In UCD for many years, it was difficult for those interested in the arts to find something for them. Many people would walk up to the ArtsSoc stand during Freshers Week asking about the arts, to be told that UCD didn’t have anything for visual arts enthusiasts. Fortunately, back in 2012, DrawSoc was created. Gaining official recognition from UCD Societies Council in April 2013, the society is now in its third official year.
How did DrawSoc Start?
It started with two students, Sean McIver and Sophia Ellis. They noticed there was a lack of visual art societies in UCD during Freshers’ Week in their first year. So, they decided what they wanted to do was start up a society! They put the word out and spread it around. Slowly, after a few weeks, people started catching on and then DrawSoc got its first committee. We spent a year trying to make the society official and did all sorts of crazy things to get there. It’s a long process to go through but it’s really rewarding when you finally get up and running. We were really lucky to have support from the Art History and Cultural Policy Department in UCD, who we still work with today. They’ve really been our backbone since we started. Before we were official, they were letting us use the Art History classrooms, of which they only had one to spare in the evenings for us to do our classes. That’s how it all began, and now we’re here!
Are you still using the Art History classroom?
We’re not! We’ve spread into campus now that we can book rooms ourselves. We’re trying to change things up, as there’s no one place in UCD that’s perfect for the different types of classes we hold. For instance, we need water for paints brushes, we might need more space for some of our bigger drawing classes, things like that. So we’ve been changing it up, which is great because using the different rooms allows people to get to see the campus, especially as so many international students are interested in the society. We’ve used rooms in Newman and pretty much all of the Student Centre. We’ve gone anywhere that makes sense for the type of class that’s being held!
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