Miami University students from the College of Creative Arts will be showcasing art, installations, and performances from noon to 5 pm on April 19, outside of the Center for Performing Arts in the Art Quad. 

Visitors will be able to view gallery pieces, witness musical performances and shop handmade ceramics from the Miami Ceramics Club.

“It’s a really good way to get the Ceramics Club’s name out to people, because I feel like a lot of people don’t know about us,” said Melanie Schaefer, the club’s social media manager. “We get a lot of people buying our work.”

Schaefer, whose love for ceramics grew after she took beginner classes at Miami, has been a member of the Ceramics Club for two years. Club members will be selling plates, mugs, bowls and sculptures at the festival. Visitors will be able to make their own pottery with the club.

The College of Creative Arts was able to accumulate work from many artists in the department who have reserved a spot to exhibit or sell their art.

For a second year, Gianna Velotta, an art studio major, will be showcasing her art at the festival. She will be selling canvas tote bags this year with hand-stamped art prints with other art students. The process she used was done in her lithography class, where she used photo plates to stamp the ink onto blank tote bags.

At this year’s festival, student art prints will also be on sale. Student volunteers will rotate the prints on display, so each student will have an equal opportunity to sell their work.

Velotta warned other students that selling art for the first time can be difficult. “I kind of overestimated how [sales] will do, because you can’t please everyone,” Velotta said. Last year, she said she spent a long night in the studio, anxiously making new prints for the sale the next day.

“If you want to sell good prints, do not [make art] the night before,” she said.

Now, Velotta’s pieces are done in advance as they center around a bar theme. “What I like to do for a lot of my work, is when I go out with my gals, I take photos and compile a lot of different images onto one surface and I just go from there,” Velotta said. “It’s just really fun to see a different side to everyone’s personalities outside of class.”

The bags that she will be selling this year will showcase that bar theme, her tote bag design featuring a woman inside a glass martini with an olive on the side.

She tells other artists that they should put themselves out there by trying to sell their work.

“Go for it. You have nothing to lose, mostly to gain. Just be true to yourself as an artist and you don’t have to completely appeal to the person’s taste because you like what you like and so does everyone else.”

This year’s Sparkfest will also feature an immersive art experience from emerging technology in business and design majors and work from the architecture and interior design department.