It all started as a senior project.

It will likely grow into a regularly recurring series of distinctive events combining visual art, music and the performing arts.

“Black & White,” the first show in an initial four-show spring series, happens March 29 at the so-called Cube House, designed by architect Michael Graves.

It will feature the art of Lauren Castleman, Michael Ganser, Reggie Johnson. Suzie Suraci, Sara Conrad, April Weller, Dee Dee Morrow (and others) and musical performances by the Sean Christian Parr Trio, The Turn Signals (and others).

The title is an entreaty to attendees to wear their Sunday best to the event but its organizers say that guests are free to interpret the dress code any way they wish.

“Black & White” is the brainchild of three University of Saint Francis students: Jacob Ganser, Carrie Hart and Bee Kagel.

Ganser is on the verge of earning a music technology degree at the school and he proposed a series of four events as a way of fulfilling his senior seminar requirement.

Some students elect to record an album for their senior project, Ganser said. But that wasn’t something that interested him.

He felt that organizing these events would challenge him in a rewarding way.

Ultimately, though, he decided he needed some help.

So he enlisted the aid of Hart and Kagel.

It wasn’t long before the trio started talking about expanding the concept beyond the initial four events.

Hart said she has been inspired by the “shared bohemian poverty” espoused by British philosopher Alan Watts – collaborating with like-minded people to maximize minimal resources.

“There are a lot of things we’re doing (with Black & White) where we’re just putting it together with what we have,” she said. “We’re building our own walls, for example. We want to prove that we can make an event like this work while spending as little money as possible.”

Ganser said a lot of artists and musicians with big plans are frustrated by lack of funds. So one of the goals of this endeavor is to look for ways to circumvent that real or perceived roadblock – by pooling resources, by fostering collaborations, by devising workarounds, by seeking out previously untapped performance and exhibition spaces.

Most gallery spaces plan exhibitions a year in advance, he said. But artists in their teens and twenties don’t tend to think that far ahead.

So one of the ideas here is to create something that’s a little lighter on its feet.

“(People in their twenties are) so focused on the now,” he said. “We’re not thinking about a year from now. So we want to find spaces that will work with that mindset.”

“We just want to provide opportunities for artists and musicians where there aren’t so many tight constraints involved,” Hart said. “Where people can just show up and say, ‘You know what? This isn’t half bad. I am really enjoying myself.’”

The learning curve for this first event has been steep for the trio, Ganser said.

“We have three people doing the work of 20,” he said. “Most committees have people who do advertising and people who set up the meetings. There are delegated responsibilities. Each job has its own little focus.

“What we have is two people from the studio arts and one person from the music tech department doing the promotion, doing the networking, doing the meetings,” Ganser said. “We’re testing our comfort zones a little bit. This is an area that we have never physically been in.”

Ganser has been studying psychology as well as music technology at the school. Hart’s academic focus is photography and Kagel is in museum studies.

Those are some disparate interests and aptitudes but Hart said the trio has worked surprisingly well together.

“I can’t think of another instance in my life where three people with the skills that they have and the resources that they have have come together so well,” she said.

The final three events in this initial series will happen April 14 at the Crimson Knight Tattoo and Art Gallery, 1804 W Main Street, April 27 at the Cube House, 10220 Circlewood Drive and the USF Performing Arts Center, 431 W Berry Street.

The details of each are still being worked out. For the Crimson Knight show, Hart envisions having artists create work live during the event and then showcasing the finished pieces near the end of the event in some dramatic and technologically savvy way.

“So that it’s not just an art show,” she said. “It’s something that plays off experiences and emotions.” Hart and Ganser say they want these events to mix professionalism with spontaneity and an element of surprise.

Ganser will take a year off between college and grad school. The trio plans to begin devising themes for future events this summer.

If enough people can be brought on to help, Ganser said it’s not fanciful to imagine one event per month or several events per month at various venues.

“The more people we can bring onto the committee, the more we can delegate certain actions,” he said.

Hart said some of what the trio envisions is hard to put into words. But their passion is palpable.

“I don’t know exactly how clear our message will be,” she said. “But we definitely have an intentionality behind all this.”