The Uneven Dining Duo
By Stephen Sellner and Patrick Strohecker
When students go to the Berkshire Dining Commons for dinner, they know they are being served quality, healthy food. However for some students, there’s more to the UMass dining experience than just the meal on their plate.
Long lines and overcrowding are a familiar scene at Berkshire — the Southwest Residential Area’s most visited dining hall — which has caused increasing levels of frustration for students who believe dinnertime is becoming an inconvenience for them. Not only do students find it difficult to find seating in the main dining area, but also grow frustrated over the use of the Berkshire room, which is only open sparingly.
“It’s already a hassle to eat between 6 and 8 p.m. and that’s with two dining commons,” said Christine McCall, a sophomore at UMass who has lived in Southwest since her freshman year.
Hampshire Dining Commons, Southwest’s other dining hall, has far less traffic than Berkshire, or “Berk” as students refer to it, which makes finding a table far less stressful for students.
“I’d rather go to Hampshire because at least I know I’ll be able to find a seat and enjoy myself,” said Alan Scardapane, a sophomore at UMass. Scardapane, who lives in John Quincy Adams Tower in Southwest, prefers to travel the farther distance to Hampshire than Berkshire, despite the latter being directly outside of JQA.
Arguably the aspect that is most frustrating for students dining at Berkshire is the use of its Berkshire Room, another dining area that is located next to the desert and dishes section.
Oftentimes the room is used for conferences and student group meetings, but sometimes is open for students to eat in. However more often than not, the room is locked, which aggravates students who are having difficulty finding a place to sit.
“I just don’t get it,” said Jeremy Butler, a sophomore at UMass who prefers dining at Berkshire to Hampshire. “Instead of being able to sit and eat without a problem, I have to walk around aimlessly hoping someone will get up so I can take their table.”
Garrett DiStefano, the Director of Residential Dining and Manager of Berkshire, understands this problem, but assured that they do whatever they can to have the Berkshire Room open whenever possible.
“We try very hard … not to have that room reserved during the days we know that are going to be a peak [for] seating,” said DiStefano.
With Southwest housing the vast majority of students on campus, it is the only residential area with two dining commons. However at the beginning of the Spring 2013 semester, Hampshire will be closed for remodeling, leaving Berk as the lone dining hall in the area.
Although the renovations will be completed in time for the Fall 2013 semester, the absence of Hampshire for an entire semester will force more students to travel to Berkshire, which will cause even more frustration with accommodations.
DiStefano says that plans are being made to manage the influx of students to Berk, including opening the Berkshire Room more often, increasing Berk’s hours of operation and turning the Hampden Dining Commons into a temporary dining area.
“Understandably, yes, it could be a bit of an inconvenience for our students,” said DiStefano. “That said, we are going to make every possible accommodation such that students are not inconvenienced.”
One thing that will be new for Berk once Hampshire is under renovation is the fact that Berk will begin serving breakfast, something that is currently limited to Hampshire in Southwest. Presently Berk opens at 11 a.m., but will extend its hours of operation to earlier times in order to accommodate students who want breakfast before their morning classes once Hampshire closes.
The goals of the renovations to Hampshire are to attract students to the dining hall by adding multiple stir-fry lines, multiple food lines with various options and multi-level seating. If plans work out accordingly, the newly re-modeled dining common will pull students towards Hampshire, which will help balance the crowds at both dining commons, making each accommodating to eat at, said DiStefano.
In addition to drawing more Southwest students, the Hampshire renovations should attract students from the Commonwealth Honors College residential complex, said Ken Toong, Executive Director of Dining and Retail Services. Both Hampshire Dining Common and the Commonwealth Honors College residential area, which is under construction in the parking lot along Commonwealth Avenue in between Boyden Gymnasium and the Recreation Center, are scheduled to open for the Fall 2013 semester.
According to Toong the renovations will make Hampshire a more open dining experience, which will replace the boxed in sections and make dining more social. Furthermore the central floor plan will allow students to be able to see all food lines instead of the divided sections of the old model.
Toong described the remodeling process as a “gut renovation,” with the walls along the perimeter being the only remnants of the old Hampshire model. He believes that students find the open atmosphere to be more appealing, such as Berk’s open floor plan.
Toong also went on to add that dinner is a far more social event than breakfast or lunch, as those mealtimes revolve greatly around class schedules and are often finished quickly.
At dinnertime, Toong said, “we all go back to the dining common because it’s a place to eat with your friends, share your stories, share your food with other people,” he said.
DiStefano and Toong have both noticed an increase in the number of students on campus meal plans, which plays a great role in the high levels of trafficking in and out of the Southwest dining commons.
In order to accommodate the increasing number of students, DiStefano said that Berkshire has hired more staff to help turn over tables faster by cleaning them quicker, which eliminates waiting time for students to find seating.
Berk has also opened up its main dining area during its Late Night hours – 9:30 p.m. until close – for students to dine in, which Berk was reluctant to do a year ago.
“What we found is that while … the dining has gained popularity, we want to make sure we are accommodating the students and that’s our number one priority,” said DiStefano.
Although it will offer a challenge in short-term, DiStefano believes that the renovations should solve the problems in the long run.
“Yes, understandably, [it] will be a little bit of a challenge, but we’re going to make every possible effort so that students feel the pinch as minimally as possible,” said DiStefano.
The World at Your Fingertips
By Stephen Sellner
Deidre Corda is running late for class once again.
Once the sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst slides into her seat in the back of the lecture hall, she sighs, takes out her laptop and logs onto Twitter to post the following message:
“Just as I wonder if this day could get off to a worse start, I realize I have to sit
through this boring lecture.”
Just as Corda begins to listen in to her professor, she gets a reply from her roommate, Lauren Pici: “You think that’s bad? I just slipped and fell in a puddle.”
These two college students’ relaying of troubled mornings is a prime example of the use of social networking at UMass.
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| Twitter Courtesy of Google Images |
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| Facebook Courtesy of Google Images |
Twitter, which was created by Jack Dorsey in March 2006, incorporates people’s interactions through a series of 140-character “tweets,” which can be sent to specific people or to the entire public. The user can accumulate an audience for their thoughts and experiences by gaining “followers.”
Facebook, which was launched by former Harvard-student Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, allows users to upload their pictures, videos, experiences and thoughts to their friends. Each user has a “wall,” which contains everything the person has posted in the past, which offers a direct method of communication for friends trying to connect with the specified person.
Both social networking sites are popular among college students including those at UMass. Students log onto these websites during their free time in between classes and even as an excuse to procrastinate on homework or studying.
James Matthews, a sophomore at UMass, has been using Facebook since 2006 and Twitter since 2010. Although he has incorporated both into his socializing, he believes that Twitter is the more convenient method of social networking.
“It’s much more fun to use,” said Matthews. “If a person were to post multiple status’ a day on Facebook, your friends would get annoyed. With Twitter, you can say whatever you want whenever you want and nobody would think twice about it.”
Matthews went on to say that Facebook has an unwritten standard that limits a person to the amount of messages they post on their wall. According to him, people become annoyed when they see multiple messages appear from the same person.
However on Twitter, Matthews, posts anywhere from three to ten tweets a day about anything he comes across during the course of a day. Anything from an experience with a rude employee at Berkshire dining hall or reminiscing a memory with an old friend can constitute reason for a tweet, which Matthews, who can be followed @VoteYesOnJim gladly takes the opportunity to do.
“It allows people to see even the little things that people are up to that you wouldn’t know about on Facebook,” he said. “A lot of the time, I am going through the exact same thing but just never really put much thought into it, which keeps me coming back to the website.”
For those who use both Twitter and Facebook, different experiences yield a tweet while others a status update.
Facebook’s resources are more based on the appearance of the individual and the impression they are trying to make on their peers, while Twitter is based solely around the person’s experiences and views, UMass students say.
Corda and Pici agreed, stating that a Facebook status is more prevalent when a major event is occurring while tweets are for everyday funny instances. For example, they would post a status if they were going home for the weekend but would tweet about the huge traffic jam they’re in on the trip home, they said.
John Doherty, a sophomore at UMass, who currently does not have an account on Twitter but has been on Facebook since high school, believes that tweeting offers people an easy method to share little occurrence that each day offers.
“There is no such thing as a ‘had-to-be-there’ moment anymore because everyone can be there now,” he said.
For example if Doherty is about to cross a crosswalk on his way to class, a car may come rushing out of nowhere to get past him before he crosses. According to him, people would find this situation as prime material for a tweet.
More college students have Facebook accounts than Twitter accounts. According to an April 2011 study conducted by Julie Andrews, 96 percent of college students use Facebook. On the other hand, only 17.8 percent of college students use Twitter, according to research done by Northwestern University in 2010.
However according to a 2011 survey by The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, there’s been a steady increase in Twitter accounts in individuals between the ages of 18 and 29. The study showed that 18 percent of those within this age range use Twitter, which is up from last year’s study that yielded a result of 14 percent.
This jump may be a result of the recent changes that Facebook has instilled in the past year, which have caused a great deal of frustration and questioning by its users.
In September, it featured a new layout that included a ticker along the right-hand side of the page that kept track of every move that a person’s friends were making on the site.
Furthermore, Facebook made changes to its “news feed,” which displays the most important and relevant activity at the top of the page for people to view. Before the changes, users could choose whether to view the most recent posts or the top stories. Nowadays, the news feed only shows the top stories unless the person logs on more frequently in which case it will display the more recent posts.
Jeremy Butler, a sophomore at UMass, believes that more people are switching to Twitter because of the increasingly difficulty of using Facebook.
“I feel people are fed up with Facebook so they’re trying a different alternative to social networking,” said Butler, who was one of the last people in his group of friends to join Facebook and has yet to sign up for a Twitter account.
Arguably the greatest difference between the two social-networking outlets is the ability for celebrities to use Twitter. On the site, a celebrities profile can be labeled with a blue check mark, which symbolizes that it is the official account of that celebrity. On Facebook, however, many people make fan pages for celebrities, pretending to be the actual person without anything to show that it is a fake account.
Corda finds some celebrities to be the most entertaining people to follow on Twitter.
“I follow comedians because they tweet funny things,” said Corda, who feels the humor found on Twitter makes the site more appealing than Facebook.
“I know a lot of people get a Twitter [account] because it’s entertaining,” said Doherty.
While Facebook attracts more college students to date, it appears that Twitter is starting to attract a greater audience.
Even Butler, who admits he’s not the biggest fan of social networking, would not rule out the possibility of signing up for Twitter.
“So many people are peer pressuring me to get one,” he said.
If the trend continues, he may not be the only one giving in to Twitter.
More Than Just A Game
By Patrick Strohecker
On Saturday Oct. 29, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst club hockey team took on the Boston University club hockey team in Springfield, Mass., in a game that benefited the Shriners Children’s Hospital.
The game serves as more than a competition between two opponents, it is a contribution to the community and a chance to give something to a hospital that offers so much to local families.
The game was the second annual playing of the “American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Showdown,” an event that that was created to benefit not only the UMass club hockey team, but to also give back to the Shriners Children’s Hospital.
“There are really two big reasons behind playing this game: to raise awareness for the Shriners Hospital and to showcase ACHA hockey,” said UMass Head Coach Steve MacKay.
In last year’s inaugural game, the UMass team took on Boston College, beating them on a last minute goal, to win by a score of 2-1. But, it is not simply all about playing a game. For the players and coaches, much of the happiness that comes from playing in the game can also be attributed to seeing the smiles on the children’s faces that attend the game.
“It really is a great event for not only us as players, but for the kids as well,” senior captain Adam Spunt said. “Just seeing their smiles when we step onto the ice makes you realize that just by playing a game, you are affecting many more people than just yourselves.”
Both years, the Shriners hospital located in Springfield, Mass., sends kids that have been admitted into their treatment center with symptoms such as cleft lip/palate, orthopedic care, spinal cord injuries and burns to watch the game and meet the players. The kids are able to go out onto the ice before the game and get pictures taken with the players, receive autographs and other free gifts and then afterward, enjoy the great game of hockey.
“One of the main purposes behind us holding this event is for local youth hockey players and children to identify role models that are in reach that they won’t see featured on TV for bad behavior,” said MacKay.
The Shriners Children’s Hospital is a national hospital located in five cities around the United States that service children up to 18 years of age free of charge to the patient’s family. With no source of income for treating children, the hospital has struck upon hard times over the past few years.
“When we visited the hospital there were only four kids in the hospital and there are 40 beds. The Shriners would rather have a hospital full of kids to assist rather than empty beds,” said MacKay.
The event is a chance for the UMass club hockey team to raise money, not only for their program, but to help give back to the hospital and help it through tough times. Not just financially, but give it the recognition to the public so people know that it is there for their services if their children are ever in need.
But, there is also a hockey side to event as well. And despite all of the special events that go on before and after the game, when it is actually time for the players to begin play, they must put everything aside and think about earning a victory.
After a successful inaugural game last year, UMass found it more difficult to bring home a win against the Terriers this season. However, with one goalie change, five unanswered goals and an energetic overtime, UMass was able to comeback from a 5-1 deficit and win the game 6-5.
“It was a great win for the team, especially the way we were able to comeback in such crazy fashion,” said junior Mark Joyce.
The game itself serves as a special event for the players as well. The game is played in the Mass Mutual Center, home of the Springfield Falcons, members of the American Hockey League.
“We see this as an opportunity for the players to showcase ACHA hockey and to have an opportunity to play in a professional venue,” said MacKay.
Both years, the game has had executive board members attend the game, seeing the event as becoming a possible showcase event for the league and becoming an annual event as well. In fact, that is the ultimate goal for MacKay, the program, and Shriners.
“My wish is that someday the ACHA Teams which surround Shriners Hospitals nationally will join in what we have started and adopt the Shriners Hospitals they are near. I would like to see four or five rival games conducted and then a national showdown tournament where the Shriners get some money and a huge amount of free publicity,” said MacKay.
Aside from holding the game, the UMass club team also makes yearly visits to the Shriners Children’s Hospital, bringing players by for the kids to meet and for the players to sign autographs for the children. Last year, the team was only able to make one visit to the hospital, but is looking to make multiple trips there this year.
“Hopefully we can find dates later in the year when our schedule isn’t as busy and make a visit to the hospital about once a month,” said MacKay.
Also on the team’s agenda is to hold a sled hockey game between a local sled hockey team and the club team. Sled hockey is a way for people who are paralyzed to participate in the game of hockey by playing in sleds that have blades on the bottom of them so they can glide around the ice, while also having two sticks that are used to move around the ice and pass and shoot the puck.
“Steve and I have discussed this and we see this as a great way for our team to have some fun and maybe get their butts kicked while they’re at it,” said assistant coach Jamie Magarian.
This season is now the seventh year for the club team’s existence, but not the first time they have given back to the community. In prior years, the team has also held special events at games, including Military Appreciation Night, where they recognize local military members.
The UMass club hockey team has proven time and time again, that hockey is more than just a game.
The Road Less Traveled
Ben Storrow took a more unconventional road to becoming a successful journalist.
A native of Gill, Mass., Storrow went to George Washington University and graduated in 2008 with a degree in International Affairs. After college, he took an internship in Skopje, Macedonia at a Research and Distribution Center. After roughly three to four months, Storrow lost interest in the internship and returned to Massachusetts, where he took a correspondent position at the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
“Originally I didn’t get one of the reporter positions available, but I got a correspondent position covering the towns of Sunderland and Whately and really enjoyed it and kept at it,” said Storrow.
Once another full-time position opened up at the Gazette, Storrow applied and got the job and is now a general assignment reporter, covers politics and the town of Hadley.
Now two years into his career as a journalist, Storrow does not really have any immediate goals as a writer, simply just taking each story as they come.
“I have an open-mind about my career goals. Most importantly to me is just writing enterprise stories, stories that I can go behind the scenes on,” said Storrow. “In the end, I just want to do something that interests me and pays the bills.”
Storrow is a very big advocate of writing about politics and environmental issues. He most recently wrote a story about Massachusetts State Senator Stanley C. Rosenberg and a new bill that would legalize gambling in Massachusetts.
In any one week, Storrow could possibly write 6-12 stories, with his average being about eight stories a week. A story such as the Rosenberg one could take him about two to three days to write.
As a journalist continuing to grow and learn, Storrow has three main journalists that he looks up to: Pulitzer Prize winner Lawrence Wright, who writes for The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wall and Noah Beardman, a reporter for The Boston Globe.
“I think that it’s always good to want to emulate someone. If you want to be a trumpet player, you’d listen to Miles Davis. You want to look up to the best,” said Storrow.
In a life that has taken him many different routes to finally wind up somewhere that he enjoys, one of the things that Storrow has come to realize as a reporter is that “People are going to get mad, but you have to be able to ask the tough questions.”
The Rower from Washington
By Patrick Strohecker
Alex Daggy is trying to make an impact in a sport that two years ago, she had never even thought about participating in.
Daggy is in her second year as a rower for the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Division-I Women’s Rowing team.
A sophomore biology major from Nine Mile Falls, Wash., Daggy was a volleyball star in high school, competing in the Junior Olympics her senior year, when the opportunity to row for UMass came up. “Going into my senior year, I sent them (UMass) a recruiting bio and they called me when I was at the Junior Olympics for volleyball to tell me they were interested,” Daggy said.
“They offered me a full ride. And that was my drive for playing and spending so much money on club volleyball. That it will pay off. It didn’t work out for volleyball, but I still got a scholarship. Otherwise, I guess rowing looked so different than anything I’d ever done before.”
For those who don’t know the sport of rowing, it is a sport that requires elite strength, forcing the rower to be in peak physical condition, using muscles that some may not even know existed.
As for Daggy, she stands at six feet tall, with a long, lean, muscular body, sculpted into the more modern-day athlete’s physique, but making her very different from many of the women that she competes with and against. “If I had to say anything, my height is what has really affected me. Being tall is a rough life,” Daggy said.
“Not only was I always the tallest girl, but the tallest kid in all my classes through like sixth grade. And whenever I’d walk somewhere I felt instantly noticed. It was cool at sporting events when coaches would just stare.”
But, it is her hard-working mentality, not just in sports, but with school as well, that she prides herself on and help her get through the rigors that rowing at a D-I level bring her.
Growing up on Long Lake in the vast wilderness of Washington, Daggy gained a great appreciation for watersports, even though she never participated in any of them. She even went as far as to say it is one of the few things that really shaped her life.
That and the tragedy that struck her life just two days before her 16th birthday.
“My neighbor and hero, Kevin, died in a car accident two days before my 16th birthday. I always modeled everything I did after what he did. His work ethic and drive in sports was always something that made me want to be the best at whatever I did.” said Daggy.
Now, over 2,700 miles away from her home in Washington, Daggy is trying to make a name for herself, in a sport that was foreign to her just two years earlier.
In her sophomore year at UMass, she is trying not only to overcome the rigors of balancing an intense rowing regimen and school, but also to help her team overcome a devastating loss from last winter.
The women’s rowing team lost over $250,000 in boats that were destroyed by the snowstorms that hit the Amherst area. Ever since, the team has been trying to not only compete, but to raise enough money to buy new boats. So far, they have made back only $40,000 of the $250,000 and much of that is from the support of boosters.
But it is not just in rowing where Daggy faces challenges. It is also all around campus, with her fellow students.
Division-I athletes are targets of criticism for what they do, the benefits they receive, both through academics and through materialistic items. “As much grief as people give us for receiving things, such as benefits, what they don’t realize is that we’re doing something that we love,” said Daggy. “It’s like kids who go to school to learn a particular subject area, we come here to do something that we enjoy, too.”
In fact, the life that Daggy chose to pursue may just be tougher than that of the average student. Aside from balancing her sports schedule and her academic schedule, the rigors of being on the rowing team goes beyond the rivers of Massachusetts and outside the seasons of racing.
For Daggy, in order to row in one of the top boats for UMass, she must make a sacrifice that lasts year-round. When the school season ends, she joins a club team back home in Washington to keep training, but must also follow a strict training regiment that requires her to work on her cardio, weigh-training and fitness for anywhere from one to three hours a day.
So for her to want to row in the top varsity boat comes as no surprise. But her goal as a rower goes even further than that.
“My individual goals are to be in the top boat for the Head of the Charles and to raise enough money to row in the Royal Henley Regatta in London on the Thames River,” said Daggy.
Thinking long-term, Daggy is hoping that a tryout for the U.S. Olympic Women’s Rowing team is in the future, but if not, she is still looking to pursue a career in athletics.
“I’d like to work in athletics. Maybe be a coach, assistant coach, or a trainer,” said Daggy. “If not those, maybe I’ll be a Nike model,” she added jokingly with a laugh.
No matter where life takes Alex Daggy, whether it’s a job that follows the path of biology, a career in rowing, or becoming a Nike model, Daggy certainly has a bright future ahead of her. She will always live by the inspirational quote, “No angers. No fears. No regrets.”
But for now, she will go wherever her boat takes her.ESPN Boston's Hall returns to UMass
By Stephen Sellner
As Brendan Hall walked into the room, his audience was quickly captivated by his enthusiasm and passion for his work.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst alumnus offered his experience and advice to Journalism 300 students on Wednesday, Sept. 28 in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, Hall, 26, has excelled early in his career as a journalist, as the Westminster, Mass. native rose quickly through the field and is currently the High School Editor for ESPNBoston.com.
Hall quickly made his presence felt in the room, engaging in discussions on anything from his inspirations to his encounters with professional athletes.
He expressed the pride he takes in his work, citing an experience in which he covered a Catholic Memorial School senior's 24-hour basketball marathon, which included 8,101 shot attempts for brain cancer research.
"I'd love to keep doing stories like that because it had great appeal," said Hall, who stayed at the gymnasium for the entirety of the event and admitted to taking a few shots of his own while the young boy rested.
Hall, who graduated from UMass in 2007, got his first big break in his first semester of his senior year, where he wrote for the Boston Globe through the university's Co-Op program.
In addition, he was very active with the Daily Collegian during his college years, serving as the editor of the Editorial-Opinion section during his second semester of his senior year and writing for both the news and sports sections prior to that.
Hall headed south to Jacksonville, Fla. after graduating for an internship with the Florida Times-Union in which he wrote for the news section.
"I learned more in my career in those three months than in my seven or eight years doing sports stuff," said Hall.
Much of his visit to the class consisted of story telling, in particular one he wrote after the death of former Super Bowl champion and gold medalist, Bob Hayes.
"Jacksonville's Doug Flutie," as Hall referred to him, did not have a headstone at his burial site and the story created a great deal of publicity following its publication.
"It's a story I'm very proud of," said Hall.
The class had the opportunity to pick the guest's brain and ask for advice as the students hope to experience similar success after graduating.
He stressed the importance of being able to write for multiple sections of a newspaper, as employers are looking for writers who are well rounded during the hiring process.
Hall also explained how the relationships one forms in the business could go a long way towards benefiting a journalist in the future, whether with obtaining information for stories or when applying for jobs.
"You never know who you're going to meet in this world," said Hall.
He still plays pick-up basketball with people he used to work with at The Boston Globe, despite the fact that ESPN Boston competes with the Boston newspapers for readers.
Hall went on to share his dream of writing feature stories similar to ESPN.com senior writer Wright Thompson, whose work digs deep into off-the-field stories in the world of sports.
"It's really what I think sports writing is about," said Hall.
For more information on Hall, log onto ESPNBoston.com or follow him on twitter at @BHallESPN.
The Pawn Shop-Fox Proprietors
By Patrick StroheckerWhen the foxes are away, the kids come out and play.
That is the central theme for Tim Winn and Khan, the creators of “The Pawn Shop- Fox Proprietors” art exhibit in the Hampden Art Gallery.
When you first walk into the Hampden Art Gallery, you will bestow upon what looks like a poorly put together shanty home that has been hit by hard times or is set in a very depleted place. The dreary colors and pieces of paper that are peeling off the wall makes it look like the exhibit was constructed by a couple of middle school students. “There seems to be an element of desperation,” Anne LaPrade Seuthe said.
And in reality, that is the vision that Winn and Khan seemed to have.
The “pawn shop” depicts a place that has been hit by hard economic times, much like what many of us have experienced with this past recession. But, the central message was much deeper. “The artists aren’t trying to send out one particular message, but are asking you how valuable even your most prized possessions,” LaPrade Seuthe said.
The artistic ability behind the display was actually quite simple. All of their drawings and paintings started off as simple sketches, only to take shape with the continuous layering of paint and ink. Even the bright signs that hung in the “windows” of the pawn shop were simple, a single “$” set on a bright orange or yellow piece of paper were the most attractive art pieces and is what caught the attention of most people at first glance because it was the only part of the display that used bright colors.
As for the use of foxes, that is something that is new to the artists. In the past, they used animals such as a rat or raccoon, but they felt that a fox was an animal that depicted something that is cunning, much like the proprietors that own pawn shops, according to the artists’ statements, which can be seen at Blurb.com.
When one walks into a pawn-shop, it is because he or she are low on money and having even a little bit of cash in their pockets is more valuable to them than a possession that has sentimental value to them.
Within the display, there are simple drawings of guns, pictures, toys, and other objects that people would pawn off on any given day, just so they have some sort of money in their possession. Set off of the main part of the store is a vault, where all the money is kept within the pawn shop. Without the foxes around, Khan and Winn pose the question and idea in the back of the visitor’s mind that “if you are low on money and not being watched, would you stuff your pockets with cash?”
With the exhibit being located on campus, students are coming out to see it and it is gaining some of positive feedback. “I really appreciate the humor and look forward to seeing more from the artists. It is like a cartoon world with a sinister idea,” said Hampden Art Gallery publicist Thom Konan.
Because of the exhibits simplicity, it is something that more college kids can relate to. When they walk into to view the exhibit, they aren’t going to be viewing intricate art pieces that are boring and old, they will be looking at something that is cooler and appealing to them. Every college kid is strapped for money, so this is something that is appealing to him or her.
Hampden Art Gallery publicist Elenor Wong likes the way the exhibit is interactive. “I think it is very interactive and allows the viewer to take away what they want from it,” said Wong.
The Artists
“The Pawn Shop” is not the first exhibit that Khan and Winn have worked on together. They have been artistic partners for over two years, both receiving their Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. They are both from Provincetown, Mass. and have so far only presented their art on a local scale.
“The Pawn Shop” is an exhibit that both artists really want people to be able to associate themselves with. “A continuing intention behind our work is a sense of inclusion. We hope that everyone can appreciate, understand and interpret our work. We want people to "get" it, and not feel like they are on the outside looking in,” said Winn.
Khan has a past in art that includes her painting on the skin of people and is also the designer behind the costumes that are worn by the foxes. She likes to use bed sheets and linens for costumes because she likes the feeling of being comfortable and free, according to LaPrade Seuthe.
You can view Winn’s other artwork at his website folkdevils.com and Khan’s work at her website zehrakhan.com.
“The Pawn Shop- Fox Proprietors” will be on display until Oct. 6 and is free and open to the public.Showing vs. Telling
It is a journalist's job to write a story that is as descriptive as possible, making it clear to the reader what happened. They must do so by including as much detail as they can, rather than writing a vague story that leaves the reader searching for answers. An example of telling a reader what happened would be:
"As Derek Jeter stepped to the plate, the crowd cheered, hoping that their captain could deliver a base hit and bring the team to victory."
The lack of description in the event that took place gives the reader an idea of what was taking place, but doesn't quite deliver them with the entire scene of what was about to happen. This is where showing would be a good tactic to use. Here is a strong example of showing:
"The sold out crowd at Yankee Stadium, appropriately dressed in navy blue and white, rose to their feet, clapping and cheering, as the newest member of the 3,000 hit club strode to the plate, with Public Announcer Bob Sheppard bellowing out in the background "Now batting, number two, Derek Jeter... Number two."
