“Frequency” at the Samek draws crowd for fall gala

Mamta Badlani, Staff Writer

On Nov. 13, the Gallery Engagement Team (G.E.T.) hosted a gala titled “Frequency” in celebration of the Samek Gallery’s latest exhibit, R. Luke DuBois: Portraits and Landscapes. Samek has been hosting DuBois’s exhibit all semester. The gallery team held a kick-off party in early September and welcomed DuBois to campus for a talk last month. The student-led G.E.T gala is the third and final exhibit event of the semester.

DuBois’s art has transformed conventional forms of data analysis into aesthetically appealing pieces of visual art. The New York-based graphic artist is known for his human atlas maps; he tracks cultural and social trends over geographic territories and cities.

G.E.T. members conveyed the gala event’s title and theme, “Frequency” by distributing party favors that included word searches, and encouraged attendees to complete trivia questions while discussing the art.

“Frequency” echoed the theme of DuBois’s art specifically, as many of his pieces included a frequency of words. His piece, “A More Perfect Union,” highlights the most regularly used words in dating profiles by town and state and “Hindsight is Always 20/20” displays the most repeated words in each president’s State of the Union Address through linguistic eye charts.

To get visitors excited about the gala, G.E.T. invited student DJ Jeong Woo Seo ’18. Members also dispensed treats such as Swedish meatballs, fried macaroni and cheese, brownie bites, and party favors with candy.

“My favorite part of the night was the overall atmosphere they managed to create with the music and the set up,” Gigi Joudrie ’18 said. “It didn’t even feel like I was on campus.”

“We wanted to have a DJ because it would attract people and keep them there, and trivia was another thing for people to do to be engaged with the art in a different way,” G.E.T. Head of Marketing Daisy Fornengo ’18 said.

Event organizers said that their goal was to get University students excited about the works on display in the Samek Art Gallery, specifically this semester’s R. Luke DuBois exhibit.

“My favorite part was that people who came actually discussed the works and got really into them, even if they didn’t have backgrounds in art,” Fornengo said.

The event reached over 100 people, a larger audience than G.E.T.’s past spring gala “Kaleidoscope,” which focused on the senior art show.

“We hoped to draw students up to the gallery so that more of the University community could see and hear about DuBois’s work,” G.E.T. President Kasey Bailey ’16 said.

“Being my first time in the Samek, I didn’t really know what to expect. After the event held on [Nov. 13], I am definitely looking forward to attending future events,” Joudrie said.

G.E.T. hosts events once a semester, and students can anticipate another event at the Samek in mid-April 2016.

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