The annual Queens’ Arts Festival will be running from 13th to 17th January. A week before the launch, I met up with Lizzie Carr, the secretary of the Arts Festival Committee, to chat about the festival, the art scene in Cambridge and its importance to students.

What can we expect from this year’s festival?

This year, we’re focusing on reviving the festival by welcoming all kinds of submissions. We want to give a platform to all art forms, new or old. We’ve chosen Time as our theme because it can be interpreted in so many different ways. People have responded really well to this and we’ve received a whole range of applications, from time-lapse footage of Tunbridge Wells to a student-composed sound installation.

Recently, the festival has taken a dip in popularity. Why has this happened and how are you addressing the problem?

Events can very easily fade away in Cambridge because there is so much going on. Recently, I think there’s been a lack of enthusiasm for the event from organisers and this meant artists were reluctant to submit work. This year, we’re determined not to let the festival fade into obscurity. Now that everything in Cambridge is a Facebook event, this is a lot easier. Artists can see what we’re doing, that we accept all submissions and think “I’d like to be involved in this.”

The Time theme is an interesting one. How have you incorporated it into the organisation of the event?

The theme has been really helpful when pairing up with other societies. For the launch party, we’re working with Queens' Amnesty Society to organise a Candle Club event. It’s a regular event held in Queens' bar where we turn off the lights and live acts perform. It will show the merging of time, by having modern art forms such as spoken word performed in candlelight. Queens' Feminist Society have also helped by contacting female alumni of the college who are now professional artists. They’ll be giving workshops to show how the role of female artists has changed over time.

There’s often a problem in Cambridge due to the lack of time. Do you think artists are inhibited by the Cambridge workload and lifestyle?

Definitely. I’ve received so many emails from artists saying “I haven’t quite finished my piece yet, I haven’t had time.” There’s so much pressure in Cambridge that it’s very difficult to make art during term. I’ve submitted an interview-based photography project for the festival but it’s been very difficult to put together a submission with essay deadlines looming. That’s why we’re holding the event at the start of term, so that artists can plan over the holidays and bring work from home.

In the same way that artists struggle to produce work, do you think Cambridge students struggle to take advantage of all the opportunities to see art?

Cambridge has seven or eight museums with some amazing free exhibitions but students never have time for them. There are people who are interested in art who say “I’ve never been to the Fitzwilliam” and I think that’s a real pity. We hope that smaller platforms, like the Arts Festival, can make art more accessible to all students.

The fact that art galleries are free definitely helps. With talk of government cuts, are you worried by what might happen if entrance fees were introduced?

I think it would be a travesty if they started to make us pay for places like the British Museum. Art isn’t accessible to everyone in other countries but in the UK, inner-city schools can visit wonderful museums free of charge. Funding will always be an issue but it’s so important to say that art is for everyone, that art isn’t elitist.

To do that should artists make more of an effort to engage people? Especially student artists who want to be successful in later life?

I don’t think so. Art is about taking risks, regardless of what others think, and some of the most interesting submissions we’ve received are on the outer edges of what people normally consider art. For most people here, art is a hobby. Submissions are often quite personal and it would be a shame for that to make them more obscure. But by giving artists the chance to showcase their work they can receive the affirmation that they are incredibly talented, and that’s much more important than success.

This year is the bicentenary of the Fitzwilliam museum and the John Hughes Festival will be returning to Jesus for a second year. Is there a growing art scene in Cambridge?

Yes, and I think technology has played a huge part in that. It not only lets us publicise events easily but also helps to create so many different art forms, which means more people become interested in art. Twenty or thirty years ago, the idea of time-lapse footage or computer design was completely alien. Now, art is much more varied, which is definitely something to be embraced.

Queens’ most famous alumnus of recent years is probably Stephen Fry, who did a lot of theatre at Cambridge. Do you think the growing arts scene can start to challenge the dominance of theatre?

I don’t think it needs to. Theatre and art are two very similar creative disciplines. Although there can be difference between the outgoing performer and the introverted artist, there are a lot of people in Cambridge who are involved in both art and theatre. Also, submissions such as the sound installation are very performative and not that different from what we might see at the ADC.

What do you want people to take away from the Arts Festival?

I want the festival to engage them. I’d prefer for people to come and say “I hated all of that, let’s go to the Fitz and see some proper art,” than to sit at home saying art isn’t for me. For me, getting a reaction is what art is all about.