Western Washington University’s Drawing Jam is an annual event that happens every fall quarter in the Viking Union Gallery room 507. It is a way to incentivize students to share their drawing skills and make friends.
This year, the event took place from Oct. 4 to Oct. 14.
Carson McCully, the VU Gallery director, said the Drawing Jam gives new students the opportunity to get to know the VU Gallery space and participate in a collaborative project.
“The walls are fully covered in butcher paper, and we set up a variety of art supplies that people can use at their leisure,” McCully said.
Every fall quarter, students have an opportunity to contribute to the wall with different types of art and sometimes even written dialogue. However, there are some rules to the drawings.
“We do not allow hate speech, anything that is offensive to a group of people or individual, and we certainly want to keep it appropriate for campus,” McCully said. “But otherwise we want to allow people to have creativity.”
Casey Hayden, Western’s AS Productions adviser, said you don’t need to be an expert to participate in activities at Western like the Drawing Jam.
“[The Drawing Jam] includes everyone, whether you are a highly-skilled art major or someone who just loves doodling and adding color and beauty to life,” Hayden said.
Almost every year, the gallery runs out of space on the walls because of the high participation from students at Western.
“People enjoy the chance of getting together and creating together. If people wanted to expand it to every quarter, it would be well received,” said Destiny Rodenberger, a member of Western’s art club.
Drawing Jam lasts for 10 days and usually happens in October.
For the last couple of years, organizers have thrown the drawings away at the end of the event. This year, they are trying something new by putting out a call on social media, inviting people to pick up their drawings on the last day and take them home.
McCully said they might store them for a while and see if they are able to reuse them for future events.
To learn more about the VU Gallery and next events, visit the AS Productions WIN page.
Paloma Ortiz (she/her) is a second-year journalism student and campus life reporter for The Front. You can reach her at paloma.thefront@gmail.com
