Rob Riordan

At Arts Emerging, the Arts Return In-Person to George Mason

96ab7f9bab134dd391354ecdce10b5cfPam Muirheid — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 15:31:57 +0000

At Arts Emerging, the Arts Return In-Person to George Mason 96ab7f9bab134d… Thu, 09/30/2021 - 11:31

In This Story

Shaun Boyle D'Arcy

Gregory Washington

Dr. Michael Nickens

Arts Emerging raised more than $155,000 to support the arts at Mason.

School of Dance students performing Pause: Reset on Holton Plaza. Photo ©Sean Hickey.

A welcome return to live, in-person arts performances and exhibitions was celebrated September 25 at the George Mason University Center for the Arts.

Arts Emerging: A Celebration of Renewal brought more than 300 people to the Fairfax Campus on a Saturday evening for a festive event that pulsed with artistic energy and the spirit of community.

Combining outdoor and indoor performances by students, faculty, and alumni, art exhibits, film screenings, hands-on activities, and more, Arts Emerging launched the 2021-22 Center for the Arts season, while also marking the 20^th anniversary of the university’s College of Visual and Performing Arts.

“The arts have become one of Mason’s signature tools for the university to engage with its community,” said Rick Davis, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “Arts Emerging is a powerful example of that in action.”

A highlight of the outdoor performances presented on Holton Plaza was a performance of Pause: Reset, delivered by School of Dance students and choreographed by faculty member Shaun Boyle D’Arcy. One performer, senior dance major Hadiya Matthews, reflected afterward on the challenges of the past year and how students have rallied. “During Covid and everything that was happening in the world, it was pretty heavy and kind of sad,” Matthews said. “I think that when we had discussions and ‘collabbed’ and really talked about how we felt, a big thing that kept us strong was community, and how—no matter what we’re going through—we’re all related to one another. That’s something that we can come back to, so building this piece of community was really special.”

Meanwhile, in the adjacent Buchanan Hall Atrium Gallery, viewers enjoyed a major exhibition, Women of the Same Blood, combining photography and family history by Zia Palmer, BFA Photography ’19, with the opportunity to meet and talk with the artist. Buchanan Hall also hosted screenings by Film and Video Studies alumni, and an interactive virtual reality experience by the Computer Game Design program.

Later, inside the Center for the Arts, Mason President Gregory Washington welcomed a mix of students, supporters, and Mason faculty and staff. “The arts are the front door to the university,” Washington said. “Many of you found that great big front door and you came through it to become involved with our College of Visual and Performing Arts. And then that introduced you to the larger university.”

Guest appearances on the Concert Hall stage included a duet by Green Machine alumni Chelsea Mohindroo, BS Mathematics ’16, MS Operations Research ’20, and Brandon Showell, BA Music and English ’14, both of whom have been contestants on NBC’s The Voice. They were followed by School of Theater alumni Garvey Dobbins, BFA Theater ’20, and Lauren Fraites, BA Theater ’20, and a finale performance by current Dewberry School of Music opera students. Members of the Green Machine, led by associate professor of music and director of the Green Machine Ensembles Michael W. Nickens (Doc Nix), also played throughout the event.

Finally, School of Dance alumna Sasha (Hollinger) Henninger, BFA Dance ’09, who made her Broadway debut in Hamilton as #thebullet, spoke about her career and her time at Mason. “I was blessed to spend 11 years in New York making a living doing what I love. I toured the country, I toured the world, and I spent my last few years there performing in two incredible shows on Broadway—easily one of my biggest dreams come true,” Henninger said. “My time, my teachers, my peers here at George Mason prepared me for that. My time at George Mason prepared me well.”

Henninger presented a special merit scholarship to current Film and Video Studies senior Taj Kokayi, whose film Woken From a Dream won the Best Student Film Award at the London Web Fest. Kokayi was a producer on the short film The Vine, which premiered during Saturday’s event. The Vine featured current Masters in Arts Management student Bobby Lacy, BA Music ’16, in a stirring spoken word performance inspired by the question of what it means to be an arts manager.

Sandy Spring Bank returned as the event’s presenting sponsor for the fourth consecutive year. “By sponsoring events like this we’re literally helping the students you saw tonight on stage realize their hopes and dreams, or give them an opportunity to,” said Jay O’Brien, executive vice president for commercial and retail banking at Sandy Spring. O’Brien has three daughters currently attending Mason—two graduate students and one undergraduate.

Arts Emerging raised more than $155,000, with proceeds supporting CVPA student scholarships, the Mason Community Arts Academy, Green Machine Ensembles, and the Great Performances at Mason season at the Center for the Arts. The event was co-chaired by Arts at Mason Board members Steven Golsch, a vice president at NowSecure, and Annie Bolger, a bank officer at Sandy Spring Bank.

Topics

arts emerging

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

CFA

forward together

giving to Mason

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Theater

Computer Game Design

Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

Faculty Member’s Scholarship Gift Will Help Future Mason Dance Students

96ab7f9bab134dd391354ecdce10b5cfPam Muirheid — Mon, 10 May 2021 15:49:06 +0000

Faculty Member’s Scholarship Gift Will Help Future Mason Dance Students 96ab7f9bab134d… Mon, 05/10/2021 - 11:49

In This Story

Elizabeth "Buffy" Price

Give to the Price Scholarship

As Elizabeth “Buffy” Price retires from the School of Dance, a gift from her and husband Mike Brown, together here in the large dance studio at the deLaski Performing Arts Building, will continue their memorable Mason legacy.

Elizabeth "Buffy" Price and her husband Mike Brown. Photo by Christopher Bobo.

The couple whose dedication to dance at Mason has made them emblematic of the program’s growth have made a philanthropic gift that further cements their legacy at the university.

Esteemed faculty member Elizabeth “Buffy” Price, and her husband, Mike Brown, have together established a scholarship endowment to benefit Mason dance students. Their gift, announced by School of Dance director Karen Reedy on March 27 at the annual Mason Dance Fête, will help the school recruit the most talented and qualified students to Mason’s highly-regarded program.

The couple’s gift is a generous culmination to a 30-year career at Mason for Buffy Price, who is retiring this year. A dancer and choreographer, Price arrived in 1991 as an adjunct professor in the Dance Department. When the School of Dance was established in 2010, she was its founding director, a position she held through 2013.

She was a key member of the architectural design team for the deLaski Performing Arts Building on the Fairfax Campus, completed in 2011. The top-notch dance facilities in this beautiful addition dramatically raised the profile of Mason’s program. Recognizing dancers as athletes, she established an athletic training position, one of only six in the nation, which provided full-time support for dance majors. In 2017, Price became the first faculty member from the College of Visual and Performing Arts to receive the David J. King Teaching Award for her career contributions—the highest honor a Mason faculty member can receive.

“Buffy’s commitment to, and passion for, the School of Dance are seen in every aspect of our program,” says Karen Reedy. “She brings elegance, generosity and excellence to everything she touches, and her impact is reflected throughout our School of Dance curriculum and philosophy.”

Price’s husband, Mike Brown, an attorney, has also been instrumental in supporting Mason Dance, as an advisor, advocate, patron, and fundraiser. A member of the Arts at Mason Board since 2002 (and past chair), Brown was part of a small circle that helped form the Board, and later the Dance Partnership Council, where he is also a member.

“Dance at Mason is a vibrant, enthusiastic, exciting community to be a part of,” Brown says. “I’ve always been a great lover of the program, so the idea that we would support it going forward, in Buffy’s name, was just a no-brainer.”

Buffy Price with School of Dance students on the Center for the Arts stage, 2012. Photo by Alexis Glenn / GMU

For Price and Brown, both of whom benefited from scholarships as students themselves, the affirmation that scholarship support provides to a young dancer is evident. “I was supported through scholarships when I was at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, and it absolutely changed my world that someone believed in me enough to support my education,” Price says. Brown was a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill; there is a profound commitment on their part to give back in the form of undergraduate scholarships.

“This endowment gift establishes a lasting legacy for Buffy Price and her remarkable tenure with the School of Dance. It also fittingly reflects Buffy and Mike’s dedication to this art form and the gifted students in the program,” says Susan Graziano, director of development for the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “Scholarships are essential to attract and retain the most talented students, and Buffy and Mike are leading by example through this generous gift.”

With its focus on contemporary and modern dance, Mason’s School of Dance admits only about 20 students per year, many from out-of-state. “Our school remains small, intentionally so,” Price says. “But we knew we could grow in excellence, and so the trajectory of the program has been to recruit these highly intelligent and talented students to enter the world of dance.”

“We are still the new kid on the block. Some other top dance programs can offer much more scholarship aid. We have to make students fall in love with us and want to come here.”

Graduates of Mason Dance are highly sought after in the world of performing arts, with a recent alumni survey showing that three out of every four are employed in fields related to their major. Others have gone into fields such as education, business, law, and medicine.

What draws such students to Mason? As Buffy Price says: “It’s really about the people here at Mason—people who are passionate about this still young university. So it’s a place of possibility. … And the faculty we have here, and the staff, are world-class and are totally focused on giving back to students. It’s wonderful to work at a place like that.”

From an article by Rob Riordan.

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

Scholarships

cvpa scholarships