By Joshua Robison / The Jambar
The Youngstown State University Department of Art hosted its annual YSU Art Day in Bliss Hall from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Oct. 25. During Art Day, prospective students had the opportunity to tour the art department and interact with faculty and students, as well as alumni in a Q&A panel.
During the event, students participated in various activities and seminars covering artistic disciplines such as ceramics, digital media, drawing, graphic and interactive design, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.
Prospective college students looking into career paths in the arts learned of the different degree paths that YSU’s art department has to offer from Bachelor of Arts degree programs to Master of Arts degree programs. Campus tours were held, and students were shown presentations of financial aid opportunities.
Joy Christiansen Erb, professor and chair of the Department of Art, said that Art Day is one of the biggest events of the year for the department to recruit new students.
“It’s one of our primary recruitment events that happens,” Erb said. “This year, we really focused on really looking at showing students, or giving students, an eye of what college is like and what they need to do.”
Erb said that Art Day could not happen without the staff and student body in the Department of Art.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without the faculty,” Erb said. “The student assistants that have been helping us, our administrative staff are amazing and have put hours into, you know, pulling everything together.”
Erb said students that attended art day were able to see different jobs that the arts could offer students after graduation.
“[In] certain fields, there’s an automatic kind of vision of what you’re going to do afterwards,” Erb said. “It’s a little bit harder for people to envision what artists learn in college and also what they can do.”
Erb said that she recommends Art Day to any potential college students considering studying the arts, as it puts a greater emphasis on art as a whole compared to other campus-wide events.
“The university has Penguin Preview Day events and those are great, but the students have just less time in the departments that they’re interested in studying in,” Erb said. “[Art Day] is definitely a more in-depth look, and I think that it can help people make decisions.”