Arts Program

UMGC Exhibit Features Joseph Sheppard Works on African American Experience

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Galleries and Exhibitions Temporarily Closed

To protect the health of the University of Maryland Global Campus community and visitors, the Arts Program galleries and exhibitions are temporarily closed to support the university’s efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus disease. Updates will be posted on the UMGC Arts Program webpage as they become available.

The University of Maryland Global Campus Arts Program celebrates the extraordinary work of renowned artist Joseph Sheppard and his efforts to capture scenes of everyday life and culture with its latest exhibition, “Joseph Sheppard: An African American Experience.”

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Cuba and Art: The Shaman and the Boxer

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Last April, the University of Maryland Global Campus Arts Program organized a trip to Havana, Cuba, for that country’s 13th art biennial—the XIII Bienal de La Habana. This, the second of three stories that reflect on that experience, is a companion piece to the in-depth feature article and photo spread, “Art. Freedom. Cuba,” in the just-published Winter 2020 issue of Achiever Magazine.

The Chinese-made tour bus cruised along Cuba’s A-1 motorway, the Autopista Nacional, a toll-free multi-lane divided national highway. The road, built in sections during the 1980s, is supposed to traverse the distance between Havana and Guantanamo, about 570 miles to the southeast.

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UMGC Exhibit Culled from ‘Extremely Strong’ Entries Shows More Art than Expected

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Two men—one with a rainbow button pinned to his denim shirt—stand in an unusual pose, set before a blindingly bright background. The man on the right rests his chin on his left fist, almost a dead ringer for Rodin’s “Thinker,” although his fist rests on the other man’s left shoulder. The latter, who wears his long hair in a beaded braid, dangles his left arm at his side, while his right cradles his black bag. The two are clearly a couple, although their posture suggests the kind of informality and unsmiling expression that rarely is the stuff of posed selfies these days.Continue Reading

Cuba and Art: Giraffes and Ladders and Books, Oh My!

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As 2019 draws to a close, the Global Media Center takes a look back at an extraordinary trip to Havana, Cuba, organized by the UMGC Arts Program. The 17 art lovers who traveled there in April for the county’s 13th art biennial—the XIII Bienal de La Habana—soon learned Cuban art offers a good bit of the unexpected. This is the first of three stories that reflect on that experience and preview the in-depth feature article and photo spread, “Art. Freedom. Cuba.” in the upcoming Winter 2020 issue of Achiever Magazine.

It appears that little in Cuba is “as usual.” Take, for instance, the name of the well-known arts festival that the island nation hosts—the Havana art biennial. It’s a misnomer.Continue Reading

‘Family Album’ Is Subject of UMGC Joint Exhibition at US District Courthouse

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The enormous, four-story lobby of the U.S. District Courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland, isn’t the kind of place where one would expect to find art exhibitions. Walking by rooms identified on plaques as bankruptcy courts, one is even more surprised to see bright, colorful paintings. But that’s kind-of the point, said Peter J. Messitte, a senior U.S. district judge.Continue Reading

In His Art, Steven Dobbin Recycles Found Objects to Tease Out Heavy Meaning

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EDITOR’S NOTE:  We officially changed our name from University of Maryland University College (UMUC) to University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) on July 1, 2019. News stories posted on the Global Media Center are now using the new UMGC name. However, because the transition to the university’s new name will take several months to complete, you may still see the UMUC name, logo and look on our website and other materials through early 2020.

For an artist’s talk that had an academic, ho-hum title like “Conceptualism to Meaning,” Steven Dobbin drew a lot of laughs.Continue Reading

Two Artists. Two Sources of Inspiration—Found Objects and Paris

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EDITOR’S NOTE:  We officially changed our name from University of Maryland University College (UMUC) to University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) on July 1, 2019. News stories posted on the Global Media Center are now using the new UMGC name. However, because the transition to the university’s new name will take several months to complete, you may still see the UMUC name, logo and look on our website and other materials through early 2020.

The latest University of Maryland Global Campus Arts Program exhibition, “Conceptualism to Meaning,” on display through December 1 in the Lower Level Gallery at the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, features the works of Maryland artist Steven Dobbin who transforms found and discarded objects into thought-provoking works of art.Continue Reading

Arts Program Bus Trip Visits Maryland-Area Exhibition Spaces

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EDITOR’S NOTE:  We officially changed our name from University of Maryland University College (UMUC) to University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) on July 1, 2019. News stories posted on the Global Media Center are now using the new UMGC name. However, because the transition to the university’s new name will take several months to complete, you may still see the UMUC name, logo and look on our website and other materials through early 2020.

In the afternoon portion of the daylong University of Maryland Global Campus Arts Program trip in June, the busload of participants, including members of the university’s Art Advisory Board, got to look in the mirror .. sort-of.Continue Reading

From Minister to Painter, R. Benjamin Jones’ Artistic Vision Is Full of Life

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Benjamin Jones’ “Old Green” (2008), an acrylic painting on Masonite board, is perhaps best described as a portrait of a truck. The rusty, vintage pickup truck, which is green—thus the title—sits in the grass in front of a brick house and some trees in the photo-realistic painting. The artist has so attended to every detail of the truck that it’s almost as if he has personified it.

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