College of Arts + Architecture

Guest artists Khalid Hill and Ricardo Foster Jr. will take the stage along with student and alumni actors for “The Purple Flower & Other Plays,” an innovative production of African-American short plays. Performances will be at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 18-21, and 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 22, in Robinson Hall’s Belk Theater.

Although awarded best new play by Crisis magazine in 1927, Marita Bonner’s Harlem Renaissance masterpiece “The Purple Flower” rarely has been seen on stage and was never performed during her lifetime. 

University City Partners, UNC Charlotte and Mecklenburg’s parks department have launched a partnership that may lead to innovative new parks both here and across the county. Graduate urban design students also will benefit as they take on the challenge of adding recreational space to an already living, vibrant community, said José Gámez, associate professor of architecture and urban design.

The Rowe Galleries will host exhibitions by two faculty members from the Department of Art and Art History.

David Brodeur, associate professor of graphic design, has the show “Semantics, Semiotics & the Second Amendment.” It takes a critical look at some of the issues surrounding the gun culture in the United States. 

The UNC Charlotte Department of Dance will present two back-to-back evenings of diverse performances, showcasing faculty choreography on Friday, Jan. 23, and hosting the North Carolina Dance Festival (NCDF) on Saturday, Jan. 24. Both productions will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts, Belk Theater.

David Brodeur,  associate professor of graphic design, and Thomas Schmidt, assistant professor of interdisciplinary 3D studio, will be the guests on the Jan.15 edition of “The Live Wire,” Inside UNC Charlotte’s streaming webcast. They will discuss their exhibitions on display in the Rowe Galleries. 

The Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte Center City opens “Pulse Dome Project: Art & Design of Don ZanFagna” on Friday, Jan. 9, with a reception, lecture and performance. Organized by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, S.C., the “Pulse Dome Project” presents paintings, drawings, sketchbooks and 3D models that explicate the futuristic and metaphoric concept of “growing” one’s own house.

“Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” a novelization of Shakespeare’s tragedy by Robinson Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare Andrew Hartley and co-author David Hewson, has been named the 2014 Audiobook of the Year.

Heather Freeman, associate professor of digital media, and Marek Ranis, assistant professor of sculpture, will receive 2015 Regional Artist Project grants from the Arts & Science Council (ASC).

The UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture will receive a $10,000 National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Challenge America grant to support programming by the Projective Eye Gallery for the “KEEPING WATCH on WATER: City of Creeks” project. The NEA received 347 eligible Challenge America applications and will award 163 grants for a total of $1.63 million.

Students from the UNC Charlotte Department of Dance will perform Martha Graham’s “Steps in the Street” (1936) for a program with the Martha Graham Dance Company being presented by the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at the Knight Theater.

Kim Jones, assistant professor of dance, régisseur for the Martha Graham Resource Center and a former member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, restaged the work.