“There is something about being at a performance and looking at the audience and having that realization that wow I helped to bring them here. I just love the idea of playing a part in opening up an art experience to someone.”

“There is an integration of art and mental health. Making art and enjoying a creative process is a form of therapy. Self-expression is important. Enjoying other people’s art is also beneficial to well-being.”

“I feel like the professors here were just what I needed. They allowed me to be a student first, and they really nurtured my ability to grow and develop then allowed me to become the professional I knew I could be.”

On November 10th, the College of Visual and Performing Arts celebrated four recipients of the College’s Distinguished Alumni Award with a dinner and presentation at the UNCG Alumni House.

The 2022–2023 honorees are interdisciplinary artist Sherrill Roland (’17 MFA and ’09 BFA Studio Art), dance educator Melinda Waegerle (‘98 MA and ‘81 BS Dance Education), conductor Andrea Brown (’10 DMA Performance, ’00 MM Music Education), and Broadway stage manager Julie DeVore (’10 BFA Drama).

School of Art Director Chris Cassidy presented the award to Roland who commented on his time at UNCG, interrupted by a wrongful incarceration, which inspired his Jumpsuit Project:

“There were a lot of twists and turns, and I wouldn’t have gotten here without some of the people in this room. There is such a community in the School of Art. I stand here receiving this award, but I represent a lot of people in receiving it.”

Dance Education Professors Theresa Heiland and Mila Parrish presented the award to Professor Emerita Melinda Waegerle who retired from UNCG in May 2022 but is already back into the classroom at a local elementary school:

“I’m so humbled by this. I just love to teach. I’m going to just keep beating my drum and encouraging children.”

School of Music Director Charles Young and Professor Emeritus John Locke made the presentation to Andrea Brown, who serves as Associate Director of Bands at the University of Maryland:

“Being a part of the School of Music feels like a much bigger part of my life than the five years I spent here. The incredible experiences here have made my profession in the world of conducting possible.”

School of Theatre Director Natalie Sowell presented an award to Julie DeVore, who is a stage manager with more than a dozen Broadway credits:

“I walked onto this campus as a high school senior thinking that education was a failure for me. This is the first place that made me feel like a winner. It made me feel like I could succeed.”

Dean bruce mcclung concluded the evening by recognizing the 2022–2023 recipients of the College’s Distinguished Alumni Award:

“The College of Visual and Performing Arts nurtures the tradition of excellence in the arts, and through your careers and accomplishments, you have made all of us here at UNCG very proud. We look forward to following your careers and your next artistic accomplishment!”

Natalie Blackman (Assistant Professor of Voice and Acting) won a B. Iden Payne Austin Regional Theatre Award for her portrayal of Venticelli in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus at Penfold Theatre Company in Austin, Texas.

John Gulley (Professor of Acting and Directing) had his production of Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning-play Talley’s Folly performed at London’s Cockpit Theatre in October. The production, which Gulley originally directed for Raleigh’s Burning Coal Theatre in 2020, was scheduled to travel to London but had to be postponed due to the pandemic. The delayed production received an “excellent” review in Everything Theatre. Read the review here.

Ana Paula Höfling presented her paper “Felicitas Barreto: Dancing Whiteness in the Land of Mestiçagem” at the Dance Studies Association conference in Vancouver, Canada. Her new research project focuses on three female Brazilian choreographers who directed their own folkloric ballet ensembles in mid-twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro.

Heather Holian (Professor of Art History) presented conference papers in October that focused on two different aspects of her new research on Walt Disney art exhibitions of the 1930s and 1940s. The first, “Marketing the Magic: The Public Sale of ‘Walt Disney Originals’ by Guthrie Courvoisier and His Agents, 1938–48,” was presented virtually at the Northeastern Pop Culture Association, a regional conference with international participation. This work was based upon newly discovered archival documents. The second paper, “Exhibiting Animation Art with an Agenda: Walt Disney Premiere Exhibitions of the ‘Golden Age,’’’ was presented at the Southeast College Art Association Conference in Baltimore in the first session sponsored by the Collective of Animation Scholars and Practitioners, an organization jointly founded by Holian, Dan Hale (Assistant Professor of Animation), and Marc Russo (Associate Professor of Animation at NC State).

Andy Hudson (Assistant Professor of Clarinet) has published his second book, SPACE BASS: Advanced Explorations for Bass Clarinet, with Conway Publications. Co-authored with Roger Zare, the book teaches foundational and extended bass clarinet techniques through thirteen new concert etudes and masterclasses.

Annie Jeng (Assistant Professor of Piano Pedagogy), Anthony Taylor (Professor of Clarinet), and Charles Young (Director of the School of Music) have been selected to participate in a UNCG Faculty Leadership Development Program developed with the University’s partners at the Center for Creative Leadership.

Maria Lim (Associate Professor of Art History) co-edited the book Counternarratives from Asian American Art Educators: Identities, Pedagogies, and Practice beyond the Western Paradigm. The book collects and explores the professional and pedagogical narratives of Asian art educators and researchers in North America. Read more here.

Connie McKoy (Covington Distinguished Professor of Music) co-authored Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education: From Understanding to Application, which had a second edition published this fall by Routledge. The book presents an approach to teaching music that is responsive to how different culturally specific knowledge bases impact music learning.

Nicole F. Scalissi (Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History) published “Real Violence: Jordan Wolfson, Virtual Reality, and the Privilege of Allegory” in the Palgrave Handbook of Media and Film Violence. Scalissi’s chapter analyzes a controversial ultra-violent video artwork using theories of affect, reality, and screened violence. In the context of actual victimizations by demographic group in the United States, she shows how Wolfson’s artwork serves—inadvertently—to highlight identity-based disparities in safety. Scalissi also gave a presentation of recent research at the Southeastern College Art Conference in October. Her paper, “Insouciantly Trashy, Passionately Utopian: Diego Rivera, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the ‘Mission School,’” linked Chicano public art to contemporary graffiti practice, Chicano/Latinx community identity in the wake of gentrification, and the impact of Mexican artists on “American” art education and artists.

Leah Sobsey (Assistant Professor of Photography) gave an artist talk on November 17th at Harvard University in conjunction with her exhibition In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers. View the exhibition here.

Charles Young (Director of the School of Music) has been appointed Chair of the Nominations Committee for the National Association of Schools of Music.

The 2022–2023 University Concert and Lecture Series continues in the new year with folk-rock duo Indigo Girls accompanied by the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra; and Seraph Brass, a dynamic ensemble drawing from a roster of America’s top female brass players.

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The e-Newsletter is edited by Terri Relos, Director of External Relations. Archived issues can be found in the “News” section of the CVPA website. To submit Alumni News & Notes, please use this form. To submit Faculty/Staff News & Notes, use this form.