As has been the case for the past four years, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (DPAC), in conjunction with their student advisory committee, will be hosting Art Attack — a student activities fair of sorts with an explicitly more artsy flavor to it — Wednesday.

The fair, which will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., will feature a number of informational booths run by various fine arts-focused clubs from the Notre Dame community. Those same groups will host a smattering of performances held in the concert halls and auditoriums throughout the center followed by opportunities for attending students and members of the Notre Dame community to indulge in refreshments and food provided by DPAC. This assembly of clubs on campus that flirt with dance, vocals, painting and the like provides, as the Snite Museum of Art’s website puts it, a unique opportunity for students to “sample the diverse range of performing, visual and literary arts” in the community all at one time.

Art Attack will primarily take place and be set up in the main lobby of the performing arts center, but, as has been the case in past years, some of the attractions and performances will also occur on the Center’s back patio facing Eddy Street and in the various venues throughout the building, including Philbin Studio Theatre and Patricia George Decio Theatre.

Sean Martin, associate director of programming and engagement at DPAC and director of the Center’s student advisory committee, describes the event as something that, although “conceived six years ago as a way to introduce the arts on campus to incoming first year students,” now has evolved and grown into “a great way for any student, new or returning, to learn what the arts have to offer” in the Notre Dame community. It provides students with both deep and fleeting interests in the arts to engage with student organizations in a benign, non-committal way that allows them to further pursue involvement if they so wish.

The purpose behind Art Attack, however, has changed over the years. It is no longer an event that simply seeks to provide a platform for arts-based student organizations to market themselves to members of the tri-campus community, but an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the newly developing arts district on the southern end of campus.

“As the arts district continues to grow on the south end of campus with DPAC, O’Neill Hall of Music and Sacred Music, Walsh Family Hall of Architecture and soon the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, we want students to know that the new district isn’t simply a collection of beautiful buildings, but an ever-growing and changing collection of departments that offer a robust mix of programming and experience that increase the quality of life on campus,” Martin said.

Art Attack is an event that, according to Martin and the DPAC student advisory committee, has grown in attendance and involvement each year. It not only features student performances, opportunities to learn more about various clubs and free giveaways, but it also affords students the opportunity to learn more about the fine arts majors, buy ticket bundles to events that will take place throughout the year at DPAC and mingle with other students who are also interested in the arts.

The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center is located on the far south end of DeBartolo Quad, directly opposite of the Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering. Martin advises attendees to “enjoy some free food, free giveaways and performances by your peers.”

Tags: acapella, art attack, Browning Cinema, Dance, DPAC, leighton concert hall, Singing, student activities fair