The beating of African drums sounded across UF’s North Lawn as Agbedidi, an African dance group, performed a flash mob at about noon Monday.
A few hours later, with the sun beating down and thunder rumbling in the distance, two dancers from the UF School of Theatre + Dance walked arm in arm onto the North Lawn and proceeded to perform a piece that lasted more than 10 minutes.
These were among roughly a dozen “random acts of culture” that happened across campus on Monday. The acts included a ceramics sale, a Capoeira dance performance and a flash mob by actors from the Hippodrome State Theatre on the Reitz Union Colonnade, said political science sophomore Elizabeth LaRue, a marketing intern with the UF College of Fine Arts.
The college sponsored the 12-hour marathon and its annual Arts and Cultural Opportunities Fair to kick off National Arts and Humanities Month, according to a release.
Nutritional science freshman Truc Nguyen stopped to watch one of the flash mobs.
“That’s what I like about this campus,” said Nguyen, 18. “You walk around, and then you see all these activities, and everybody’s not afraid to show what they are passionate about.”
Dozens of organizations including the Digital Worlds Institute, the University Singers, Theatre Strike Force, the UF Center for Arts in Medicine, Gainesville Ballet Theatre and Yopp! Inc. filled the Reitz Union Colonnade and nearby sidewalks, offering fliers, candy, pens, buttons and sign-up sheets to students walking by.
Passersby watched, listened and learned about local cultural happenings.
Civil engineering freshman Devon Kiszenia, 18, paused to listen to a cello player from the UF Symphony Orchestra and speak with students at the table.
“It’s people’s interpretations of things that go deeper than words, and it’s wonderful,” Kiszenia said.
Filipe Valle Costa, an actor at the Hippodrome, said he and his colleagues came to promote their upcoming musical ”Carrie.”
But on a personal level, Costa said he wanted to have a global impact.
“I’m naive enough to think that I do this to change people,” Costa said. “Some people think that we can’t. I think that we can change the way people speak, the way people think.”
