ARTS ADMINISTRATION FALL 2012

NEWSLETTER

WELCOME BACKIn 2011 we in Arts Administration (ARAD) learned how crisis can present opportunity. I underwent surgery last September to get two plastic valves placed inside my heart, the result of childhood diseases I did not even recall. So special thanks to Dean Kim Tanzer for her steadfast support through the year. Also Lindsey Hepler (’09) and Maggie Guggenheimer CLAS ’03 stepped in to do great jobs covering classes in my absence. I owe them both huge debts of gratitude. Over the past year, ARAD has taught more students in more classes than ever before, played a role in major arts projects, engaged with the Charlottesville community, and been recognized with grants and rewards. I speak for the entire ARAD community when I say that we look forward to continuing this growth and engagement in the coming year.

George W. Sampson

PROGRAM GROWTHWith Lindsey and Maggie leading the way,

the Program saw significant classroom growth. They combined to create a summer internship class in ’12, our first summer offering. The fall of ‘12 also includes for the first time two student-led courses: The Art Business, being taught for the 4th time, is now joined by a new course on Art Criticism. The 4th Year Capstone Seminar for ARAD Majors has become a more fully realized peer-guide for 4th Year thesis projects and provides feedback for an ARAD book Lindsey and I have been working on since 2009. In addition, ARAD teaching colleague Jody Kielbasa, Virginia Film Festival Director, has ARAD independent study students helping him produce this year’s 25th Festival. In all, a record 150 students are enrolled in ARAD classes this semester.

Well-housed in the School of Architecture under the visionary leadership of Dean Kim Tanzer, Arts Admin and Design Thinking join the new Curriculum for Practical Imagination in 2013 with Design Thinking becoming a required course. This linkage between Design Thinking and Arts Admin makes us a truly unique program in American higher education, with both fields valuing innovation, creativity, ambidextrous thinking, teamwork and empathy. Researching and writing about this linkage is a tremendously exciting multi-year project of great potential.

PEOPLE (Felicia Nguyen-Constitution Day mural 2012)Our 12 ARAD Interdisciplinary Majors bring

richness from many fields. In addition to ARAD, our Majors study: Lydia Abbott, Psychology & Studio Art; Caroline Barba, Art History & Business; Mary Bode, Art History & Marketing/Advertising; Manya Cherabuddi, School of Commerce & Studio Art; Carmen Diaz, Psychology & Studio Art; Caroline Gonya, South Asian Studies & Art History, Molly Joyce, Sociology & Studio Art; Eleanor Moran, Art History & Political Culture/Non-Profit Mgmt; Felisha Nguyen, Studio Art & Media Studies; Ali Stoner, Drama & Economics; Stephanie LeBolt, Drama & Media Studies; Laura Lyons, US History & Media Studies.

Among the student internships acquired by ARAD-ers in ’11- ’12 were positions at: Acquavella Galleries (NYC), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Christie’s, CitiCenter Performing Arts (Boston), Clark Institute of Art, DC Jazz Festival, Mockingbird Pictures (Hollywood), NEA (DC), Red Light (C-ville), Smithsonian (DC) AND Sotheby’s.

New Alumni Jobs at: Christie’s, Corcoran Gallery, Decca Records, Folger Library, Gran Via Prods. (Hollywood), Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met Opera, MOMA, the Philadelphia Art Museum, Red Light Mgmt, Sotheby’s, Williamstown Theatre Festival and many others. Lindsey Hepler was hired in August as first Program Manager of OpenGrounds, UVA’s new center for connecting and collaborating on creative projects from across the Grounds.

Grad School Admissions: BU, Columbia, Queensland U (Australia), Sotheby’s Institute, UT Austin and others. A partial list of ’11 – ’12 shows more than 75 placements, continuing evidence of the high caliber of our wonderful students and alumnae. Please keep us up to date on your positions & successes!

Of course Student Leaders, ubiquitous in the ARAD program, contribute in many ways, but significantly in teaching itself, Lily Stellmann, Ley Ley Francis and Alice Kister are instructors for the 4th teaching of the Art Business course, while Ally Burnett and David Cook have created a new course on Art Criticism. Both courses carry academic credit and both are filled.

This fall, I will test-teach a new case written by Tyler Harris, ARAD ’12, on the 2011 Metropolitan Museum exhibition, “Savage Beauty” on the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen. Tyler’s case was written as her 4 th Year Thesis project and was enthusiastically received by Darden Business Publishing for possible publication.

PROJECTSThe ’11–’12 Year saw published

outcomes of several previous projects reach national and international audiences: through a PBS national broadcast, the Smithsonian Institution, an international stage tour and

international acclaim for the CD of a jazz concert recorded in the UVA Chapel concert.ARAD-connected publications, all of which used our students include:

In November 2011, Bill T Jones returned to join Kartemquin Films co-founder Gordon Quinn in a Virginia Film Festival panel following the screening of both the PBS “American Masters” film A Good Man, partially shot at UVA, and a short film of the site-specific work “100 Migrations” www.100migrations.org which the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company and 250 UVA & local people created in U Hall in ‘08. PBS nationally broadcast A Good Man on Nov. 11.

In December, the CD recorded at a ‘09 concert in the UVA Chapel with jazz artists Bill Cole and Billy Bang appeared on “Best of…” lists, ranked as high as “6th Best Jazz CD of 2011” on one list, with reviews in Greece, Italy, the UK and across the US. By spring, the CD was highly ranked on college radio stations jazz playlists: #4 in Montreal and Victoria, BC; #9 in Toronto; #1 in Durham, NC; #2 in Dayton, OH; #2 in San Jose, CA; #3 in Tallahassee, FL, #5 in Milwaukee and many others. As he turns 75, Bill Cole is getting called for more performances than ever before, see www.billcole.org.

In January 2012, the World Premiere of Bill T. Jones’ latest work, “Story/Time,” worked on during 3 residencies at UVA during 2011, was presented at Montclair State (NJ) with the thrilling sight of UVA Music Professor Ted Coffey taking bows hand in hand with Bill T. Ted is a one-man pit orchestra for “Story/Time” with incredible improvisation and composing skills displayed in real time as the show changes with each tour stop. In Oct.’12, Ted joins the Company for European shows in Rome and Amsterdam. Ted being involved stems from the ARAD-produced Design Thinking Symposium in Feb. 2011.

In early 2012, the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art made available the manuscript and taped interviews I conducted in ’10 and ’11 with art historian Dore Ashton, whose books on the New York School are still used in UVA Art History classes.

In March ARAD presented another Chapel jazz concert with multi-instrumentalist Bill Cole

and low-brass specialist Joe Daley. Both also spoke to ARAD classes.

SERVICE to our COMMUNITYOver the years ARAD students lead or

support from behind the scenes, virtually every arts activity and unit on Grounds from Museum Docents to Symphony interns, and including many CIOs (Contracted Independent Organizations) under which structure student groups are authorized by Student Council. This year ARAD Majors Carmen Diaz and Molly Joyce joined with stalwart ARAD students Callie Herod, Lauren Williams and Meryl Goldstein to form the Elmaleh Gallery Board, a CIO to provide services to the Architecture School’s main public gallery space for openings and other events. ARAD / Design Thinking students Scott Ellwood, Rachel Smith, Betty Quinn, and Engineering student Drew Barnocky created a CIO called “Spark” to support initiatives at OpenGrounds. Studio Art & Engineering student combinations illustrate the crossroads of ARAD.

Elizabeth Breeden, founder of “Art in Place,” C-Ville’s public art project, asked me to help create a national pool from which to select a sculptor for a public art work to commemorate the Vinegar Hill neighborhood razed in the 1960s, part of a renewal of Jefferson High School for an African American Heritage Center. Melvin Edwards waseventually selected. A prominent sculptor, Mel is someone I have known for 30+ years and he was kind enough to speak to the Design Thinking class last spring. See www.meledwards08.com

This summer I was delighted to help re-connect UVA with the family of the late Stan Winston (CLAS ’68), guru of Hollywood special effects. Stan’s incredible career began with classes in Drama and Studio Art at UVA and led to 4 Oscars for creating the effects/creatures of Terminator, Aliens, Edward Scissorhands, Jurassic Park, Avatar and dozens more before his untimely death in 2008. In classes taught by the shop directors from Drama, Studio and Architecture, students will create moving creatures and UVA will stage The Stan Winston Festival of the Moving Creature on April 18–20, 2013. ARAD students led by 4th Year Major Molly Joyce will help along the

way and Molly is using her year-long involvement as her required Interdisciplinary Thesis project.

GRANTS and AWARDSIn May, I was incredibly honored to receive

a University-wide award, the Leonard Sandridge Student Partnership Award, given annually by the Student Council at a ceremony in the Dome Room. Caught completely by surprise, I was doubly honored by having first-hand experience with Leonard during the years I was in Arts Development and seeing the high quality of the man and his dedicated professionalism.

Lindsey Hepler continues to play many roles in ARAD. Among them was her successful submission of a proposal to UVA’s Jefferson Trust for the funding of two films stemming from the Bill T. Jones residencies. We will have an archival DVD of 100 Migrations. As this work was produced only one time, UVA will hold a unique piece of Bill T.’s legacy and many Arts Admin alumnae will recall being involved in this extraordinary community art work and the unique opportunity for experiential education it provided.

The other film receiving funding from Lindsey’s grant is a documentary by Kartemquin Films and the local PBS affiliate on UVA’s special relationship with Bill over the last decade. Planned as a 30-minute regional broadcast, footage will be shot at UVA later this fall.

A second grant, this one from the Teaching Resource Center Professors as Writers program, enabled Lindsey and me to hire two consultants to guide our efforts to create a book on the UVA Arts Admin experience highlighting the Arts in Context series of courses. We owe particular thanks to ARAD alumna Hannah Trible (’09) for her hard work and wise counsel. This fall’s Capstone Seminar class will help us further refine this book.

Finally, I was honored to receive a grant from the UVA Arts Council to assist with honoraria for guest speakers/artists in the upcoming Arts in Context course, The Arts & the Environment, in spring, 2013. [Readers with ideas for this course on the Arts & the Environment are encouraged to share…]

SUPPORTING ARADThank you to all who have supported Arts

Admin over the years. Private gifts are essential to the Program’s continued success.

Internal UVA support from the budgets of Architecture School Dean Kim Tanzer, Vice President for Research Tom Skalak and Vice Provost for the Arts Beth Turner has enabled the Program to launch and be sustained. By mutual agreement however, this funding is not permanent and instead is meant to get the Program off the ground; much as venture capital start-up funding launches a new business. Over the years, the idea is that private gifts will increase as a percentage of total Program cost so that some of these venture capital funds can shift to launch other important initiatives within the University. In an era of tight economic times this is both fair and highly entrepreneurial in spirit. But to attain the next steps of self–sufficiency and sustainability, we need the help of our Program’s alumnae, parents and friends.

I hope you agree that last year’s accomplishments of our many students in the classroom and the student-run projects was quite extraordinary in a year when I was running on less than full capacity. That success is the best stewardship of your investment I can demonstrate.

Thanks to many of you who read these lines, last year was also terrific from the point of view of private philanthropy. We raised more than $190,000, and of this, several key gifts and pledges were designed to pay out over a four-year

period. These are the building blocks of our future and I am very grateful for the vision of these donors in particular.

The challenge before us is clear yet doable. Every dollar matters a lot and because we partner with many other people and departments and try to think in entrepreneurial ways, we can go far with modest gifts. So I ask you to consider supporting us.

The Architecture School Foundation is the most direct method and can be accessed at:http://www.arch.virginia.edu/alumni/giving/

Because we are interdisciplinary with friends from across Grounds, you may prefer your gift be recognized by some other School of Foundation and this is easily done by request.

CONNECTING with ARADBe sure to stay connected with the UVA Arts Administration network by joining us on LinkedIn at http://linkd.in/Olwk4e .

Part of the purpose of these ARAD newsletters is to share updates with the ARAD community about the projects, people, and progress of the Arts Administration program here at UVA. As we prepare to launch a new ARAD website, we ask that you share your alumni announcements and updates, as well!

Feel free to share your announcements with the rest of the ARAD community by emailing it to ARAD 3rd Year Major Laura Lyons at ljl5ab@virginia.edu .