The Wexner Center will welcome new and returning students at 7 p.m. tonight for the annual Welcome Week Student Party.

Wexner Education Department member Amanda Potter, one of the planners for this year’s event, said the goal is to introduce the Wexner Center to both incoming freshmen and upperclassmen who haven’t experienced it yet.

“We want to show them everything the Wexner has to offer,” Potter said. “The theater, the galleries, the performance spaces. We throw in the free pizza and T-shirts.”

Aside from the free pizza, the student party also offers students something to do on their last night without homework; the classic sci-fi film “Planet of the Apes” will be screened outdoors on the plaza at 8:30 p.m.

Potter said the film was chosen because it was digitally remastered recently and it offers a new viewing experience to students.

“We try to get classics that students probably haven’t seen on a big screen,” she said. “‘Planet of the Apes’ also has a cult appeal.”

Though the pizza will undoubtedly attract some, Potter says she hopes students take advantage of the opportunity to speak with Mark Bradford, a Wexner Center Residency Award winner. The Wexner exhibit is Bradford’s largest to date.

Bradford compares his paintings to conflicts between individuals in an abstract manner.

“It’s like if there is a conflict between two people, then everyone in the room reenacts the conflict,”Bradford said. “After the 14th reenactment, what does (it) even mean?”

Potter says that in addition to the appeal of his art, Bradford is approachable for anyone to ask him about his work.

“Mark is a really warm, sunny person. He’s a down-to-earth guy,” she said. “He really defies the idea that artists are hard to talk to.”

The exhibition was originally slated to end Aug. 15, but thanks to its popularity and some finagling, its stay was extended until Oct. 10.

“The show wasn’t scheduled to start in Boston until November anyway,” Potter said of the exhibition, which will be heading to the Institution of Contemporary Art in Boston after it wraps up its Columbus stay. “It was more about making sure the layover was OK with the owners of the pieces.”

Regardless of students’ reasons for coming, Potter says she hopes they find a reason to come again.

“The Wexner Center is really a great resource to have on campus,” she said. “The goal of the Welcome Week Party is to encourage students to use it.”