Just a few days after the third annual Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts concluded its eight-day run of concerts, presentations, lectures and workshops, planners have already started working on next year\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you liked Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts 2017, just wait until you see 2018,\u201d said Steven Chicurel-Stein, interim director of the School of Performing Arts and artistic director of the festival. \u201cWe\u2019re having a postmortem meeting today [Monday]. There\u2019s that much energy to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n
The April 7-14 festival was based at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando and for the first time at nearby art galleries.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople responded to the variety of events that ranged from the larger events such as Oklahoma!<\/em> and the Flying Horse Big Band, but also enjoyed the more intimate concerts and panels. They also responded well to the visual arts in the lobby and public areas at the center,\u201d Chicurel-Stein said.<\/p>\n Several of the events were at capacity. The biggest performance drew nearly 2,700 people to each of the two Oklahoma!<\/em> shows, a collaboration of the music and theatre departments.<\/p>\n Attendance to the festival was free, but this was the first year visitors could buy a limited number of reserved $20 seats.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople took to that very well and appreciated the fact that they had earlier access to the theater,\u201d Chicurel-Stein said.<\/p>\n Live streaming also was offered for several events, which made it possible for students\u2019 families living far away to see the performances.<\/p>\n The festival featured more than 1,000 university students, 100 faculty members and some collaborative programs with outside partners showcasing theatre, dance, orchestra, choirs, big band, chamber music, cabaret, concert bands, opera, visual arts, studio art, gaming, animation, photography and film.<\/p>\n The purpose of the festival, Chicurel-Stein said, is to highlight what Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ has to offer and spread the word how Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ celebrates the arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a few days after the third annual Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts concluded its eight-day run of concerts, presentations, lectures and workshops, planners have already started working on next year\u2019s festival. \u201cIf you liked Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Celebrates the Arts 2017, just wait until you see 2018,\u201d said Steven Chicurel-Stein, interim director of the School of Performing Arts and artistic director of…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":77148,"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":[3,6,18,28,29],"tags":[4165,4168,15368,13252],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-77147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","category-music","category-theatre-ucf","category-visual-arts","tag-school-of-performing-arts","tag-school-of-visual-arts-and-design","tag-steven-chicurel-stein","tag-ucf-celebrates-the-arts"],"yoast_head":"\n