In collaboration with student organizations including Georgetown Radio (WGTB), GU Queer People of Color (QPOC) and Prospect Records, the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), Georgetown’s student government, is presenting 23 events for Georgetown Arts Week April 6 through April 13.
The weeklong series of exhibits, events and performances marks the revival of GUSA’s Arts Week, which had been an annual spring tradition before the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the week, students will perform concerts and pop-up a cappella performances in Red Square, mount a full-scale fashion show, perform full dance showcases and exhibit paintings and sculpted works.
Sebastian Larsen (SFS ’27), president of Prospect Records, Georgetown’s student-run record label, said Arts Week sheds light on Georgetown’s unique arts community.
“What’s cool about Arts Week is it’s a chance to amplify art on campus, of course,” Larsen told The Hoya. “What I would hope for it to do is to raise awareness about the art community on campus, whether it’s music or visual art or whatever else.”
Larsen, a member in the student band No One and the Elses, said Arts Week has given Prospect Records the opportunity to host benefit concerts.
“It’s been a lot of fun, especially collaborating with a student affinity group or more of a charity group,” Larsen said. “It’s very nice to be able to pair my passion and the club’s passion for live music with a good cause that is really going to tangible benefits.”
Prospect Records co-hosted the Arts Week kickoff concert in Bulldog Alley on April 6, and will host “Cosmic Bloom,” a benefit concert for Ward 2 Mutual Aid, a communal organization that provides aid to homeless people in Ward 2 of Washington, D.C., on April 12.
Other musical performances throughout the week include the Spring Sing a cappella festival and performances from the Chimes and the Saxatones in Red Square. Dance student groups like Ritmo y Sabor and Vibe will perform dances throughout Arts Week.
Isabella Sicilian (CAS ’26), WGTB’s general manager, said Georgetown Radio makes Arts Week possible by giving musicians the technical and logistical support they need to perform.
“At WGTB, we view Arts Week as an opportunity to provide students with performance spaces and make equipment accessible to all,” Sicilian wrote to The Hoya. “It’s important to us that students have platforms to express themselves and even advocate for issues through their art.”
Sicilian said Arts Week is valuable for both Georgetown’s artists and the broader campus community.
“A dedicated Arts Week is particularly valuable at Georgetown, given how academically rigorous our environment is,” Sicilian wrote to The Hoya. “Students need these creative spaces to balance out the academic intensity.”
“We hope students take away an appreciation for artistic spaces on campus and feel encouraged to engage with creative outlets,” she added.
In addition to musical events, Arts Week will feature Diamanté, an annual fashion and dance show presented by QPOC, a show that will highlight work by creatives of color April 13.
Giovanni Garcia (SFS ’25, GRD ’26), the president of QPOC, said Diamanté is a multidisciplinary arts experience unlike any other event on campus.
“It’s not just a fashion show, it’s almost like a fashion experience, because you see these people in real time modeling their clothes, modeling other people’s clothes, as well as having these amazing talented dancers come up on stage and perform for you,” Garcia told The Hoya.
Larsen said having a rich arts culture on campus brings the university community together.
“I think it’s so important to have a developed arts community on campus for the holistic development of students,” Larsen said. “And I think it’s important just purely for a student body to have the ability to have a live music scene where they can go support their friends in bands and play music and celebrate music.”
Garcia said QPOC’s mission of providing an outlet for self-expression for queer students of color coincides with Arts Week’s mission.
“It’s like the whole mission of the arts and expressing yourself — QPOC is a place where everyone can be expressive and do what they want to do as they please,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he hopes Arts Week inspires students to explore new forms of artistry and self expression.
“I hope that kids at Georgetown, when they see performances that we’ve put on at QPOC, like Diamanté, like the concert, see these opportunities as ways for them to get involved, and ways for them to learn to be the most authentic versions of themselves,” Garcia said.
