What happens when students who come from seemingly unrelated majors collaborate to put on the same event? This question is being answered with the “Hodge Podge” show at Legends Pubhouse and Venue, opening Thursday, Dec. 7.
Rob Miles, adjunct professor of business and Jordan Vineyard, associate professor of art, have made “Hodge Podge” possible with both of their students working in tandem to put on the show.
“We are trying to create an experience learning objective by doing this project,” Miles said. “This one in particular is interesting since we are collaborating with the Art Department.”
With such a collaboration, both professors have stated they hope this assignment will give their students “real-world experience” and help to boost their public relations skills.
“Anytime that you can do a public display of your work, it’s more of a real-world experience, and you’re exposing your work to a variety of audiences,” Vineyard said. “It’s a way to understand how people are truly engaging with your work, and it gives them [the students] a new realm of feedback.”
Two students working on the project from the Principle of Marketing class are Laura Walling, senior business major, and Jax Brewer, senior business major.
Walling is covering the SWOT analysis for the project (a business strategy identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and the threats a project has), while Brewer is covering the business model. Brewer said that two other students in their group are covering the social media aspects of the project, mainly using Instagram as their platform.
“For this specific assignment, we not only want people to come out and support the art program, but for college kids to know about Legends so they can get more of a diverse crowd as well,” Walling said.
This project has also been challenging for Miles’ students.
“I’ve never done any marketing before, and it is different from anything I’ve ever worked on,” Brewer said. “The time constraint has been a bit difficult, but it’s worked smoothly for the most part.”
Walling said that in her SWOT analysis, the biggest threat is that the project is so late into finals week. She said that many students are already gone for winter break, but she said she still believes it is a fun collaboration between the departments.
“If I could talk to students, I would say I know these projects are hard,” Miles said. “There’s a lot of things that have to end up adapting to, and it gets a little challenging, but the results are phenomenal. If they get behind understanding and focusing on the value that they get from it, and care less about their grades, the grades will naturally follow.”
Miles also said that this is not the first time that such a collaboration has happened. They have created commercials with the winery downtown, as well as partnering with the Chickasha Economic Development Council so students could navigate the political atmosphere concerning the leg lamp downtown.
Vineyard said that she and Miles have collaborated before in a project with Canadian River Brewing Company. Coming from two different departments, Vineyard said that she and Miles speak two different languages, in terms of their teaching.
“There’s this thing that art and business are two very different things, but in some ways they utilize things that are the same,” Vineyard said. “Once you figure out it’s just a language difference, I think that really helps. A lot of artists are entrepreneurs, and they have to be.”
Art and business blended together again when Walling said she realized how much talent there was on campus. She said that after wandering the third floor of Davis Hall recently she was in awe.
“This event is to celebrate our artists on campus, and we want to make sure we get our students there to celebrate in that community, and we want it to be a free event,” Brewer said. “We want it to be open to donations as well. If you want to give to our artists, feel free to donate to them.”
“HodgePodge” can be seen at Legends Pubhouse and Venue on Thursday, Dec. 7 through Friday, Dec. 8. The show will be open during business hours Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Paul Tointigh is a fourth-year communication major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
