What is on, and what it costs you
A regional polytechnic still has a full cultural calendar, and most of it is free or a few dollars with your Campus Card. The Furlong Gallery in the Applied Arts Building runs rotating exhibitions — regional and visiting artists, design and research shows, pieces from the university collection, and the senior thesis exhibitions each spring — with free admission and an opening reception you can just walk into. Heritage Auditorium and two smaller venues host the theatre season, student and faculty music ensembles, dance concerts, touring performers, and a visiting-artist and lecture series. A single what's-on calendar lists everything with ticket details; student tickets are discounted or free and released first.
The performing arts season
The theatre program stages a full season — typically a classic, a contemporary play, a musical, and a student-directed studio slate — with public performances over a two-week run each. Music ensembles (concert band, jazz, choir, orchestra, chamber groups, and a pep band for athletics) perform several times a term. Dance and the improv and a cappella groups have their own shows. Auditions for most productions and ensembles are open to any student regardless of major, held at the start of each semester and posted on the arts calendar; some ensembles also enroll as a one-credit course.
Taking part without majoring in it
You do not need to be an art, design, music, or theatre student to be in this. Audition for a play or an ensemble. Join a studio club — printmaking, ceramics, photography, film, creative writing, game art — which meet in the evening and welcome beginners. Submit to Ingot, the literary and arts magazine. Pitch an interdisciplinary project (an engineering-and-sculpture piece, a data-and-sound installation) to the student activity fund, which specifically supports cross-department creative work. Or take a non-major studio course as a Core or free elective — several are designed for exactly that.
Questions?
See the full staff & office directory for any phone number or email. Because this is a fictional parody site, addresses and phone numbers are illustrative and do not reach a real university.