Arts Spotlights

Fall 2023

Safiyah Cheatam (IMDA ‘21) received the Waller Fellowship from Waller Gallery in Baltimore and was profiled in the article The Mundane Afrofuturism of multimedia artist Safiyah Cheatam, by Rahne Alexander (IMDA ‘21) on July 27 in UMBC Magazine.

Whistling Hens was featured in both the International Clarinet Association journal and the International Alliance for Women in Music journal in praise of their debut album, Reacting to the Landscape. Comprised of Natalie Groom (Affiliate Artist of Clarinet at UMBC) and soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick (Director of Music & Professor of Music (Voice) at Queens University of Charlotte), they have been championing music by women composers since the duo hatched in 2018. Read the full reviews and listen to the album at linktr.ee/whistlinghens.

Lynn Cazabon (Professor, Visual Arts) worked on a new iteration of her ongoing project Losing Winter, hosted by Witte Rook in Breda, The Netherlands. Cazabon is collaborating with Dutch theater artist Anne Leijdekkers, working with community partners Park Zuiderhout and Podium Bloos. Cazabon and Leijdekkers will start by recording memories from residents living at Park Zuiderhout.

IMDA Alumna Mollye Bendell (2018) brought her installation OUTGROWN, a series of augmented reality works celebrating plants to downtown Jackson as part of the ETA Free Media Arts festival.

2023 IMDA Alumna Anna Kroll’s thesis exhibition “The Space is a Body and You are In It,” was featured in an article in the Brooklyn Rail.

Films by Visual Arts alum Chase Nickoles and current animation student David Anthony Cobb, Jr. and adjunct professor and library staff member Jim Doran have been screened as part of the Sweaty Eyeballs Film Festival in October.

SPARK 6: Refractions featured the work of UMBC and Towson faculty, recent graduates, and current students in the historic galleries of The Peale in Baltimore City. The Peale will offer several public events and chances to engage with the artists and work during the run of the exhibition from October 26, 2023 – November 26, 2023.

Spring 2023

Irene Chan (Professor, Visual Arts) was awarded a 2023 Member Project Grant from the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective.

Lynn Cazabon (CIRCA Director and Professor, Visual Arts), Rahne Alexander (IMDA ’21) and Nicole Ringel (IMDA ’19) were each awarded 2023 Grants for Artists from the Maryland State Arts Council.

Mandy Morrison (IMDA ’20) hosted several events happening in connection to her exhibition Journey of the Invader Spirit at the Peale Museum, including on Saturday, March 4, 2-3 p.m. a talk with Robin Gunkel PhD, about her soil remediation work using Sunflowers in abandoned spaces. On Saturday March 11, 1 – 2 p.m. a Capoeira workshop was offered with Justin West of the Capoeira Social Project and an artist talk will follow at 2:30 p.m.

Mark Durant (Professor, Visual Arts) presented films by Maya Deren and read from his book Maya Deren: Choreographed for Camera at Tufts University in Boston on Thursday, March 30. His book was also the subject of this review The Creative Use of Reality: Peter Valente on Mark Alice Durant’s Maya Deren, Choreographed for Camera In Heavy Feather Review on March 27.