Meet makesmewanna, an art collective dedicated to making art more accessible and sustainable. The group’s name comes from its shared urge of wanting to infuse art into everyday life, “makes me wanna put art into it.”
With a mission to unite art and community in Champaign-Urbana, makesmewanna transforms creative spaces into platforms for connection, expression and artistic freedom.
Avi Pellegrinetti, senior in FAA, is makesmewanna’s president and co-founder. The collective has been active for three years. Individuals seeking connections with their artwork outside of academics started it.
“We try to be undefinable, we want to make it a space where people can be creative in whatever form they appreciate,” Pellegrinetti said. “We have a lot of dancers, visual artists and musicians. We have people who don’t make art at all, so it’s art spread out in every form.”
The collective also avoids traditional leadership or hierarchy, emphasizing equal power among all members. It’s meant to be a space where everyone’s voice is valued and heard.
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Five friends first connected through art by having collage nights at the Nevada Dance Studios. As more people joined, the casual gatherings evolved into hangouts, then discussions and eventually formal meetings, ultimately leading to the creation of a registered student organization.
The collage nights have become a tradition in the collective. At the November member meeting, every member contributed to a big group collage. The collage was filled with cutouts and scraps that set out the organization’s ambitions for the year.
Fall for the collective is all about getting to know each other and connecting through art. Fun, engaging events are held not only for members, but anyone in the community interested in art.
In the spring, the collective holds an art festival at the Independent Media Center, filled with classes and performances. The sessions consist of a mix of movement, along with journaling and breathing exercises.
A class at the festival called “Show Your S—” allows for the collective to engage with the audience in different dances, letting members bring anything they have and give each other feedback based on their skill.
Gabriella Quaresima, junior in FAA, is the secretary and social content coordinator for the collective. Quaresima believes the classes at the festival and the collective have helped a lot in and out of academics.
“I learned a lot about really diving deep into my creative mind,” Quaresima said. “I feel like sometimes dance became very black and white for me growing up, but now I feel like there’s so much more to it, it’s so colorful.”
Performances also take place during the classes, where the audience can ask questions to the choreographers and learn about pieces in a way that feels more like a conversation rather than observing and trying to figure out what the pieces mean.
At the festival, many local vendors are also provided a space to showcase and sell their art within the C-U community. Jasmine O’Connor, senior in LAS and FAA, is the outreach director and coordinator for the collective. She has had the opportunity of also being a vendor at the festival, selling from her own handmade, custom jewelry shop, Jasmine’s Jewelry Co.
“The experience was awesome, I see some of my friends on campus wearing my jewelry, and I’m proud of that community-building aspect,” O’Connor said. “I had the opportunity to do that through makesmewanna; it helped me build bonds through my art and craft.”
Aside from the festival and member meetings, the collective has done many events within the community, such as a queer line dancing event at Gallery Art Bar on Oct. 10 and a thrifting event at the Illini Union on Saturday.
Marlee Doniff, graduate student studying dance, serves on the collective executive board and choreographed at the queer line dancing event. The event served as a collective movement, allowing a safe space for queer people and the community to come together and move.
“I lived in Durham, North Carolina, over the summer, and there was a bar there hosting a queer line dancing night,” Doniff said. “I loved it, and I was like, I wish there was something like this in Urbana. And then I was like, ‘Oh s—, I could do that.’”
Doniff taught choreography in the outdoor space at Gallery Art Bar, an event where country attire was highly encouraged, and many attendees showed up with cowboy hats, boots and belt buckles. As the community danced to songs such as Chappell Roan’s “The Giver,” others burst into laughter with one another, capturing the sense of connection the collective has long been striving to build.
Nicole Gerrard, a graduate student studying mechanical engineering, attended the event after hearing about it through friends. She partakes in line dancing on her own and was glad to see the event organized.
“I do line dance kind of for fun,” Gerrard said. “I wish there were more events that were like this that I could go to, but I just kind of do it on my own as a hobby. I will definitely come to another event like this again.”
At the following thrift event, the collective raised funds for the Spring 2026 festival. The event allowed University students to update their wardrobes sustainably. Each item was sold for $1, giving students an affordable way to refresh their style while creating an eco-friendly impact.
Anna Brady, junior in FAA, is the membership director and graphic designer for the collective. The club influenced her a lot last year in choreographing a piece of dance that allowed her to delve into the creative process, having others critique it and perfect it before a showcase.
“It’s so much fun getting the whole community together, being a part of this club gets your creative juices flowing,” Brady said. “I just want it to be something that can bring artists together and bridge the gap between Champaign-Urbana students.”
While heavily dance-driven, makesmewanna strives to have a wider variety of artists, welcoming anyone with a creative spark to join, explore or simply check out one of their events to discover a possible artistic ambition.
Through movement, music, conversation and everything in between, they’re not just creating art. They’re creating space. A space to experiment, belong, create and most importantly, a space where anyone can say, “This makes me wanna make something too.”
