After 35 performances and ongoing exhibits over six days, the curtain came down on the inaugural Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts 2015 with high hopes for next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe celebration was designed to showcase the work of the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ and its partners \u2014 and, boy, did it,\u201d Orlando Sentinel arts writer Matt Palm said\u00a0in his review of the April 9-15 event. \u201cCan’t wait for next year’s celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 13,600 free, advance-ticket reservations were made to see the various performances, said Jeff Moore, director of the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ School of Performing Arts and artistic director of the festival, adding that the event exceeded his expectations. Ten of the events were \u201csold out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival featured more than 1,000 Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ students and faculty members showcasing studio art, music, theatre, dance, gaming, animation, photography and film at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. All the presentations were put on by\u00a0the School of Performing Arts and the School of Visual Arts & Design, both in the College of Arts & Humanities. Some of the events included community arts partners and K-12 students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you do something the first time, it feels like you need time to ramp up. But this seemed to hit right out of the box,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n
This was the first time all the university\u2019s artistic presentations could be experienced in one place.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThere was so much vibrancy,\u201d said Heather Gibson, marketing director for the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Theatre Department. \u201cWe in the arts have never felt this much hum going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the biggest audiences of the festival attended Icarus at the Edge of Time <\/em>and Shakespeare Swings!, <\/em>both of which had people waiting in line to grab any of the seats left open by no-shows in the 2,500-capacity theatre.<\/p>\n Icarus <\/em>was a multimedia performance by the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra based on a children\u2019s book by Columbia University physicist Brian Greene and narrated by actress Kate Mulgrew from the Star Trek: Voyager <\/em>TV series. Shakespeare Swings!<\/em> featured Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s Flying Horse Big Band and the Orlando Shakespeare Theater Cabaret Singers.<\/p>\n Moore said he attended every event at the festival and noticed that instead of seeing the same people at each performance, there were different audiences.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was meeting everybody on their own turf,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was a celebration of the arts, but the arts reach into so many other disciplines. When you walked into the center lobby you were immediately immersed in the arts \u2013 and science, mathematics, literature and computers coming together with art.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore advised marking calendars now for next year\u2019s festival when Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ has the arts center reserved April 4-17, 2016. Next year\u2019s festival will run during two weekends and the days between, he said.<\/p>\n He hopes to involve more K-12 students through workshops and performance showcases next year, and create more collaborative partnerships with community arts groups.<\/p>\n \u201cThose were so enjoyable for students and everyone who came,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 35 performances and ongoing exhibits over six days, the curtain came down on the inaugural Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts 2015 with high hopes for next year. \u201cThe celebration was designed to showcase the work of the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ and its partners \u2014 and, boy, did it,\u201d Orlando Sentinel arts writer Matt Palm said\u00a0in his review of the…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":65804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[9817,17023,9007,10618,12945,7549,8119,13256,3537,4165,4168,13252],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-65803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","tag-brian-greene","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-department-of-theatre","tag-dr-phillips-center-for-the-performing-arts","tag-flying-horse-big-band","tag-heather-gibson","tag-jeff-moore","tag-kate-mulgrew","tag-orchestra","tag-school-of-performing-arts","tag-school-of-visual-arts-and-design","tag-ucf-celebrates-the-arts"],"yoast_head":"\n