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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Dan Grover: Focus on opportunities to support the arts

Last semester I came back from my time abroad in London with an idea: find a way to make the visual and written arts more prominent in the GW community. I wanted to get an online magazine going, have critiquing sessions and get open mics running.

None of that really happened except the open mics, and even they tapered out after I realized that GW already has a pretty vibrant spoken word scene. Quite a few groups have monthly readings that are plenty of fun and often have great turnouts.

So while my grand plans didn’t pan out, I was still happy to see that there are arts communities, however small, at GW. And they deserve to stand on their own in the face of the University’s budget-related cuts to the arts. As students, we need to encourage officials to host more events in support of the arts, and get more involved in the already existing communities on our campus.

I’m probably not wrong in saying that most students have no idea that our campus hosted the national finals for Poetry Out Loud in Lisner Auditorium last month. But I was extremely excited about the event.

For those who may not know, Poetry Out Loud is a nation-wide contest to do exactly what the title suggests — high school students compete to give the best reading of a poem, based on a list of recommendations, they can. Winners compete first school-wide, then state-wide and then nationally.

We all know that this has been a tumultuous semester for arts programs at GW. With budget cuts, a student concert and rally, and even a hashtag, our arts programs have seen their fair share of traffic across news feeds.

All of this makes the appearance of Poetry Out Loud on campus all the more important, because it was a chance for the University to demonstrate a commitment to the arts that’s been otherwise lacking.

But students should be demonstrating their commitment, too. There are plenty of events and student organizations around campus — from Spoken Word Collective and Open Space to the galleries located in Smith and the Corcoran’s 17th Street building — where students can get involved in the arts scene around campus and Foggy Bottom.

Many students at GW have decided that the arts matter to them. If they aren’t directly supported, then students will — and do — go elsewhere to get their fix. The concerts above The Bayou have a great turnout for local acts and open mics are well-attended in other parts of the city, too.

I’m optimistic: We have the opportunity to start really acknowledging the arts events on and around campus. Student engagement in these arts communities is powerful and we can use that power to encourage GW to do more for them. The Corcoran, for example, will offer more space for events and galleries — opportunities on which the University should capitalize.

GW may get bad press for cutting the arts budget. But by hosting more and more events dedicated to them, it would send a subtle, but powerful message: Despite financial difficulties, the fate of the arts is still very important to the University as a whole.

If GW continues to host high-profile artistic events on campus, they can ease the sting of the budget cuts, at least temporarily. In the meantime, we just have to have a little hope and keep reading.

Dan Grover, a junior majoring in English, is a Hatchet columnist. Want to respond to this piece? Submit a letter to the editor.

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