MUNCIE, Ind. – Cornerstone Center for the Arts and Muncie Public Library are making a collaborative effort to give adults the chance to be kids again.
Since May 2016, the organizations have been collaborating to host Bad Art Night. Bad Art Night encourages adults to create their own artwork without any expectations of perfection. At the end of each event, awards are even given out for the worst art, best art and crowd favorite.
“I really love that Bad Art Night – people come here with no expectations and have a chance to be free,” says Sarah Shaffer, Cornerstone Center for the Arts’ Education and Marketing Coordinator and Visual Arts Instructor.
On Wednesday, Cornerstone Center for the Arts hosted about 20 adults. They turned their blank canvases into collages, abstracts and even paintings of dogs in bikinis.
This idea initially got started almost three years ago because the organizations felt that there were many art programs for children, but none for adults. Cornerstone Center for the Arts and Muncie Public Library recognized that they couldn’t use quite the same process for an adult art program.
“Kids are great because you can just put kids in a room with art supplies and go, ‘Have fun,’ and you’ll get a thousand different things,” says Dan Allen, Muncie Public Library’s Idea Studio Technology Coordinator. “With adults, if you tried that same technique, you’d end up with a thousand people really nervous and no one quite knowing what to do.”
Maring-Hunt Library will host the next Bad Art Night on March 14 at 6 to 7:30 p.m. The event is open to anyone over the age of 18. It is free to attend, but the organizations encourage participants to donate five dollars to help cover the cost. Participants can also donate art supplies.
