rev·el·ry | \ ˈre-vəl-rē \
reveling; boisterous festivity;
noisy partying or merrymaking
For the past three years the School of Performing and Visual Arts at the University of Southern Mississippi has held one large “boisterous festivity” filled with dance, theatre, art and “merrymaking.” This festival for the arts averages more than 40 events over its two week span and has events for all ages. This brainchild of Stacy Reischman Fletcher the director of the SPVA and a steering committee from across the areas of Art, Dance, Design, and Theatre has helped to foster collaboration between the performing and visual arts and to create outreach and awareness about the SPVA to the local community.
The events that occur during Revelry can range from major headlining events like dance galas, theatre productions, art exhibitions, iron pours, design competitions, guest lectures, master classes and so much more. Most events are free and open to the public and they are all organized by the SPVA faculty. As the creative director for the SPVA Design and Marketing Team, Revelry is by far the biggest project every year, but as we all know, this year isn’t like every other year.
COVID-19 has caused the world to rethink how it spins. Everything has changed from grocery shopping and education to voting and vaccinations. When it comes to major events the NBA created a bubble, the Big 10 champion played only 6 games, and the Denver Broncos started a quarterback who hadn’t thrown a pass since high school. Not even the best Twilight Zone writer could have imagined an episode like this.
What I do.
What COVID-19 meant for Revelry was an entirely unique and virtual experience and what this meant for me was another opportunity to accomplish the seemingly impossible in an unreasonably short amount of time. Working through Christmas break, and afterhours nearly every night until it’s kickoff I managed to create an event hub with close to 50 event pages effectively tripling the size of the website I built in September. Each page tailored to the specific needs of the event whether it was a registration form, zoom access, embedded or linked video, or image galleries with artist statements.
From a virtual standpoint the largest and most time intensive event to create was this year’s Art + Design headliner: 2020: An International Juried Photography Exhibition. Much like last semester’s Ceramics National Exhibition that I developed, this exhibit shows work by nearly 60 artists. A special gallery was created for each artist utilizing the Modula wordpress plugin to allow for zoom features and a beautiful and consistent lightbox display. The Biennial Faculty Show, a similar exhibition that I created in the fall semester, will also be reopened for Revelry as a part of the ICYMI programming.
As a faculty member I also organize and host my own events. In the past I’ve hosted screen-printing workshops, and mural spray painting. This year I’ve put together an event for the Revelry Community Day called Mini Maker Mardi Gras, where parents and kids alike can follow along a tutorial to make their own Mardi Gras floats from a simple box and arts and crafts materials. An event I hope is relevant given the cancelation of Mardi Gras. Along with this community event I will also be taking part in a panel discussion with my fellow faculty in the SPVA discussing our creative processes.
On a much smaller level of involvement I’ve worked to help three of my colleagues bring their collaboration and artistic vision to light by helping to film an edit a dance performance by assistant professor of dance, Dr. Candace Salyers featuring ceramic work by associate professor Allen Chen and costume design and creations by costume shop supervisor Kelly James-Penot. This piece titled “Carapace” will be projected on the side of a campus building for a drive by experience, and broadcast online in the event of severe weather. For information on these events please visit the Revelry page.
The badasses I lead.
As creative director for the SPVA Design and Marketing team I also led a team of students who for lack of better words, are just simply fucking badass. For Revelry they branded every headlining event (6), created multiple promotional and packaging designs, created an extensive social media campaign which included 5 motion graphics commercials, numerous static ads and reels, and they did all of this with passion, professionalism, and poise. Even now while Revelry is underway the documentation and social media team is hard at work collecting and promoting. I was so impressed with their performance last semester that at the last meeting before they headed home for the holidays I presented them with special trophies to express my gratitude and sincere admiration for their efforts during these unprecedented times.
2 things that have always lit the way: my faith, and my students.
I lead through service. As one of my favorite author’s puts it, leadership isn’t about receiving gold stars, it’s about finding ways to give them. In that spirit I found a way to give some gold stars. I get a lot of credit for doing a lot of things (and I do actually do lot of things) but a lot of that credit should go to these amazing students. The design team that I lead for SPVA has always had a vital role in promoting events, in some cases volunteering for events to make sure they run smoothly and they do all of this along with the intensity that is our design program. This year has been different. This year is 2020. At a moments notice they’ve replied to emails, tweaked graphics. They’ve stayed up late, they’ve even cried I think. They’ve done this because this year EVERYTHING the SPVA has done is virtual through a website our team built, promoted through graphics our team designed, connect to social media through a campaign they created for daily interaction. They’ve created what will almost assuredly be dozens of award winning full-length commercials, logos, posters, etc. In honor of their efforts and with a little comedy, I created trophies.
A little backstory. My students have become accustomed to seeking my feedback and more importantly reaching a point to when something is finished or “done”, apparently the phrase I use, and now one they come to search for, is “stick a fork in it” So today I gifted them with the “Stick a Fork in It Award for Outstanding Service” and the “Stick a Golden Fork in it for Excellence in Service.”
Team Members:
Assoc. Creative Director: Madison Copeland
Art Director and Golden Fork Winner: Travis Cumbest
Art Director: Madelynn Payne
SR. Designer: Samantha Nguyen
JR. Designer: Hannah Cantrell
JR. Designer: Keely Trail
JR. Designer: Christian Gammill
With any major project it is important to determine measures of success. To quote Brené Brown “it is important to paint what done looks like.” Qualitatively, I know how exceptional the work created by both my students and I has been. However, with the utilization of social media analytics via Hootsuite and website analytics via Google there is unquestionable quantitative evidence to support extraordinary success. So, the only remaining questions are what does this success mean, and where do we go from here?
