University of the Arts Celebrates its Third UArts Day
October 9, 2019
Beginning Oct. 4, the University of the Arts community gathered to celebrate its third UArts Day and its eighth UArts Weekend, a campus-wide celebration that builds community, strengthens connections to Philadelphia, and expands the creative and professional skills of our students through scores of creative activities on and off campus. This year, students completed over 1,600 activities in just six hours. These ranged from making Kokedamas (the Japanese art of growing plants in a moss-covered ball of soil wrapped with string) at the Horticulture Therapy workshop, to creating set pieces for the performance and immersive visual art installation at Crane Arts for Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, to customizing UArts Day T-shirts with pictures of the university’s new mascot, Arty the Unicorn, at the Makerspace.
The party continued as UArts shut down Pine Street for an annual UArts Day block party. Students, faculty, staff, alumni and families filled the street, and the School of Music performed everything from jazz to beatboxing. Some of Philadelphia’s most popular food trucks—The Cow and the Curd, Fat Belly BBQ, Nick’s Roast Beef, and others—served more than 3,500 meals to attendees. The day wrapped up with an Open Mic Night featuring performances by students and even some family duets!
Alumni and families travelled to campus to celebrate UArts Weekend, which kicked off on Saturday with a Family and Faculty Brunch and campus updates from President Yager. Guests got a sneak peek at photos of campus renovations; learned about plans for upcoming projects; and heard about the progress of the UArts capital campaign, Uniquely UArts. After brunch, families and alumni went on a campus Gallery Crawl and visited the UArts block (13th & Chestnut streets) at the Midtown Village Fall Festival.
This year, the UArts festival stage featured performances from the School of Music’s “Z” Big Band, Transfusion Ensemble and DANGERBOY; alumni Hannah Lorimer, Keely Sibilia and DeShana Wooden; and the School of Dance.
The school store hosted a pop-up shop and sold first-edition UArts Unicorn T-shirts; Illustration students Julia Davis, Sophia Lane and Shawnee Sinex provided free face-painting and caricatures to attendees; and alumni Anuja Kapri, Alex Lozier and Lorenzo Buffa sold their crafts.
The weekend wound down in the evening at the Family BBQ, where families enjoyed BBQ, beer and wine. Little Baby’s Ice Cream—a Philadelphia-based company owned by Martin Brown ’04—treated everyone to dessert. On Sunday morning, guests gathered for a Farewell Brunch.
Next year’s events will be held Oct. 2–4, 2020.