BARF Brings Art for Renn Fayre

Every Saturday, students and alumni gather in the Student Union to share materials and build projects. This hub of creativity can be traced back to the efforts of Bring Art for Renn Fayre, or BARF for short. As its name suggests, BARF is a group focused on facilitating the student art projects that make up one of Renn Fayre’s classic traditions.

BARF was created this year by Josie Griffin ‘09, a Reed alumnus now working as the Data Analysis Support Specialist in the IT office. “I was very surprised last year because there just wasn’t a lot of art [at Renn Fayre],” explained Griffin. “I did talk to a lot of students and it seems like people do want a little bit, at least, of the old Renn Fayre feel, and certainly they like the idea of the art and the campus transformation.”

Griffin described some of the standout projects from her time at Reed between 2004 and 2009. These ranged from the massively impressive, such as a 30-foot-tall crocodile from Hook and a giant ball of garbage, to the bizarre with a “giant obelisk that you worshiped.” 

“It wasn’t even necessarily that each project was so magical, though some of them really were,” said Griffin. “But it was more just like everywhere you looked there was just kind of something, whether it was just yarn wrapped around a tree, or if you crossed the Blue Bridge and there was a gigantic maze.”

Student participation has become a hot topic in recent weeks, receiving coverage in the MCs, SB Info announcements, and the Quest itself. Between her time as a student and a staff member, Griffin reported noticing a change in the campus climate. “Overall, I think participation is down, I think a lot of things that go into that,” explained Griffin, crediting the change to “COVID, stress levels, mental health, [and] a lot of things that aren’t necessarily unique to Reed but just the way higher education is going in general.”

Speaking about the participation at last year’s Renn Fayre, Solveig Gisslen ‘26 noted, “I feel like the students were trying to get back on top of it again after a couple of years of COVID and not having the practice and the experience of doing all of that organizing before.”

However, there is optimism for the state of student projects at Renn Fayre 2024. “I feel like a lot more people have seen what [Renn Fayre] was like and want to bring that back,” said Riley Stockton ‘26. “Everyone is trying to do more of their part.”

“A lot of people have the work ethic to do it, they just feel like they don’t have the resources, or they don’t have the support or the help to do it,” said Gisslen on the topic of student projects. “So [BARF] is solving all of those issues and everyone’s just sharing resources in this communal way.”

 “The participation will come back in time, I think it’s just a natural thing of needing something for everybody to latch onto as a community, and I’m hoping that Renn Fayre can serve as that,” said Griffin. 

So far, BARF participants hint at plentiful projects in the future. Griffin described upcoming projects, including an upside-down tea table in the breezeway between the library and the Biology building and the descriptively-named “condom hop and pop,” in which people in pointy helmets can jump to pop paint-filled condoms in a net overhead. Carrying on past Renn Fayre traditions, BARF is also working on a set of 8-foot letters spelling out a phrase related to this year’s theme of “Surrealist Soiree” — although likely not for long, as the letters have been prone to frequent anagrammed rearrangements. 

Gisslen will be assembling a “psychedelic inflatable bubble dome,” a 10-foot-tall inflatable dome housing a circulating array of LED balloons. “I’m planning to have it installed over the entire weekend so people can come and interact with it.” Gisslen submitted multiple projects, including a slip-and-slide on the hill next to the PAB which was rejected for potential safety concerns, but at the time of writing this article, the bubble dome is the only one of her projects to be approved.

Stockton is working with other students from the Reed in Rome program to construct a Mithraeum, which is “a meeting place for the cult of Mithras.” This structure is planned to be built in the Tree Grove, and will be “a cavelike structure with benches that people can just chill and hang out in while they’re doing whatever for Renn Fayre.”

Sustainability has been a key part of BARF. “Right now everyone’s sharing stuff that they find on eBay or Etsy, stuff that people are giving away on Craigslist for free,” said Gisslen. “We’re giving it a second life in a way.” Stockton also explained how her group was trying to “get random stuff from Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist and random places that we can get it as cheap as we can and reuse those.”

In her closing remarks, Griffin reflected, “I think of Renn Fayre just as a present that we all made for each other.” BARF will be meeting every Saturday at 12:00pm in the Student Union to provide materials and a space to work on projects. Those who are interested in helping out with BARF’s work can also join the BARF Discord server, which is available in SB Info, on the posters around campus, or on the ad in this week's issue of the Quest.