Scrunchies and vision boards: Arts Week had it all!

Barnard’s Student Experience and Engagement Office (SEE) held a series of art-related events from September 30 to October 4 as part of their Arts Week. They organized multiple workshops to practice skills ranging from songwriting to embroidery and I had the chance to attend a few of them.

Arts & Crafternoons: Vision Boards

On Monday, I had the opportunity to create a vision board (very much needed as a senior). SEE provided all the kinds of patterned paper you can imagine, magazines and markers. I took my scissors and a glue stick and vision-boarded away to the sound of Olivia Rodrigo in the background.

After an hour, I felt pretty satisfied with the vision board I had created:

I put it up in my room and I look at it every day—I would definitely recommend making your own if you think you’d benefit from a little daily inspiration!

Skill Build: Sewing Machine 101

On Thursday, I attended this instructive workshop which, as the name suggests, was all about learning the basics of how to use a sewing machine. I was very grateful for this opportunity, given that I don’t have a sewing machine of my own but would love to be able to use one to mend my clothes and create new things! After learning how to thread it and go about the different settings and stitches I felt confident that I now knew how to use this machine, and I was able to practice on some spare fabric that SEE provided.

Arts & Crafternoons: All call creative hour

Later that day I put in practice my newly learned sewing machine skills. With the guidance of one of the event’s coordinators I made my own scrunchie. It was surprisingly complicated to make  for such a small, innocuous object, but the effort was completely worth it!

All in all, I had a lot of fun during Arts Week and I welcomed the study breaks and small doses of artsy activities, which we don’t always have many opportunities to engage in on campus. I do have to say that I wish more people would have attended these events, especially because there is nothing as satisfying as being able to create something tangible basing yourself solely on your creativity.

Vision Board and Scrunchie via Author

Header Image via Flickr