Starting Oct. 27, the School of Fine Arts Students Association (SoFASA) prompted students to create Halloween-themed artwork to display in their lounge at 460 ARTlab. They printed short prompts and placed them in a basket for students to find inspiration, along with alcohol-based markers and blank cards. The results, as of Oct. 30, can be seen here. 

“It’s been really great seeing more people engage and also seeing a lot of new faces,” said Brian Guevarra, SoFASA secretary and fine arts honours student.

This is his second year serving as secretary but first time being involved with planning the Halloween events.

Guevarra created “Warts,” an illustration of a frog. The illustration was inspired by a prompt of the same name and a desire to create something that matched the softness of alcohol-based markers.

Guevarra appreciated “Into the Depths” and the uncredited artist’s use of mixed colours and shading. Most of the works incorporated their prompt into their graphic design, which he was pleasantly surprised to see. 

“I definitely wasn’t expecting there to be this typography element to it where people would take the word of the prompt and incorporate it into the composition. But I see a lot of people did that, and I love that,” he said.

This event was the first of its kind, and was made possible thanks to SoFASA’s new lounge. Studio 460 only recently opened for the student body during the 2024-25 academic year. It used to be a dedicated space for honours students in design, but now that the honours program has become more integrated with other branches, the space has been given to SoFASA.

“This space really encourages and fosters the work that people do here at the school,” Guevarra said. “We’ve always wanted to have [an] opportunity for students to put up their work and showcase what they’re working on.”

Upon the acquisition of the room, SoFASA decided to make it a quiet space for students to relax and connect. They noticed a lack of spaces in the ARTlab for students to spend their breaks, work on projects or eat their lunches.

“It’s an art [school], but there’s nowhere that you can make art […] so that’s what we wanted this room to be,” Guevarra commented.

The new room has been well-received by the student body, according to Guevarra. He often sees students with their work spread out on the tables and believes having the lounge within the school of art has boosted students’ productivity.

Guevarra has noticed that students often come into the lounge for their breaks to find events happening inside, prompting them to join. There have been a wide variety of events such as potlucks, karaoke, movie screenings, group critiques and workshops. SoFASA also hosted pumpkin-carving in the lounge during the same week, with many students taking home their creations. 

Recently, the school of art used the space to host quilting workshops by Wally Dion, who has an ongoing show at the School of Art Gallery downstairs.

Visit sofasa.org or follow SoFASA on Instagram @sofosa to learn about future events.