Full event schedule and extra details can be found in the original post. See the UMBC Game Developers Club post HERE. 

UMBC’s INTERMEDIA AND DIGITAL ARTS (IMDA) Masters Program presents “The Only Way Out Is Through,” the 2025 IMDA MFA Thesis Exhibition. 

Artists' Reception

Please join us at the CADVC gallery for a public reception with the artists on Thursday, March 27th, 5-7 pm. The thesis exhibition features five artists with diverse artistic practices and approaches: McCoy Chance, Ahlam Khamis, Ghazal Mojtahedi, Alexi Scheiber, and Mariia Usova.

Since the inception of the IMDA MFA Program at UMBC in 1992, the exhibition is presented each spring semester. Past exhibitions have included installation, performance, film, video, photography, animation, interactive art, sculpture, audio works, painting, drawing, and print media.

Please mark your calendar for these additional events associated with the exhibition and note that some programs occur *after* the close of the exhibition.

                                                                                                                                                        

RTKL Lecture: Alexi Scheiber
April 15, 12:30-1:30 pm

The gallery will remain open until 5 pm following the lecture.

The CADVC gallery is also the site of the annual “RTKL Lecture,” a fellowship lecture made possible through the generosity of RTKL (Rogers Taliaferro, Kostritsky, & Lamb) Associates Incorporated. The goal of this merit-based award is to support an emerging artist of creative and scholarly excellence who has demonstrated a promise to make an impact on the field. This year’s recipient of the RTKL fellowship is Alexi Scheiber.

Audience members are respectfully requested to wear a mask during this event, so the speaker may remove her mask for optimal audibility and communication. CADVC realizes masking is a personal decision and ultimately lies with each individual.

                                                                                                                                                        

Live Improvised Musical Performance
April 4, 1-1:30 pm

As part of “The Dead, The Living, and The Injured,” musicians Patrick Crossland, Ida Dierker, Brandon, Gouin, Jeremy Keaton, and Josh Weber join McCoy Chance for a collaborative performance exploring the lifespan of discarded electronics. They will engage with the screens and media works in the exhibition through live improvisation. The performance begins promptly at 1:00 pm on Friday, April 4, 2025, and will conclude in the Fine Arts Amphitheater immediately outside the gallery,—rain or shine—by 1:30 PM. The gallery remains open to the public from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

For more information and the full list of associated events, including MFA thesis defense times and additional hours of operation, please visit our website at cadvc.umbc.edu/mfa-2025.

Images: From the top “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.) 

Alexi Scheiber, “Artifacts from the Dreaming World – Tailoring & Fibers Workshop” (detail), 2024, Gouache on black paper, photo: courtesy of the artist (A navy blue building with stars painted on the facade. Sewing projects are demonstrated in the warm light of the window. A tulip wind turbine is installed on the green roof, the yard is dominated by daisies, and yellow passionflowers climb the front porch.)

Highly abstracted and layered images include several glowing blue TV monitors. On the left is a window looking out to an urban skyline silhouetted against a blue sky. Wires scatter across the hardwood floor in the foreground, and translucent figures of seated musicians are superimposed upon the middle of the interior studio space.

                                                                                                                                                        

Visitor Information

Our exhibitions and events are free and open to the public 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.

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

About the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC)

CADVC is a College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences research center and art gallery that produces scholarship, publications, and experimental engagements in the fields of art, design, and visual culture.

The CADVC is located on the first floor of UMBC’s Fine Arts Building. Admission to the gallery and public programs is free. Daytime metered parking is available in several nearby visitor parking areas. Please visit here for additional information.

Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, UMBC
1000 Hilltop Circle, Fine Arts Building 105, Baltimore, MD 21250

 

Gallery Hours:

Sun-Mon, closed

Tues-Wed, 12-5 pm

Thurs-Sat, 10-5 pm

cadvc@umbc.edu | (410) 455-3188

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.

Some images only visible in MyUMBC Groups app

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.)

commonvision, UMBC Student Design and Print Center will be closed March 15 – 23 during UMBC's spring break.