Can art be the foundation for two strangers connecting? This question led artist Ashley Hale to create the social experiment “Muse Wanted.” In her advertising class, she says they were given an assignment to do something that has the potential to make headlines.
“BYU is notorious for its strange dating culture and I thought it would be fun to shake things up,” she said. “I distributed over 1,000 flyers calling on artistic men to take me on art-focused dates. One catch, I stayed completely anonymous. Now, at over 50 responses and 3 dates a week for the whole month of November, I am culminating the month of artsy dates with this gallery show.”
Hales says to “take a risk!” When she started this project, she was worried that sge might get cyber bullied or that people would take it out of context and see her as the “desperate girl” who put out flyers just to go on dates. But early on she says, the DMs came streaming in with people being so supportive of the concept.
“Even girls reached out to tell me they thought it was a brilliant idea! The project was never about finding my “muse” as the cheesy flyers suggest—it was about getting out of my comfort zone,” she said.
Ashley Hale is from Bozeman, Montana and is a junior at BYU studying Advertising. Ashley hopes to use her voice and her artwork to help validate the experiences and struggles of others, especially women. You can view some of her work @ashleyhaleartist on Instagram.
Location: 5th Floor Hallway, West, 5th Floor Hallway, East
Dates and Times: Dec. 1 – Dec. 8 | 6 am – 11pm
