March 2021
In this issue:
- Where Is CVPA? The Insider’s Tour
- Alumna Gift of $100,000 Creates Music Education Endowment
- Alumni and Faculty/Staff News & Notes
- March Calendar Highlights
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Celebrate Women’s History Month with She Can/We Can
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Growing up in Southern California, I visited Disneyland as a child and was captivated by the immersive experience of the Magic Kingdom. Whether marveling at the height of the Matterhorn or the thrill of its bobsleds, I enjoyed seeing the characters of The Walt Disney Studios come to life before my eyes. And at night the Park’s lights and fireworks made the Kingdom even more magical.
While in high school, I played alto saxophone in marching band, and we were annually invited to participate in Disneyland’s Main Street Electric Light Parade. After a day of experiencing the sights and rides, we would put on our band uniforms and line up behind the Magic Kingdom’s painted facades. This insider’s glimpse increased my appreciation for both the Park’s design and the labor involved in creating its magic.
Similarly, in this issue of the e-Newsletter, we give you an insider’s tour to see some of our College’s more remarkable spaces. At the School of Art’s foundry, molten metals are poured using the lost-wax bronze and aluminum casting techniques. Amidst the heavy machinery of forklift and scissor-lift operation, students learn steel fabrication, including oxy-acetylene welding, plasma cutting, and forging and finishing.
In the School of Dance, we’ll show you how the swimming pool from the former Rosenthal Gymnasium has been transformed into 201A and B—world-class dance studios with high ceilings and beautiful natural light. A discerning eye will pick out the risers formerly used for swimming events. And in the Music Building, we’ll show you the Instrumental Repair Shop where woodwind pads are replaced and bridges on string instruments can be rebuilt.
Off campus the School of Theatre’s design and technical production area includes not only a scene shop and CAD studio, but also a Dye Room and Crafts Studio. Here, wood hat blocks and floral making irons help turn fabric, felt, and feathers into hats, and fabric is dyed for costumes. I hope that this insider’s tour will help give you a newfound appreciation of the technical magic of our faculty, staff, and students in their creation of the visual and performing arts.
bruce d. mcclung, Dean
College of Visual and Performing Arts
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Welcome to the College of Visual and Performing Arts. We’re glad you’re here.
But wait, where exactly is “here?”
Some obvious answers might come to mind: Taylor Theatre, the Music Building, and the Maud Gatewood Studio Arts Building. But there are so many other places you’ll find CVPA students, faculty, and staff performing, producing, researching, exhibiting, creating, and teaching.
The College has quite a footprint on the 266-acres that make up the UNC Greensboro campus and extends beyond with outposts in the surrounding neighborhood and in downtown Greensboro. In total, CVPA occupies all or part of fifteen different buildings.
See the map below and read the articles that follow to learn about some of our interesting spaces.
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We can’t wait to have you on campus, but in the meantime, visit us virtually using these links:
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SCHOOL OF ART:
THE FOUNDRY
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A student sculptor during a class in the Foundry in 2016. Photo credit: Martin Kane
“At first glance, the foundry can be very intimidating. It’s a large space full of big tools, sparks, fire, and loud sounds. Many students have never seen anything like this, and they’re almost scared that they can’t do this kind of work. It is my mission to show every student that they can achieve any of their metalworking dreams. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a student grow and become more confident in themselves and their abilities in the shop.”
—Kevin Vanek, Foundry Director
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SCHOOL OF DANCE:
STUDIO 201A
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Above: A kayaking class in Rosenthal Pool (2006) Below: The same space as Dance Studio 201A (built 2018).
Photo credits: University Communications
“During the winter months, lifeguards would prop open the door from the pool to the third floor hallway so passersby would get a blast of hot, humid, chlorinated air. Now, someone walking by can look through that same door into a beautiful sunlight-filled room full of hard working dancers. That studio is dancing all day with a wide range of classes and rehearsals from 8:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night.”
—Janet Lilly, School of Dance Director
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SCHOOL OF MUSIC:
INSTRUMENT REPAIR ROOM
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The tools of the trade for an instrument repair technician. Photo credit: Jon Goodman
“I mostly run what is known as a ‘play condition shop’ down here. I see about 100 instruments a semester for anything from quick checks, cleanings, replacing a pad here or there, replacing corks, resetting bridges or sound posts. My job is to keep instruments in students’ hands as much as possible. With classes, practice schedules, and performances, there’s not much time that the instruments can stay in the shop.”
—Jon Goodman, Instrument Repair Technician and Inventory Manager
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SCHOOL OF THEATRE:
DYE ROOM AND
CRAFTS STUDIO
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Faith Custar, BFA Design and Technical Production, works on a hat for Round Peg, Square Peg. Photo credit: Amy Holroyd
“This is an exciting space. It’s where we produce some of the more unusual costume pieces. From hats to footwear, wings to body padding. We dye fabrics, paint shoes, and silkscreen and airbrush costumes. This is where we can get messy and not worry about the equipment. This studio space allows us to keep the paints and glues away from the sewing machines.”
—Amy Holroyd,
Costume Shop Supervisor
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FRANCES CORNWELL GREENE
SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENT IN MUSIC EDUCATION
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“We were told we were important. We were told everyone had a responsibility to build a better world by creating healthy homes and better communities. We were encouraged to find our dreams and pursue them. And always we were taught to practice the Golden Rule—‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’”
Laura Greene Knapp shares those words from her mother, Frances “Fran” Cornwell Greene, who graduated from UNC Greensboro in 1949 with a degree in music education.
To honor her mother and a life spent bringing music to others, Knapp (’86 BS and ’88 MA Economics) has established the Frances Cornwell Greene Scholarship Endowment in Music Education with a gift of $100,000. Read more here.
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Jeff Aguiar (’01 BFA Theatre Education ’14 Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Non-Profit Management, ’16 MA in Peace and Conflict Studies) has recently been appointed
Theatre and Literature Director with the Artists and Organizations Team of the
North Carolina Arts Council.
Dominick Amendum (’01 BM Piano Performance and Coordinator of the Musical Theatre Program), Brian McMath (’96 BM and ’12 MM Music Education), and Donny Walter (’94 BM and ’10 MM Music Education) are guests on a podcast with Action Greensboro’s Cecelia Thompson talking about their Grammy nominations. Amendum is nominated for the cast album for the musical Prince of Egypt with Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz. McMath and Walter are both up for Grammy Music Educator of the Year. Listen to the podcast here.
Alexandra Joye Warren (’06 MFA Dance) has been named Artist-in-Residence for Greensboro‘s downtown parks. Between January and September 2021, Alex and her company, Joye Movement, will explore the natural and cultural resources of LeBauer and Center City Parks as they develop their newest work, “A Wicked Silence,” a dance exploration of the history, narratives, and consequences of the Eugenics Movement in North Carolina. The residency will serve as a pilot for the official launch of a permanent
Artist-in-Residence program for the city’s parks.
Thomas Mendolia (’12 BFA Acting) has learned that his horror short Mr. ThisandThat is being picked up by a major production company to be made into a feature film. Mendolia is attached to direct. Read more here.
Melanie Greene (’13 MFA Dance) is being called one of the “25 to watch in ’21” by
Dance Magazine. The article features artists that the magazine refers to as the “movers, makers and multi-hyphenates we believe are shaping the dance world of tomorrow.” Read more here.
Noah Cline (’18 BM Performance and BA Communications Studies) has joined Chicago Sinfonietta’s administration as Executive Assistant to the CEO.
Khalila Brown (’19 BFA Dance), Vania Claiborne (’16 BFA Dance), and Nia Sadler (’19 BFA Dance) have had works selected by the American Dance Festival to be performed as part of the project “RESIST COVID/TAKE 6!” presented by the Nasher Museum in partnership with Duke Arts and Duke Health. The project is an outdoor exhibition and public awareness campaign by nationally acclaimed artist Carrie Mae Weems, which emphasizes the disproportionate impact of the deadly virus on the lives of communities of color. The original works by Brown, Claiborne, and Sadler will be performed in front of one of the installations and filmed. As the films are released, they will be available on the
Alumni News & Notes are compiled from self-submissions
and from the University’s news clip service.
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FACULTY/STAFF NEWS & NOTES |
Joe Gamble (IT Support Technician and CVPA Webmaster) has earned the MA in 3D Animation and Special Effects from Buckinghamshire New University.
Scott Garrison (UNCG Auditorium Technical Director) has been awarded a $27,000 grant from the Green Fund to replace the remaining incandescent bulbs in the UNCG Auditorium with 18 LED stage lights.
Steve Haines (Professor of Double Bass and Director of the Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program) is a featured musician on the Joe Chambers album Samba de Maracatu released on February 26th on the storied Blue Note Records label. Read the review here. Listen here.
Andy Hudson (Assistant Professor of Clarinet) recently gave clarinet and/or woodwind composition masterclasses for Arizona State University, the University of Illinois, Lewis and Clark University, Millikin University, and the Salem (OR) Youth Symphony.
Elizabeth Perrill (Associate Professor or Art History) has been awarded a $4,000 subsidy for her publication Burnished: Zulu Ceramics Between Rural and Urban South Africa (Indiana University Press). Read more here.
Jennifer Reis (Assistant Professor of Arts Administration) recently gave a talk about branding for artists for the Kentucky Arts Council. Watch the presentation here.
John Salmon (Professor of Piano) recalls the late Jazz legend Chick Corea in an article published recently in the Greensboro News and Record. Read the article here.
Nicole Scalissi (Assistant Professor of Art History) co-chaired a panel at the College Art Association, “Art at the Edge of Democracy in the Americas.” This panel was deeply invested in the edges of “democracy” from the perspective of the Americas (including spaces of colonial legacy such as Guam and Puerto Rico) and considered who has access to freedoms within these systems, as well as how urgent issues of human rights, environmental justice, and public health pressure democratic values and processes.
Sidney Stretz (Undergraduate Academic Advisor) is one of two recipients of the 2020–2021 Professional Academic Advising Award, which recognizes and celebrates the efforts and significant contributions of a UNCG professional advisor to student success.
Joan Titus (Associate Professor of Musicology) has received $500 from the Graduate School’s Inaugural Faculty Grant Program for Providing More Inclusive Graduate Courses. This was awarded for her revision of a graduate-level musicology course offered by the School of Music.
Lee Walton (Professor of New Media & Design) has a virtual exhibition at the
San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. “Imagining Data” presents what data can look like in paintings, drawings, sculpture, audio-visual installation, fashion, and performance.
Tara Web (Lecturer in Theatre) has been selected as a University Sustainability Faculty Fellow for 2021–2022.
Clarice Young (Assistant Professor of Dance) is the recipient of the 2020–2021 ArtsGreensboro Artist Support Grant, which Young used to create “Which Way Is Up?,”
a performance by The Clarice Young Project celebrating Black History Month. Atiba Rorie (Lecturer/Accompanist for Dance) and Maurice Watson (Lecturer in Dance) also participated in the project. Watch here.
Faculty/Staff News & Notes are compiled from self-submissions
and from the University’s news clip service.
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MARCH EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Xaviera Simmons Falk Visiting Artist Talk
Delta Chi Xi Barefoot Charity Dance Concert
Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw
March 18th–20th / Streaming on-demand
from 1:00 to 5:00 PM, Monday–Friday
Ann Hamilton Falk Visiting Artist Talk
Irna Priore Music and Culture Lecture Series
Yun Emily Wang, “Sounding ‘Homes’ and Making Do in Sinophone Toronto”
MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
Click on the image below to see what events CVPA and UNC Greensboro have planned
during She Can/We Can, a series of events, discussions, and performances to examine
the history and cultural context of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (women’s right to vote), and issues of equity and equality in our own time.
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Trixie Friganza (immediately behind the sign), who inspired the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,”
was a women’s suffrage advocate from Cincinnati.
Photo courtesy of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
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The College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) e-Newsletter is published eight times a year in September, October, November, December, February, March, April, and May.
The Newsletter is emailed to CVPA alumni, faculty, staff, students, patrons, and donors.
Please feel free to forward your copy, and anyone who would like their name to be added to our distribution list can contact us via uncgarts@uncg.edu.
The e-Newsletter is edited by Terri Relos, Director of Marketing and Alumni Outreach. Archived issues can be found in the “News” section of the CVPA website. To submit Alumni News & Notes, please use this form. For Faculty/Staff News & Notes, use this form.
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