Arts Collaboratory presents spring programming

UB’s Arts Collaboratory continues to reimagine the artistic landscape in Buffalo, presenting a full spring season of programming that engages audiences by spotlighting the work of UB students, faculty, alumni, visiting artists and the community.

The spring season includes an immersive student workshop and performance with an original “Saturday Night Live” writer, a new and creative use of the Center for the Arts atrium through a monthly arts salon-meets-project incubator, alumna art installations that span two atriums, connecting the CFA with the UB Anderson Gallery as part of the Art in the Open series, a survey of work from a Buffalo-born painter and poet, an interdisciplinary convergence of mixed media and performance vignettes by students, and a collaborative storytelling project highlighting the history of The Marble Temple, a piece of lost architecture in Buffalo.

Leveraging creative and interdisciplinary opportunities in the arts, the Arts Collaboratory’s spring season brings artists together in new and experimental ways, demonstrating the power of collaboration. All events are free and open to the public.

“The Arts Collaboratory is a space that encourages the creation of new work that crosses boundaries, expanding outward and engaging directly with various collaborative constellations across the University at Buffalo and the wider Buffalo community,” says Bronwyn Keenan, director of the Arts Collaboratory. “This season showcases a range of artists working in different media, often together and within the thriving arts hub that is Buffalo. Convening and connecting has been my guide in creating a laboratory for the arts — one that would be in and of the world.”

SNL alum Alan Zweibel, BA ’72, will lead a creative research theater workshop that centers on his career, creative process and his play, “Bunny Bunny.” Zweibel will actively share his expertise and contribute insights to help explore the interdisciplinary rehearsal process and production of the play — about his friendship with the late comedian Gilda Radner — with UB students from the Department of Theatre and Dance.

“Work In Real Time” is a monthly arts salon-meets-project incubator — a “Shark Tank” for artists — taking place in the CFA atrium. Artists can submit to participate in this playful public competition, which provides a platform for experimentation. Selected artists will have the opportunity to present works in progress and implement new directions, practices or collaborations of their artistic ideas. “Work In Real Time” judges will award a total of $1,500 to winning projects each month.

This Arts Collaboratory season also includes:

• “Embodied Landscape,” an immersive exhibition and collaborative performance using film, dance and transmedia storytelling by Maryam Muliaee from the Department of Media Study and Naila Ansari from the Department of Theatre and Dance.

• “I have a baby whose name is no one,” an interdisciplinary convergence of mixed media and performance vignettes conceived by Mary Grace Sullivan, MFA candidate in the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Hanyu Liao, MAH candidate in the Department of Media Study.
• “Sally Cook: 1960-Present,” an exhibition of major paintings from Cook’s earliest abstract canvas dating back to 1960 to her most recent figurative works. The exhibition also highlights her work as a poet and her painterly engagement with the poet Emily Dickinson, who provides an ongoing inspiration for Cook. Additionally, “Responses to Sally Cook” is an event designed for students to interact with the work of the cross-disciplinary artist, who has been a vital part of the Western New York arts community since her days as a student at the Albright Art School in the 1950s.

• “Annie Bielski: Strutting, Fretting,” an exhibition that uses materials including paint, canvas, curtains, unfinished quilts and bedding. Bielski, MFA ’19, continues her exploration of the body and gender, and a self-conscious concealing and shameless revealing in her often large-scale stretched and draped paintings.

Representing a profusion of styles and practices, the Arts Collaboratory is an innovative strategic initiative of the College of Arts and Sciences that fosters collaboration and experimentation across the university and throughout Western New York. With the Arts Collaboratory, the CFA is undergoing a period of notable transformation, one that aims to bring creativity from behind studio, classroom and rehearsal space doors and into the open.

“As one of the main creative spaces in Buffalo, we’re proud the CFA is the headquarters for the Arts Collaboratory,” says Jamie M. Enser, executive director for the Center of the Arts. “The CFA offers the ability to host a variety of programming in various formats right here on campus. Whether you’re a student at UB or a local artist, you’ll find the benefits of the synergy and collaboration between the CFA and the Arts Collaboratory.”

Major support for the Arts Collaboratory is provided by M&T Bank. Additional support is provided by Savarino Companies.

University collaborators include the Center for the Arts, UB Art Galleries, Department of Media Study, Department of Theatre and Dance, Department of Art, Department of Music, Department of English, the Arts Management Program, UB Humanities Institute, UB Production Group and UB Films.

Community Partners include Cass Gallery at 500 Seneca, 500 Seneca Street LLC, Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Eleven Twenty Projects and Kyla Kegler, MFA ’18.

For more information about the spring 2020 events, visit the Arts Collaboratory’s website.