Thursday evening, they’ll also play host to a pair of parties.
At least, that’s how Brian Morin, assistant director with the Office of First Year Experience Programs, and Laura Scheper, manager of special programs and events at the IU Art Museum, describe CultureFest and its after-party.
CultureFest, now in its 16th year, begins at 4:30 p.m. in the IU Auditorium with a performance from Native American drum group Strong Heart Singers and an appearance from diversity speaker Kevin Wanzer. It will then move to the Fine Arts Plaza at 5:30 p.m., Morin said.
Included in the outdoor part of the festival will be a variety of IU’s culture and support centers that will offer food and games in addition to information about their respected cultures. There will also be henna tattooing, balloon animals and caricature artists, Morin said.
Morin said CultureFest aims to give organizations opportunities to introduce students — especially first-year students — to different, unfamiliar ideas and cultures within the context of IU.
“They’re exposing students to something new in a safe, fun way,” he said. “It’s really their first exposure to all the opportunities here at IU.”
While CultureFest is geared toward first-year students who make up the majority of attendees, the event isn’t exclusive to first-year students, he said.
“We know students come back year after year because they love it so much,” he said.
CultureFest is so popular, they often have to turn students away at the Auditorium doors when the event fills up, Morin said.
To allow for greater attendance, they’ve instituted an “overflow room” for the first time, Morin said. The Auditorium portion of the event will be broadcast to Woodburn 100, which will hold an extra 400 to 500 attendees.
Morin said he’s also excited by another relatively recent addition to the festivities. In 2012, the festival began giving out a series of “Stand For” T-shirts with statements including “I stand for diversity.”
Taking the shirts into a fourth year marks a satisfying milestone for Morin.
“Every class of students on campus is going to have these shirts,” he said.
Like CultureFest, the CultureFest After-Party will begin with a drum performance when steel drum trio, Pan Basso performs on the lawn at 7 p.m. outside the Art Museum.
Inside the Art Museum, disc jockey Kyle Long will play music from around the world. The museum will also offer free desserts from multiple cultures, as well as a “Passport to the Galleries” activity, which will allow students to visit the museum’s galleries en route to entering to win tickets for concerts at the IU Auditorium.
Scheper, who began her job at the museum in March, said she’s excited to see IU’s First Year Experience events in action and to present students with a social event.
“This is a wonderful way to bring in worlds of food, worlds of music, worlds of art,” she said.
Scheper said the museum will also present other first-year-friendly events later in the fall — the CultureFest After-Party is just the first step of the experience.
But the after-party will be “a bit more high-energy” than other planned events, including a coffee house series, she said.
“I expect a lot of people and a lot of dancing,” she said.
Like Scheper, Morin said he aims to bring students together socially in a way that introduces new cultures and experiences. For him, that goal extends far past the three hours of CultureFest.
“For me, the ultimate goal is that students are given a charge for how to interact with each other on campus,” he said. “Showing that it’s OK to get out of that comfort zone and share stories and ask other people to tell their stories.”
