Emmanuel Host Multifaceted Exhibit

CU DENVER STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS COLLABORATION

The hardest part of being a creative person is not coming up with something to create, but finding others to create with. Creativity, many times, comes from a very introspective place, and the creators themselves often reflect this in their personalities. Unfortunately for introverted anti-socialite artists, the best way to do anything with one’s art is to collaborate.

A new event on campus, started by CU Denver music student Sydney Clapp, called the Emmanuel Sessions, attempts to make this obstacle easier for the art community on campus. It encourages artists to work outside of their comfort zone.

Sydney Clapp provides musical accompaniment to Emmanuel Session Exhibit. photo: Sarai Nissan • CU Denver Sentry — Sydney Clapp provides musical accompaniment to Emmanuel Session Exhibit.
photo: Sarai Nissan • *CU Denver Sentry*

The Emmanuel Sessions is an attempt to make artist networking an even more interactive experience. Visual artists, musicians, recording students, and filmmakers all have a chance to get involved in the project each month.

The premise is this: Two artists from different media (music, painting, acting, etc.) have a filmed, hour-long conversation focusing on how they prefer to create art and what inspires them to do so. They then attempt to create something over the following two weeks and showcase it at the Emmanuel Sessions event at the end of the month.

The event is filmed and recorded by film and recording arts students with plans of making a YouTube series out of the videos. “It’s supposed to document how two people can have the exact same conversation, but can perceive it differently,” Clapp said. With only one session completed so far, The Emmanuel Sessions is still a work in progress, but is growing in the right direction.

The project began with a simple idea as Clapp was walking through the halls of the Arts Building. “I saw this beautiful installation and I just stopped and was like, ‘Woah, there needs to be a musician in there—in that setting, in that environment with collaboration from film students and art students,’” Clapp said. “The relationship between a song and the visual art in that environment would be so cool.”

Clapp then started searching for a venue that would work for her new idea. Emmanuel Gallery was eventually settled on and provided the perfect backdrop for an artist/ musician concert and networking session.

The first session debuted on March 31 with Clapp and Metro State art student April Frankenstein as the two artists showcasing their work. Clapp played a short set of a few of her original songs on guitar.

Frankenstein then presented her art piece, a mostly green, turf-like texture that ran up the wall towards the ceiling, representing what she had gotten out of her hour-long conversation with Clapp. Clapp then played a song she had written based on the same conversation, a beautiful folk song she claimed to have finished only hours before.

“I think it is so beautiful doing the event here because this is a space where people are here to learn and grow,” Clapp said. “This is solely for the creative process and to learn.”