College of Arts + Architecture

Joseph Skillen will become the next chair of the Department of Music, effective July 1. He comes to UNC Charlotte after 22 years at Louisiana State University, where he has served in numerous capacities, most recently as the Galante Endowed Professor of Tuba and Euphonium and associate dean for graduate studies in music and theatre in the College of Music and Dramatic Arts.

Effective July 1, Blaine Brownell will become the new director of the School of Architecture (SoA) in UNC Charlotte’s College of Arts + Architecture. Brownell will come to the University from the University of Minnesota’s School of Architecture, where he is professor and interim head and has served as director of graduate studies and interim director of the Master of Science in Architecture-Sustainable Design Program.

Student Gianna Agostino won first place in the Sound Design competition at the 71st annual Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC) Convention, held recently in Louisville, Kentucky. Agostino is a junior pursuing a double major in music and communications with a minor in theatre. She won the award for her design for the Department of Theatre production of Caryl Churchill’s “Far Away,” created under the supervision of faculty mentor Benjamin Stickles.

Artist Sheryl Oring will bring her project, “I Wish to Say,” to UNC Charlotte for three sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, March 11-12.

A small group of art students traveled to Africa to take part in a celebration of history, art and culture.

“Future Artifacts,” an exhibition in the Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte Center City, will be displayed through Friday, March 13. Featuring works by five artists, “Future Artifacts” addresses the “digital reality” of contemporary culture and its effect on artists and art-making.

“Cartographer,” a film by Associate Professor of Art Marek Ranis was screened recently at the Northern Norway Art Museum in Tromsø, Norway.The 45-minute film is about the life and activism of the Sámi artist and poet Hans Ragnar Mathisen, one of the most significant artists of the Arctic region. An artist talk with Ranis and Mathisen followed the screening.

Ceramic works by Cuban-American artist Carlos Estévez are on view in Storrs Gallery through Friday, March 27. The exhibition, “Palimpsest,” is a culmination of three ceramic series that Estévez produced between 2016 and 2018.

Kaustavi Sarkar, assistant professor of dance, is the principal investigator on a 2020-21 Art Works grant awarded to the Department of Dance.The $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) “Art Works” grant will support the project “Indian Dance and American Communities: Expanding Forms and Audiences.”

The School of Architecture (SoA) recently renamed the newly renovated Storrs Lecture Hall, the Jack and Vada Boardman Auditorium, in recognition of the Boardman family’s generous funding of student scholarships.