This year, Washington and Lee University offered two fine arts-related pre-orientation trips for first-year students.
Threads of Connection: Fiber Arts Exploration was new this year. The trip introduced eight first-years to fiber arts such as knitting, crocheting and drop spindling through on campus classes and day trips to small businesses.
“We tried to give a good showing of how the fiber arts work not only on campus, but also in Lexington. We also wanted to show more about ethicality and how people make their own clothes,” said trip leader Lizeth Moctezuma, ’27.
Students had the opportunity to visit Simple Hill Farm in Harrisonburg and the shops of downtown Lexington. The trip also took students to the Virginia Quilt Museum and Washington and Lee’s costume shop.
They got to put their skills to use by working on quilt blankets to donate to the Rockbridge Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
“There were some very niche areas that we explored that even if you’re involved with the arts, you don’t hear much about,” shared trip participant Ayame Merkel, ’28. “It was so cool to learn about artsy things that I’ve never heard of and to try them out.”
While Threads of Connection was an entirely new experience, Home is Where the Art is had been reworked from the previous year. The 11 first-years on this trip traveled to Washington, D.C., and New York City to attend performances and take classes about theater and dance.
“This is a trip essentially for those who have never been to big cities before to see how the arts are done professionally and see how the arts apply to the real world,” shared Elise McPherson, ’26, trip leader and president of the Repertory Dance Company.
In Washington, D.C., students took a playwriting class where they created a play from scratch in 20 minutes. They also attended an improv performance and saw “Mamma Mia” in the Kennedy Center. In New York City, students took a class on staged falling, watched an interpretive dance performance called “Ain’t Done Bad” and saw “Wicked” at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway.
“I didn’t realize how much I’d like the shows because I didn’t see myself as being much of a theater person,” said Edison Dokken, ’28. “Seeing a broadway musical and a performance at the Kennedy Center really added to my understanding of the arts as a whole.”
Not only do these trips allow students immersion into the arts, they also introduce first-years to college life and help them build connections prior to the school year.
“I’m glad we had a smaller group [with eight of us] because sometimes larger groups can be intimidating, and I could meet people with similar artsy interests to me,” said Aleah Schurr, ’28, a participant of the Thread of Connection trip. “I learned a lot of new skills and ended up meeting a lot of new people that I’m still close with today.”
