Walking Inside a Kaleidoscope

April 28, 2026

Authored by:

Greg Varner

Attending the annual NEXT Festival can make you feel as if you're inside a kaleidoscope. Every spring, George Washington University's graduating art students present the fruits of their learning across the disciplines taught in the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, housed in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. The sensation is most intense at the Extravaganza, a blowout party that jams the Flagg Building with students, faculty, staff and others.

This year, more than a thousand guests registered in advance for the party held last Thursday, and hundreds more showed up spontaneously to view the photographs and paintings lining the walls, to admire the sculptures, interactive designs and other arts on show. Mocktails and hors d'oeuvres were served; music got people moving; a motorcycle gleamed in a corner of the Atrium; the antics of a clown named Petunia delighted guests.

Lauren Onkey, the Corcoran's director, has called the Extravaganza one of her favorite nights of the year, saying it inspires her and fills her with pride in the students as well as the faculty and staff who mentor them.

"Artists are world builders," Onkey said. "They help to imagine ways of thinking and being in the world that are really inspiring. Their perspectives and work represent a lot of different worlds and experiences, and I think they're fearless in the way they represent their point of view. We're really proud to be able to invite people to come and experience how our students see the world."

Taytum Wymer was on hand to discuss his photojournalism project. (Greg Varner/GW Today)

Taytum Wymer, a senior photojournalism student with a double major in American studies and a minor in history, was on hand to talk about his work with the Woodner Tenants' Union, an organization of residents in one of D.C.'s largest apartment buildings. The Woodner Apartments, on 16th Street NW, has a large international population. Its tenants have banded together to demand an end to all funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to assist members struggling to pay the rent and seek other improvements.

"We understand labor unions to be people in a specific economic condition organizing across that condition for power," Wymer said. "Tenants' unions operate the same way, but it's not the boss-worker relationship, it's the landlord-tenant relationship. So they're tenants uniting to make all of their individual issues a collective issue that they can use their collective power to fight against."

One of the things he wanted his project to show, Wymer said, is that the union's members are coming together to accomplish things, joining with each other to achieve positive purposes.

His photographs are joined by a set of archival materials from the Woodner Tenants' Union, as well as linocut prints made by one of the building's union organizers.

Sophomores Landon Lee, left, and Taylor Herakovich enjoyed the party. (Greg Varner/GW Today)

Sophomore graphic design major Tucker Herakovich attended the Extravaganza with a friend, Landon Lee, a sophomore majoring in international affairs. As Lee admired the photography on view, Herakovich praised his friend's critical acumen.

"I think he's got an eye for art," Herakovich said. "He's told me about a contemporary art museum, the Glenstone, in Potomac, Md., where he's from."

Local art lover Dhrupad Nag sat on a bench admiring the work of senior photojournalism student Jordan Tovin, who spent more than a year documenting D.C.'s go-go music community. It was Nag's first time at NEXT, but probably won't be his last.

"It's very impressive," Nag said. "I wish I had this kind of intellectual gumption when I was younger, at this age."

Becca Bycott, left, and Kaia Black were happy to support emerging artists. (Greg Varner/GW Today)

Two other area arts supporters, Becca Bycott and Kaia Black, said they attended to learn and to show support for the graduating students who will become the next generation of artistic professionals.

The gala lasted three hours as crowds walked through the Flagg Building, admiring the shifting patterns presented by the kaleidoscope of arts at GW.