The Festival of the Arts concluded its 32 straight days of art as Robert Barnum unveiled his newest creation.

The eight foot tall, three sided steel sculpture is Big Rapids’ newest decoration which will be placed outside the Mecosta County Medical Center.

Festival of the Arts chairman Bruce Dilg started the evening off with a run through of all the events that happened in the last 32 days and went around introducing his committee and how everything fell together. “We are meeting with the anniversary committee starting next week to discuss the celebration plans,” Dilg said about Ferris State University’s 125 anniversary.

Standing in the center of the welding lab was Barnum’s newest creation, “Helping Hands,” as students pulled down the black plastic unveiling the beginning of the Festival of the Arts’ lantern project. The crowd clapped as they saw a masterpiece of steel standing in front of them as a light showed reflections across the ceiling. The sculpture was computer generated and cut out by professor Dave Murray and students Brian Nanko and Cody Whiteley.

“I take the project from the creative concept to the finish as I use creative energy and stylized movements,” Barnum said. “One of the best parts is being able to get these projects into the classroom and allowing students to work on them.”

The Festival of the Arts “lantern project” is a five year concept and idea that will allow for a minimum of five new pieces of art to be placed throughout the community as they use positive and negative spaces along with light.

The five new pieces of art would be done within the same budget range as well as designed to be maintenance free and moveable. A couple proposed spots throughout the community are the planters downtown, around the junior high and in the green space located across from the FLITE library.

“Its been wonderful to watch what Dilg and the Festival of the Arts have created for community, student engagement and Big Rapids through a group of unique and special events,” Ferris State President David Eisler said.

According to Andy Warhol every cloud had a silver lining, whether it was in the sky or in a room filled with 77 giant helium Mylar balloons.

“Silver Clouds” is a traveling interactive exhibit by the late Warhol that will make its way to the Rankin Gallery on Tuesday, March 17.

Unlike most exhibits, “Silver Clouds” is one that viewers can literally get their hands on.

Rankin Gallery Director Carrie Weis said “Silver Clouds” gets its uniqueness from being interactive. “The intention is to include the viewer in the art process,” said Weis. “Meaning the exhibit isn’t complete without interaction and movement created by the viewer.”

The metallic pillow-shaped balloons, which fill out to be four by two feet wide, give the sense of a cloud filled environment where viewers are expected to touch the “clouds” and create new air currents.

Weis has had first-hand experience with the exhibit at its home in the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, Penn. She made arrangements to have “Silver Clouds” shipped to Ferris as soon as she found out it was a traveling exhibition.

“I find the exhibit completely captivating,” said Weis. “It is a sensory experience that takes the viewer back to fun childhood experiences with the balloon reference; it’s calming yet invigorating and truly joyful.”

Warhol created “Silver Clouds” in 1966 during a time when artists and new technologies were merging together and interactive art was a part of the contemporary art movement.

Warhol, who was rightfully the king of pop art, created works that were iconic to the 20th century. Some of his most recognized paintings are the Campbell’s Soup Cans, Disasters, and Marilyns.

Known as an artist, writer, and filmmaker, Warhol was also known for his bizarre lifestyle. According to a PBS documentary of Warhol, the artist operated a night club in New York called the Gymnasium that featured exercise equipment on the dance floor.

Until the day of his death in 1987, Warhol had compiled over 600 time capsules, according to his biography at warholfoundation. org. Some of the contents in the time capsules were taxidermy specimens, dental moulds, Caroline Kennedy’s birthday cake, a human foot, scraps of food, white wigs and half-used perfume bottles.

Aside from Warhol’s wackiness, according to Weiss, “Silver Clouds” is an exhibit that is all about having fun. “There’s no deep intellectual message or social commentary, there’s nothing to try to figure out or challenge you; its only intent is to be a playful experience for the viewer,” said Weis.

“Silver Clouds” will continue until March 27 at the Rankin Gallery, which is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information contact Weis at x2536.

Have you ever asked your mama what the 12 moods for jazz are?

You can now as the Langston Hughes Project—“Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz”— will have the audience tapping their feet to the jazz beat of this show.

This event will take place in the Rankin Center Dome Room on Wednesday, March 4, from 7 to 9 p.m. This show is free for all.

This event shows poet and story writer Hughes at his best. His 12 Moods for Jazz are actually written and split into 12 parts.

This “presentation recreates Hughes’ vision of the global struggle for freedom in the early ‘60s,” according to composer Ron McCurdy’s Web site, ronmccurdy.com.

This project is also “illustrated by the spoken word, accompanied by a live jazz quartet and the large as life visual illustrations on screen of Hughes’ world, the Harlem Renaissance, through his collaborators and contemporaries,” according to ronmccurdy.com.

Hughes’ masterpiece would not have come more to life then without the help of the project’s director and composer, Ron McCurdy.

McCurdy orchestrates the show, with the help of Eli James Brueggemann, using Hughes’ musical cues to create a jazzy, upbeat concert, as McCurdy said; it’s a show made for all ages.

This project will show these 12 moods for jazz: “Cultural Exchange,” which is about black discrimination; “Ride Red, Ride;” “Shades of Pigment,” which is about oppression; “Blue In Stereo;” “Ode To Dinah,” which is about the poor not getting any money; “Horn of Plenty;”

“Gospel Cha Cha, which shows ‘Those who have no lawns to mow seek gods who come in various spiritual and physical guises and to whom one prays in various rhythms in various lands in various tongues;’” “Is It True?;” “Ask Your Mama,” shows how no matter how poor or homeless you are dreams keep those alive; “Bird In Orbit;” Jazztet Muted;” and “Show Fare Please.”

For more information contact Michael Wade at michaelwade@ ferris.edu or x5029.

“I think of ‘being an artist’ as a way of living and not just the line of work I do. I try to be creative in every aspect of my life. I have raised my children to be open minded and inquisitive and creative, I value travel, education and experiences above material possessions,” Carrie Weis, Ferris Art Gallery director, said of her own personal philosophy.

Weis is passionate for the arts, and believes that the arts are integral in every day life. “Students are surrounded by art every day, every time they walk across the quad they are subjected to three sculptures, if they walk through the first floor of FLITE they will be witness to one of the world’s largest murals ever created,” Weis said.

As director of the art gallery, Weis has many responsibilities in enriching students' experience with art. She is responsible for choosing, framing, and placing art all around campus. Every time a student walks through many of the building at Ferris they will pass by hundreds of pieces of art that Weis was responsible for placing.

Weis wants to impress upon students the importance of art. Even in everyday life, where art may not be that prevalent, Weis thinks it essential that the arts be acknowledged and applied in all aspects of life.

Weis strives to go beyond her everyday duties as curator of the gallery and seek out different ways to increase student involvement with the arts. She has taught several art classes at Ferris in the past. She is also available to students in the art gallery to answer any questions they might have about exhibits, or to meet new people and discuss the arts in general.

The art gallery has been recently transformed by some of Weis’ ideas to increase student involvement. She wanted to create an environment that invited students in, not only to look at art but to hang out and relax. Couches were placed throughout the gallery to allow for students to sit down and hang out. She welcomes students to come in and study, talk about art, read, or whatever else.

“Most people think its a little intimidating, so we’ve been trying to create a more inviting atmosphere,” Weis said. “Students are welcome to kind of own this place.”

Weis grew up in Big Rapids, and has been surrounded by art all her life. Throughout her childhood her parents collected many pieces of art, and a few of her family members were artists. When she was 12 she received a paint set from her parents for her birthday. This was the start of her art career. Weis talked about how art was the only thing she was good at in high school.

Weis began to study art as a profession in 1985 at Ferris State College. She then transferred to Kendall where she studied Fine Arts with an emphasis on painting. She got married shortly thereafter and started a family.

She and her family moved to Grand Haven and Weis began to study Fine Arts again at Grand Valley State University. After going through a divorce, Weis found herself back in Big Rapids. The position at the art gallery at Ferris was open in 1999 and she was offered the job. While working as the gallery director, Weis attended Ferris and finally received her Bachelors degree in integrated studies with a minor in art history. She proceeded to get her masters from Kendall in Fine Arts in 2007.

Aside from curating the gallery, Weis enjoys painting. She had created many paintings and while she will paint almost anything, her current focus is on botanical miniatures (small scale paintings of flowers and plants.) Weis prefers oil on canvas and doesn’t have any specific style.

Weis has sold many paintings and has won some awards. Most of her work that she sold was created in the 1990s. Weis said there hasn’t been much of a market for the arts with the economy in a slump.

“It’s not just about creating work but also a personal philosophy on the way I live my life.” Weis said. “I want my reality and my life to be about what is unique and creative and beautiful in this world.”

In his sequel to “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” author Gregory Maguire cannot live up to expectations.

“Son of a Witch” begins with the Maunts, who appear to be nuns out in the Shale Shallows. Think of flat land like Montana, many miles from the Emerald City.

This novel centers around Liir, the possible son of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and his travels through Oz trying to seek out his friend who was stolen from their house.

While “Wicked” was centered around the political struggles of animals, animals that speak and act as humans, and those that act like animals. “Son of a Witch” centers around Liir and his travels and his time in the military and coming to terms of being related to Elphaba.

There was no plot, there was no conflict; it was basically hoping beyond hope, that those that enjoyed “Wicked” would also enjoy this novel…hopefully.

No such luck. The writing was juvenile, and it was as if he wrote it while sitting in the pub one afternoon, as theatre goers told him what to write in their drunken stupors.

Nothing was connected to the previous novel, except the same characters. However, they were completely different from their originals. I don’t know if it’s because I know “Wicked” so well, but the characters were flat, and there was no protagonist or antagonist, which makes a novel difficult when its centered around a character.

If you’re into “Wicked” and know the characters inside and out, do not read this book. Do not let the logo on the cover suck you into this last grab at the spotlight.