Festival of Scholars and Artists Highlights Student Achievement

Students gather to get an up-close look at spiders during the Festival of Scholars and Artists, a daylong event celebrating student achievement across disciplines.
Credit: Tara Elsa BA ’26

During Lewis & Clark’s annual Festival of Scholars and Artists (FOSA), the community dedicates a full day, free of classes, to celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of our undergraduate students. This year’s event was held on April 14.

The festival’s planning committee designed a jam-packed schedule that highlighted student research and creativity, including discussion panels, poster sessions, art exhibits, and an evening Arts@LC Showcase.

In preparation for the event, faculty on the planning committee sifted through dozens of nominated student research projects. They then made their final selections and created interdisciplinary panels around affinities that came out of project abstracts.

On the day of the festival, students presented to their peers and professors, as well as prospective students and community members, on a wide range of topics, such as “The Binding, Building, and Banning of Books”; “Computers, Cults, and Climate Change”; “Healing Cells, Bodies, and Societies”; “Spiders—A Bounty of Biodiversity”; and “What I’ve Learned by Studying a Foreign Language.”

“FOSA is intellectually engaging and fun,” says Bruce Suttmeier, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and associate professor of Japanese. “There’s such an energy in the air … students beaming with enthusiasm about the projects they’ve spent all year working on, the senior art show that started with ideas nurtured several classes ago, a music showcase excerpting pieces of original student compositions. What’s great about FOSA is that you get to talk to students about these projects all day long.”

FOSA 2023

Students performing on the Arts@LC stage.

Show image: Students performing on the Arts@LC stage.

Audience members got to see a variety of music, theatre, and creative writing performances.

Show image: Audience members got to see a variety of music, theatre, and creative writing performances.

Students were able to showcase their creative side during the Arts@LC showcase.

Show image: Students were able to showcase their creative side during the Arts@LC showcase.

Students presented research they spent the whole year working on.

Show image: Students presented research they spent the whole year working on.

The work of graduating art majors was on display in the Hoffman Gallery.

Show image: The work of graduating art majors was on display in the Hoffman Gallery.

The 2023 senior art exhibition was titled Two Layers Away.

Show image: The 2023 senior art exhibition was titled Two Layers Away.

Poster sessions allowed for students to directly engage with their peers and faculty members.

Show image: Poster sessions allowed for students to directly engage with their peers and faculty members.

FOSA gives students the opportunity to showcase their research findings while their peers learn about new topics.

Show image: FOSA gives students the opportunity to showcase their research findings while their peers learn about new topics.

Student presenting their research findings during a poster session.

Show image: Student presenting their research findings during a poster session.

Within the perimeter of Alumni Circle, attendees enjoyed music and theatre performances as well as creative writing readings, all of which highlighted individuals involved in Arts@LC. In Miller Center for the Humanities, attendees enjoyed A Moving Image Festival, sponsored by rhetoric and media studies and Lambda Pi Eta Honor Society. FOSA’s main stage performances were held just outside of the Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art, which currently houses the work of graduating art majors in the 2023 senior art exhibition, titled Two Layers Away.

Members of the Student Academic Affairs Board (SAAB) also collaborated on festival activities. SAAB-sponsored events included the second annual FOSA Feud, a friendly competition among L&C academic departments based on the TV game show Family Feud. The environmental studies team took the win over English, music, and sociology/anthropology.

The daylong festival ended with a dramatic Fire Arts Performance outside the Olin Center for Physics and Chemistry.

FOSA was made possible by the hard work of many individuals, including Isabelle DeMarte, associate professor of French; Kyle Lascurettes, associate professor of international affairs; Jens Mache, professor of computer science; Matthieu Raillard, associate professor of Hispanic studies; Emma Ehlers BA ’23, SAAB representative; and Margaret Salstrom, administrative assistant in the dean’s office.

Festival of Scholars and Artists Student Academic Affairs Board Arts@LC