.
