Our campus participated in the highly anticipated all-night celebration of contemporary art, Nuit Blanche, for the second consecutive year. Starting at 7:00 p.m. on September 23 and ending at 7:00 a.m. on September 24, our campus transformed into an immersive and interactive multi-disciplinary art experience following the theme "Plant A Seed" that was produced from the overarching theme for this year, "Breaking Ground."
John Caffery, Instructor and the Event Coordinator for Nuit Blanche at the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design, shares:
I believe Nuit Blanche at the Story Arts Centre was a tremendous success. I am deeply grateful for the way in which students, alumni, and faculty collaborated to make Plant A Seed come to life. It really felt like the various aspects of Arts Programming complimented each other in an organic, beautiful way. I was able to hire a Planning Committee that included Dharmi Patel, Matt David Paris, and Hayley Wiens, who were instrumental in realizing the event and coordinating all the amazing volunteer students who helped ensure that the massive public event went smoothly.
The Game Design students Kelly Lin, Jack Dias Machado, and Arthur de Senna Rocha received SARL funding and developed the Virtual Garden for months leading up to the event, which provided an immersive experience to spend time on a floating island and rake sand, plant seeds, and release lanterns into the sky. It was very popular and, at times, had a 2-hour lineup. It was my seven-year-old son’s favourite.
A huge crowd-pleaser was the collaborative work from students in the Music, Dance, and Theatre departments, which took over the foyer titled Speak To Trees. They performed every hour until 2:30 a.m. They kept the energy up, and the talent was shining.
The innovative and immersive work by the broadcasting team, including the students Christian Nieto, Nandika Raii, Mark Tuscano, Katarzyna Podgrocka, and Maria Rodriguez De La Garza, transformed the studio and allowed visitors to experience this meditative multi-media journey wherein they saw themselves miniaturized to the size of an insect in a beautiful field of grass and dancing on leaves.
Although Nuit Blanche is focused on brevity and the events of one night, the impact of a seed being planted is a commitment for a long time. Four students from our Fine Arts Dept, Anna Zabashta, Kamorudeen Aruna, Haocun Cao, and Youngah Keh, collaborated on a work that achieves this as they designed and painted a mural in the meeting space beside the library inspired by the quote “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.” I think the gorgeous mural and the text will inspire students for years to come.
I think this is one of the Story Arts Centre’s best opportunities to show the city all the creativity and brilliance that our community has and I’m thrilled that it was seen by hundreds and hundreds of guests.
Learn more about the events that took place on our campus here. You can also view photos from the night in our Plant A Seed photo gallery.
Article by: Alexandra Few
Check out and subscribe to our Storyteller newsletter and Storyteller In-Depth Podcast for more great stories from the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design.