The Gift Music and Art Festival takes place this weekend, on the nights of both Nov. 8-9. For free admission, students can create a gift of artwork to be given up for auction at a later date. So what exactly should this gift consist of? The crew behind the festival is accepting any medium of work, of any size or subject matter. So far, gifts have ranged from alternative process photographic prints to origami birds and intricately painted portraits. Music and film majors are welcomed to submit a gift in their genre also, provided that a CD or DVD of the work can be presented. All art will be accepted for admission, as long as it is evident that time, energy and thought has been put into the piece. When your work is complete, the gift can be be brought to the festival, where a crew member will exchange it for your entrance. Still stuck? Pictures below demonstrate a few examples of work made and materials used for a variety of gifts. For more information on the festival, check out this Jackalope article and the event Facebook...

The Interdisciplinary Arts Collective (IAC) at Santa Fe University of Art and Design puts on the Gift Music and Art Festival Nov. 8-9.

        In the third of a series of Q&A sessions with SFUAD students, Jackalope Magazine speaks with Contemporary Music Program Sophomore Sam Zickefoose, who illuminates the joy of banjo, Laser Cats and Gypsy Jazz. Jackalope Magazine: What instruments do you play? Sam Zickefoose: My main instrument is banjo, but I play some guitar and mandolin, and a little bit of bass. JM: What got you into banjo? SZ: My uncle played banjo and my family kind of had a blue grass band a while ago, so I grew up with it. JM: What about bluegrass still draws you? SZ: Well, there’s a lot of energy and it’s really a reactive type of music, kind of like jazz. It’s always changing, it’s not set; you can be playing the same songs a hundred times and it will be different every time. JM: What brought you to SFUAD? SZ: To be honest, I was looking for schools that had banjo programs or teachers. There was one here, one in Texas and Berkeley and that was about it. And I ended up here. (laughs) JM: Is there a teacher who plays banjo that has mentored you in any way? SZ: Yeah, Tom Adler plays banjo. He plays clawhammer and is also a guitarist and singer. But I’ve worked with a lot of the teachers and they’ve been really open to relating their concepts to banjo, like Ross [Hamlin], Polly [Ferber] and Scott [Jarrett]. JM: Have you been learning things in general that you could apply to the banjo? SZ: All of our theory classes are really applicable to a lot of different styles of music and writing music in general. In Balkan Ensemble, we learn the theory of the music…and learn new techniques. Even if we don’t use them for Balkan music, we can transfer them...