Visual Arts and Design

The School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD) focused on strengthening community and curriculum in the 2023-2024 academic year. A notable highlight was the introduction of a new track in immersive experience design for our Art B.A. degree program. This track complements the College of Arts and Humanities’s excellent interdisciplinary M.S. program and the School of Performing Arts’ MFA program in themed experience at the graduate level and builds on our existing strengths in client-based experiential design at the undergraduate level. This new track will commence in the fall semester of 2024.

In terms of community engagement, we continued our major partnership in the tenth anniversary of UCF Celebrates the Arts in April. This year featured the return of the Tableaux Vivants (living pictures) alongside fan favorites such as sculptural totems, the timed Creative Clash event, the graphic design and experimental animation showcase, an architectural panel and premieres of our character animation films. Participating faculty also sponsored guest speaking events from art historians, panelists for the Florida Prison Education Project and many more. Furthermore, SVAD contributed exhibitions, screenings and a panel discussion from our graduate programs in animation and studio art.

This academic year marked the second annual Art Knight! open house. On the Friday before Thanksgiving, we opened all our classrooms and studios in the Visual Arts Building to the local community. Over a thousand guests enjoyed student art, our BFA exhibition, art history trivia, architecture projects, fresh meals from food trucks and fun interactions with Knightro. Additionally, we continued our online newsletter, Art Bytes, which shares quarterly news about the work of our students, faculty and alumni.

Our commitment to community was further demonstrated through the work of our Jenkins Community Arts Scholars. These students worked in various arts organizations throughout Central Florida, contributing 2,800 hours. For example, Thanh Nguyen, a senior in animation and visualization, assisted in the Arts in Medicine program at Orlando Health. Reflecting on her experience, Thanh noted, “My time at Art in Medicine was both inspiring and eye-opening. It has strengthened my belief in the healing power of art and deepened my understanding of its important role in health care.”

For the 2023-2024 academic year, Animation Career Review ranked SVAD among the best schools in the country for emerging media. We are ranked as the #1 public school in Florida for animation, #20 in the United States (public and private schools) – Top 10%, #3 public animation schools and colleges in the U.S. – Top 3%, #4 animation schools and colleges in the South (public and private), and #3 overall in Florida (public and private).

Our undergraduate students achieved many outstanding accomplishments this academic year. Isabella Moreno, a senior in the character animation track, was honored at Founders Day. Moreno co-directed the short film Scavengers, which premiered alongside another undergraduate short film, Wishful Thinking, on April 26. Another character animation senior, Maggie Messer, participated in the Creative Scholars Showcase on March 29. Undergraduate research students showcased seven posters during the UCF Scholar Symposium, with three winning awards and one selected for the Enhancing Lives showcase. SVAD student Nico Chen participated in the National Conference Presentation. Percy Brashear, an art history student, won the Judges’ Choice Award and a $300 scholarship at the 2024 Student Scholar Symposium for their poster Young and Beautiful: The Androgyny of Bacchus in the Baroque. Additionally, SVAD students Yusef Fageeh and Ophelia Rebmann were selected for the highly competitive state-wide Atlantic Center for the Arts 35th Annual University Student Exhibition.

At the graduate level, Brittani Brown, a student in the emerging media – studio art & design graduate program, exhibited in Fresh Squeezed 8 at the Morean Arts Center in April. Studio art & design student Njeri Kinuthia was a runner-up for the Awards for Excellence by a Graduate Student Researcher in the Master’s category, earning a $500 scholarship and recognition at the Student Research Week Excellence Awards ceremony in March. Njeri also won the People’s Choice award at the 2024 Florida Prize Exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art and was featured in an article about women in the arts. Finally, emerging Media MFA Animation and VFX student Savannah Hill received a Judges’ Choice Award for her poster at the 2024 Student Scholars Symposium on April 2.

Our faculty’s outstanding teaching was recognized in this year’s Founder’s Day awards. Four SVAD faculty members — Ilenia Colón Mendoza, Matt Dombrowski, Ashley Taylor and Keri Watson — received College of Arts and Humanities Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Awards.

The 2023-2024 academic year continued our successful track record in grants and external contacts. Keri Watson received a $250,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, a five-year operational grant for Panorama Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, where Watson serves as an Executive Editor and the Finance and Grants Manager.

This year was also fruitful for new and continuing collaborative partnerships. Matt Dombrowski was selected for the AP Artificial Intelligence Policy Working Group for College Board’s AP® Art and Design, involving policy writing using digital tools such as AI for Advanced Placement Art and Design portfolios. Dombrowski and Victor Davila were featured in an article about a collaboration with SVAD students and Orlando Magic basketball player Jonathan Isaac. Shannon Lindsey was invited to curate the 2024 South Arts Southern Prize and State Fellowship exhibition, which will tour throughout 2024 to four art institutions.

In addition to funded research, SVAD faculty exhibited their creative work and research through many exhibitions and publications. Ilenia Colón Mendoza had two articles accepted: Calderón the Paragón and his Theatrical Use of Sculpture and Alonso Berruguete’s Workshop and the Place of Polychrome Sculpture in the Hierarchy of Arts in Spain. Keri Watson published a new book, Florida’s New Deal Parks and Post Office Murals (Charleston: History Press 2024), and her book This Is America: Re-Viewing the Art of the United States (Oxford University Press 2023) was awarded the Most Promising New Textbook Award by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA).

Kevin Haran’s drawings were included in seven national juried exhibitions across seven states: AR, LA, NC, TX, MD, MO and NJ. Pegasus Professor and Trustee Chair Stella Sung premiered a new work, High Ashes, for baritone voice and orchestra on April 27, performed by the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra in Appleton, WI. Her marine conservancy work Oceana, which received worldwide performances, was performed by the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra on April 24.

SVAD’s architecture program presented groundbreaking research, Pipeline to Better Placemaking, at the prestigious International Environmental Design Research Conference in Mexico City. Additionally, our innovative AI studio collaboration with the world’s second-largest architecture firm, HKS, empowers students to harness AI generative models, revolutionizing design processes. Finally, Tommy James became our first-ever tenured faculty member in architecture at UCF.

Our staff members also had a productive year and were recognized by peers and leadership for their dedication to UCF. Joe Muley was honored for twenty years of service to the university at the college staff awards ceremony. Muley has been instrumental in improving our facilities and technology in classrooms and studios and, along with marketing coordinator Hannah Estes, has been a major driving force behind our involvement in Art Knight! and UCF Celebrates the Arts each year.

In alumni news, studio art alum Mär Martinez ’20 received a Fulbright grant and will go to Istanbul to create a series of paintings inspired by Turkish weaving processes. Art history alum Jennifer Laffick received a Fulbright Research grant to conduct dissertation research at the Université Grenoble Alpes in France during the 2024-25 academic year.

Our B.S. in Photography alumni also had an exciting year. Gallery 202 on the Daytona Campus showcased an inspiring exhibition featuring six distinguished alumni in the fall and another exhibition with a group of six talented alumni in the spring. Additionally, the John C. Hitt Library hosted a remarkable exhibition throughout November, displaying the work of twelve photography alumni. These same 12 alumni also had their works featured in the UCF/DSC Joint Use Library on the Daytona campus for the entire spring 2024 semester. Our alumni, spanning graduating classes from 2008 to 2019, have demonstrated their artistic prowess and dedication to their craft through these exhibitions. In spring 2024, we hosted an alumni panel discussion on the Daytona campus featuring four distinguished 2008 graduates: Kassie Bonamo, Clarissa Bonet, Marie DeJesus and Bryan Kasm. They shared their experiences, insights, and advice with current students and fellow alumni, fostering a sense of community and inspiration.

This year, we searched for ten new faculty members. We will bring on new architecture colleagues, foundations design and drawing, character animation, graphic design and  animation and visualization. Longtime studio art faculty member Rob Reedy, graphic design faculty member Joo Kim and visiting lecturer Damian Thorn-Hauswirth retired from UCF this year, while marketing coordinator Hannah Estes left UCF to pursue new opportunities. We wish them all the best and thank them for their significant contributions to our school.

Learn more about our students, faculty and programs at svad.cah.ucf.edu and gallery.cah.ucf.edu.

— Rudy McDaniel, director