News

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.

University of the Arts was deeply saddened to learn of ceramic artist William Daley’s passing on Jan. 16 at the age of 96. For nearly 40 years, Daley was an important and influential figure at UArts, where his studio practice intertwined with his life as an arts educator.

Two UArts alumni, Alex Da Corte BFA ’04 (Printmaking) and Dave McKenzie BFA ’00 (Printmaking), are among the 63 artists named to the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2022 Biennial. This year’s exhibition, on view April 6 to Sept. 5, will be the 80th iteration of the series originally begun by the museum’s founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, in 1932.

As the Philadelphia Museum of Art winds down its landmark retrospective Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror, a series of Philadelphia Dance Company performances ran from Jan. 14 to 16, 2022, that underscored the artist's deep and abiding artistic connections to dance.
 

University of the Arts is one of 34 Pennsylvania institutions of higher education to receive an It's On Us PA grant, Gov. Tom Wolf announced last week.

This fall, Graphic Design students at UArts experienced a new evolution in the School of Design's curriculum. In Design for Interaction, a class co-taught by Graphic Design Program Director Angela Riechers and designer Ksenya Samarskaya, the students engaged with immersive media through a playful, experimental approach, a critical element of the school's new pedagogical strategy.

As televisions get smarter and more complicated, Martin Highley BFA '07 (Graphic Design) hopes Comcast's XClass television—the cable TV and technology company's first foray into consumer TVs—simplifies things. Highley, an associate creative director at Comcast, led the team that developed the project's user-experience platform. 

Growing up in Philadelphia, Nhi Nguyen MA '19 (Museum Education) was surrounded by world-class museums and cultural attractions but never set foot in one until she was 16.