The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture presents the Opening Reception for the early-career survey Levester Williams: all matters aside, an exhibition curated by Lisa D. Freiman, professor of art history at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Opening Reception will including a public program featuring Levester Williams, Michelle D. Wright, and Lisa Freiman.
The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture presents the early-career survey Levester Williams: all matters aside, an exhibition curated by Lisa D. Freiman, professor of art history at Virginia Commonwealth University. The exhibition presents a selection of the Philadelphia-based conceptual sculptor’s work from the past decade, including sculpture, video, sound art, and installation.
The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents an arts alumni panel featuring Jack Wojcik ’17, visual arts, and Vagensis ’13, theatre, who will share their post-graduation stories. Attendees are invited to bring questions about professional practices and career-building.
The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) welcomes Miguel Jiron, director at Sony Pictures Animation! Jiron will host a Storyboarding workshop for UMBC students on Friday October 18th and a public artist’s talk at the Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival in Baltimore on Saturday, October 19th. For this masterclass on storyboarding and story development, Jiron will share story pitches, outlining the progression from initial ideas to final animation. A live pitch and feedback session of selected UMBC student projects will follow.
The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) welcomes Miguel Jiron, director at Sony Pictures Animation! Jiron will host a storyboarding workshop for UMBC students on Friday, October 18, and a public artist’s talk at the Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival in Baltimore on Saturday, October 19. From Takashi Murakami to the Spider-verse, join Miguel Jiron on Saturday for a talk about his personal, roundabout journey from the independent and fine art world to the feature animation industry, along with a screening of his shorts.
In conjunction with the exhibition Revisions: Celebrating 50 Years of the UMBC Photography Collections, on display at the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery through December 15, the Library Gallery presents an artist talk by Tommy Kha, whose work is featured in the show.
Race Stories: Celebrating Maurice Berger celebrates the life and legacy of Maurice Berger, who was research professor and chief curator at the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC) until his death in 2020. The event will include the launch of the Maurice Berger CADVC Program Fund, the publication of “RACE STORIES: Essays on the Power of Images,” a collection of award-winning essays by Maurice Berger, the relaunch of the CADVC’s Issues in Cultural Theory publication series, the publication of Cockeysville to Baltimore (accompanying the exhibition Levester Williams: all matters aside), and remarks from noted speakers.
The Department of Visual Arts presents a lecture by Kei Ito, an interdisciplinary artist whose work is centered around utilizing the conceptual framework of photography to visualize the invisible. Mainly employing camera-less photographic techniques, performance, and installation, Ito creates large-scale installations and a variety of photographic projects that excavate hidden histories.
The Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC) hosts an Exploratory Research Residency that invites artists and interdisciplinary collaborators to take advantage of scholarly resources and to build partnerships at UMBC and in the Baltimore region. In 2025, CADVC hosts Tomashi Jackson’s “Pedagogy Study Hall” project as part of this program, which, in collaboration with policy analyst and economic advocate Nia Evans, will host a series of intermedia series of public discussions about investment and disinvestment in the arts and humanities, looking to Baltimore as a critical case study in grassroots organizing in a system of gross structural inequity.
In Find Your Why, presented by the Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA), Tatiana Mann will lead us to explore why we engage with our disciplines, what informs our decisions and how to light our creative fire to fuel our future success. As artists and humanists, why do we choose our career paths? Because of lucrative remuneration (supported by plentiful research grants) and a lavish lifestyle (afforded by sleepless nights working several jobs)? In pursuit of quixotic research, prestigious performances, exhibitions, publications, and accolades? Or do we choose to do what we do because at some point we couldn’t imagine a life without art, or without investigating humanity’s larger questions?
In conjunction with the installation Conflux: Variation (2025) by Baltimore-region artist collective Collis Donadio, on display nightly through June 30, the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture presents a public talk featuring Shannon Collis and Liz Donadio.
The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents artist Kelley Bell, who will present a talk entitled Projections, Inflatables, and Artistic Spectacles. An artist/designer/educator celebrated for creating vibrant projection mapping works on a grand scale and gallery installations that emphasize joy, community, and human connection, Bell will take us on a tour of her best, worst and wildest art adventures and discover how delight and imagination can lead to contemplation and meaningful interpersonal connection, and how art doesn’t have to be big or in the public eye to be spectacular.
Artist Marc Archambault will unveil his in-process artwork concept for the new Sherman Hall public art installation at UMBC. Come meet Archambault, hear about the artwork, and provide feedback on the design process.
The Intermedia and Digital Arts Master's Program presents The Only Way Out Is Through: The 2025 Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) MFA Thesis Exhibition. On view from March 25 through April 12, the exhibition features work by graduating students McCoy Chance, Ahlam Khamis, Ghazal Mojtahedi, Alexi Scheiber, and Mariia Usova.
Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture artist resident Levester Williams was recently featured in all matters aside, a survey exhibition curated by Lisa D. Freiman. The exhibition featured a selection of works produced during Williams’s artist residency research into the histories and mythologies of Cockeysville marble, a material used in both the Washington Monument in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood and the iconic exterior steps of local rowhomes. On April 1, the CADVC presents a webinar featuring Levester Williams in conversation with sound designer Dan Shields, moderated by Lisa D. Freiman.
