Pages 3-6: Arts in the Community
Page 3: Arts in the Community Introduction
“I think it’s hard for any enterprise to be fully successful in this community without UCF’s involvement.”
— Margot H. Knight, President & CEO, United Arts of Central Florida
Ms. Knight’s sentiment is echoed throughout the community: UCF is key to the arts, humanities, and culture of Central Florida. Some of the most obvious involvements can be spotted in local theaters. This year, UCF won a United Arts of Central Florida award for its partnerships with the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival and the Orlando Repertory Theatre (“The Rep”). And two new theatre MFA programs (Youth Theatre and Musical Theatre) were made possible through partnerships with The Rep and the Seaside Music Theatre, respectively.
Other community ties are heard through programs such as A Gift for Music where music faculty volunteer their time and money to teach music to underprivileged youths. Also, the annual music workshops, clinics, and camps—such as SaxFest, Flute Day, and Clarinet Day—always make a buzz.
Not to be outdone, UCF’s visual artists participate in Partners in Art for Visual Education (PAVE), which reaches out to school children, senior citizens, and hospital patients through art and art education.
The School of Film & Digital Media sponsors The Zora Neale Hurston Institute for Documentary Studies, which focuses on the creative study and production of documentaries that highlight under-served communities. The School is also the primary sponsor of the interdisciplinary Heritage Alliance, a compelling organization whose mission is to celebrate and share the diversity of Central Florida.
The Department of English has also reached out through annual distinguished author lectures and projects like Dr. Terry Ann Thaxton’s Writing Home—a collaboration between UCF students and the residents of the Central Florida Coalition for the Homeless.
UCF participates in so many creative projects that it would be impossible to list them all here, but a few examples are listed on the following pages.
Page 4: Heritage Alliance
The Heritage Alliance seeks new and meaningful ways to bring the Central Florida community together by celebrating the region’s rich diversity through education, technology-based projects, folklife research, and preservation.
Sample Projects:
Cultural Byways on the Information Highway
Using wireless Internet and a G.P.S., downtown Orlando buses are able to download history and folklife segments that are shown on newly installed ADA audio/visual equipment. Between stops, the video screens are filled with stories and facts that were collected and assembled by UCF students and faculty. These informational segments are designed to correspond to buildings and public spaces as the bus passes them. The segments include historical and contemporary photographs, animation, text, and sound. They present facts about people and architectural spaces, stories about ghosts, information on ethnic music, stained glass windows in churches, Asian restaurants, tattoo parlors, hip-hop nightclubs, the historical progression of certain buildings, local musicians, crafters of musical instruments, and popular places to visit.
Central Florida Folklore Fieldwork Survey
The Folklore Fieldwork Survey identifies, documents, and publicizes folk artists in Central Florida. The database is used for research and educational programming. It makes the area’s rich heritage visible.
Example Entry: Tina Nguyen is listed in the Central Florida Folklore database. She plays and teaches Vietnamese folk music, including the Dan Bau or monochord and the Dan Tranh or zither, which is originally of Chinese origin.
More Information: sfdm.ucf.edu/heritagealliance
Key Faculty:
Kristin G. Congdon, Natalie Underberg, & Sterling Van Wagenen
Page 4: Theatre
With over 350 students majoring in theatre, UCF now has one of the largest theatre programs in the state and boasts an extensive network of community partnerships, with such organizations as Walt Disney World, the Seaside Music Theater, The Orlando Repertory Theatre, The Orlando Theatre Company, and The Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival. This year UCF was the recipient of the first place award in the United Arts category of “2002-2003 Large Business Partner” for its theatre partnerships.
“We are attracting some of the most talented faculty and students throughout the country. Our goal to become the premier theatre training program in the nation continues. And our professional partnerships are the cornerstone of that goal.”
—Joseph Rusnock, interim department chair
The Orlando Repertory Theatre (“The Rep”)
The Rep showcases plays and theatre programs for children. Theatre MFA students also work, perform, and study with the youth and professionals at The Rep, which is an integral part of the new MFA in Youth Theatre program.
Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival
The Department of Theatre works closely with the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival, which is now in its fifteenth year of operation, and has an annual operating budget of $1,650,000.
More Information: www.theatre.ucf.edu
Directors:
Joseph Rusnock (Interim Chair/Artistic Director), Fern Matthews (Managing Director), Sybil St. Claire (Artistic Director, The Rep), & Paul Lartonoix (Producing Artistic Director, The Rep)
Page 5: Downtown Media Arts Center (DMAC)
The School of Film & Digital Media, along with the Downtown Development Board and Ford Kiene, just unveiled the DMAC, in Orlando. DMAC’s agenda includes exhibiting alternative films, offering workshops in film/media production, and working with local schools to provide media education to children. DMAC’s screening room will be the first full-time movie screen to operate in downtown Orlando in decades, and it will be the only 100% digital theater in town.
More Information: www.DMACorlando.org
Key Faculty and Staff:
Lisa Cook, Traci Reitz Yeager, & Jason Neff
Page 5: Partners in Art for Visual Education
Partners in Art for Visual Education (PAVE), funded by the Alice and William S. Jenkins Endowment, is the UCF Art Department’s outreach program. PAVE’s mission is to serve schools and senior citizen groups that do not have art teachers. Serving schools in low income areas and with high minority populations is another component of the mission. Art projects have included printmaking, painting, photography, ceramics, watercolor, and drawing. Art instructors from the university or master artists from the community serve as PAVE instructors. There is no cost to schools or senior centers for the specialized instruction or the art materials. In the 2002-2003 academic year, PAVE served 2293 participants from 16 schools, elementary, middle, and high, and five senior citizen centers. In 2001, PAVE won top honors for Best in Art Education through United Arts of Central Florida, a community organization that encourages excellence in the arts.
More Information: www.art.ucf.edu/pave
Key Faculty: Kevin Haran
Page 5: Zora Neale Hurston Institute For Documentary Studies
The Hurston Institute brings a world-focus to the theory and practice of cinema. The Institute gives authentic expression to marginalized and excluded communities by using film and digital media to tell their stories. It is a way of creating cultural identity, sustaining cultural heritage, and empowering the community.
More Information: www.film.ucf.edu/zora
Key Faculty:
Gladstone Yearwood, Carroll Parrott Blue, Anthony Major, Kristin G. Congdon, Natalie Underberg, & Sterling Van Wagenen
Sample Projects:
Celebration of New Black Cinema
The Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts & Humanities is an annual event in Central Florida. One part of the Hurston festival this year was the film festival, which was entitled “Celebration of New Black Cinema.” Among the featured participants in this year’s film festival were Richard Roundtree (actor, known for his role as “Shaft”), Charles Burnett (director, known for To Sleep with Anger), St. Clair Bourne (producer-director), and Dr. Marta Moreño Vega (producer).
A Tribute to Jesse Brown: A Documentary
Jesse LeRoy Brown had been fascinated with airplanes all his youth. His love of the big-blue led him to Ohio State and eventually the Navy. Jesse Brown was smart and dedicated, but it was the 1940’s and Jesse Brown was African American. His prejudiced instructors wrongly foretold his failure, but in the end, Jesse Brown became the Navy’s first active black pilot. Shortly thereafter he became a fleeting hero and casualty of the Korean War. This project recounts Jesse Brown’s courage and life for all the world to remember. It is supported by Soldiers to Scholars, the Department of Economic Development, and Dr. Barbara Turnage.
Page 6: Music
This was a great year for Orlando’s music-lovers. It began with Professor Stella Sung’s Constellations, a multimedia piece commissioned and performed by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra to commemorate their tenth anniversary. Then, Dr. Sung collaborated with faculty guitarist Dr. Eladio Scharrón to write a solo classical guitar piece named Modinha, which Dr. Scharrón premiered at the elite Della due Città international guitar festival in Italy. His performance was also broadcast over the College website, so that local music fans did not miss a beat!
November brought a treat for jazz lovers. The Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition was held on the UCF campus, and trumpeters from around the world competed here for the $10,000 first-place prize. The Army Blues Band closed that two-day event with a rocking concert. Also, that same week Vance Villastrigo—one of the most sought-after singers in New York—performed with the UCF Jazz Ensemble. Both concerts were standing-room only! November was also the month during which the UCF University Chorus participated in the highly-acclaimed rendition of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. The Chorus performed this piece under the choreographic guidance of Debra Brown, of Cirque du Soleil, and with the Orlando Opera, the Orlando Magic Dancers, and numerous Cirque members.
In addition to all of these wonderful concerts, UCF brought in guest artists, who performed and instructed. Just a few of these guests included: Jean Geoffroy, a marimbist from France; Bernard Goldberg, former principal flute of the Pittsburgh Symphony; Julie DeRoche, clarinetist; and Kathy Chastain, flutist from the Oberlin Conservatory.
More Information: www.cas.ucf.edu/music
Directors: Keith Koons (interim department chair), David Brunner (choral activities), Diane Cardarelli (study abroad and summer camps), Jerry Gardner (music technology), Richard Greenwood (band activities), Laszlo Marosi (orchestra activities), & Jeff Rupert (jazz studies)
| 
Printer Friendly Version of this Article
