Sara Cheney
Snuggled in the heart of the on-campus housing community, residents of the newly founded Arts Village, who express themselves through dance, theater, photography and music, call Turlington Hall home.
As a living and learning village continuously exposed to different modes of artistic expression, residents spend time immersed in the arts.
“It’s going great actually,” Sharon Moore, the director of Center Stage and Arts Outreach, said. “They’ve started kind of with a bang.”
The village is a collaboration between University Housing and Arts N.C. State.
Residents have attended “Ain’t Misbehavin'” at The Kennedy Theatre, browsed photography exhibitions at the Gregg Museum of Art and Design and had lunch with Da Chen, author and 2007 convocation speaker.
“The Arts Village is giving them a home base to be involved with students with similar interests,” Moore said. “It’s a pretty social group.”
She said she is optimistic about the future of the Arts Village and with resident involvement.
“We’ve got a great group of students [who are] very interested and excited about promoting the arts at N.C. State,” she said. “Our goal is to have Turlington be the Arts Village residence hall.”
Yulisa Lin, central campus coordinator for University Housing, said she works to help residents “develop the Arts Village.”
“The Arts Village is a great addition to what N.C. State is,” Lin said. “It brings diversity to the student experience.”
Lin, who said she is “leading the development of the village,” is working to make sure resident input is a part of the process.
“Everyone has a voice in this. The students definitely have a voice in this — it’s their village,” she said. “I’m definitely there to support them.”
Lin said hopes that residents of the Arts Village “not only succeed in their majors, but give back through the arts.”
Randall Rehfuss, a sophomore in First Year College, said he has big plans for the Arts Village.
As one of only two students who sit on the Arts Village Council, Rehfuss expresses the collective ideas of residents to the council.
“[We] want to start an Arts Village student council,” he said. “We’re trying to get the whole village involved and campus wide.”
He said his love for the arts is his motivation for being involved.
“I thoroughly enjoy the arts,” he said. “I love dedicating my time to it. It’s a great way to get involved and find your little niche.”
J.D. DeVaughn-Brown, a freshman in the transition program, is the other student that sits on the arts council with Rehfuss. He said he has been in theater since age five and wants to bring more awareness to the arts.
DeVaughn-Brown said his experience in the Arts Village makes him see students with an interest in art and theater differently.
“We’re a bunch of artistically inclined kids thrown together,” DeVaughn-Brown said. “I was shocked. I thought everyone was going to be in their own zone. You [would] think people [interested in the arts] would be quiet, always drawing or playing their music. It’s very open. People leave their doors open and you can walk in and talk to them.”
DeVaughn-Brown said he wants to make sure that the rest of campus is attracted to the arts as well.
“As the Arts Village, we don’t just want to be a bunch of arts kids,” he said. “We want to promote the arts at N.C. State. Whatever we can do to help out the arts, we want to do it.”
DeVaughn-Brown said there are also specific goals to work toward.
“The main thing we’re trying to get is a battle-of-the-bands show at State,” he said. “That’s a main way to get money for the arts and get people into the arts.”