Colorado Student Media Association

CSMA

Colorado Student Media Association

CSMA

Colorado Student Media Association

CSMA

Star Wars costume media preview brings student journalists to Denver Art Museum

Students from 8 CSMA member schools mingle with professionals at unveiling of major DAM exhibit

Our partners at the Denver Art Museum have been extending invitations to student media to participate in their media previews for several years, but the Nov. 9 event may have drawn the greatest interest yet. Two dozen students, plus four advisers, took part in a unique opportunity to explore the Star Wars and the Power of Costume exhibit. They had a chance to interview artists and museum officials, take photographs and shoot video, and even heard from Gov. John Hickenlooper about the importance of culture in Colorado.

star-wars-costume-exhibit-media-previewSchools represented included Arapahoe, Conifer, Estes Park, Monarch, Mountain Range, Palmer, Regis Jesuit, and Thornton. All received press packets and a thumb drive with publicity documents and high resolution images from the show, which runs until April 21. The slide show of images with this post gives some context for the exhibit.

The day began with over 100 journalists gathered in the museum auditorium, and with remarks from Christoph Heinrich, the museum director. He said some might have questioned an art museum focusing on film, but taught the German word gesamtkunstwerk, which roughly translates to “the total work of art.” Costume design, he said, was an essential part of that totality.

Other speakers tried to put the nearly 40 years of “Star Wars” films into perspective, commenting on the weaving together of characters and creatures, the then-revolutionary design of the universe, and the mythology that lies at the heart of the series. The films continue to resonate due to their setting the “hero’s journey” theme in a new way.

Hickenlooper recalled seeing the first Star Wars film (in 1977) at a movie theater in Bozeman, Mont., and called it “truly transformative.” He also discussed the economic impact of arts and culture on Colorado, with billions of dollars of revenue, and how such cultural opportunities “leverage the quality of life” in the state.

The most prominent artist at the media preview was Iain McCaig, who was the concept artist for Episodes 1-3 and 7. Journalists had the opportunity to question him in one of the exhibit’s galleries, and to see the a mock-up of the studio equipment he worked with to create the thousands of different costumes used in the series.

Student journalists then had plenty of time to browse the exhibit.

It was perhaps no accident that “Rogue One” will be released Dec. 16, and CSMA would love to see student reviews and features on Star Wars, along with coverage of the Denver Art Museum exhibit.


 

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