The 2009 U.S. News & World Report National Rankings in Visual Arts & Design have been released and VCU School of the Arts is now ranked 4th overall, up from 6th in 2003. We have solidified our standing as the #1 public university visual arts & design program in the nation. In short, VCUarts has the highest ranking ever achieved by a public university school of arts and design and is the only public university to consistently rise in the rankings.
We've also received 8 specialty rankings – 5 more than last time:

Sculpture continues as #1
Graphic Design continues as #4 (#1 public university ranking)
Painting and Drawing #8 (up from #10 in 2003; #3 public university ranking)

And we have 5 new specialty rankings:

Fiber Arts #4 (#1 public university ranking)
Glass #5 (#1 public university ranking)
Multimedia/Visual Communications #9 (#3 public university ranking)
Ceramics #12 (#6 public university ranking)
Printmaking #17 (#10 public university ranking)

Other departments have also received recognition as leaders in their field. VCUarts Department of Interior Design graduate program is ranked as the #4 Interior Design graduate program in the south (regional schools) and #6 (national/ regional schools) by DesignIntelligence 2008 America's Best Architecture & Design Schools. The undergraduate program is ranked #5 (regional schools). Dance and Choreography is an invited member of the Council of Dance Administrators (CODA), a forum of the nation's 25 leading dance programs.

A degree from VCUarts gives our alumni credibility in the world of galleries, graduate schools, artistic directors and employers. Our graduates are known for professionalism, skill, and readiness to enter their desired field as artists.

“The true measure of our reputation is how we are recognized outside of the school. In the past four years our alumni and faculty have received three Guggenheim Fellowships, three awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and two MacArthur Fellows "Genius" awards, among many others. This kind of achievement surpasses that of most universities, let alone individual art schools.”

- Dean Richard Toscan

Music professor Taylor Barnett has announced the release of his debut album. "For Someone" features the Taylor Barnett 10-tet playing 10 of his original compositions, including new arrangements of pieces by Bela Bartok and John Lennon.
Taylor Barnett received his Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies and his Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he now directs the Jazz Orchestra II. He is also the music instructor at Maggie Walker Governor's School, where he directs two jazz ensembles, the string orchestra, and teaches jazz improvisation and music theory (the latter offered as a dual-enrollment course for VCU credit). He was awarded First Place in the Jazz Division of the 2001 National Trumpet Competition and is a published arranger with UNC Jazz Press. An active member of the Richmond music scene, he performs with The Steve Kessler Quartet, The Oregon Hill Funk All-Stars, The Savage Band, and his own jazz groups.

Click here for more information on Taylor Barnett.

photo of Conor Backman

Conor Backman, a rising sophomore in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts, is the first recipient of the Tyler Binsted Endowed Scholarship in Sculpture + Extended Media.

The scholarship was created in memory of Tyler Binsted, an accomplished undergraduate sculpture student at VCU who died in March. The merit scholarship is designated for the top Art Foundation student at VCU who has been accepted for enrollment in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, in which Binsted was enrolled.

“This scholarship will honor the life and work of Tyler Binsted, who proved to be an outstanding student and artist during his time at VCU,” said Richard Toscan, dean of the VCU School of the Arts. “We will use this scholarship to reward exceptional students like Conor who have demonstrated the kind of talent and dedication we will always remember in Tyler.”

Freshman academic performance and work in the annual spring Art Foundation portfolio review will be the main criteria in the scholarship selection process.

Click here for information on how to establish a scholarship at VCUarts.

Click here for information on scholarships available to students.

Performática is a festival, conference, workshop, community builder, exchange project, and a creative vision that is co-directed by Mayra Morales and Ray Eliot Schwartz (VCU Dance alumnus 1992), professors of dance at Fundación Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Mexico.

Inspired by years of exposure to international workshops, performance festivals, academic conferences, and community art projects, Performática aims to synthesize the best of these events into a unique forum. The event brings together an international cadre of practicing dancers, choreographers, theorists, and teachers of contemporary dance and related movement arts.

Performática 2008 took place from March 24-April 4, and incorporated classes, workshops, panels, video screenings, and performances. VCU Dance alumni Jason Somma, Rob Petres, Damion Bond, Reggie Crump, and Rachael Shaw were a strong force at the festival. They taught classes and performed and presented their own work. VCU Dance faculty member Scott Putman also taught and performed a self-created solo and faculty member Lea Marshall performed a solo set on her by alumna Damion Bond.

The Richmond-based Ground Zero Dance Company, co-founded in 2000 by VCU Dance alumni Rob Petres and Pam England, in conjunction with Lea Marshall, served as a fiscal sponsor for Performática 2007 and 2008, funded in part by grants from the United States Embassy in Mexico City.

The first Performática took place 15-23rd of March, 2007 in Puebla, Mexico. Spanning nine days, with over 12 different shared performance events - as well as workshops, papers, dance films, events for children, and discussions - the event reached thousands of community members.

Over 300 Mexican students had access, free of charge, to world-class teaching over the course of the event. As well, thousands of audience members had free access to over 100 international artists represented on the stages and sites of Cholula and Puebla.

Click here for more information on Performática.

Click here for more information on VCU Dance.

VCU-Qatar celebrated its 7th commencement on Saturday, May 10. Thirty nine women graduated – 5 in Fashion Design, 23 in Graphic Design, 10 in Interior Design and one double major in Interior and Fashion Design.

Isabel Toledo of the fashion design husband/wife team Ruben Toledo and Isabel Toledo gave the commencement address.

Located in the heart of a city and region with an extraordinarily vibrant and diverse cultural heritage, VCUQ plays a central role in the modern cultural life of Qataris and Middle Easterners. Whether in the studio, the library, the computer laboratory, or the lecture halls, students can expand their cultural perspectives as well as acquire expertise for the workplace within an energetic and compassionate learning environment.

The VCUQ experience is one of cultural, as well as, academic discovery. The University's multicultural environment cultivates artistic expression as well as individual growth. The presence of VCUQ within an Arab/Islamic environment enables students to foster a critical outlook towards the globalization of visual culture and its impact on design. VCUQ is distinctive as it foresees, distinguishes, and catalyzes design as the currency of our time. Studies at VCUQ incorporate traditions that define design in past centuries and embrace emerging models that illustrate design for the future.

VCUQ offers students the opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design, Fashion Design or Interior Design, through a comprehensive four-year curriculum. The only fully accredited design program in the Middle East, VCUQ is a branch campus of the prestigious VCU School of the Arts in Richmond, Virginia. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), and the Ministry of Education in Qatar accredit VCUQ. The combination of all these elements has allowed VCUQ to establish an enviable reputation as a university of excellence with a distinct identity.

Click here for more information on VCUQ.

June 20 through
August 2, 2008
Opening reception:
June 20 from 7-9pm

Rob Matthews: Knoxville Girl
Fiona Ross: The Thread in the Labyrinth
Portraits: More Than Just a Pretty Face

The Anderson Gallery is pleased to present two outstanding exhibitions this summer. Displayed on the Gallery’s first floor as part of a collective, VCU graduate, Rob Matthews’ work will be on view with that of fellow MFA graduate Fiona Ross, students, local artists, and works from the Anderson Gallery permanent collection.

Matthew's haunting narrative drawings are based loosely on actual murders in Knoxville, Tennessee and on the Appalachian ballad, “Knoxville Girl.” Employing universal human themes of jealousy, rage, rash action, and remorse, the artist creates his mortality play through use of intricate graphite line and stark white backgrounds.

Rob Matthews is an MFA graduate of VCU and holds a BFA from the University of Tennessee. He lives in Philadelphia and was recently awarded a 2008 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship. He has exhibited throughout the U.S. and is currently represented by Gallery Joe in Philadelphia, PA and Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York City.

A site-specific wall installation and a series of drawings by Fiona Ross are also featured on the first floor. Referencing the Ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, her work teases the eye as it takes the observer through its mazes of hairpin turns and meandering landscapes. Ross’ sometimes delicate, sometimes heavy-handed use of Japanese Sumi ink proves reminiscent of both ancient calligraphy and airy traditional Japanese landscape.

A 2001 MFA graduate of VCU, Fiona Ross lives and works in Richmond. She also holds a BA and an MST from Fordham University. Her work has been shown extensively in the U.S., and internationally in South Korea, Germany, India, and Switzerland. In addition to being acclaimed as a two dimensional artist, Ross is celebrated for her ceramic sculptures.

Portraits: More Than Just a Pretty Face is a thought-provoking exhibition that examines how portraits—as artwork or everyday objects—use specific visual codes to assert individual identities, cultural norms, social roles and relationships between the person portrayed and viewers. It includes artwork in a range of media and from various time periods, including contemporary works by internationally renowned artists Cindy Sherman and Chuck Close, celebrated regional artists Thomas A. Daniel and Theresa Pollak, and emerging artists Timothy Rusterholz and Chinonyeelu Amobi. Many of the works are on loan from private collectors, artists, or fine arts galleries and are displayed alongside works from the Anderson Gallery permanent collection.

Such things as baseball cards, currency, and mug shots are also presented to demonstrate that “portrait codes” are used not only by artists but also by marketing professionals, bureaucratic institutions, and anyone who has taken a snapshot of friends, families, or even pets.

The idea for the show, curated by students enrolled in the Spring 2008 VCU graduate-level Museum Studies class, began with an intellectual challenge with which museum professionals grapple: How can academic research be displayed in an accessible yet appropriately sophisticated manner?

VCUarts Anderson Gallery is free and open to the public. Summer gallery hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1 to 5 pm. Click here for more information or call 828-1522.

The VCU-DC Metro Area Alumni Chapter, the Metro Richmond-VCU Alumni Chapter and the VCU Alumni Association cordially invite all alumni to a pre-game social and baseball game between the Washington Nationals and their area rivals, the Baltimore Orioles. The social will include hot dogs, hamburgers, BBQ baked beans, coleslaw, desserts, soft drinks, and a cash bar.

Washington Nationals vs. Baltimore Orioles
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Nationals Park
1500 South Capitol Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003-1507

Pre-game social begins at noon in the Miller Lite Beer Pen
Game time is 1:30 pm
Price Per Person:
$53 - includes pre-game social and mezzanine level tickets (section 239)
$79 - includes pre-game social and lower level tickets (section 134 U)
The registration deadline is June 23, 2008, however, space is limited so register early!

Click here to register and for more information.

You may also contact Larry Powell at the VCU Office of Alumni Relations, (804) 828-2586.

VCU School of the Arts depends upon private support and donations from alumni and friends to ensure educational resources, research opportunities and program development for students, faculty and staff.


Click here for more information on philanthropy at VCUarts.

For news and information on VCUarts, please visit ester, an interactive website featuring awards, shows, guests and other VCUarts news.