To state that something is state-of-the-art is very misleading. The art, as far as University at Buffalo students are concerned, is a mystical entity that exists inside our very own three-story-high Center for the Arts (CFA). It’s an anomaly on campus—a brightly proclaimed, translucent building with two main entrances among its tired, brick brethren. The CFA is a diamond in the rough, and on Tuesday nights, “Music is Art: Live from the Center” gives the public a front row seat to decide art’s state for themselves. Check that—make it a front row sofa.

Last Tuesday continued “Music is Art: Live at the Center,” the weekly venue for musicians and artists to showcase their work. The event, now well into its second season at the CFA, transforms the center into an atmosphere similar to that of a coffee shop, blown up to roughly the size of an airport hanger. The series offers several genres of music, a cross-section of local Buffalo artists, and free admission to UB students who wouldn’t normally be able to navigate their way to a venue like Mohawk Place or Nietzsche’s. It is filmed and shown on two television channels (UPN and WNED) and grants publicity to UB as well as local musicians.

Cat McCarthy, an 18-year-old student, was one of the exhibit’s featured artists.

“It’s a lot more about the process,” she said of the program’s differences to standard exhibits. “[My work] really looks a lot different,” she said. “Usually, I’m covered in paint.”

The back of the Center’s enormous hallway echoed heavy bass as Woke Up In Vegas kicked off the show with their opening set. The thought of conventional human interaction was impossible once the band started playing.

There were half a dozen artists at work in front of canvas, clay, and paper. They ranged in age from early college years to several generations older and stood on small stages surrounded by their work and the occasional on-looker. This area doubled as the backstage area and the stage door.

As far as any student accustomed to walking through the CFA is concerned, the area had transformed into a living room set for the occasion. Where there is a rectangular space most would see as white walls and tile floor, a fully professional stage is set up. In front of the stage is the proclaimed “cozy zone,” a space with beanbags, armchairs, and a rug clean enough to sleep on. The audience members who sit in the “cozy zone” are asked not to move until the band stops playing and to applaud when the next song begins, to facilitate the proper camera fade. The crowd, mostly sitting or lying down on the floor, obliged.

When it was time for Bensin to take the stage, they had a taller bass cabinet and a keyboard that appeared to be used more as a pogo-stick end than an instrument. They were energetic in front of the cameras, lending much to their music, and they ended each song out of breath, smiling. Audience members grinned and nodded at them from dark red couches and applauded, albeit with the lazy golf-clap of people trying to be polite.

The response from the visual performing artists was positive. Artist David Derner sat to the side of the stage sculpting the head of a young woman. He was out of view of the camera and sculpted clay, although he frequently works in bronze and other metals. He used a large wooden stand to spin his work to craft each side and spent hours on detail.

“This is the second [installment of Music is Art] I’ve done this season,” Derner said, taking a break from his model after the second band had finished. He has been creating bronze sculptures for UB for many years, he continued, including to his credit all of the bronze outside of Alumni Arena.

“It’s like teaching,” Derner said. “It brings out the spontaneity of work.”

The Center for the Arts is architecturally one of the tallest indoor areas in the University. Its ceiling is three stories high and very rarely is a single instrument discernable from another. The effect of the sound is booming and echoed to the audience, as if they aren’t hearing the true mix.

The idea that music is a type of art is preaching to the choir, an old hat idea. Yet, the artists who sculpt, paint, and draw at the back of the hall were of a completely different fruit than the musicians. With expensive instruments, simple chord progressions, and flamboyant stage presence, Woke Up In Vegas and Bensin didn’t help to show the equivalence between musical art and visual art: they usurped it.

Perhaps this trend is from the influence of the program’s curator. Goo Goo Dolls bassist, Robbie Takac, created Music is Art as an organization to further music education in schools. Their website offers school demonstrations with performances from local bands as well as an inspirational talk from Takac on a video projector.

“People need to see things,” Derner said. “It’s interesting to understand you’re being watched. People want to see things that might take days to do.”