Written by Monique Jacques
The Harding Bazaar, product of senior Calea Bakke’s honors capstone project, will be tomorrow, April 9, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., on the field in front of the Reynolds Center for Music and Communication.In the event of bad weather, the Bazaar will be held in the Ganus Athletic Center.Twenty-four vendors will meet beneath two large tents to display and sell fine arts and artisan crafts priced from $3 to $300. Bakke said all vendors are Harding affiliated and include not only a few senior art majors and three professors from the art department, but also a number of faculty members and students who simply have a knack for creating.”Harding is more than academics and clubs, but also has a great depth of crafty and artistic talent,” said se- nior art major Paige Walton, who will display and sell works from her senior art show. “The Bazaar will showcase some of Harding’s hidden talent, and hopefully it will encourage others to pursue theirs as well.”Bakke said that as a whole, she wanted a cultural and community-focused event.”We didn’t want to call it a fair or an art show, because it is so much more than that, it envelops such a wide gamut of things,” Bakke said. “Bazaar just connects in mind the old-world Istanbul marketplace with modern-day art.”The vendors will exhibit everything from oil paintings to antique teapot lamps, handmade jewelry to decorative home decor. With the wide range of characters at Harding, Bakke said she hopes there will be something for everyone.”I love doing shows because it gives me time to talk to each customer and see their faces light up when they find something,” Claire Lifsey, student vendor of handmade jewelry and bridal pieces, said. “I hope to contribute an opportunity for people to buy unique, affordable accessories made by a peer.”The Bazaar will embrace not only visual arts, but also music from Burksy’s champion band The Emancipastries and Burksy’s nominee band The Abigails, as well as a number of other student musicians.Harding does not currently have any visual-arts-focused events outside of the art building, so Bakke said she wanted to find a way to bring the community together to celebrate and support local artists. The facilitators will not receive any proceeds. Rather, all money will go to the artists or the charities of their choice.”I would love for the Bazaar to be an annual event because there are so many students who have creative talents, and this is a great way to showcase them as well as make a profit,” Walton said.Bakke, with the Honors College,has advertised not only on campus, but in many local venues, including the Daily Citizen. Students, faculty and staff, and the outer community are invited to come to the Bazaar as well.”I hope that this kind of event opens up a wider perspective to our university students — that a full, rich life includes exposure to and participation in the arts,” art professor and vendor Daniel Adams said. “Participation is so much more than creating the work. The arts are never complete unless they have the opportunity to be viewed, watched, read, listened to and incorporated into the lives of the audience.”
