The final event of the semester, “Winterfest,” welcomed students, families and community members alike.
The crafting projects included CD scratch art, felt coffee sleeves, pop-up cards and many other activities suited for all skill levels.
Kristine Fowler, associate athletic director at IU, brought her 6-year-old daughter, Kennedy, to work on some gifts for loved ones.
Kennedy said she likes doing crafts and one of her favorite kinds to do at home is sewing. According to Kristine, the two had not previously attended events at the museum.
“This is our first time, and we just said we’re going to have to come back,” Kristine said. “My husband is really good about Twitter and following events. He follows all of the campus stuff. He’s an at-home parent and I work on campus, so he tries to find out about all the fun stuff going on.”
Kristine read the directions of how to assemble the coffee sleeve and helped Kennedy put together the piece and decorate with snowflakes and some reds and greens.
Community members Levi McAnulty and Jasmine Kelley came to the event out of curiosity after seeing the description online, McAnulty said.
McAnulty said they had no prior experience with the Mathers Museum, but it seemed to have a different vibe than other similar spaces.
“I have heard of this place, never been here,” McAnulty said. “I like it — it’s not the typical art museum, I would say. There’s a lot more different cultural influences than I would see in a typical art museum.”
The two began by setting up the Borax crystals in mason jars, which could take a few hours to fully form.
They then moved on to the pop-up card station. They agreed that, though they enjoy crafting, they usually cannot find the time to do much creative work daily because of their jobs.
“It takes up a good portion of the day,” Kelley said. “Getting up for work, going to work, coming back from work and going to sleep.”
Though these activities have many benefits, McAnulty said the most important is the stress release.
IU freshmen Meghan Pettit and Emily Straka came to the event as part of a class through the Kelley Living Learning Center. Their assignment was to find a community event and attend to see the variety of possible events the University offers.
Pettit said she also enjoys being creative, but was much more inclined to pursue these activities when she was younger.
“I still like it, I’m not as good as I was when I was little,” Pettit said. “I haven’t had time to craft in college.”
University life takes up a lot of time, Straka said.
“I don’t have time to do anything,” Straka said. “Somehow, I get Netflix into that. That’s important.”
Straka said this brought back memories of her childhood holiday wish lists.
“I’m not very good, I can’t sew or crochet or anything like that, but I was telling these kids earlier I used to ask Santa for arts and crafts stuff,” Straka said.
The two agreed they would revisit the museum for future craft events.
“I feel like we would definitely have to bring some more people from our floor,” Straka said.
