On Saturday, from 4 to 6 p.m., the senior class in the digital art program at LSU will host their annual art exhibition gala where they will present their digital media capstone projects.

The Glitch Gala will be located at the Digital Media Center on LSU’s campus. Tickets are free and can be reserved here.

Guests are free to mingle and dine from 4 to 4:30 p.m. There will be free finger foods and an all cash bar available. From 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., guests will attend the senior’s presentation of their completed digital media projects in the Digital Media Center’s Auditorium.

The projects vary from animation to music videos to documentary style investigations, but what they all have in common is the effort and passion the soon-to-be graduates put into them.

Following the presentation, guests are once again free to dine, chat and even purchase art that will be sold at the event. Some of the senior’s other portfolio projects will be on display for the duration of the gala.

Nya Skipper, a digital art senior, is the primary organizer of the Gala this year, which partially functions as a capstone project of her own. Skipper pointed out the importance of the senior’s final projects as a leap from a school assignment to something more like real work experience.

“I think this is definitely like the big project to show like ‘I’m ready to step out into the workforce and here is what I have to show for it,’” Skipper said.

Some students have been working on their digital media projects since the fall, while others started their work in January. For seniors like Roman Landry, the capstone project is a chance to showcase something different from the art he usually creates. His project consists of digital paintings of extinct creatures using techniques to show hyper-realism.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but it’s also kind of new to me so it was really fun to do,” Landry says. “It doesn’t really feel like an assignment. It feels like I can show off all my skills, and I’m very excited about that.”

Digital art seniors have been putting on a final showcase like the Glitch Gala for over 10 years. The event is organized by the students themselves and sponsored by local businesses in the Baton Rouge area.

Derrick Ostrenko, a program coordinator and associate professor of digital art at LSU, has been teaching the senior capstone course for many years. He has seen firsthand the importance of the final presentation for the seniors.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to have everyone’s family and friends and sort of community who’s been there for years, decades in some cases, supporting our students,” Ostrenko says. “It’s all kinda run by the students and Nya has done an amazing job helping produce the show this year.”

For the first time, there were enough digital media majors to require two sections of the course this year. Christine Bruening, an associate professor of digital art at LSU, taught the second section of the course. This year is her time teaching a senior capstone class, and she feels she has learned a lot from her students and the way they approach their artistry.

“It’s obvious that they are super capable and motivated and good at what they do,” Bruening says. “They are able to apply it in lots of different ways. I think just kind of imagining how far they’ll take these skills is one of the most fun parts about teaching a class like this.”

The Glitch Gala is both a digital art exhibition and a celebration of the seniors’ growth throughout their four years in the program. The hard-working students are proud to present their media projects as a final accomplishment before they take their next steps in life after graduation.

“It’s pretty remarkable, I think, what they’ve been able to accomplish both for the showcase and in their individual work,” Bruening says. “I think the thing that’s most exciting is to kind of imagine where they’ll be in the future, especially given how well they’ve done with these projects and how much they’ve poured themselves into the showcase.”