UWG
News Item
Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
ucm@westga.edu
Big Night!
March 18, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - The annual Big Night! An Evening of Student Scholarship at the University of West Georgia is nationally noteworthy because it is one of the few research competitions in the country that highlight undergraduate research from students in all disciplines and at all grade-point levels, but it is the work of UWG art students that makes the program unique.
Every year, select art students craft handmade bronze sculptures to be presented as awards to students who win the honor of presenting research at Big Night. UWG is the only University in the nation to offer such valuable distinctive awards in a research competition, according to Dr. Andrew Leavitt, Big Night coordinator and associate professor of chemistry.
“The commemorative bronze sculptures represent the lasting value of Big Night and undergraduate research,” explains Leavitt. “It is our way of showing the students that we appreciate their hard work.”
Big
Night showcases student research in a program of oral presentations and
exhibits sponsored by the student Association for Research and Creative
Humanities and the vice president for academic affairs. Students compete
for the opportunity to present a paper or project in the form of a 10-minute
oral presentation or performance in one of six academic areas: the arts,
business, education, the humanities, the sciences and the social sciences.
In addition to rewarding the effort of researchers, the creation of Big
Night award sculptures offers art students practical experience designing
on commission.
“The opportunity to create this type of design and sculpture provides students with a sense of professional development,” says Kevin Shunn, assistant professor of art. “Students are commissioned to make a sculpture design for a specific purpose, much like a person in a design career would do.”
Each year, the Art Department conducts an award-design competition, and all art students at all academic and expertise levels are invited to participate. The students develop drawings of sculpture designs, which are then judged by on- and off-campus faculty. The best design is chosen for each academic area and then developed into the final bronze sculpture.
“The sculpture designs are unique to the academic area that they are made for,” explains Shunn. “The art students apply their own interpretation of what an award should look like for one of the six academic areas.”
Each sculpture requires considerable time and investment of effort from its student creator. From conceptual drawings to the finished work, most sculptures require two months to complete depending on the design and the student’s experience.
Big Night 2004 will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 8, in the Townsend Center for the Performing Arts. The event will then move to the Technology-enhanced Learning Center atrium for an hors d’oeuvre reception and viewing of exhibitions of research that was not selected for presentation. For more information, contact Leavitt at 770-836-6550.
-30-