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It’s the home stretch for the end of the semester, and Manifest is just around the corner!

Manifest is Columbia’s urban arts festival, and this year it’s happening Friday, May 17th. Get excited!!!There are several art exhibitions, food, film screenings, and performances. It’s a celebration for Columbia’s approximately 2,000 graduating students. It happens on the streets of the South Loop in the heart of Columbia’s campus. It is free, and you should come! I went for the first time last year, and was amazed at all of the exciting things happening and incredible talent I saw in the Columbia student body.

Also (another awesome thing that happens during Manifest), if you happen to like golf and art and have been dying to figure out how to schmelt those two worlds together all of your life, come to PGA (Please Generate Art)! It’s a mini golf inspired art course put on by the graduate student body.

So what does all of this have to do with the Art Education MAT program? Such a great question, thanks for asking. Every year, the graduating cohort of the Art Education MAT program puts on an art exhibition in the Education Department’s graduate student lounge. It’s on 33 E. Congress, room 404 at 7pm. Feel free to stop in while you’re checking out the rest of Manifest!

The graduating cohort puts on an art exhibition that relates to our student teaching experience. We focus on a student or group of students whom we feel we have had a positive influence on (chances are they’ve had a positive influence on us as teachers too). We showcase a lesson or unit that shines a light on their best work. We invite our families, friends, our cooperating teachers, and our students to join us as we celebrate them and the amazing experience we’ve had during student teaching.

If you’ve recently been accepted or are considering the Art Education MAT program, I encourage you to stop by. This will be a great snapshot of what we do and how it all comes together in the end. So, go explore and enjoy the rest of Manifest during the day, and come to the Art Education MAT opening in the evening!