Creative Campus

 In a combined effort with Beat Auburn Beat Hunger and the University of Alabama's Student Government Association, Creative Campus participated in CANformation. Coinciding with the annual Beat Auburn Beat Hunger Food Drive, CANformation was a project aimed at collecting more canned goods for the West Alabama Food Bank while offering students an outlet for creativity. Five teams, one of them Creative Campus, gathered on November 16, 2008 to build different structures using only donated canned goods. Each team had from 10 a.m. to midnight to construct the structure of their choice. Winners were judged on visual appeal, structural ingenuity, and use of labels. The structures were displayed in the University Programs Lounge in the Ferguson Center from November 17-19, 2008. 

The Creative Campus team built a giant Campbell’s soup can. “Our Campbell’s soup can was a Warhol-meets-Duchamp design,” Creative Campus Intern Joshua Sahib remarked. The Theta Tau Engineering Fraternity constructed a replica of a space shuttle, while the Freshman Forum team built a miniature Bryant-Denny Stadium.

With the generous sponsorship of many Tuscaloosa businesses, CANformation’s ultimate goal was to help feed hundreds of people in West Alabama. The money collected went directly to the purchase of pallets of canned goods, which were to be distributed equally among the teams to use to construct their works of art. Each team also had the option of collecting extra cans on their own. Every can collected and used in CANformation was then donated to Beat Auburn Beat Hunger, which raises canned goods for the West Alabama Food Bank.

"CANformation was definitely an interesting way for different student organizations on campus to connect with each other and create unique works of art out of canned food--something not normally considered an artistic building material," Creative Campus Intern Barrett Guyton mentioned.

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