Progressive Performance Event on Nov. 2 Will Celebrate the Arts at U.Va.

UPDATED Nov. 2: Due to forecast cold temperatures, performances after 8 p.m. will be moved to Old Cabell Hall Auditorium. Free hot chocolate will be available in Old Cabell 107.

The College of Arts & Sciences will celebrate creativity in the arts at the University of Virginia with a special Progressive Performance on Nov. 2, a program of collaborative events that will include music, drama, dance, visual arts, film, poetry and prose.

All events are free and open to the public, but registration is requested as events are on a first-come, first-served basis. To register, click here.  Reservations close Nov. 1.

“This event celebrates the essential role of the arts in the life of the College and University,” said Meredith Jung-en Woo, Buckner W. Clay Dean of Arts & Sciences. “The arts not only infuse the student experience with creativity and innovation, they also enrich and broaden the scope of research and thinking in all academic disciplines.”

From teaching classes to producing works of art, professors and students are creating every day, said Cristina Della Coletta, associate dean for arts and humanities in the College.

“We wanted to recognize and showcase the vibrancy of the arts that take place every day at the University and have faculty and students performing and exhibiting together,” she said. “I think this is a first for the College, to put together a multidisciplinary event to showcase as much of the arts as possible. We hope people will devote an evening to the arts.”

Della Coletta said the idea to have a progressive event grew out of discussions with Woo and plays off the successful progressive dinner gatherings that Lawn residents hold.

Della Coletta worked closely with the chairs of the arts departments to develop the interdisciplinary program. The collaboration, she said, enhanced each of the arts areas.

“The more we got the arts chairs involved, the more the event changed. They have been phenomenally generous with their time and creativity,” she said.

The celebration begins with an exhibit of works by studio art faculty and students in Ruffin Hall. At the event, McIntire Department of Music professor Michael Slon will direct the University Singers in a performance at 4 p.m. Faculty and students will exhibit and hold “open studios” to showcase the process of their art making.

From 5 to 9 p.m. on the East and West ranges, a “Digital Media Gallery” will feature screening of the best student-made video projection art and contemporary films created over the past several years in studio art professor Kevin Everson’s intermediate and advanced cinematography classes.

Also starting at 5 p.m., Nexus – a collaborative celebration of drama and dance – will be featured on the Lawn side of the Rotunda steps. In event of rain, the performance will be held in Old Cabell Hall Auditorium.

“Sound and Light,” a celebration of music and creative writing, will happen in two performances at 6 and 7 p.m. in the Garden Room. The mix of presentations includes collaborative faculty and student small-group musical performances and readings by creative writing faculty and students from the English Department’s Creative Writing Program, who will share poetry at the 6 p.m. event and prose at the 7 p.m. presentation.

Studio art professor Lydia Moyer’s film “Paradise,” which examines sites of societal and environmental disaster through an experimental take on the Ken Burns’ style of filmmaking, will be screened in Pavilion III at 6 and 7 p.m. and will include an opportunity for the audience to speak with the filmmaker following each screening.

The program culminates with a visual art and music collaboration in the McIntire Amphitheater at 8 p.m. The Gang of Eight Jazz Combo, a student performance group, will perform as creatures conceived and fabricated by an interdisciplinary group of students during a residency of the Stan Winston School of Character Arts are paraded into the amphitheater.

The evening concludes at 8:45 p.m. with a free Virginia Film Festival screening of the 1986 film “Aliens,” featuring the iconic alien queen created by Winston, a Hollywood visual effects guru and U.Va. alumnus who studied painting and sculpture.

The rain site for the amphitheater performances is Old Cabell Hall Auditorium.

The College Art Scholars, led by drama professor Michael Rasbury, joined in the planning and have created signature T-shirts for the event, which they will wear as they guide attendees to the various venues and be available to answer questions.