UNT student creates art community website

by Carolyn Brown of North Texas Daily

Homepage of untMAKE.org.

Those seeking information about local art events have a new option with untMAKE, a Web site and organization created to bring artists and art students from different concentrations together.

Communication design senior Christapher McElheney launched the site in April 2009 after getting the idea from a friend, he said. untMAKE is meant to be an unofficial sister Web site to untvent.org, the networking site for communication design majors.

untMAKE allows artists to upload photos and videos of their work, share ideas and learn about upcoming art events in the area, McElheney said.

"The whole idea fit in with my philosophy about community, and it got me really excited," he said.

The organization incorporates social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to help artists meet one another and plan events. So far, 106 people are following the group on Twitter, he said.

"Social networking is a really powerful tool," McElheney said. "A lot of people think Twitter is just telling people you just ate a sandwich, but I've been to events with 100 to 150 people that were coordinated solely by Twitter."

The site hosted its "Make a Scene" launch party on April 17 at Hailey's club in Denton, which had an attendance of about 80, Hailey's disc jockey Joey Liechty said. The party featured a collaborative painting in which an artist made an outline on a canvas and then let attendees add paint throughout the night as they saw fit. The end result is on untMake.org.

"To its credit, it's a novel idea," Liechty said. "You can kind of come to a conclusion of the effects of the wandering minds of 40 people."

Hailey's might have similar parties for the group in the future if more people show interest, he added.

But the site is not only for UNT students, McElheney said - it includes students at Texas Woman's University and the Denton art community as well.

"Denton has such a rich art culture, but right now it's pretty much separated by the two colleges," he said.

Right now, untMAKE is very much a work in progress, McElheney said. He hopes the group will get a gallery space of its own someday and buy some more expensive equipment for artists and photographers that people usually have to take classes to use, he said.

"I'm a big dreamer," he said.

Right now, McElheney is looking for people to help untMAKE become a nonprofit organization. Doing so would allow the group to apply for government grants and create scholarships for students, a goal he said he is working toward.

To become a nonprofit, the group would have to figure out what legal categories it falls under and what restrictions it would have to sell products. The founders would also have to create a charter and bylaws and set up officer positions, he said.

For now, the organization's basic outline is in place, and he's looking forward to seeing it grow and change in the years to come, he said.

"I'm not opposed to letting it take on whatever the community needs," he said.