FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 10, 2002 CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119 DRAKE ARTISTS AND WRITERS TO EXHIBIT COLLABORATIVE PROJECT IN THE WEEKS GALLERY "The Carbon Group," a collaborative project involving the artwork and creative writing of 12 Drake students, will open to the public at 5 p.m. Friday, April 19, in the Weeks Gallery in the Harmon Fine Arts Center, 25th Street and Carpenter Avenue. The opening reception will last until 7 p.m. and the exhibition will continue through June 9. The group of 12 students was divided into six teams, each including one artist and one writer. Each writer shared an original written work with his or her collaborating artist and each artist shared an original work of art with his or her collaborating writer. Then the collaborators produced a new work of art or writing in response to what they had seen or read. The title of the project was inspired by the collaborative nature of carbon, the elemental glue of all organic life, said Angela Battle, assistant professor of art at Drake and coordinator of "The Carbon Group." "The potential for collaborations between student artists and students in a wide variety of other disciplines is enormous and exciting," she said. "For example, what forms would the responses take if a biologist and an artist were to exchange works?" The participants are Jenny Timson, a junior majoring in graphic design; Ruth Schumacher, a sophomore majoring in law politics in society; Nate Carder, a sophomore majoring in graphic design; Melissa Bartecki, a senior majoring in elementary education; Sally Otis, a senior majoring in graphic design; Katie Beckman, a senior majoring in graphic design; Nick Powills, a junior majoring in news editorial; Kirsten Hemmerich, a sophomore majoring in graphic design; Bryan Parsons, a junior majoring in English-writing; Audrey Meyer, a junior majoring in drawing; Michelle Starbuck, a sophomore majoring in painting; and Andrea Deeken, a senior majoring in English-writing. The Weeks Gallery is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. For more information, call (515) 271-3831.