While the Movement to Unite Meadows promises that the Masquerade Ball this Saturday will be a fun-filled event with refreshments and door prizes, the organization hopes to accomplish greater goals with a good turnout.
MUM, one of the newest organizations on campus, focuses on bringing the wide variety of majors in Meadows School of the Arts together. Meadows majors include advertising, art, art history, arts administration, cinema-television, corporate communications and public affairs, dance, journalism, music and theatre.
As MUM president, Shelby Stanley says, “MUM is a valuable group because it seeks to provide social environments in which emerging artists can come together, build relationships and create their art. Working with students from other divisions will make art richer and more multidimensional. “
Stanley hopes the organization will also act as a network for artists in all majors of the Meadows school that will go beyond life at SMU.
“If students can build relationships and contacts with each other so that five or 10 years down the road, after they’ve graduated and entered the larger arts community, they can contact each other to produce work, then MUM will have been successful.”
Adam Eason, a senior music major, originally created MUM as a Facebook group meant to be a venue for artists to promote their upcoming events.
Last summer, he discussed making the group an organization beyond Facebook. Since then, the organization has held several events targeting Meadows students including a tailgating event during Homecoming and its signature “Third Thursday” mixer events.
Stanley says that while the group has many active members, the number of people at each event fluctuates because of rehearsals, performances and other events.
Noelle Fabian, a member of the organization who also serves as president of another Meadows organization, Union of Music Students, says that the busy lifestyle of art students is one reason why MUM is important to the arts community of Meadows.
“Most of us are so busy [with rehearsals and performances],” Fabian says, “we are unable to pursue the whole fraternity-sorority life and miss out on a lot of fun things. MUM is our chance for that.”
Stanley says, “Between late-night rehearsals, early morning tapings of ‘The Daily Update’ and countless hours spent working inbetween, the idea of a fun social event has been discussed many times. MUM just decided to make this fantasy a reality.”
Stanley says the group’s goals include “increasing a sense of camaraderie and unity amongst students by coordinating regular school-wide events to allow students from all departments to meet and mingle and improving interdepartmental communication and increasing interdepartmental collaboration.”
The group hopes to eventually extend the organization to the Highland Park and University Park communities to increase art appreciation among students, although it plans to become established on campus first.
“It is a great thing when students come together to make new things happen at a university,” says Meadows Dean Jose Bowen. “I am very proud of all the student effort that has gone into both MUM and this ball.”
As for Dean Bowen’s attendance at the ball, he says, “I hope to be there long enough to support the effort and not long enough to ruin the party because some old fart showed up.”
The ball will be held Saturday, March 29 from 9 p.m. to midnight in the Taubman Atrium of the Owen Fine Arts Center. Tickets will be sold at the door for $5.
