News

During his tenure as an executive at New Jersey’s Tyco Toys, Lee Volpe BS ’69 (Industrial Design) shaped imaginative play-based experiences for countless children.

Kevin Haden, a renowned educator, musician, composer and lyricist, has joined University of the Arts as dean of the School of Music. Haden will bring his visionary and collaborative leadership to UArts, advancing the school’s mission to embrace an evolving music landscape and positioning it at the vanguard of creative practice.

Like so many other artists, Jessi Kaufman BFA ’22 (Photography) was stumped by the pandemic. The unfolding COVID-19 crisis disrupted countless artists’ creative habits, their access to studio space, creative tools and usual sources of inspiration. Their creative trajectories and career expectations were scrambled and interrupted.

This spring, UArts Animation students in Adjunct Assistant Professor Jason Hsu’s Client Animation class collaborated with the Humane Society of the United States to produce a compelling animated film that spotlights the many dangers wild wolves face. The project highlights the ecological benefits wolves provide and the threats they face from trophy hunters and wildlife management decisions.

On Thursday, May 19, University of the Arts celebrated its 144th Commencement, the first in-person ceremony since 2019, at Philadelphia’s venerated Academy of Music. A total of 467 students received degrees during the ceremony, including the inaugural cohort of the university’s PhD in Creativity program.

University of the Arts President and CEO David Yager announced to the university’s Board of Trustees that he intends to step down from the presidency and ultimately retire on June 30, 2023. President Yager will remain in his position for the next year to provide support during this transitional period as the university launches the search for his successor.

When University of the Arts celebrates the accomplishments of the Class of 2022 during Commencement on May 19, it will also recognize two influential and multitalented artists with honorary degrees: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Aaron Dessner.

James Brandon Lewis, a critically acclaimed composer, saxophonist and writer, has been named the inaugural recipient of The Balvenie Fellowship in University of the Arts’ PhD in Creativity program.

As a true child of the 1980s, Zach Weddington BFA ’99 (Film and Video Production) feels most at home in an arcade, immersed in the chittering of pinball machines and seemingly endless stacks of quarters and tokens.

Beginning in summer 2022, University of the Arts will welcome 10 artists-in-residence from within the university community and around the world, as they accelerate and cultivate contributions to contemporary knowledge production.

University of the Arts has announced the recipients of the inaugural round of the Grants for Creative Research & Innovation program, providing funding to 11 innovative projects led by UArts faculty and staff. 

After years of touring the world as the guitarist for the Philadelphia punk band R.A.M.B.O., Andrew Wheeler BFA ’01 (Film) has traded dim, sweaty venues for the much brighter lights of Hollywood.

On Friday, March 4, 2022, Lightbox Film Center at University of the Arts will present the U.S. premiere of a never-before-seen director’s cut of Wayne Wang’s 1989 film Life is Cheap… But Toilet Paper is Expensive.