When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the University of Virginia to send students home and later to cancel in-person Final Exercises last year, staff across the University began searching for new ways to safely celebrate the Class of 2020 and honor its accomplishments.
What does a performance artist do in the middle of a pandemic? Student and faculty musicians in the University of Virginia’s jazz program went into the studio. The UVA jazz program, led by trumpeter/composer John D’earth, consists of the Jazz Ensemble, the UVA Jazz Chamber Groups, the UVA Jazz Singers; for this project, they were joined by collaborators from the dance program, visual arts, and media studies. With the pandemic, live performances were out, but the music could still be captured, an album made.
The Virginia Film Festival, a program of the University of Virginia and the Office of the Provost and the Vice Provost for the Arts, is returning to theaters in 2021 after presenting an exclusively virtual and drive-in format in 2020.
Beginning around 5:00 PM on a September 2021 Tuesday, those passing by Carr’s Hill might have heard some beautiful jazz music floating in the late afternoon air, as trumpeter John D’earth welcomed University of Virginia students back in his own special way.
From memoir to mystery, from work advice to analysis of the 2020 elections, University of Virginia faculty members and alumni have published, or soon will publish, books that appeal to a wide range of tastes and topics.
David J. Getsy is an art historian, art writer, and curator whose research examines the changing investments in the human figure in American and European art from the nineteenth century to the present. Working at the intersection of art history, queer studies, and transgender studies, his writings have addressed the ways in which non-normative genders and sexualities have been fundamental to the shape of art history’s narratives.
WTJU 91.1 FM has been approved for a $20,000 Arts Education grant to support the development of an online jazz history curriculum. Adapted from WTJU’s Jazz at 100 radio series, this project will creatively engage students around the unique story and passion of jazz music.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Virginia Student Council’s Arts Committee approached UVA photographer Sanjay Suchak about teaching a Zoom workshop with smartphone photography tips and setting up a student photo contest. The hope was to give students an opportunity to get creative, and a new way to get outside and explore UVA and Charlottesville.
One course could change your entire life. That’s exactly what happened to University of Virginia alumnus Jason George, who plays Dr. Ben Warren on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and its spin-off, “Station 19.” Jody Kielbasa, director of the Virginia Film Festival and UVA’s vice provost for the arts, introduced George during Sunday night’s installment of the Virginia Film Festival’s virtual conversation, “Beyond the Screen: Reflecting Reality with the Cast of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Station 19.’” The event was moderated by Chandler Ferrebee, the film festival’s program manager; the film festival is a program of the University and the Office of the Provost and Vice Provost for the Arts.
The Women’s Center (renamed in 2017, thanks to the generous support of Maxine Platzer Lynn, a 1951 alumna of what is now the School of Education and Human Development) was created to offer more resources and programs to women at UVA and in the community – especially students, of course – and to foster leadership and work on gender justice. Today, its programs include mentoring and outreach to boys and young men, as well as to girls and young women.
The UVA Department of Drama will introduce its new MFA Acting company in two one-act plays that will stream April 22-25, 2021 on the ShowTix4U platform. Death of the Author by Steven Drukman and God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton, will be video recorded live on the Culbreth Theatre stage without an audience and with all actors masked and following protocols in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The performances are components of graduate course DRAM 7400: Mentored Study: Acting.
The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia has again achieved the highest national recognition afforded the nation’s museums. Accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) signifies excellence to the museum community, to governments, funders, outside agencies, and to the museum-going public. All museums must undergo a re-accreditation review at least every 10 years to maintain AAM accredited status.
