If you miss your childhood, tonight at 8, Students Organizing the Multiple Arts (SOMA) will be passing out crayons at Dragon Chaser's Emporium -- and then telling everyone to draw on the walls.
Crayola will only be one of the many elements incorporated into the "Pop Music/Art Extravaganza," which will also feature student artwork and bands such as Endless Mike & The Beagle Club, Kick Old Man, This Place is Haunted and Violets for Ophelia.
SOMA President Danny Greene (junior-information sciences and technology) said the show is a classical integration event, combining "pop art and all of its forms with a very diverse variety of pop music." Alongside the artwork, there will be blank sheets of paper hanging on the walls for all of those aspiring artists in the audience.
Although the group is known around campus for putting together integrative events, the "Pop Music/Art Extravaganza" will still be a first for SOMA.
"We've never done something before where the audience is creating art and expressing themselves while we're entertaining them. It should be very exciting," SOMA Vice President Mitchell Carney (junior-information sciences and technology) said.
Show spokesman Nathaniel Robinson (senior-film) originally came up with the idea for the show and said he wanted to make art and music inseparable by meshing everything together in a small space.
Robinson, who said he sought to expose art to the public in a less formal manner, said he's always been fascinated with the non-traditional aspect of pop art.
"There's no elitism when it comes to pop art," he said. "You have to take it at face value."
When you have Internet comics and flash videos hitting you from every direction, Robinson said, it's hard not to be inspired by today's rampantly bombastic pop culture.
Robinson said the walls will be packed with as much student-submitted art as possible. His plan is to contrast the setting against a normal art gallery or museum, where the pieces of art are strategically placed and spaced on the walls.
"We're going to throw everything up there at once, side by side by side," Robinson said. "We want to emulate real pop culture."
The featured art will include prints and originals, an idea that Robinson contributes to Andy Warhol himself.
"Warhol was obsessed with the idea of prints, which is why we're also encouraging them," Robinson said. "Who says that prints have less merit?"
Robinson is also a member of Kick Old Man, one of the bands that will be playing. He says his band will adhere to the "pop" theme, and that most of the performing bands were chosen because of their roots in pop music.
"This Place is Haunted, specifically, does covers of video game songs," Robinson said. "That's exactly what we wanted -- it's an embodiment of today's pop culture."
The drummer for Violet's For Ophelia, Joe Lacombe (junior-secondary education), said the show tonight would be a defining moment for his band.
"I think it's going to be pretty awesome," Lacombe said. "I love the idea that people will be drawing on the walls while we're onstage playing."
