UArts Celebrates the Class of 2019 at 141st Commencement Ceremony

President and CEO David Yager presided over the University’s festive 141st Commencement ceremony on May 16, 2019, at which 425 undergraduate and graduate students received diplomas. 

 

The event at the historic Academy of Music also featured honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (HDFA) degrees awarded to painter Zhang Xiaogang and actor Holly Robinson Peete, while alumni Silver Star Awards were given to Peter Freudenberg BFA ’67 (Painting) and Teneise Mitchell Ellis BFA ’05 (Jazz Dance).

The procession entered the Academy led by three faculty members: Grand Marshal Larry Mitnick, carrying the University mace, and marshals Niles Lewandowski and Diane Walsh.

In his welcoming remarks, President Yager spoke of resilience as a necessary quality for success in life, and noted that it’s a quality our students possess in abundance. “I’m proud to say that this kind of resiliency is one of the defining characteristics of the students sitting in front of me,” he said. “The path of the artist, the designer, the performer, the writer is not an easy one. You learn that lesson very quickly here—usually after your first critique, review or recital.”

Student valedictory speaker Rachele Robbins ’19 (MBET), took up the theme and recalled for her classmates the many ways in which their training and experience have enhanced their resilience and made them ready to take on the challenges of the professional phase of their lives.

Your education here at the University of the Arts has prepared you for this, because of your exposure to so many elements of the arts has given you the gift of reinvention and the understanding of so many different facets of human artistry. – Holly Robinson Peete, honorary degree recipient

President Yager presented President’s Awards to five students. 

• Andrew Smith ’19 (Fine Arts) received the President’s Award for Cross-Disciplinary Excellence. 
• Tonya Mayo ’19 (Vocal Performance) was honored with the President’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Community. 
• A President’s Award for Excellence in Creative Practice went to Majesty Royale ’19 (Dance).
• A second award for Excellence in Creative Practice was presented to Tilda Sladek ’19 (Illustration). 
• MeeRee Orlandini ’19 (Creative Writing) received the President’s Award for Critical Inquiry.

Vice President for Academic Affairs Carol Graney presented three awards to distinguished faculty. Ron Kerber (Music) and Gregg Robinson (College of Art, Media and Design Core Studies) were each presented with the President’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and Christian Patchell (Illustration) received the Cynthia Iliff Koehler Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Following the UArts tradition of a house-shaking rendition of “With a Little Help from My Friends” by the Commencement Ensemble and graduating senior Vocal Performance majors, School of Dance Director Donna Faye Burchfield presented a Silver Star alumni award to Ellis, who has been a Radio City Music Hall Rockette and has danced with many prestigious companies. Rebecca Sack, director of the Fine Arts program, presented a Silver Star to Freudenberg, whose memorable water tank murals include the Gaffney, North Carolina, “Peachoid,” which gained greater fame when featured in an episode of the Netflix series House of Cards.

President Yager presented the first of two HDFA degrees to internationally renowned contemporary Chinese painter Zhang. Zhang’s most well-known work, the Bloodline: Big Family series, draws from formal family portraits, simultaneously representing both the individual and the faceless masses of China. Zhang’s work seeks to express human experiences and emotions, emphasizing the existence of history and memory in the present.

The second HDFA degree went to actor, humanitarian, author and Philly native Peete, who has had a successful TV and movie career, including her current reality series For Peete’s Sake, on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network. She is also the wife of former Eagle Rodney Peete. In the wake of their son’s autism diagnosis and her father’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, Peete and her husband established the HollyRod Foundation that supports those suffering with either condition. She is also the award-winning author of the children’s book My Brother Charlie, about a young boy with autism.

Peete also delivered the Commencement address. In it, she highlighted her personal examples of resilience in the face of her own father’s attempts to discourage her performance aspirations. She encouraged the students to be ready to reinvent themselves and adapt to life changes. 

“Your education here at the University of the Arts has prepared you for this because of your exposure to so many elements of the arts—the collaboration between design and the performing, visual, communication and liberal arts communities—has given you the gift of reinvention and the understanding of so many different facets of human artistry,” she noted.

As is tradition, the Commencement ceremony closed with a recessional led by the colorful PhillyBloco samba band.