Friday Arts Project Club is a club held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the DiGiorgio Campus Center (Digs) 223 for their hub meeting. During this time, the club members play games, watch movies and make arts and crafts.
Emily Burnham, a junior illustration major and student leader for the club has just joined this semester.
“There was a ‘come draw with us’ event at a local museum. And while I was there, I met some local artists who are involved with the Friday Arts Project,” Emily Burnham said. “Brandy Fox, who’s our camera director, reached out to me, and she started meeting with me. And we became friends. And I started attending Friday Arts Project activities, because they’re fun, and I didn’t know very many people.”
Emily Morris, a junior English major joined during her freshman year.
“I saw an Instagram post for film discussion events that they were doing, they had a film discussion for the movie ‘Emma.’ So I went to that and then started coming to meetings and got more involved,” Morris said.
Although the club is called Friday Arts Project, the club typically meets on Wednesdays. Chris Fox, who is one of the Campus directors of the Friday Art Project was originally a club member when he was a student at Winthrop when the club still met on Fridays.
“It’s because the organization started almost 15 years ago. It started with a group of students who met on Friday mornings, at what is now Groucho’s Deli, but it was a coffee shop at the time when we were students,” Chris said. “And so that’s where the name came from. We still do the Friday morning discussions. But now we have expanded so yes, we do things on Wednesdays and Thursdays and Mondays.”
Burnham credits this club for being a time when she can take her mind off of academics or anything else that causes stress.
“I don’t remember the specific day, but it was a Wednesday night. And I wasn’t having the best week but I came in and there was music and there were people. And it was just like, a really chill environment and very friendly and kind of relaxing,” Burnham said. “And it was just what I needed at the end of the day. So it was really fun for me and I’m excited to see other people realize the value in taking time to slow down and kind of enjoy the art side of life instead of just you know, rushing everywhere and for them to make friendships and connections through here.”
Morris agrees that without this club, she wouldn’t have made the friendships she has today.
“Yeah, I’ve also really enjoyed the meetings and just getting to make connections with people, I probably wouldn’t have met without that,” Morris said. “And I’m just looking forward to the future events and meeting new people through this organization.”
Although Fox is the campus leader, he wants the students to come into their own and propose ideas for the club.
“So we’re the campus directors, and we do lead to some degree, although we let these our leaders have as much freedom as they watch, like, our goal is to kind of help develop them as artists, as leaders, as students, even to some degree,” Chris said. “So yeah, we come with a meeting, we come to them and say, ‘Hey, we want to have a weekly meeting that is focused on hanging out and making art and connecting with people.’ How can we make that happen, or I love movies. I love talking about movies. So a couple years ago, I said, I really want to do film discussions. So we got that started. But over the years, students have come to us and said, ‘Hey, we want to try this thing.’ And I’m thinking that’s really great. Let’s figure out how to do it.”
