By now, we have probably all heard the term “Arts Pass” thrown around campus quite a bit – maybe more than that Utes football, or the term “Last Time BYU Beat Utah..” – But what is an Arts Pass really, and why should we care?
Simply put, an Arts Pass is a special bonus that comes with your UCard. With an Arts Pass, you can get free or discounted admission using your student id to any on-campus performance, exhibit, museum, etc. each year! Here is a little handy guide to what this fancy little Arts Pass can get you:
1. FREE admission to ALL on-campus museums and exhibits! This means free entry to the Utah Museum of Fine Art and the Department of Art’s Gittins Gallery. You can also gain free access to any guest artist lecture. These professionals will dish their lifestyle secrets and their mastery of the business side of the arts (and, come on, how artists can really make a living and skip the whole “starving artist” part). With your student id, you can also get free access to the Natural History Museum! (Hey, Mother Nature is a good artist, too).
Gittins Gallery, November 2015
2. One free ticket to any Ballet and Modern Dance concert in the Marriott Center for Dance! If you can handle feeling a little envious of the performers’ flexibility and impossibly graceful muscles, this is a good break from that Netflix binge and that dent you’ve been making in the couch. Maybe it’ll inspire the Tiny Dancer inside of you! (Thanks for that one, Elton John).
Grey Matters: Dance for Parkinson’s In Performance by the School of Dance
3. Free admission to any Department of Film and Media Arts screening or event! The next Steven Spielberg or Sofia Coppola might be sitting right next to you; make a witty remark and you’ve just made it into a future best-selling autobiography. And, let’s be honest, this is the REAL break from Netflix you’ve been waiting for.
U Department of Film and Media Arts is one of the highest ranking film schools in the nation.
4. Free admission to any Department of Theatre Performance. Get a first-hand peek at the formative projects of the next Leonardo DiCaprio or Meryl Streep, and understand for yourself why the U Department of Theatre is the best theatre program in Utah and one of the highest ranking in the West. Our Performing Arts Design Program is #1 in the nation! So head over to the Department of Theatre and watch future celebrities get their start on our campus. Bring It On!: The Musical kicked off the season on September 16th and runs through the 25th.
U Department of Theatre has just begun production of their current season.
5. Free admission to any School of Music performance! Brush up on your Mozart, or bust out your Miles Davis mood, and listen to their 21st century incarnates at Libby Garner Hall. Have something impressive to bring home for the holidays this year, like your newfound love for Bach’s Fugue in G minor, instead of your obsession with Taylor Swift – who even after all the scandal – you have to admit, the girl gets heartbreak.
U School of Music resides in Libby Gardner Hall, which is right in President’s Circle.
6. $5 tickets to any Utah Presents performance at Kingsbury Hall. Some Utah Presents tickets can be as much as $100. This is where you can really feel impressive. Take a seat in the lovely red velvet seats and oh-so-casually mention that the mural that surrounds the stage is one of the last surviving early 20th century theatre murals in the country. That is something that will definitely get you some brownie points with grandma.
Utah Presents lives in Kingsbury Hall, which is located in President’s Circle.
7. Discount tickets to Pioneer Theatre Company. PTC is one of the west’s biggest regional theatre companies and it is located right on our campus! With an Arts Pass, you can get FREE preview tickets the first Thursday night of the run or $5 tickets at Student Rush one hour before the performance. You can also get half-priced tickets for reserved seating bought in advance. Theatre majors can get 2 free tickets to all of their shows whenever they’d like, so make a new theatre friend to take you! But please, don’t ask them to stop singing along to the songs during the show or complain about waiting in the cold at the stage door for the actors’ autographs or you’ll lose your shot at a second date.
Pioneer Memorial Theater is located at the southwest corner of campus, near the Law Building.
The arts on campus are literally begging for you to come and experience them. An Arts Pass is the ultimate money-saver-gift-from-the-gods that is clinging onto your UCard, hoping that you’ll notice it and give it a chance. 28,000 Arts Pass tickets were used during the 2015-2016 school year alone, making the Arts Pass one of the most successful programs on the U of U campus. Take advantage of this opportunity to ditch the sweatpants and finally break out that new dress that has been crammed in the back of your closet. Soak up all the inspiration you can get from some of the most inspirational students on campus. They create culture, you live in it.