Students took a break from their course loads and responsibilities to take part in the Campus Activities Board’s first event of its Paint & Sip series, the Pop Art Animal, on Tuesday, Sept. 24 in the Don Morris Room of the Memorial Student Center. 

“I wanted to take part in this Paint & Sip tonight because I wanted to be able to get out of my dorm and forget about homework and stuff like that for a while,” Allison Shaw, a sophomore health science and psychology major, said. “I just wanted to have some fun.” 

For the Paint & Sip series, CAB partners with a local business called Paint & Sip to learn how to paint canvases and hang out with friends, all while drinking mocktails.

“This all started because we wanted to add to our DIY series that has been pretty successful, and this ended up being something that students really loved,” CAB member Rachel Sullivan said. “We ended up just expanding on it and made it into its own series.” 

When it comes to deciding on what subject to paint for each event, ideas are discussed between CAB members, as well as with Paint & Sip owner Charlie Barager, who adds her own ideas as to what the students should paint. 

“For this event specifically, we loved the idea of pop art, but we also wanted to give people different options for what they could paint,” Sullivan said. 

When students arrived at the event, CAB members had three different animals for them to choose from.

“My friends and I all picked different animals to paint, so we’re all getting to do different stuff,” Shaw said. “I think that’s pretty cool.” 

CAB has put out different advertisements throughout campus and online. 

“I found out about this Paint & Sip event from a flyer that was in my dorm beside the elevators, and I also saw it on the MyMU homepage,” Shaw said. 

Some CAB members said they find organizing events like the Paint & Sip to be rewarding, partly because the events end up being large in attendance.  

“The turnout is definitely one of the most rewarding parts of hosting these kind of events,” Sullivan said. “We do put a lot of planning and work into it, so the pay-off is definitely worth all of the effort put into it.” 

Julianna Everly can be contacted at [email protected].