Art enthusiasts are welcome to join the Inter-Disciplinary Exploration Artisan Society art club Tuesday and Thursday from 1p.m.-2 p.m. in Art Building Rm. 106.

“Formed spring semester 2006, our purpose is to bring together all who are interested in the creation, the study and the appreciation of art in all its forms,” is posted on the IDEAS website, myspace.com/ecc_art_club.

Listed under IDEAS’s interests on the website, “From comics to fine art, sculpture and installation, high brow, low brow and everything in between, graphic design to animation, videogames to fashion design, art is everywhere in everything. We appreciate it all.”

Involved students visit museums for a real art experience, create and build, discuss art in all its forms, network with other artists and make friends interested in the art world.

“I think it is fantastic that we are getting students from all different parts of the art department working together on projects and interacting on ideas,” Russ McMillin, professor of sculpture, said. I think that it promotes a certain amount of camaraderie and they are developing memories of going and doing different things than they would do otherwise.”

IDEAS promotes a greater awareness of art in general by allowing students the opportunity to visit museums on field trips, listen to discussions with visiting artists and bounce ideas off one another.

“We have tried to make ourselves more active in the art community,” Michelle Hubacek, 31, art history major, said. We try to provide an opportunity that students wouldn’t normally have.”

For example, the IDEAS art club went to San Francisco toward the end of the fall semester 2007 and they spent the weekend visiting the DeYoung, The Legion of Honor, The Cartoon Art Museum and the San Franciso Museum of Modern Art.

“One of the things I need to explain to people who aren’t really interested in art is that to really get it, you have to go and see it,” Hubacek said. “You don’t get the same experience from looking in a book; so by taking everyone on a field trip and going to show them all these awesome pieces, it was fantastic and much more of a learning experience than I expected it to be.”

New IDEAS club president, Heather Anacker, 23, studio art major, said that she is looking forward to getting active people on campus involved with the local art scene.

“In the club we have people who are actual, local, working artists, displaying their work and getting out there,” Anacker said. “I think that the club creates a really great environment where they can meet these people and find out how they do it and what makes it work for them.”

IDEAS club can break the barrier of doubt that student artists sometimes experience.

“I think that IDEAS is a great opportunity for networking, but you also learn what is going on in the local art community and you get involved in group projects to kind of get that art community going,” Anacker said.