Artist: Vivian Younikha

At a time where it seems that the fine arts are being battered with financial cuts on all sides, We The Artists brings student and community artists together to showcase them through diverse pieces, music and plays.

We The Artists is a collaboration between the University of Saskatchewan’s fine arts departments of music, drama and visual arts. Though very different mediums of artistic expression, the three heads of the respective students’ unions come together to plan a showcase of student and community talent for a wider audience and promote awareness of the importance of the fine arts to the U of S and the greater Saskatoon community.

The first step in bridging the gap between emerging artists and the rest of the community was to bring the event on campus to Louis’ Pub.

“We’re trying to bring the community to campus,” said Jenna Berenbaum, We The Artists board member and president of the Drama Students Association. “We’re trying to reach post-grads, alumni and people in the community that don’t immerse themselves in the arts as much.”

Another unique feature of this year’s event is the scene slam, where members of all three communities will collaborate on putting on a one-act play with the audience’s participation. Drama students have selected two playwrights who will have an hour to write a play that incorporates a pre-selected prop created by visual artist students and music that will be selected and played by music students. Audience members will then be picked to read the play out loud as it is acted out.

In addition to the scene slam, the drama students will present scenes from published plays and original spoken word pieces.

“We’re trying to incorporate pieces that mostly students have written and produced,” Berenbaum said.

The music department will be showcasing a variety of musical talent including saxophones and clarinets, a duet with a guitar and marimba and an operetta from Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. There will also be a much anticipated barbershop quartet with the Association of Student Musician’s very own president, Justin La, singing tenor.

Artist: Kenton Doupe

Visual artists need not fear, as they play an equally important role in the event. We The Artists organizers picked Louis’ because it allows for a distinct way of separately showcasing all the artistic mediums without one overpowering the other. Event goers can enjoy student and community artists’ variety of pieces — including animation, graphic arts and photography — in a gallery-like space without interrupting the performances on stage.

“There’s also going to be a double bass and piano playing during the art viewing,” said La, which is a nice representation of what We The Artists is about.

“It’s a collaboration between art, drama and music,” said La. “Before this initiative, there was no collaboration between the different departments — we didn’t even know each other existed.”

La points out that art as a whole is moving towards a more interdisciplinary and multi-faceted direction and We The Artists is a natural outcome of artists wanting to collaborate together across mediums.

“It’s also a good way to showcase all the talent at the university,” said La.

Artist: Ben Abelseth

The board members of We The Artists decided that this year they were going to be donating proceeds to the Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming, a charitable organization that provides at-risk youth in Saskatoon graphic and visual arts training. When asked why they picked SCYAP and not something related to music or drama, both Berenbaum and La emphasised the importance of all art, not just their respective mediums, in the community.

“Supporting visual art in the community is just as important supporting drama, so I feel like it’s a fair trade,” said Berenbaum.

La had a similar sentiment, saying that We The Artists will try to donate to various artistic charities that they feel need it.

“All art is important and kids should have the opportunity to express themselves through all art,” added La. “It’s called ‘We The Artists’ not ‘I The Artist’. It’s all about collaboration and seeing what comes out of it.”

We The Artists takes place on Jan. 31 at 6:30 p.m. at Louis’ Pub. Tickets are $7 for students and $10 for non-students and can be purchased in the Arts Tunnel or online at picatix.com/wta. For further information, check out the We The Artists Facebook page, or email them at wta.usask@gmail.com