College of Arts + Architecture

The College of Arts + Architecture, in partnership with the UNC Charlotte Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies, will present “Stories and Music from the Violins of Hope” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 11, in the Belk Theater of the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts.
James Grymes, interim chair of the UNC Charlotte Department of Music, will read from his new book “Violins of Hope: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour.” There will be performances of related music throughout the evening, and a book signing and reception will follow.

The Faculty Biennial 2014, an exhibition of exemplary works by 25 faculty members from the Department of Art & Art History, is being displayed in Rowe Galleries through Wednesday, Sept. 24. The wide-ranging exhibit features mediums that include ceramic sculpture, painting, digital drawing, video, photography and more that address concepts pertaining to loss, commercialism, violence, memory, history and perception.

The First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal Committee is soliciting nominations for the 2015 award. This award recognizes outstanding scholarship, creativity and/or research among senior full-time faculty members. Each year the University with support from First Citizens Bank presents this award in order to recognize and foster the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and creative endeavors.

Performing artist CarlosAlexis Cruz is the 2014 McColl Award winner. An assistant professor of voice and movement in the College of Arts + Architecture, Cruz received the honor for the project “Nouveau Sud, Nouveau Cirque,” which translates to “New South, New Circus.”

Logan Creech, Klint Mullis and Elrica Metayer, graduates of the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program, recently won two national student design awards in China. Their project “Ribbons: Redevelopment of Xiangmen Historic Area in Suzhou,” received an honor certificate in the third International Landscape Planning and Design Competition, co-organized by the Journal of China Construction and the International Landscape Design Industry Association.

UNC Charlotte’s UrbanEden, built for the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, placed third in the people’s choice voting for the annual Matsumoto Prize for Modernist residential design in North Carolina.
The Matsumoto Prize is named in honor of George Matsumoto, a founding faculty member at the N.C. State University School of Design (now College of Design) who is well known for many exemplary mid-century Modernist houses he designed across North Carolina.

During the past academic year, the Department of Music has had access to first-class standard and digital pianos through an association with the Rockley Family Foundation.
To perpetuate this program, these instruments, along with those provided other institutions, will be sold Friday through Sunday, Aug. 8-10, at the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts.
Individuals can schedule appointments to attend a “pre-sale” on Friday and Saturday; a final day sale will be from noon to 5 p.m., Sunday.

UNC Charlotte has been granted associate membership in the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM).
Founded in 1924, NASM is an organization of schools, conservatories, colleges and universities with approximately 650 accredited institutional members. It establishes national standards for undergraduate and graduate degrees in music.

Amber Carpenter, music alumna and harpist, won first prize in the Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young and Emerging Artists presented by the Appalachian Summer Festival and Appalachian State University. 
Carpenter graduated from the UNC Charlotte Department of Music in 2013 with a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance (harp) and a minor in voice. She completed a graduate certificate in vocal pedagogy in May 2014.

Works by three artists comprise “CHROMA: lyrical lines and compulsive color,” which opens Saturday, July 12, at the Projective Eye Gallery in UNC Charlotte Center City.
The display will feature color-soaked abstraction in oil paintings by Linda Luise Brown, acrylics and collage works by Marge Loudon Moody and the intricate surface design on ceramic objects and installations by Greg Scott. One of the highest-selling genres, abstract art is often one of the most misunderstood, too.