UW-Stout will welcome hundreds of students’ families and supporters for Destination Weekend, a time to celebrate students and their campus.
Academic, athletic and community events will run Friday, April 14, and Saturday, April 15, including the annual sensation Fashion Without Fabric, which will return to the runway after last year’s sold-out, exhibit-style event.
A Polytechnic Student Exhibition will highlight research by more than 70 students. And the production of “Be More Chill” will mark the first theater performance on campus in three years.
Destination Weekend is the rebranded, reimagined event, formerly called Family Weekend.
Hitting the runway in style
About 280 students in 14 sections of the 3D Design course are working in teams of two to three to design fashions for the crowd-favorite runway show Fashion Without Fabric.
The show will be held at 7 p.m. on April 15, in the Memorial Student Center Great Hall. Tickets are required and go on sale online on Monday, March 27. The show sells out each year.
Tickets for a Low Stimuli Room will also be available for individuals wanting to watch a live broadcast of the show in an environment with reduced lighting and lower volume, held in the Memorial Student Center Cedar/Maple rooms.
For this year’s theme, “Inventions and Innovations,” teams drew a random slip of paper to see which invention from across the centuries they were assigned. Their fashion creations will represent a vast array of items, including pacemakers, motorcycles, guitars, gummy bears, Lego, kites, jet engines, bubble gum, cassette tapes, and even Cheese Whiz, explained Cathie Weissman, a financial specialist for the School of Art and Design.
Students will begin planning and creating their fashions on March 27, giving them just three weeks to conceptualize and build their outfits before the runway performance.
Weissman, who helps coordinate the event and secures supplies for the students’ designs, said they work with all types of media, and each instructor has a different spin on how to teach the concept.
“It’s just one part of their semester – a very large part,” she said. “It’s exciting to see what they do and the processes and media they use. The students are taking all the skills they’ve learned in their 2D courses and are incorporating them into 3D concepts in their sculptural outfits.”
The School of Art and Design will award two $1,000 scholarships to the winners of the show, thanks to donations by industry partners, alumni and community members.
Hands-on research on display
A Polytechnic Student Exhibition, featuring applied research posters and class projects from more than 70 students across 20 programs, will be on display in Micheels Atrium, Jarvis Hall Tech Wing hallway and Jarvis Hall main lobby.
“The multibuilding display seeks to draw connections between programs and the types of cross-disciplinary opportunities students and student research teams are able to do in their courses,” said Tamara Brantmeier, associate provost and vice chancellor of Student and Partner Engagement, event coordinator.
Student projects will include LAKES REU research, along with nine posters that were presented at Research in the Rotunda, a recent event highlighting student research at the state Capitol. Four interior design projects will line the hallway near the Construction Labs, where students take construction and architectural drafting courses to complement their design and art history work. And packaging projects researching plastic waste and sustainability will be posted near the Plastics Lab.
The exhibition will begin with the UW System Board of Regents visit on Thursday, March 30, and remain up through Destination Weekend.
First theater production in three years
Tickets are available online at University Ticketing for “Be More Chill,” a new sci-fi musical about high school, friendships and bullies, popularity and social outcasts, and what we will do to get what we want.
This is the first theater production on campus in three years because of the pandemic.
Performances will be held in the historic Harvey Hall Theatre:
- Evening performances: 7:30 p.m., April 13-15
- Matinees: 2 p.m., April 15-16
Athletic and recreation events and campus activities
Friday, April 14. These events are open to the public; no registration is required.
- Free Climbing: 3 to 8 p.m., Sports and Fitness Center room 56
- GLOW Climb: 8 to 10 p.m., Sports and Fitness Center room 56
- Blue Devil Productions presents comedian Tommy Ryman: 8 p.m., MSC Great Hall.
Saturday, April 15. These events are open to the public; no registration is required.
- Polytechnic Student Exhibition: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., multibuilding exhibition
- Poker Walk: 10:30 a.m. to noon, beginning in front of McCalmont Hall, 10th Ave. E
- Men’s baseball vs. UW-Oshkosh: Noon and 3 p.m., Nelson Field
- Pickleball and yard games: Noon to 3 p.m., Sports and Fitness Center Multipurpose Room
- Women's lacrosse vs. College of Saint Benedict: 1 p.m., Nelson Field
- StoutProud Bingo: 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., MSC Terrace
- Stout Amazing Race: time and location to be announced
- The Neighbors community card writing: time and location to be announced.
Furlong Gallery and Gallery 209 in the Applied Arts Building will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 14, and noon to 4 p.m. on April 15. Furlong will feature three exhibiting artists Ger Xiong, textile and fiber; Corrine Teed, printmaking and drawing; and Associate Professor Erik Evensen’s sabbatical work.
The student gallery, Gallery 209, will feature two students’ thesis shows. And the Library Art Lab, a new exhibiting space on the first floor of the University Library will also be open for viewing.
Other student showcases coming up are Research Day on Tuesday, May 2, in the Memorial Student Center Great Hall; and SOAD Senior Show on Friday, May 5, in the Applied Arts Building and Micheels Hall.
