“You can create something, put it away and hide it. You can put it out there for the world to see. They will either hate it, love it, or ignore it, but at least it does not stay hidden.” – Mark Synder.

The University at Buffalo is often covered in the news for their good sports teams and academics. However, they have a huge art department that hosts many events. Right now, UB is hosting “Into the Open” — Western New Yorks’ Regional High School Art Exhibition. The event is located in The Center for the Arts building located on the University at Buffalo’s North Campus. The event can be found on the lower level of the building in room B45. Dates run from Feb. 13 to March 5.

“Into the Open” is an annual event that has been hosted by UB for over a decade. All High Schools in Western New York are invited to attend or participate in the event. Teachers are encouraged to select students’ whose art work they believe will add to the diversity of the Exhibition. Each student gets the opportunity to add about four pieces of their art into the collection — there are approximately 75 pieces in this year’s collection. A closing ceremony will be held to showcase the students’ art work and reward them for their work. There will also be an award ceremony, with the top four students winning up to 500 dollars.

The Exhibition displays a wonderful amount of openness and expression. There is no criteria to follow and no rules. The students’ are simply expected to make the best work of art they can while expressing their creativity. When you walk into the gallery you will see a large amount of mixed media pieces that are wonderfully made. The diversity of the pieces are vast. The Exhibition showcases art using oil paint, acrylic paint, ceramic, and pencil, just to name a few. There is no constant theme throughout the Exhibition. There are pieces that are very moving and sentimental. There are pieces that are funny. There are some that are random. There are self-portraits and portraits of animals. The list goes on and on, you should really get out there and see it yourself!

I had the pleasure of discussing the event with Mark Snyder, the art resource manager at the University at Buffalo. It was not hard to get Snyder to start talking about his passion for art. When discussing the importance of doing art shows Synder said that “Doing events like these is a way of reaching out and encouraging the growth for passion in the arts.” Getting teenagers involved in art can sometimes be challenging, the fear of rejection toward pieces can be scary enough to push someone in another direction. To that Snyder followed by saying “sure, being in high school and entering an art exhibition makes it a little more intimidating but we want to push the kid’s boundaries and show them the potential they have.”

Mark Synder was the only one interviewed during this event because there were no students there at the time. He gave wonder input and was able to give me event history information. On the contrary, this was unfortunate in regards to this piece as I was hoping to get outsiders perspectives on different art pieces.

I love looking though my Facebook and finding funny articles. I always end up finding click bait and searching through so many pages for hours. One of my favorite things to read about is nature. I found a cool short article with the top 10 most remote places in the world that I found to be the most interesting this I read this week.

For each location there is a very short paragraph with some minor detail. The paragraphs explain the weather, landscape, and inform readers on how many people are living at the location. The writing in the article was not the best. I could tell that whoever wrote it was either not very skilled in writing, or just in a hurry when he wrote it ( kinda of like I am now). There was no typos or bad grammer , it was just written like the authors didn’t really care much about making it sound “good”. However, it was informative and the information that was shared was unusual.

For each location there was 2-4 pictures. The pictures really made the article, without them it would’ve been boring. Seeing the landscape and the communities at these locations was humbling. There was surprisingly a place in the USA on the list, Angle Inlet, Minnesota. True article states that this town is only accessible through Canada, which I had to google to learn more about. The town only has one school and it is for all ages. During the winter everyone has to snow mobile for their main way of transportation. There was also a place in Alaska that was posted in the list. I wasn’t as surprised to see that.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/remote-places

So, this blog post is dedicated to ”my favorite place on campus.” It’s going to be hard to write a lengthy post about this, considering it’s my first semester at UB, and I’ve only been on campus five times. 

The first time I was on campus was for Transfer Orientation. We started in Capen Hall, then moved between two lecture rooms. The other three times I was on campus was for my Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes. I start my day in the Natural Sciences Complex, then go to Fronczak hall, and end my day in Knox Hall. Monday nights I come to campus for my journalism class, which us why I’m writing this post!! 

Considering all I wrote above, I’m going to go ahead and say my parking spot is my favorite place on campus! I have parked in the Cooke Lot ever since my first time on campus. There are a couple of reasons why this can be considered my ”favorite spot.” The first reason is simple. I get AMAZING parking. My classes start at 8 AM, so when I get to school, the parking lot is practically empty. I get front row every time, the past week I have parked in the same spot every time. 

Something else that makes this spot lovely is the fact that it’s so close to my first class. I walk maybe 500 feet from my car to my seat for my 8 AM. It’s convenient to be able to find a spot so close. I’m hoping that I will continue getting lucky through my time at UB, although I’m not betting on it!!

It completely slipped my mind while I was leaving school on Friday to take a picture of my parking spot. So I gave attached a picture from the UB website for reference. It actually shows a majority of the places I know at the campus! 

I’m young enough. Yet, I’m old enough. I’m a female. I’m multiracial. I’m educated. I like sports. I have a Father who LOVES sports.

So, I should’ve heard about the Mamba’s less than perfect history, right?

Wrong.

When news broke on Sunday that Kobe Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash, it was unbelievable. People everywhere were tweeting and Facebooking their condolences to the family. False news reports were being published faster than we could refresh our pages. I was scrolling through Apple News today, and there it was, an article headline that I couldn’t believe I was seeing. “Kobe Bryant has died. It’s OK to talk about his rape case.”

I’m sorry, his what?? I start reading the article in slight confusion. How have I, the girl that grew up on sports, never heard of this?

That was the question in my mind until the author of the article, Clémence Michallon, made it clear.

I didn’t hear about this simply because no one wants to discuss it. Which, makes sense. A black man, who’s an athlete, with an accused rape charge? That’s almost impossible to come back from.

The reason I chose this article to write about is that the point of view Clémence Michallon has while writing it. She explains that yes, it is a terrible thing that he did, but it was still something he did.

“There needs to be room for this conversation to happen somewhere,” and, there does. The tone in which she writes the article is so unbiased. I would have to assume most of the readers who viewed the report could sense that as well. After discussing the article with my coworker and with my friend, my assumption proved to be true. The way that Michallon, a female, carries the conversation about rape shows that it is possible to talk about mistakes with a level head.

She goes onto discuss another hot topic about Bryant’s life, the time he used a homophobic slur toward a referee.

Not once does Michallon put Bryant down during the article. She only brings to light the truth, that a man who is looked at (respectively) as one of the greats, made mistakes. It’s okay for people to make mistakes; it doesn’t mean they are a terrible person. Michallon highlights that fact in her closing paragraph, “He was one of the best basketball players the world has ever seen and a hero to many. He was also once accused of rape and caught using a homophobic slur on the court. There is room in our hearts and our brains to acknowledge it all.”

This article was interesting to me for many reasons, including the subject itself. However, I have to say the most interesting (and inspiring) aspect of the article is how Michallon carries her viewpoint with grace and respect while proving that even “the greats” are human too.

Referencing article from https://apple.news/A155kEuiESxKNph7tRGDJZw

Hello to all! My name is Natalia Andriaccio. I am 24 years old and a junior at the University at Buffalo. I am currently enrolled in a class called “Digital Broadcasting Journalism,” which is the reason behind this blog. Once a week, I will be writing on the topic “The Best Thing I Read This Week.” It will express my personal views on an article, news story, video, etc. I will also be posting about other topics throughout my journey in my college class. Feel free to follow along with me as I expand my knowledge in writing and journalism.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

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