The Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture at UMBC (CADVC) invites you to join the live webinar "Cockeysville to Baltimore" on April 1, 6–7 pm EST, for a discussion between artist Levester Williams and sound designer Dan Shields focused on the element of sound design in the context of Williams's work. The program will be introduced and asynchronously moderated by Lisa D. Freiman, curator of “Levester Williams: all matters aside.”

Levester Williams was involved in CADVC's exploratory research residency that allows artists and interdisciplinary collaborators to take advantage of scholarly resources and to build partnerships at UMBC and in the Baltimore region. Williams's residency developed into the exhibition Levester Williams: all matters aside, and the publication Cockeysville to Baltimore.

This event is online only, and registration is required at this link:shorturl.at/s5EVl.

You will be contacted at the email you provide with the link for logging on, and your contact information will not be shared. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact CADVC at cadvc@umbc.edu or 410-455-3188.

If you need any specific accommodations to experience an exhibition or one of our events, either online or in person, please contact CADVC at cadvc@umbc.edu or 410-455-3188 as soon as possible.

All events at CADVC are open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University’s nondiscrimination policy.

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Header: “Conflux: Variation” video still, 2025, Shannon Collis & Liz Donadio, courtesy of the artists.(Description of audio, authored by the artists: a deeply resonant audio landscape builds momentum, merging field recordings of industrial machinery, trains, water, and wind with digital and analog synthesis. Layered low-frequency tones shift between foreground and background, aligning with the visuals. The soundscape evokes the essence of the visited sites and the interplay of natural and industrial elements.) 

Top: Levester Williams, “Shift, Sift, Swoosh Bods,” 2018, HD video, color, sound accompanied by interactive seating embedded with speakers: “for/four here/hair,” 2018 acoustic foam (polyurethane), polyvinyl chloride foam, epoxy resin, paint on MDF, plywood, transducers, speaker wire, steel, sound and other media; (In a gallery setting cast with blue light, a video projection spans a 20’h x 30’w wall. The video features a male-presenting figure standing in his underwear and a white vest in front of a white wall and next to a microphone stand holding a long white cylindrical object. From his mouth, a pink sculptural object protrudes like a large bubble gum bubble. In the foreground of the gallery, two black seats shaped like Pringles potato chips face the projection wall from below. They sit on a five-inch-high white platform on the floor and are embedded with speakers. On the left side of the gallery daylight shines in from the entrance.)

CBS Sunday Morning, The Baltimore Sun, and the Baltimore Jewish Times have run features on Project Mah Jongg, now appearing at the Jewish Museum of Maryland and is on view in Baltimore through June 29, 2014.. 

The show, which originated at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, NYC has also garnered notice in the New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The LA Times. The show has travelled to Portland, Cleveland, LA, Miami Beach, Atlanta, and will continue on to San Francisco this summer.

CIRCA Director Timothy Nohe produced sound designs for three "Muji" players, documenting games in Chinatown and the Upper East Side. The sound work was invited by curator Melissa Martens Yaverbaum. Abbot Miller, a partner at Pentagram Design, designed the exhibit to highlight the intriguing objects and imagery surrounding the game. Original works by fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi, and renowned illustrators Maira Kalman, Christoph Niemann, and Bruce McCall pay homage to the influence mah jongg has had on design and contemporary artists. The exhibition's sumptuous companion publication "Mah Jongg: Crak, Bam, Dot," was edited by Abbott Miller and Patsy Tarr, and published by twice books.