Moments after the final notes of a Mozart flute concerto resounded from the walls of UMBC’s Linehan Concert Hall, the sold-out audience rose to their feet to applaud Martha Long, principal flutist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Beside her, conductor Jonathon Heyward beamed in admiration, letting the applause linger before signaling the start of the next piece. 

The BSO’s concert on September 17 served as a fitting kick off for Arts+ at UMBC, a new initiative created to uplift the visual and performing arts at UMBC and to bring the surrounding community to campus to enjoy a vibrant celebration of creativity. 

“As the inaugural performing arts event of our 2025 – 26 season, the BSO’s performance perfectly exemplified the power of the arts to bring together a diverse community—students, alumni, faculty, staff, donors, and the general public—for a marvelous shared experience,” says Tom Moore, co-chair of the Arts+ initiative and director of arts and culture. “As we build on the momentum of the BSO, it’s our intention that Arts+ events across the disciplines create similar opportunities to build a more vibrant campus community, to raise awareness of the excellence in our arts programs, and to establish UMBC as a renowned destination point for exhibitions, performances, lectures, and more.”

Impact of the arts

Throughout the year, Arts+ will explore a number of thematic areas, including Trailblazers; The Harlem Renaissance; Space, Place, and Justice; Connecting the Arts; and Artful Stories. Programming will celebrate not only work produced by faculty, departments, and centers, but also highlight student-produced pieces. Through a partnership with the Division of Student Affairs, more than 40 student events ranging from film festivals to exhibitions to music theater will celebrate the impact of the arts on the lives of our students, regardless of major.

With the support of the Arts+ initiative, alumni and student organizations are adding their artistic endeavors and passion for creativity to the campus landscape. For Jayden Rhodes ’25, design leader of the Cheeky Magpie Collective, that means helping transform the Fine Arts Building with window art on all five levels with playful shapes and colors. “We wanted to create a vibrant and energetic composition that called attention to the creativity contained within the university’s walls while also encouraging the emerging artists at UMBC,” says Rhodes, a Linehan Artist Scholar. The Cheeky Magpie Collective is made up of fellow class of 2025 design majors Gwen Knott, Jalen Boyd, Thomas Hammond, and Ni Truong.

On December 5, there will be a campus celebration of the Arts+ programming, says Linda Dusman, co-chair of the Arts+. “This is our pilot year—we’ve never done anything this big,” says Dusman, music professor, who looks forward to seeing the interdisciplinary success of the initiative, threading all of UMBC’s arts programming together more seamlessly. The end-of-fall celebration will feature collaborative performances and exhibits from each art department and center on campus. In one night, the festival atmosphere will highlight all the possibilities the arts possess. “Especially in dark times, art can bring things into focus that allow for reflecting, enjoyment, and processing,” says Dusman. She adds: “Everyone is going to be shining that night.”  

Find other Arts+ events and keep up with UMBC’s arts and culture on campus. 

Kayla Logue ’27 is a 2025 UCM intern and Linehan Scholar who is majoring in dance.

Meet Kayla Logue, a junior with a dance major and a cinematography minor. Kayla is a Linehan Artist Scholar, is an intern for UMBC’s communications and marketing team, and is a Visual and Performing Arts Grit Guide at UMBC. She currently serves as the president of the Dance Council Of Majors; A student organization that works closely with the Department of Dance.

Q: Tell us about someone in the UMBC community who has inspired you or supported you, and how they did it.

A: I have had the pleasure of learning from many incredible professors so far here at UMBC, especially in the Department of Dance. One professor that I have had the pleasure to work closely with and who continuously inspires and supports me is Shaness D. Kemp.

Since my freshman year, I have looked up to Ms. Shaness because she is an incredible artist, teacher, and spirit! I had the opportunity to assist with her work for the Baltimore Dance Project in my sophomore year. Witnessing her rehearsal process and her creative mind inspires me as a dancer every day. As a teacher, professor Kemp always pushes me to be what she knows I am capable of, and she always supports me in achieving my goals.

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who hasn’t joined the UMBC community to know about the support you find here?

A: UMBC is a place where you can find others who share your goals and are equally passionate.

Q: What part of your job do you enjoy the most and why?

A: As a Visual and Performing Arts Grit Guide, I absolutely love getting to share my passion for UMBC and its community! So far, I have truly found incredible opportunities in my time here, as well as a beloved home away from home with the family I have in this community.

Q: What brought you to UMBC in the first place?

A: I came to UMBC because of the opportunities it presented. I loved the Dance Department and its faculty, I would be able to both dance and continue my passions for visual art, and I was still close to home.

Q: Since you’ve been a part of the UMBC community, how have you found support of your WHY? Tell us about the people who have helped you at UMBC, and why it has made such a difference to you.

A: The UMBC community has helped me gain confidence in all my endeavors. I have met so many fellow Retrievers who inspire me with their passion and drive, and I have such incredible support from my professors who want to see me succeed. The community here has helped me to believe in myself more than anything.

Q: Are you involved in any campus organizations? Tell us about what you love about them!

A: I currently serve as the president for UMBC’s Dance Council of Majors. I am incredibly honored to be in this leadership position because we foster community engagement amongst those who love to move and groove.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Joshua Gray 

Degree: B.A., Dance and Media and Communication Studies
Minor: Political Science
Hometown: Hyattsville, MD
Plans: Public affairs mass communications specialist in the U.S. Army

“I am driven by knowing that I can help future generations of my family explore what the world has to offer. My work can open up opportunities for them and help them look at the world and their experiences in a different way.”

Joshua Gray dancing for the Association of Black Artists, (Image courtesy of Gray)

Dance is at the core of Joshua Gray’s life. Trained in different techniques of tap, ballet, modern, African diaspora styles, and jazz, Gray ’22, a Linehan Artist Scholar, finds that the discipline and dedication a dancer’s life demands have given him energy and purpose.

Gray is currently president of UMBC’s Student Government Association (SGA) and has served as a leader in other SGA roles including as vice president for student organizations, chief of staff, and executive vice president. 

He has also led UMBC’s Dance Council of Majors and created a new student organization, UMBC’s Association of Black Artists.

Gray is interested in expanding access to the arts and high-quality communications to marginalized communities. He will graduate with majors in both dance and media and communication studies, and a minor in political science. While this is an uncommon combination, he thrives on pushing the boundaries of his passions. 

Gray (l) with prior SGA President, Mehrshad Devin ’21, biology, and M.P.S ’22, entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. (Image courtesy of Gray)

This is one of the reasons he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a crisis communications specialist. He wants to travel to places and do work that connects him to the world stage through service. 

It all starts with a seed—a source of hope.

Or in this particular case, a handful of seeds in the form of alumna Tamera Davis’ second grade students at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School. The class is fidgety but tuned in. As they jump into a rhyming exercise, Betsy Sherman joins them in a game of call and response at the front of the classroom.

A former teacher herself, Sherman feels right at home at Lakeland. In a hallway with cut-out paper letters reading “Education = Opportunity,” she smiles and waves to a line of students in puffy winter coats. As she sees kids studying in an alcove, she can’t help but peek over their shoulders in curiosity.

Earlier this winter, the Sherman Family Foundation donated $21 million to create the Betsy & George Sherman Center, which will expand and integrate UMBC’s work in teacher preparation, school partnerships, and applied research focused on early childhood education and improving learning outcomes for Baltimore students. 

The gift—the largest in UMBC’s history—has the potential to transform both UMBC and generations of local students. The Lakeland partnership has clearly already transformed Sherman.

“You just never know how that one moment you spend with a child impacts their lives. You may never know,” says Sherman, who with her late husband, George, began partnering with UMBC in 2006 to create the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program and other related initiatives. “And so you really need to be aware that your influence can be long lasting.”

Philanthropy of this sort is not about flash or money. It’s about the long game, driven by love and hope. UMBC has, for years, stood as a fertile planting ground for very personal, values-driven giving. It’s a vision shared by Freeman and Jackie Hrabowski and close UMBC partners who have connected over the idea that change is possible—and a belief in the promise one seed can hold.

Driven By Love

For Freeman and Jackie Hrabowski, the seeds of philanthropy were planted very early in childhood. He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of two teachers; she in rural Virginia, the daughter of two first-generation college students. Both recount stories of how their families helped their communities through work in schools and churches, and how that example stuck with them throughout their lives and careers.

“I think that my foundation for fundraising and philanthropy comes from the strong belief in the power of education to transform lives,” says Freeman, who has been known to sit on the floor with elementary school children to talk excitedly about math. “Jackie and I both understand, as the children of teachers, how important teachers were in our own development.”

Later in life, as Hrabowski matured into his role as president of UMBC, he and his wife became friends with George and Betsy Sherman—folks with similar interests and hopes. As their friendship grew, so did their vision of how they might change the face of education in Baltimore. 

“As you build relationships, you build trust,” says Mrs. Hrabowski, who thinks of Betsy Sherman and her late husband as family. “You share lots of time together talking about your differences, your perspectives, and how to make it all work. It’s all about the realities of where we are and what we can do together to make a difference.”

Because “people tend to give to people,” as both Hrabowskis say, it’s not surprising that so many major philanthropic endeavors at UMBC have felt so personal in nature. Dr. Hrabowski’s relationship with Robert Meyerhoff—and a shared vision for making science more accessible to students of color—turned into a more than 30-year endeavor that has since changed the face of science and technology through the Meyerhoff Scholars Program. 

“I threw the ball, but he ran for the touchdown,” Meyerhoff said of Hrabowski recently. “He made the most of it. He is a wonderful man.” 

Similarly, a relationship with Earl and Darielle Linehan that began with Mr. Linehan’s serving on and chairing UMBC’s Board of Visitors revealed a deep desire to provide talented artists with an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Today, more than 300 Linehan Artists Scholar alumni are out in the world influencing dance, music, theatre, and other creative disciplines. 

At the core of these partnerships—like so many others nurtured by Hrabowski—is a shared desire to help others thrive. 

“When my parents and Jackie and Freeman get together, they talk about changing the world,” says Dave Sherman, noting his parents’ great love of Baltimore. “My mom and dad…not only would they provide resources, but they would provide passion. They would provide involvement…but it really all goes back to the people. And my parents wouldn’t support something that they didn’t believe would have the ability to grow.”

Watching It Grow

From her vantage point as a UMBC alumna, a mentee of Jackie Hrabowski, and vice president for economic development at Johns Hopkins University and Health System, Alicia Wilson ’04, political science, knows a good long-term investment when she sees it.

Wilson has felt the personal investment the Hrabowskis have made in her ever since she was a student. Recently, when she was sick, the pair brought Wilson a homemade pot of chicken soup, she says. At night. During a snowstorm.

Beyond her own experiences, Wilson understands how personal philanthropic commitment shows up in the community—and what a lasting effect it can make, both structurally and emotionally, for all involved. A program like the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars is able to put enthusiastic and well-equipped teachers in front of underserved students who will thrive with the extra attention. The effort adds up over time, creating a pipeline of opportunity for kids all over Baltimore.

“If you think about the ripple effect of your impact, it’s really through people and it’s through what we invest in,” says Wilson. “And so, as you think about the impact of the philanthropy that takes place at UMBC, you can point to so many scientific advances, public health, social advances that really started at a school in Catonsville. And really the testimony is in the people.”

For Sandra Evers-Manly, president of the Northrop Grumman Foundation and a partner in the work at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School, what sets these projects apart is the way UMBC engages at all levels, looking at the long-term potential of collaborative effort. “When we first began the discussion with Freeman about his vision for Lakeland and all of our UMBC partnerships, it was never about one element, it was always about the whole picture—the impact and results. In Lakeland’s case, what did the partnership mean to the school, students, teachers, parents, and the surrounding community,” says Evers-Manly. 

“UMBC is a great neighbor,” she continues. “Some people will pick just one thing, like scholarships, and that’s it. But UMBC will say, ‘We’re going to work with families. We’re going to work with teachers. And, oh, by the way, we’re coming to you. You don’t have to come up the hill to UMBC. And we’ll find strategic partners to be a part of this.’ UMBC has the magnetism to help bring those key players into the room. What is equally impressive, is that you have both Freeman and Jackie who are so committed to the university, the greater community, and our nation. They do this in so many ways, both professionally and personally.” 

The success of a partnership can be measured in many ways—and UMBC loves to measure and study regularly to make sure their programs are working. The Sherman Scholars program now partners with 10 schools to promote academic achievement through professional development for teachers and intensive tutoring for students. For example, more than 90 UMBC students, including Sherman Scholars and others, provide evidence-based math tutoring for over 350 elementary and middle school students in several schools across Baltimore. Early data show this approach is working.

But much of what drives these programs goes beyond data.

“This isn’t academic. . . It is a heart move,” says Wilson. “And thank God their hearts are pure and good and filled with love for young people. . . and the belief in the fact that young people, regardless of their background, can achieve.”

A Seed Sustained

When Hrabowski was still interim president of UMBC, then Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer asked what he might do to support him and UMBC. Looking out over campus from the roof of the Administration Building, Hrabowski made what was probably an unexpected request.

“He…asked what he could do, noting that he didn’t have a lot of money to throw around. I said ‘Give me trees!’” Hrabowski writes in The Empowered University, noting that Schaefer quickly followed up by calling the Department of Natural Resources and having trees planted all over the young campus grounds.

Overnight, the campus was visually changed. Thirty years later, stands of mature trees provide sanctuary for wildlife and green space for all. 

Thinking back on his years at UMBC, Hrabowski reminds us: “It’s not about me. It’s about us.” None of UMBC’s successes happen without the community, he emphasizes. UMBC is strong because we have put in the work, grown our endowment from practically nothing to more than $125 million, and proven ourselves year after year. UMBC will remain strong because of our shared commitment to inclusive excellence.

In his final months as president, Hrabowski has sealed his legacy yet again with the founding of a named scholarship that will increase access and affordability for undergraduate students with financial need and a commitment to community service. And while he has promised never to stop planting for UMBC, it’s up to the rest of us to nurture the trees he’s so faithfully tended.

“The seeds that he planted so long ago are now mighty trees,” says Wilson. “But, the goal isn’t that we just get to sit under the shade of the trees. We also have to go and plant some trees and build upon that legacy.”

The past pandemic year saw arts communities unable to connect with audiences in traditional ways. Usually reliant on people gathering together to experience their work, creators and performers were thrust online. Some artistic experiences were rendered impossible, but the challenging situation didn’t slow the creative efforts of visual and performing artists of UMBC’s Class of 2021.

Lighting up the stage

“The pandemic took a toll on my ability to create and share my artwork,” shares Seth Kolbe ’21, theatre, who will graduate with a focus on design and production. “As a theatre technician, there are very few opportunities to showcase my talents outside of shows or projects.”

During the pandemic, Kolbe honed his leadership skills, serving as vice president of both the Theatre Council of Majors (TheatreCOM) and the department’s United States Institute for Theatre Technology chapter. Through the work of these two student organizations, he helped facilitate a closer bond between members of the department and helped support the creation of new policies to assist future students. In recognition of his efforts, the department awarded him the Theatre Student Honors Award.

Among Kolbe’s favorite classes were stage management, projection design, sound design, lighting design, rigging and welding, and scene design. During his four years at UMBC, he contributed to numerous theatrical productions, including Twelfth Night, The Turn of the Screw, Machinal, She Like Girls, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Anon(ymous), Hunting and Gathering, Girls on a Dirt Pile, and Everybody. 

Kolbe also gained skills working with the Annapolis Shakespeare Company and as a member of UMBC Retriever Robotics. 

Like many UMBC students in the arts, Kolbe feels strongly about social justice, a particular focus of his leadership work over the past year. “I would like my art to make a difference in the world and in small ways it is already doing so,” he says. “I will continue to support underrepresented groups and use my privilege as white male to act against the inequality present in both this art form and our society.” 

Kolbe shares, “My immediate future plans are to continue freelance stagehand and design work in the region before attending graduate school for my MFA.” Eventually, he hopes to teach theatre design and production.

Promoting empathy and connectivity

Kolbe’s theatre colleague Caitlyn Hooper ’21 will graduate with a BFA in acting. She notes that the pandemic “completely changed” how acting students were learning. “We were acting to our laptop cameras, a tough loss. But everyone found new ways to be creative, and I was so inspired by that creativity. I found a deeper connection to the research side of theatre, including the history of theatre and theatrical intimacy studies.” 

Hooper joined UMBC as a freshman in 2017, and was cast in numerous productions on stage, including Everybody, Hunting and Gathering, Gwyneth, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and Far Away. In addition to her acting studies, she worked in the scene shop beginning in her sophomore year and gained knowledge about technical production and carpentry. 

The concern for equity and social justice factors significantly in Hooper’s work. “As a theatre artist, I’m passionate about creating work that promotes empathy and connectivity,” she says. “I’m inspired by Black theatre activists’ anti-racist work currently restructuring how we do theatre, and I’m committed to equality and justice of marginalized people.” 

As president of TheatreCOM during her senior year, she advocated for equitable theatre practices within the department, and, like Kolbe, was a recipient of the Theatre Student Honors Award.

Hooper completed research focused on theatrical intimacy, mentored by Susan Stroupe. She presented her work at UMBC’s popular Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) in 2021 and also published it in UMBC Review. She’s passionate about pursuing a career focused on theatrical intimacy and she plans to apply for a Fulbright award to gain a cross-cultural perspective on theatrical intimacy in another county. 

For the immediate future, Hooper plans to return to the stage in local and regional productions. Longer-term, she plans to earn an MFA in acting or performance studies and pursue a career in higher education. She hopes to focus on consent-based practices and anti-racist action in theatrical education in order to make theatre more equitable and ethical.

One student, many interests

Meyerhoff Scholar and U-RISE Trainee Peter Bailer ’21 has equally pursued his interests in the arts and sciences at UMBC, and this week will graduate with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and a degree in music composition. 

“Music is an essential part of my life; it is both my creative outlet and a powerful medium through which I can express myself,” he shares. “I feel that my experiences with music at UMBC have helped make me a holistic and well-rounded student. From analysis to creative problem solving, my music major has sharpened many skills relevant towards any career, but especially a career in research.”

On the science side of his interests, Bailer has worked in Erin Green’s lab, focused on examining  a yeast protein through sequencing data and published structures of related organisms. 

He participated in several summer research internships as an undergraduate. At the University of Virginia, he studied the toxicity and structure of peptides that have the potential to become new antimicrobial therapeutics. At the University of Pennsylvania he studied the nature of how a human mutator enzyme discriminates between DNA and RNA for potential gene editing applications. Bailer won a Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Award for Excellence for both academic and research performance.

In music, Bailer has studied composition with Linda Dusman and Greg Kalember. His music reflects influences from the Romantic era, jazz, late impressionism, and contemporary classical music. He was commissioned by Jonathan Sotelo ’20 to write the percussion trio An Evolution of Congruence, and a marimba work entitled Pebbles. His recent saxophone sextet, The Lost Woods, was premiered by saxophonist and UMBC faculty member Matt Belzer in 2021, and Cognitive Dissonance was premiered by the Washington, D.C. new music ensemble Balance Campaign, also in 2021. 

Bailer has performed with the UMBC Saxophone Ensemble, the UMBC New Music Ensemble, and was lead alto in the UMBC Jazz Ensemble. As a senior he received the Academic Achievement Award in Music.

Getting creative with creativity

“The pandemic had major impacts on my ability to create as a composer and musician,” says Bailer. “As a musician, I was no longer able to perform or create with others, and that really reduced my creativity throughout this pandemic.”

Bailer explains, “I was supposed to have my senior composition recital last spring. This ultimately had to be pushed back to this semester, resulting in a combination of some live performances and a lot of pre-recorded versions of pieces.” On the positive side, he notes that extra time at home provided an opportunity for him to study more techniques in music technology that will help his career in the long term.

“Following graduation, I will attend the University of Pennsylvania to pursue a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biophysics,” says Bailer. “While pursuing this, I hope to continue practicing and growing as a composer, and I aspire to be performing ground-breaking research while continuing to compose for years to come.”

Finding a new voice

“As a musician, the pandemic forced me to make a big shift in my creative process,” says Kathryn “Katie” Blake ’21, a Linehan Artist Scholar who will graduate with a bachelor’s in music composition. “As a composer, I had to find quirky ways to inspire myself in my writings, because the isolation and being in the same environment for months on end is mentally taxing.”

“The dramatic change of being surrounded by creative musicians to being alone changed the way I approached composing,” says Blake. “Before, I’d constantly be asking my friends to try a little passage, or show me a technique—we would bounce ideas off each other. The isolation really made me focus and find the exact sounds I wanted in my pieces, and the exact sounds that my pieces needed.”

But Blake found strength in unexpected ways, adding, “I also transitioned to composing for the digital medium, as it is an easy form of artistic communication at the moment. I really honed in on my skills with electroacoustic works, and I found a voice in that sound realm that can only be accomplished by electroacoustic composition.”

Performances past and future

During Blake’s undergraduate studies, her compositions have been premiered by the Bergamot String Quartet, percussionist Jonathan Sotelo ’20, the Balance Campaign ensemble, and the Strata Trio. The 2019 Fresh Inc. Festival, District New Music Coalition’s 2020 fall conference, and T1International’s “Change Through Creativity” Project in 2020 all featured her work.

Also active as a violist, Blake has performed with the UMBC Symphony Orchestra and in the UMBC Chamber Players. She premiered string quartets by Donte Speaks, Jr. and Eliza Triolo ’19, music. Featuring a role as both violist and composer, she was honored in fall 2019 to work with UMBC choreographer Ann Sofie Clemmensen, whose dance In To And Out Of was featured at the Kennedy Center. She has composed music for animator William Kraft ’21, visual arts, filmmaker Kelvin Thompson ’20, visual arts, and choreographers Teresa Whittemore ’20, dance and Kayla Massey ’22, dance. Like Bailer, she received the Academic Achievement Award in Music.

Outside of composing, Blake has interests in health advocacy, social justice, psychology, and mental health, and has found ways to connect her interests. “I do feel a large part of myself as an artist is to make a change,” she states. “Currently, I’ve had a focus on diabetes and insulin advocacy, tying my experience as a diabetic into my work. I have already delved into the insulin crisis with my work, but I plan to do so much more.”

Blake plans to pursue a master’s and then a D.M.A. in music composition, and looks forward to a career in higher education. “Composing and creating is what gave me the spark to keep going when I was younger,” she says, “and I want to help others find that spark as well.”

Transformation in quarantine

“My thesis show was totally transformed by quarantine,” shares Rahne Alexander M.F.A. ’21, intermedia and digital arts, of her recent participation in the spring M.F.A. visual arts thesis exhibition, Home Bodies. “What was intended to be a live performance transformed into an online experience, which set off a kind of domino effect on the various aspects of the project.” For instance, Alexander explains, “instead of creating a talk show set in the gallery, I recreated my home studio in which I produced the show, and ultimately I think that overall, my work was better as a result.” 

The content of the show was also impacted by its shifting context, Alexander reflects. “A significant part of this piece was a meditation on the way that multiple sclerosis caused my mother to transform her own art practices, and the parallels I have experienced in my own career,” she says. “Quarantine really brought those parallel conditions into excruciatingly clear focus, in ways I’ll be considering for a long while.” 

Alexander is already an accomplished essayist, contributing to anthologies such as the Lambda Literary Award-winning Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica and the Lambda-nominated Resilience Anthology. Her first book of collected essays, Heretic to Housewife, was published by Neon Hemlock in 2019. 

While at UMBC, Rahne has exhibited artworks both regionally and internationally. Her video art screened as part of the International Conference of Chinese Computer Human Interaction at Xiamen University, and at the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Necessity of Tomorrow(s) Screening Room. In 2020, her painted scroll triptych “I Am the End of the Patriarchy and So Can You” was commissioned by ‘sindikit and Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art for the Mary B. Howard Invitational: An Excellent Thought About a Quality Idea. These scrolls have subsequently shown at The Shed Space and as part of Spark IV: A New World? at Maryland Art Place. 

A leader and community connector

Also active in arts administration and advocacy, Alexander has been a leader at the Transmodern Festival and the Maryland Film Festival, where she served five years in charge of operations and development. She has since lent her organizational and development assistance to several groups, including the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, Venus Theater, Wide Angle Youth Media, and Single Carrot Theatre. 

“My work has always been about making connections between people, often with the specific political goal of destigmatizing trans and queer identities. I work to get audiences to reconsider their assumptions and epistemologies,” says Alexander. 

“Trans people make up such a small minority of the population, yet there is this continued push to diminish and deny our civil rights. We can’t really secure those rights without the support of the majority, so a large part of my mission as an artist has been to make connections and open dialogue,” she notes. “And the same holds true for all marginalized people—disability rights, Indigenous rights, the rights of queer people and Black people and Brown people. As the saying goes, none of us are free until we are all free, and I see my work as a part of that larger project.”

Alexander will continue working as an artist. She currently has work on display at Spark IV: A New World? and she will be on the faculty at this summer’s Tulsa Glitterary Writer’s Conference.

Banner Image: Cailtlyn Hooper and other theatre students in the 2018 production of Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Nyalls Hartman, for which Seth Kolbe served as assistant head electrician. Photo by Raquel Hammer ’20 for UMBC.

Majoring in the arts requires intense levels of stamina and self-discipline—long hours rehearsing, creating, writing, designing, interpreting—coupled with an inner drive for inquiry and perfection. UMBC’s undergraduate and graduate students in the arts are no exception, reaching forward even in this era of social distancing.

UMBC’s 2020 graduates in dance, theatre, music, and visual arts include scholars looking forward to graduate study, teaching, and professional creative work in their fields. Some have been able to move ahead with long-planned next steps. Others have been making adjustments in response this unique and challenging moment.

Listening to the natural world

Percussionist Jonathan Sotelo ’20, music, came to UMBC to study music education, but discovered his love of timpani by playing in the UMBC Symphony. Since then, he has been a member of the UMBC Percussion Ensemble and studied with associate professor Tom Goldstein and Baltimore Symphony principal timpanist James Wyman.

With a strong interest in new music, Sotelo has commissioned a number of his student composer colleagues to write solo percussion pieces for him.

“My most important achievement at UMBC,” says Sotelo, “was learning how to listen. I’ve learned how to listen to the natural world, and how to apply it to music. Because of that, I am able to make my performances more connective to the audience, in any type of music—improvisations to the orchestral repertoire.”

He looks forward to attending graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park, with the goal of becoming an orchestral timpanist.

An athlete, an artist

Linehan Artist Scholar and Division I soccer player Courtney Culp ’20, visual arts, has combined her loves of sport and visual arts to create impactful works during her time at UMBC.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis screened her film A Mile in My Cleats as the opening presentation of the 2020 Race and Sports Day, held just before Martin Luther King Day. Through her documentary, she gave others space to share their stories of what it’s like to be a black female athlete. She shares, “I finished the project with an immense amount of new knowledge of my craft and closer relationships with my peers at UMBC.”

Studying Italian art and culture in Rome in 2019, with UMBC visual arts faculty Kimberly Anderson and Lynn Cazabon, also played a significant role in Culp’s UMBC experience. “I have gained lifelong friends at UMBC that have pushed and challenged me for the better,” she says. “I will forever be grateful for my time here.”

Culp will begin an M.F.A. program in illustration with minors in production design and themed entertainment design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) this fall. “My hope is to become a visual designer for animation, film, and interactive entertainment projects.” She is also slated to play soccer at SCAD.

Contemporary musician

Few musicians are equally adept at more than one instrument, but Christian Hartman ’20, music, is an exception. He has made a name for himself as both a cellist and percussionist.

The principal cellist of the UMBC Symphony and a Linehan Artist Scholar, Hartman will attend the University of Delaware in the fall for graduate studies in cello performance. While at UMBC, he received a Music Performance Fellowship and Music Achievement Award.

“I’m considering an academic career, which would allow me to perform, teach, and research,” says Hartman, “especially in the fields of contemporary and early music in which I’m most interested.”

His interest in contemporary music has led to collaborations with composers, and he has premiered a number of new compositions. A composer and arranger himself, he has written and arranged music for a variety of ensembles, including works premiered by high schools, honor groups, dance companies, and collegiate ensembles.

As a percussionist, Hartman plays snare drum in the Baltimore’s Marching Ravens Drumline, which he intends to continue through graduate school. He also drums for the Baltimore-based rock band The Negative Men and serves as percussion director for Manchester Valley High School marching band, his high school alma mater.

Lighting a new path

Linehan Artist Scholar Corey Goulden-Naitove ’20, theatre, has already had the opportunity to work professionally as a lighting designer at the Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Abington Friends School, and Long Lake Camp for the Arts. He had planned to continue this path when he graduated. But as coronavirus stay-at-home orders rolled out, and show after show was cancelled, he watched as five months of work evaporated in 24 hours.

Remarkably, the next day Goulden-Naitove received a call from Indiana University, Bloomington, inviting him to their Design + Technology program. At the time, it seemed “out of the blue.”

“They called up to offer me a spot in the M.F.A. program, with an assistantship with a living wage and tuition remission,” he says. Now, he will have a chance to continue studying his craft and remain connected to the theatre industry during COVID-19 closures.

This past winter at the Southeastern Theatre Conference, Goulden-Naitove presented his lighting design for the 2019 UMBC production of Anon(ymous), and won First Place in the Undergraduate Lighting Competition. He would later learn that it was that lighting design and award that caught the attention of the University of Indiana.

“UMBC was definitely the right choice for me—I have had opportunities here that I don’t think I would have found anywhere else in the world,” Goulden-Naitove says. “I am very grateful to all of my professors, to the university, and to Earl and Darielle Linehan for helping to make this happen.”

Inspiring the next generation of students

It’s no wonder that Linehan Artist Scholar Teresa Whittemore received the dance department’s Outstanding Senior in Choreography Award—her work has been twice featured at the American College Dance Festival. This includes the work Giving Skin, performed this spring.

Whittemore has also twice presented for UMBC’s Undergraduate and Creative Achievement Day, and through departmental dance showcases. And Arts by the People has presented her choreography in New York.

In addition to choreography, Whittemore also loves to teach. Following graduation, she plans to teach at three area studios—JMD Studios, EMC Performing Arts, and Kinetics Dance Theatre, where she is currently assistant school manager.

Everyday activities become something more

Brandon Ables, who earns his M.F.A. in Intermedia and Digital Arts this spring, had expected to travel to Romania this September as a Fulbright scholar. Fortunately, although coronavirus complications have delayed his travel, it will still move forward in February 2021. In Romania, he’ll teach English at a university and will conduct an arts research project on the Romanian deadlift weightlifting form and history.

In the meantime, Ables will continue his research in the U.S. His work replays dreams, notes, and ideas using everyday environments and actions, accompanied with hypnotic suggestions. “I’m interested in discovering and creating triggerable actions within daily routines to score with audio and visual self-help style suggestions, guiding the subconscious to solve practical and absurd challenges,” he says.

“Activities like lying in bed, chewing, and looking in the pantry become opportunities to carve the subconscious into a desirable shape with no extra effort required.”

This summer, Ables will complete an interactive novel about parking, autonomous cars, and impulse purchases. He will also develop a one-man-band live performance to add more complexity to the actions he’s using to trigger self-hypnotic audio and visuals. And then, onward to Romania.

Performer, producer, teacher

Raymond Robinson ’17, music technology and jazz studies, and ’20 M.A.T., music, came to UMBC in 2013 as Linehan Artist Scholar and a multifaceted musician. He already was a skilled pianist and saxophonist, but he credits UMBC and his professors for his mastery of music theory and music technology.

“Now I produce, engineer, and know advanced jazz theory, arrangement, and composition,” he says. “I would not be the musician and educator that I am today without the guidance of all my teachers. I feel like I owe it to them to also be a teacher.”

Robinson feels that it’s important to have more men in the education system, especially black men. “I hope to have the opportunity to teach students of all ethnicities about acceptance and open-mindedness before perspectives and deeper implicit biases get locked-in,” he says. And he hopes to be a role model for black boys and young men.

He looks forward to teaching instrumental and general music in Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County public schools. He also looks forward to resuming performances at popular venues around Washington’s U Street corridor and with A.B.M and New Impressionz, two of the major Go-Go bands in the District.

Intensive training, unique opportunities

Linehan Artist Scholar Emily Godfrey ’20, dance, has performed at the Kennedy Center not once, but twice. Godfrey first appeared there in 2018 at the American College Dance Festival, performing choreography by Maia Schechter ’18, dance. She then appeared again in 2019 in choreography by assistant professor Ann Sofie Clemmensen.

Godfrey’s own choreography, terminal, was chosen in 2020 for the American College Dance Association (ADCA) Mid-Atlantic North Conference Gala, along with Giving Skin by Teresa Whittemore. At UMBC, she has appeared on stage with Baltimore Dance Project and in many dance department programs.

With the financial support of the Linehan Summer Award and the Dance Department Summer Award, Godfrey attended several intensive programs. These include the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Summer Intensive, the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Summer Intensive, the Peridance Blueprint Summer Intensive, and study at the Gerlev Sports Academy in Denmark.

Following graduation, Godfrey plans to pursue a professional career in dance performance with national and international companies.

Satisfying “my creative side”

Double majoring in the arts and sciences can be daunting, but Linehan Artist Scholar and Honors College student Sarah Brewer ’20 will graduate with a B.A. in dance and a B.S. in biology. She credits open communication with dance and biology faculty, a team of advisors, and her own focus on time management for making it work.

As she prepares to leave UMBC, Brewer remains committed to both art and science. She is interning at a molecular biology lab within the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and recently interviewed for a full-time position. She says the work at the lab “satisfies some of my creative side and all of my scientific side.” Still, she’s already reaching out to contacts at local companies to find ways to continue her work in dance. 

Brewer says her proudest undergraduate moment was a duet performance choreographed by Teresa Whittemore ’20, When Eve and Eve Bit the Apple, at an ACDA gala performance in spring 2019. The piece was one of only two undergraduate works among twelve selected for the gala.

She shares, “To be a part of Teresa’s choreographic process, and build a creative relationship with her and my duet partner Michelle Ye ’22 was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had at UMBC.”

The perfect fit

Some UMBC students dream of attending the university for years before they arrive on campus. Linehan Artist Scholar Olivia Mills ’20, visual arts, had a different experience.

“I’m not from Maryland, and I wasn’t familiar with UMBC until the end of my college search,” Mills says, “but once I researched it and was offered the Linehan Artist Scholarship, it rose to being my first choice—and it was the perfect fit for me,” she says.

Mills’s focus has been on animation. Her senior capstone project and 2020 URCAD presentation, the animated film Creatures in Crisis, challenged the notion that robust animated film projects emerge only from major studios.

As an artist at UMBC, she especially enjoyed Commonvision programs, and made a point to share her work during annual Art Week festivities and in seasonal zines.

Given the impact of coronavirus on the arts, Mills plans to use her time immediately following graduation to build her artistic portfolio. “While the coronavirus situation saddens me and has been a source of stress, a silver lining is I now have to stay in and work on my art,” she says. “I’m also glad there is a virtual network through UMBC’s Career Center and Alumni Association to get on-track with my professional goals.”

Catherine Borg contributed to this article.

Banner image: Emily Godfrey ’20 performs with colleagues in Baltimore Dance Project’s 2020 concerts at UMBC.

All Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

On October 18 and 19, choreography by Ann Sofie Clemmensen, assistant professor of dance, will be presented at the new REACH expansion of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Featuring 20 dancers, Clemmensen’s three-part experience — In To and Out Of — transports audiences through different spaces of the REACH using the unique characteristics of each location to explore concepts in pattern and timing, light and dark, and limitation and transformation. The work was commissioned by the Kennedy Center as part of the 2019 Local Dance Commissioning Project.

“In To and Out Of is a three-part site-inspired performance that examines the physical and invisible qualities of a place,” explains Clemmensen. “All three works seek to embody the REACH building’s inquisitive nature traceable in the texture of the walls, the array of light diffusion and breathtaking verticality.”

In the second part of the work, for example, two dancers — Linehan Artist Scholars Deven Fuller and Emily Godfrey — perform against a long narrow wall, often leaning or pressing on its surface. “The flow of people moving in and through a space doesn’t happen in isolation,” says Clemmensen. “The spaces around us have an impact on how we move around.”

Part One of the work, Welcome Pavilion, features eight dancers. “The group work draws abstractly from the physical site and its function, engaging with direct and indirect patterns through gestural movements amplified using group unison and prolong time sensibility,” offers Clemmensen. She adds that “traditional meets contemporary in the use of voluminous tulle skirts — a playful reference to the artistic breath of the Kennedy Center.”

Part Two, Peace Corps Gallery, “is a duet exploring the notion of space-between-space; literally the space between wall and body as well as the space share and created by two moving bodies.” Part Three, Sky Pavilion, featuring five professional dancers from the Washington, D.C. area, explores a long panoramic window and a gravity-defying tall curved wall.

Other UMBC colleagues are involved in the performances. In addition to Fuller and Godfrey, In To and Out Of features students Jody Cole, Joshua Gray, Sylvia Lagas, Kayla Massey, Kasey Mannion, Jahnaye Samuel, Michelle Ye, Gretta Zinski, and Katie Blake.

Timothy Nohe, director of the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA), created music for the first section of the dance, making “acoustic choices in the score that complement the unique architecture and reverberant signature of the REACH.” Nohe explains, “The score will be reproduced on wireless Bluetooth speakers, adding an element of mobility that responds to the movement of the dancers.”

Admission to the performances is free. Information is available on the performance pages for October 18 and October 19.

Update: The Kennedy Center has added videos of the performances held on October 18 and October 19.

Featured image: Deven Fuller and Emily Godfrey rehearse In To and Out Of. Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Faculty and staff in UMBC’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) celebrated students in the annual CAHSS awards ceremony this spring. Scholars programs and departments recognized undergraduates for academic achievements, public service, and innovation within their major and beyond.

“CAHSS’s amazing students do it all: think and learn across boundaries and borders, develop their identities as scholars and citizens, and contribute their imagination and expertise to local and global communities,” says Scott Casper, dean of CAHSS. “Given all they’ve already accomplished, it’s exciting to envision what they’ll do next.”

Combining dual passions

Among the many accolades were twelve awards to graduating students in the college’s hallmark scholar programs: the Humanities Scholars, Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars, and Linehan Artist Scholars. These include several students with dual majors.

For example, four honored dance majors were also earning a degree in another field: Linehan Artist Scholars Emily S. Godfrey ’20, dance and a psychology minor; Melissa Hudson ‘18, dance and economics; and Giavanni Powell ‘19, dance with an entrepreneurship and innovation minor; and Honors College member Samantha L. Siegel ‘19, dance and psychology.

Linehan Artist Scholar Giavanni Powell

Baltimore on my mind

The ceremony also honored students who committed to giving back to Baltimore communities during their time at UMBC. Vanessa Gonzalez ‘19, American studies, worked as a student teacher in Baltimore City as a Sherman STEM Teacher Scholar and received the award for outstanding achievement in American studies.

Gonzalez working with students.

Belgian international student Tanguy Ringoir ‘18, financial economics and M.S. ‘20, economic policy analysis, was named the outstanding graduating senior in financial economics. Ringoir, a chess grandmaster, learned to play chess from his father at age seven. As he strengthened his skills he began to enjoy teaching the game.

During his time at UMBC, Ringor was part of a volunteer chess coach team for a program by TouchPoint in collaboration with UMBC and the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). TouchPoint is a community organization in Baltimore that provides free chess lessons to Baltimore youth. The coaching team included volunteers from both the UMBC chess team and chess club.

Ringoir, chess grandmaster, working with CTY students. Photo courtesy of Ringoir.

Ringoir also received a Community Service Outreach and Leadership award from the UMBC Division of Professional Studies for his dedication to creating accessible chess teams. He will continue his work with Baltimore K-12 students through the CTY program.

“I personally stay in Baltimore because I can combine my passion for finance with chess,” shares Ringoir. “UMBC gives me an education at the same time that it supports my chess development through the chess team and community volunteer opportunities.”

Like Ringoir, Ciara Jones ‘19, social work, is also an award recipient who has chosen to begin her professional career in Baltimore. She received the excellence award from Africana studies, her minor. Upon graduation, Jones will work with Sarah’s House in Druid Park, as a forensic social worker. She will also serve the Canton community through Renaissance Baltimore Church.

Global skills

In addition to maximizing their academic experience on campus and participating in an exchange of skills within Baltimore communities, CAHSS students seek to sharpen their personal and professional skills by studying abroad.

Miriam Newman-Marshall ‘19, Asian studies with a Japanese minor, received the Constantine Vaporis Academic Excellence in Asian Studies Award. Newman-Marshall has traveled to Thailand and Cambodia, and has completed three study abroad trips to Japan. These trips strengthened her research skills and historical knowledge, which were critical for her work as a research assistant. She assisted Constantine Vaporis, Asian studies director, on his book, Samurai: An Encyclopedia of Japan’s Cultured Warriors.

Newman-Marshall next to a volcano in Hakone, Japan. Photo courtesy of Newman-Marshall.

Vaporis encourages all students to study a foreign language overseas to accelerate and deepen their understanding of that language and culture. “Learning a language in its country of origin equips students with skills to conduct more complex research, using multi-lingual sources,” explains Vaporis. “Miriam’s knowledge of Japanese history and her ability to read Japanese greatly facilitated her work in support of my research on the samurai.”

For more CAHSS news follow @UMBC_CAHSS on Twitter.

Banner image: Linehan Artist Scholar Emily Godfrey. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

This spring, the department of music welcomes new members to the UMBC community: two violins and a violin bow, contributed to the department by Joel Liebman, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and his life partner Kathleen F. (Kay) Edwards, professor in the doctor of management program, University of Maryland University College.

The gift of the instruments will be acknowledged on Tuesday, May 15, at the Department of Music Honors Showcase, at which violinist Airi Yoshioka, professor of music, will perform Edward Elgar’s Salut d’amour, Op. 12, on one of the violins.

“We’re very pleased to donate our families’ violins to the department of music,” say Liebman and Edwards. “We were both students of music, and we hope that UMBC violin students will be able to learn on, enjoy and perform with these family instruments, continuing legacies of music, family, and community.”

The violins come with family history and photographs. In one image (above), Joel Liebman’s grandfather, William Spitz, a concert musician who attended the Vienna Conservatory, poses proudly with one of the violins. In another (below), Kathleen Edwards’ mother, Cornelia Rotter Edwards, a self-taught musician, poses with the Ste. Genevieve Juvenile Band.

“Many of our students are talented but from arrive at UMBC with instruments that are not high quality,” said Linda Dusman, professor of chair of music. “We plan to loan these instruments to our top violinists to use for practice and performance during the academic year so that their development as young artists will be enhanced and accelerated as a result. The ability to hear, experience, and create the musical nuances a fine instrument enables will prepare them well for lives as professional musicians.”

Restoration of the violins and the bows was made possible by the Linehan Fund for Excellence in the Arts.

More information about the Honors Showcase concert, which will take place in Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall, can be found here.

Photos courtesy of Joel Liebman and Kathleen F. Edwards.

Maia Schechter
B.A., Dance
Magna Cum Laude
Hometown: Glen Rock, Pennsylvania
Plans: Presenting choreography at the National College Dance Festival; studying with the NW Dance Project

The UMBC dance department has offered incredible support. In addition to cultivating my dance technique, many teachers have introduced me to renowned dance companies and intensives that have helped me network and develop as an artist. Thanks to my teachers, I am setting and achieving goals I never thought would be possible.

Maia Schechter came to UMBC as a Linehan Artist Scholar and a member of the Honors College, driven to pursue a career in dance. She quickly got to work developing her technique as a dancer and choreographer, and taking chances on unique opportunities to grow her craft.

In the summer of her sophomore year, she was accepted to the competitive Broadway Dance Center Summer Professional Intensive in New York City, and in the summer of her junior year she was one of twelve women accepted into the highly competitive Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Dance Program. These opportunities were supported by a Linehan Summer Study Award and a Summer Dance Study and Research Award from the dance department. She also served as the vice president of the Dance Council of Majors.

Schechter has received College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Student Awards for Outstanding Junior in Dance, and Outstanding Senior in Choreography and Performance. During her senior year, her piece Tipping Point, co-choreographed with Ryan Bailey ‘16, dance, was selected for the Maryland Choreographers Showcase. Most recently, her choreography Now Elsewhere was presented at the American College Dance Association Mid-Atlantic North Regional Conference at West Chester University. Judges then selected the work to be presented at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the American College Dance Association National Festival in June 2018, the association’s highest honor.

Since her freshman year, Maia has supported numerous faculty research projects, performing with Baltimore Dance Project in works by professors Carol Hess and Doug Hamby. She has appeared with Baltimore Dance Project in the Akimbo Artwalk Festival in Station North, Baltimore, Light City Baltimore, and in residence at Washington College.

Portrait by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.