Brown Bag Luncheon Advocates for Creative Collaboration

By Talbert Toole
Lifestyles Editor
talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com

Artists and creative minds can be found all throughout the city of Oxford. With so many events, exhibits and an abundance of creative outlets, the Yoknapatatwpha Arts Council has formed a “Brown Bag Luncheon” in efforts to bring everyone with a heart of gold and a passion for the creatives to the table. 

On Wednesday, June 12, at 12 p.m. YAC invites those in the LOU community to join a “Cultural Round Table Brown Bag Lunch” with conversations regarding the arts in Oxford.

Those with creative ideas and passion to bring the arts to the forefront of the city are asked to bring their own brown bag lunch (not mandatory) and enjoy a group gathering luncheon that advocates for creative collaboration.

Cookies and refreshments will be provided.

The conversation will include arts organizations and cultural programming for the 2019-2020 year. Art groups will plan strategically with each other to ensure the arts are vibrant this upcoming season and are supportive of each other’s work, according to Wayne Andrews, YAC director.

He said the council has been promoting and sponsoring these luncheons for the past three years.

“We are asking people who are apart of the creative community that help define this place,” he said. “Whether it is the [Gertrude C.] Ford Center, [Oxford] Civic Chorus or the [Oxford] Film Festival.”

The conversations regarding planning for the LOU community are not for the upcoming months, Wayne said; however, the luncheon will discuss the planning of events for next year and beyond.

From current artistic trends to challenges in the field, the luncheon plans to solve and plan accordingly to all the on-going conversations that are being talked about in the field of the arts.

Wayne said, for example, the Fiber Arts Festival started from the combination of the University Museum and YAC coming together to bring the exhibit to the community with programming for LOU members to get involved.

Now the Fiber Arts Festival is the largest fiber festival in the state of Mississippi.

People from eight different states travel to Oxford to attend the festival.

“This is what happens because of the Cultural Round Table,” Wayne said. “We all start discussing ‘what if’.”

The luncheon is open to anyone in the community who is interested in bringing creative thoughts to the conversation.

For more information on the Yoknapatatwpha Arts Council and ongoing events in the LOU community, visit their official website.