Music and laughter filled the Thorne Sagendorph Art Gallery during the Class of 2026 and the Art Collective’s Open Mic Night.
The event was held on Thursday, March 13, and ran from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the classroom in the gallery. Students could sign up in advance to perform during the event, but there was also an opportunity to sign up at the event itself or to perform without signing up when prompted by the host. Students could also sign up in advance to set up a display of their art to sell during the event.
Junior Erin Plummer, president of the Class of 2026, discussed the event and why they decided to put on an open mic night.
“We’ve done other events, but it wasn’t an open mic night,” said Plummer. “The reason we landed on doing one was because a lot of us on the e-board are actually in the sciences, and we wanted to pull in a new population of people.”
“The hope is people come, people have a really nice time,” Plummer continued. “It’s just so people can relax before spring break [and] express themselves.”
Junior Hunter Perkins, vice president of the Class of 2026, talked about why they wanted to hold the open mic night in the Thorne Art Gallery.
“Some science people also love art things, some art people love some science things,” said Perkins. “This location is right in between the Redfern [Arts Center] and the Science Center.”
“We really wanted, as the Class of 2026, to incorporate everybody with an open mic night,” continued Perkins. “We … wanted to give an opportunity for people to share what they do.”
The night started with a student playing covers of several Green Day songs and followed in a musical direction for the majority of the performances, with students singing either covers or their own original songs. Two students performed their own stand-up comedy routines, one poking some fun at doing comedy in a mostly-music open mic night.
“I was collaborating with Class of 2026 on this event, helping them advertise,” said junior and Art Collective Treasurer Bugzy Richards, who played music with their partner AJ Coletti. “AJ and I perform regularly together … so we figured we might as well throw some songs together and perform tonight.”
“I had a really great time; it was nice to see such a good turnout,” continued Richards. “Everybody seemed to be having a good time, I feel like it was a really successful night.”
“I feel like I was smiling the whole time,” said Coletti.
Students in attendance said they enjoyed the various performances.
“All the other performers were amazing, everybody who turned out tonight has such big balls, everybody’s awesome,” said Richards.
“[It was] so good; everyone was so talented,” said senior Abigail McBride. “It was so cool, there were so many people here which was awesome.”
McBride continued, “I’m just here to support [my friends], but it was so exciting to see everyone’s different arts and styles all coming together, and everyone watching was so supportive.”
Orion Corbin can be contacted at
