ColumbiaCrawl Marks New Semester

Columbia College Chicago kicks off the 2012 fall semester with ColumbiaCrawl, a new campus-wide event celebrating the beginning of a new school year by showcasing the visual, performing, and media arts through gallery exhibits, performances, open houses and a pep rally on September 6, from 5-8 p.m.

Previously, the college held a gallery crawl during the first week of school with convocation events for new students, but a desire to involve the entire campus community in an event welcoming everyone back to campus brought about the idea for ColumbiaCrawl, said Mark Kelly, vice president of Student Affairs. “The Crawl” presents more than a dozen exhibitions, live music on multiple stages, theater and dance performance, readings, fashion shows, interactive audio, TV, and radio demonstrations and flash mobs.

“New Student Convocation on August 31 is an excellent event to welcome our new freshman and transfer students to campus, but it excludes the 8,000 returning students,” said Kelly. “ColumbiaCrawl will unite everyone, including the community, and bring the spirit of Columbia to life as we come together to begin the new school year.”

ColumbiaCrawl is free and open to the public. The schedule and map are available on the ColumbiaCrawl site and will be included in a special supplement in the first issue of the Columbia Chronicle, available on newsstands Sept. 4.

ColumbiaCrawl is a collaboration between Student Affairs and the Schools of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Media Arts, and Fine & Performing Arts.

*Thumbnail image: Artwork by Erik Lundquist for “A Year at Columbia” titled “ArtCrawl.”