Manifest Returns to Grant Park

File Photo/The Chronicle Students gather around the Second Stage during Manifest 2003. Located in Grant Park, it is one of two stages that will host more than 30 musical performances at this year’s Manifest.

When it comes to Manifest, size does matter.
Now in its third year, Columbia’s annual urban arts festival features the work of more than 1,000 students representing every department at the college. The May 27 finale to the monthlong collegewide showcase will take place on two Grant Park stages, the Columbia College Sculpture Garden and at HotHouse, 31 W. Balbo Drive. The Puppetry Performance and Parade, the Artwalk and the Tic Toc Performance Project are returning this year alongside three new headlining bands.
“To sum it up: bigger and better,” said Vice President of Student Affairs Mark Kelly. “Every single academic department is involved. … And therefore there is senior or graduate work coming from every department.

“We have 50 to 100 volunteers, interns, part-time staff and full-time staff helping to organize, promote and make sure everything works out technically,” said Ania Greiner, coordinator of Manifest.
With nearly 30 separate musical performances, more than 35 exhibits and events in 12 galleries and the presence of 40 student organizations, the one-day finale is jam-packed with activities, art and presentations.

“Some people have wondered, ‘Well, gee isn’t there too much?’ And my response is, welcome to the breadth and depth of Columbia. By necessity, it has to be too much,” Kelly said.

The idea for Manifest grew out of Kelly’s belief that students should have a space to present their work.
“I have always felt we didn’t do enough to showcase student work … that a student’s body of work is the most important thing they do. That coursework is a tool to develop that work,” Kelly said. “We as a college needed to do a better job of celebrating it and showcasing it.”

But the event has also had its share of growing pains, including three different names for the monthlong festival, Mayfest, Mayfest/Manifest and Manifest

“It’s also gone through what you expect, some sort of a maturation process. The first year there was a bit of ‘huh?’ And we continue to make changes in it as we grow,” Kelly said. “… Manifest is the perfect term because the outcome of Columbia education is student work, is the manifestation of what happens at Columbia.”

The overall mission of Manifest is “to showcase in an open and public forum, the creative work of the graduating and advanced arts and media students at Columbia College Chicago,” according to the Manifest website. Part of showcasing that work includes getting it out into the community. “[Manifest] promotes the school as a living and working institution,” Greiner said.

“I think you’d call it the heart of what we’re about. We are educating students,” Kelly said. “And an education at Columbia means that a student develops his or her body of work. … And the festival simply shines a light on that work. It, in effect, brings it to life for the entire college and for the larger public.”

In order to get the work seen by those in the media arts industry, there is an invitation-only, private reception for prospective employers

“We’re targeting in particular the visual arts professional community to come down and see what Columbia students are doing,” Kelly said.

Events on the Main Stage kick off with performances by two student dance groups, Adrenaline at 12:10 p.m. and CRUI at 12:30 p.m. The Columbia College Jazz Ensemble presents original compositions and arrangements at 4:15 p.m. This year’s festival features three bands in the lineup; Copeland performs at 5:15 p.m., followed by Heiruspecs at 6:30 p.m. The headline band, Beat the Donkey, a 10-member world music group consisting of dancers, percussionists and singers headed by Cyro Baptista takes the stage at 7:45 p.m.

The Garden and Second stages host six bands, two dance troupes, performances by the Columbia College Jazz Guitar Ensemble, the Columbia College Senior Jazz Combo, the Black Actors Guild and various others. Events on the Garden Stage, located at the corner of 11th Street and Wabash Avenue, close with EVE: Celebrating Women in Music at 7:15 p.m. Local band Saraphine will conclude the events on the Second Stage in Grant Park with a performance at 6 p.m.

Students will have the opportunity to choose the unofficial Columbia mascot when they visit “The Core” in Grant Park. Made up of Columbia’s Student Organization Council and the Student Government Association, The Core offers students the chance to get information about or even join Columbia’s student organizations, as well as receive a free massage and even get a reading by a psychic.

The nonstudent Columbia community has a “core” of its own this year. For the first time in Manifest history, College President Warrick L. Carter hosts a reception for all Columbia staff and faculty at the HotHouse, which is also home to “Through a Sketch and Idea is Born,” an exhibition from graduate and undergraduate students in the interior architecture studies program, according to Kelly.

Kelly said he feels that encouraging the faculty and staff to get out into the festival and reception is important because, “it’s not just students who have a stake in this, there’s faculty and staff who help inspire and guide the students as they develop their work.”

And while Manifest ’04 hasn’t ended yet, Kelly is already thinking about next year.

“I think we have a heady appetite. We want the festival to continue to grow,” Kelly said. “First of all, in quality, we expect student work to become strong year by year. I hope that the media and arts industries that we’re preparing students for will be more evident.”