Arts Leadership

A Look Back at CFA’s 2023

It was a year to remember!

Leading with the Arts

We celebrate leaders in the arts and for the arts. This year, Boston University established an Arts Leadership Circle, led by College of Fine Arts Dean Harvey Young. The new University-wide advisory group’s mission is to further promote BU as a regional, national, and global leader in the live, performing, and visual arts.

In October, Boston University announced that Dr. Melissa L. Gilliam will be BU’s 11th President, who is a scholar and physician (and not to mention a music-loving ceramicist). Dr. Gilliam brings a passion for the arts and humanities along with two decades of higher education leadership, and we can’t wait to see what 2024 brings with her leadership.

And CFA faculty continue to trailblaze with their work. Karin Hendricks, associate professor of music education, received the 2023 Metcalf Cup and Prize, BU’s Highest Teaching Honor. She was cited as transforming the department by modeling the highest standard of teaching excellence.

School of Theatre Explores the Next Stage

From a CFA School of Theatre and COM Department of Film and Television original sitcom collaboration to a Swedish theatre company production, BU theatre makers are literally building the world’s next stages.

And they’re earning the proper props, too! Taking on the professional theatre world, School of Theatre faculty, students, and alums received accolades for their work this year. Five design and production graduates presented at the National Design Portfolio Review. Once again, CFA alums got Tony nods for their work on Broadway.

And BU students, faculty, and alums were recognized with Elliot Norton Award nominations. The annual Boston-area theatre awards celebrate outstanding productions, directors, designers, and performers.

School of Music Milestones

Spring 2023 was a capstone on a major milestone for BU’s School of Music, as a capacity crowd at Boston Symphony Hall for a signature concert which marked the culmination of SOM’s 150^th year. CFA musicians performed in two historic venues this year, as a group of graduate and undergraduate student competition winners took to Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City in March.

School of Visual Arts Explores and Collaborates

BU School of Visual Arts is many things, one of them being an integral thread in the tapestry of the Boston arts scene. A first-of-its-kind group exhibition united artists from MFA programs around the city. Kamal Ahmad (CFA’16), curator and director of the Piano Craft Gallery in Boston’s South End, facilitated a show featuring 43 artists from 7 programs around Boston.

And that collaboration extends far beyond Boston, too, from New York, with an exhibition of MFA painting alums at Morgan Lehman Gallery, to Venice.

From the Multiple Formats Contemporary Art Book Symposium to the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo to the Boston Art Book Fair, SVA artists and designers embody artistry that envelops and extends beyond BU’s campus. The 75th annual Boston Printmakers Biennial found a home at Boston University Art Galleries. And MFA and BFA Thesis shows launched recent grads beyond their practice at BU.

Research, Innovation, New Works

At a research university, students and faculty engage in interdisciplinary scholarship and innovative study. Look no further than Random Actor, a software tool for creating live, interactive stage projections, which came to stage with the help of SVA’s James Grady and SOT’s Clay Hopper in the spring, and is now moving toward its finalized form after receiving a second grant from the Shipley Center for Digital Learning & Innovation. 

At the School of Theatre, Next Stage Workshops brought student playwrights’ work to the next phase as part of CFA’s 26th annual Fringe Festival.

BU’s Center for New Music continues to welcome artists-in-residence with its programming, including world-renowned composer and BU alum Missy Mazzoli (CFA’02, BUTI’98).

In interdisciplinary research and scholarship news, a team of BU graphic designers were finalists in Innovate@BU’s New Venture Competition. Three CFA first-year students were named Innovate@BU’s 2023 First-Year Fellows.

Associate Professor Lucy Kim‘s practice has swapped the studio for the science lab to create art with the same pigment that gives our eyes, hair, and skin their color.

A group of design, management, and production students headed to the Czech Republic from June 8-18, 2023, for the 15^th edition of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.

Exhibitions Examine and Expand

Boston University Art Galleries, which makes its home at CFA both at 808 and 855 Comm Ave, hosts an ongoing rotation of exhibitions featuring world-renowned artists and BU students alike.

Alums in the News, and in the World

Unavoidable in the conversation in 2023 was the impact of the dual Hollywood strikes which brought to the fore the work of television and film writers and actors. What’s also evident is just how much BU alums are changing the entertainment industry, one role, one script, one picket at a time.

Here on campus, CFA recognized outstanding BU alums in the arts – multifaceted artist Joseph Pereira (CFA’96), artist and educator Adrienne Elise Tarver (CFA’07), and playwright and director Chay Yew (COM’92), for the reach and influence of their work. Esteemed actor and producer Kim Raver returned to Comm Ave to offer advice to this year’s graduating class. And actors Russell Hornsby (CFA’96) and Michelle Hurd (CFA’88), who is the national vice president of SAG-AFTRA, joined in conversation for the Ida Lewis Keynote Conversation during Alumni Weekend.