By Yijing Shen, Distribution Manager
The West Liberty University’s annual MAD Festival will take place on WLU campus on Friday, April 12, 2019. The competition is open for submissions between Jan. 14 and March 1, 2019.
MAD stands for Media, Art and Design. The festival is a one-day celebration with art and design workshops, professional artists, and an award ceremony for participants.
The competition is open to high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. All WLU students can participate as well, and they will be judged separately. High schoolers are welcome to submit two works for each category while WLU students can enter up to four works in each category.
This year’s entry for the Festival will be limited to 25 students per high school due to the high interest and limited space. As of Jan. 28, registration is open for teachers who would like to bring their students to the festival.
The competition isn’t only limited to art students. International student Grace Amani Bulabula who studies Marketing at WLU won first place in Digital Imaging in 2018. She is excited about participating in this year’s MAD Festival.
“I hope to win a prize this year, too,” said Bulabula “I really enjoyed the MAD Fest last year, and winning the prize was unexpected.”
Professor James Haizlett is the founder of MAD Fest. While he is on sabbatical this spring, the festival is being run by a committee consisting of Dr. Matthew Harder, Professor Sarah Davis, Professor Jeff Pfister, and Director of the Center for Arts and Education Lou Karas. They have been planning the festival since August.
“Our main goal is to showcase the creative work that young people are doing in the tri-state area,” said Harder.
“It gives every participant the opportunity to see and hear the creative work that is happening around the area.”
The 2019 MAD Fest competition categories includes Traditional Art, Audio, Video, Digital Design and Photography. Each category contains one or more sub-categories, and they are
Traditional Art:
- Mixed Media
- Drawing
- Painting
- Sculpture
Audio:
- Original Electronic Music
- Audio Documentary
Video:
- Short Film
- Video Documentary
Digital Design:
- Animation
- Digital Imaging
- Graphic Design
- Interactive
Photography:
- Digital
- Film
If you are interested in participating or have any questions, please contact [email protected]. For more information, visit here for more info.
Poster Credits: Morgan Wiedebusch and Lucas Shaver
