Events

Five Songs for Fillmore Avenue was the world-premiere of a new site-specific performance that combines theatre, cinema, and live music. 

It was hoped that the second portion of their residency could be held in person in Buffalo in June 2021. However, this ultimately proved impossible due to ongoing travel restrictions, so,once again, the musicians came together in Dresden and used technology to connect to a global audience.

Comunidades Visibles (Visible Communities): The Materiality of Migration brings together artworks by six first- or second-generation immigrant Latinx artists. In conjunction with this exhibition, which was held at the Albright-Knox Northland from Feb. 12-May 16, 2021, the Creative Arts Initiative partnered with the AKG to host a series of films selected by the artists.

In Talk to Her, after a chance encounter at a theater, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

In Los Angeles in 1992, after a brief car chase, police pulled over unarmed Rodney King from his car and brutally beat him. The incident was captured by a photographer living nearby and his was released to the news media, unleashing an unparalleled series of marches, protests, and rioting. In news footage and photographs from that time, the critically acclaimed film LA 92, from Academy Award winners Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin, tells the story of King’s arrest, beating, and trial, and the subsequent events that shook the city of Los Angeles to its core.

Maggie Lee's Mommy is a documentary about the relationship between a mother and daughter before and after death, the shared struggle for love and independence, and a young artist's coming-of-age. Maggie Lee is a Taiwanese American artist based in New York. Since she was a teen she has made zines, shot photos for magazines, and made movies, her diaristic documentation referencing and responding to ideologies of alternative culture. Mommy is her first film.

The Infiltrators is a docu-thriller that tells the true story of young immigrants who are detained by Border Patrol and thrown into a shadowy for-profit detention center—on purpose. Marco and Viri are members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, a group of radical DREAMers who are on a mission to stop unjust deportations. And the best place to stop deportations, they believe, is in detention. However, when Marco and Viri attempt a daring reverse ‘prison break,’ things don’t go according to plan. By weaving together documentary footage of the real infiltrators with re-enactments of the events inside the detention center, The Infiltrators tells an incredible and thrilling true story in a genre-defying new cinematic language.

In Pais de Blancos, Modou Camara, a Senegalese immigrant in Argentina, lives his routine in Buenos Aires, while missing Senegal. After his ritual bath, his work filming a Murit festival, going out at night with his comrades, taking care of the children of a friend, and discussions with his girlfriend, Modou reflects on immigration and the intercontinental problems of the current system. Following the film screening, join Curatorial Assistant Dr. Andrea Alvarez and filmmaker Pavel Tavarez for a conversation about Pais de Blancos.

DreamTown is a documentary about the precarious dream of a young Afro-Ecuadorian soccer player, Anibal Chala, as he strives to make it to the professional leagues, and eventually sees his dreams become reality. This coming-of-age story follows Anibal over the span of six years, from the youth minor leagues until he secures a place on Ecuador’s First Division team, ranking among the country’s top 10 players at the young age of 17.

The Creative Arts Initiative joined Just Buffalo Literary Center in welcoming Pulitzer Prize-winner Anne Boyer for a virtual reading & conversation with Artistic Director Barbara Cole. Boyer, a poet, essayist, and translator, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer one week after her 41st birthday. Her book The Undying chronicles her treatment and recovery, raising larger questions about healthcare and how we treat the sick among us.

The Creative Arts Initiative joined Just Buffalo Literary Center in welcoming Kazim Ali and Kaveh Akbar for a virtual reading and conversation. Kazim Ali is a poet, editor, and prose writer. His newest book, The Voice of Sheila Chandra, invokes influential South Indian singer Sheila Chandra—who was left nearly voiceless by a rare neurological condition—to consider what it means to have a voice in today’s world. Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet and scholar. He is the author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf, and the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic.

The Creative Arts Initiative joins Just Buffalo Literary Center in welcoming Dawn Lundy Martin for a virtual reading and conversation with Artistic Director Barbara Cole. Martin and her books have been awarded the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry, and the Cave Canem Prize. Her most recent book, Good Stock Strange Blood, challenges ideas of race, voice, bodies and justice through poems that are bold and formally innovative.

The Creative Arts Initiative joins Just Buffalo Literary Center in welcoming Ilya Kaminsky for a virtual reading & conversation with Artistic Director Barbara Cole. A poet and translator, Kaminsky is the author of Deaf Republic, a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award. The book imagines a town that falls into silence after a deaf boy is shot and killed, and asks, “what happens when the citizens of a country no longer hear one another?”

During the Fall 2020 portion of their CAI residency, the world-renowned Arditti Quartet performed "live" in a new way and we are thrilled to invite you to join us.

During the Fall 2020 portion of their CAI residency, the world-renowned Arditti Quartet will be performing and giving workshops focused upon Buffalo and Western New York composers. This will be the first time the quartet has played together since pandemic lockdowns began.

Eniola Dawodu's new textile work, IRAN SI IRAN (2019), created during her CAI artist residency, was featured in the second exhibition of Punctures at Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Arts Center Nov. 22-Dec. 21, 2019.

For her CAI Residency, Eniola Dawodu created a new textile work, IRAN SI IRAN (2019), that reassembles a fragmented chorus of ancestral African women’s strategic radical overtures toward autonomy and cultural sovereignty. This piece was featured in the second exhibition of Punctures at Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Arts Center. The exhibition opened on Nov. 22 with an Artist Talk between artist Eniola Dawodu in conversation with Amy Sall (Founder and Editor-in-Chief, SUNU: Journal of African Affairs, Critical Thought + Aesthetics). 

CAI Artist-in-Residence, Eniola Dawodu, spoke to UB students about her creative research and explorations across costume, garment, and sculpture. Moved to release boundaries and reframe her practice with intention and attention to materiality rooted in the ancestral, Dawodu's work speaks to the narrative potency of ancestral African dress practices and the cultural significance of honoring one's personal truth.

“I create echoes through time and space; the beauty, value and majesty of my ancestors and our stories. We are infinite. Our power, excellence, wisdom and legacy continue to grow with time and through natural order.”

Renowned printmaker Koichi Yamamoto held an Open Studio with an informal artists talk at Mirabo Press on Tuesday, October 1, 2019, from 5:30 to 8:00PM. 

Koichi Yamamoto is an artist who merges traditional and contemporary techniques so as to develop unique and innovative approaches to the language of printmaking. His prints explore issues of the sublime, memory, and atmosphere. 

Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.

Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.

Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.

Joshua Steinʼs Isochronic Mountain sculpture, currently on view at Buffalo City Hall (official opening is June 4th 12pm-2pm), is re-cast and re-composed in a pop-up art space on Buffalo's West Side.

The Hayley-Laufer Duo returned with a second concert collecting revolutionary contributions to the 21-century art song repertoire.
The performance included 5 world premieres of new works by Colombian composer Camilo Méndez, Venezuelan composer Freddy Flores Ávila, Canadian composer Anthony Tan, and UB student composers Ka Shu (Kenneth) Tam and Roberto Azaretto.

As the founder and artistic director of her own dance company, Helen Simoneau Danse, Simoneau has become a highly sought-after choreographer by companies, schools and festivals and has been described as “a choreographer-on-the-rise” with a style that is both “athletic and smooth” by Dance Magazine. She used her Creative Arts Initiative (CAI) residency to create a new dance work, "Darling," which was be presented for the first time on March 21, 2019.

Described by Dance Magazine as “a Choreographer-on-the-rise” with a style that is both “athletic and smooth”, Helen Simoneau has enjoyed her company’s global presence over the last 7 years. Simoneau and her dancers were CAI Artists-in-Residence for 3 weeks in March 2019, during which they created a new dance work entitled "Darling."

Described by Dance Magazine as “a Choreographer-on-the-rise” with a style that is both “athletic and smooth”, Helen Simoneau has enjoyed her company’s global presence over the last 7 years. The Creative Arts Initiative (CAI) welcomed Simoneau and her dancers for a three-week artist residency during which they created a new dance work while integrating the UB students in all stages of the process as well as offering the larger dance community an inside view to their creation and methodologies. 

The Hayley-Laufer Duo’s first Creative Arts Initiative recital explores avant-garde approaches to the art song in the 21st century, combining dizzying demands of virtuosity with emotional extremes. Pieces by Milton Babbitt, Venezuelan composer Diógenes Rivas, and French composer Pierre Strauch use complex harmonic language and intricate rhythms to test the limits of the Lied genre. Helmut Lachenmann's epic Got Lost pairs idiosyncratic voice and piano writing with dissected, reconstituted, and layered texts as it alternates between transcendence and riotous humour.

The Hayley-Laufer Duo champions adventurous voice-and-piano repertoire of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and seeks to expand the boundaries of voice-and-piano composition by commissioning works from innovative composers. Their mission is to continue the grand Lied duo tradition by presenting audiences with the most audacious and exciting vocal music of today. They believe that even the most complex new music can be accessible and engaging when performed with energy, intensity, and wit. 

During her Jan. 2019 CAI Residency, Bessie Award winning performer and choreographer, Kimberly Bartosik, worked with the students in UB's Zodiaque Dance Co. on a new piece of choreography. 

During her CAI Residency in Jan. 2019, Bessie Award-winning performer Kimberly Bartosik offered a free Community Engagement Practice at Torn Space Theater. 

Bessie Award-winning performer Kimberly Bartosik used her Jan. 2019 CAI residency to begin work on a new piece, I hunger, the second part of a two-phase work. Joining Bartosik in this process were dancers, Burr Johnson, Joanna Kotze, and Dylan Crossman.

Sam Van Aken is an award-winning contemporary artist, professor of sculpture at Syracuse University and creator of the “Tree of 40 Fruit Project,” which has been described as “part Dr. Seuss, part Frankenstein, and just about everything fantastic.”

The culminating event of Duo Axis's Creative Arts Initiative residency, Woven, was a recital of new and recent works featuring music by David Felder, Victoria Cheah, Katherine Balch and Tonia Ko, and world premieres by Anthony Vine and Zach Sheets. An ebb and flow of breath united the six works in a gentle unfolding, woven together into an-evening length recital that was framed by lighting and the performers' motion through space.

Duo Axis gave a presentation about their work for UB music students and interested memebers of the public prior to their recital, WOVEN. They discussed their exploration of duo playing, adopting various identities and tasks as performers, occupying shared mental and physical space, and fostering a reciprocally beneficial spirit of innovation.

Manmade Earth is at the intersection of performance and installation. A guided performance that is created by the attending audience, this piece continues 600 Highwaymen’s singular trajectory of making work both for and by community. The audience that comes together for the performance are the authors of the work.

Sam Van Aken is an award-winning contemporary artist, professor of sculpture at Syracuse University and creator of the “Tree of 40 Fruit Project,” which has been described as “part Dr. Seuss, part Frankenstein, and just about everything fantastic.”

Valery Lyman’s “Breaking Ground” is a meditative, site-specific exploration of the cycle of expansion, migration and abandonment that has characterized much of America’s industrial history. “Breaking Ground” evokes the memory of those who worked at the Silo City site and invites the public to consider its own history in relationship to other places.

Filmmaker Valery Lyman discussed her creative process, her career, past work, and her current installation, "Breaking Ground" with high school students interested in careers in the arts at Just Buffalo Writing Center.

Filmmaker Valery Lyman discussed her work in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota where she documented the lives of the people working there during the oil boom.

A discussion of the major themes present in the Kruck’s work such as “landscape as culture" and "nature as commodity.”
Kruck provided an overview of the past 20 years of his artmaking and showed images from various series of photographic and print-installation projects. He also discussed his creative process and current work.

Sam Van Aken, creator of the “Tree of 40 Fruit Project,” been described as “part Dr. Seuss, part Frankenstein, and just about everything fantastic.” During his CAI residency, he worked with faculty and students from many UB departments, as well as local artists in the field of bio-arts, and community organizations to develop an urban orchard in Buffalo's historic Fruit Belt neighborhood.

Martin Kruck is a visual artist whose project often involve multi-layered interpretations of place. During his CAI residency, he demonstrated print-making techniques he developed in his own work to UB book- and print-making classes.

New York City-based theater makers 600 Highwaymen led UB Theatre and Dance students through strategies, philosophies, and practices of how to make new, live performance work. In a compressed, generative environment, participants gained new creative skills to apply to their own work.  

This exhibition at the UB Anderson Gallery is the first museum exhibition of Ettinger’s work in the United States. It will be accompanied by the creation of an associated catalogue featuring photographic reproductions of Ettinger’s work and essays by prominent scholars in psychoanalysis and art history. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, May 5, at 6:00 pm. 

Shortly after the opening of the exhibition, “BRACHA: Pietà—Eurydice—Medusa” at UB Anderson Gallery—the first museum exhibition of her work in the United States—Ettinger gave a public lecture entitled, “Memory’s Wound: On Art and Ethics”, in order to educate a broad audience about her work and its relationship to urgent contemporary social and political developments. This lecture was FREE and is open to the public.

Jaakko Kuusisto joined us from his native country of Finland to talk about his life in music during free talk at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center as part of their M&T Second Fridays at the Center. The audience got a unique chance to hear this world renowned musical artist speak about his creative process, his personal relationship with BPO Principal Trupeter, Alex Jokipii, and his upcoming concerto performance with the BPO.

Israeli-born painter, philosopher, psychoanalyst and writer Bracha Ettinger is a prominent figure among both the French painters' and the Israeli art's scenes. The exhibition “BRACHA: Pietà—Eurydice—Medusa” at UB Anderson Gallery was the first museum exhibition of her work in the United States. Ettinger offered a gallery talk, in which she walked with visitors through the exhibition and discussed her own works.

The May 5th Opening Reception marks the beginning of the exhibition BRACHA: Pieta⎯Eurydice⎯Medusa.

Bracha Ettinger, painter, philosopher, psychoanalyst and writer, is a prominent figure among both the French painters' and the Israeli art's scenes. In addition to holding the first museum exhibition of her work in the United States, Ettinger engaged with groups of students from across the University at Buffalo throughout her residency. She interacted with graduate students in the Department of Art in two ways:

Bracha Ettinger, painter, philosopher, psychoanalyst and writer, is a prominent figure among both the French painters' and the Israeli art's scenes. In addition to holding the first museum exhibition in the United States, Ettinger engaged with groups of students from across the University at Buffalo throughout her residency.

Olivier Pasquet is a world-renowned composer, music producer, sound and visual artist. His work is based on the writing of audio visual compositions and synesthesia. His compositions are sound-based, visual, and material. Pasquet used his Fall-Spring CAI residency to create a sound and light installation called "Lloyd's Mirror" for the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion of Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House Complex.

Olivier Pasquet is a world-renowed music producer, sound and visual artist. Pasquet used his CAI residency to create a sound and light sculpture for the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion of Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House Complex. His bespoke installation was open to the public Feb. 12-17, 2018 from 5:30-8:30 pm nightly. Pasquet was present throughout this period to engage with visitors and answer questions.

The Wooster Group, an innovative company of theater and media artists, presented four free performances of the critically acclaimed “The B-Side: ‘Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons’ A Record Album Interpretation” as part of its residency in the University at Buffalo’s Creative Arts Initiative (CAI). Following the Saturday performance, audience members had an opportunity to ask questions of the artists about the inspiration for and development of the project.

The Wooster Group, an innovative company of theater and media artists, presented four free performances of the critically acclaimed “The B-Side: ‘Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons’ A Record Album Interpretation” as part of its residency in the University at Buffalo’s Creative Arts Initiative (CAI). 

The Wooster Group, an innovative company of theater and media artists, engaged with UB Theatre students and faculty as part of its residency in the University at Buffalo’s Creative Arts Initiative (CAI). 

The Creative Arts Initiative hosted a screening of footage from Rima Yamazaki's current work-in-progress, a film about Buffalo architecture, on Friday Oct. 27, 2017 at Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center, 617 Main St., Buffalo, NY. The screening was filled to capacity. It was followed by a Q&A with Yamazaki.

The UB School of Architecture and Planning will host a screening of Yamazaki's film Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction (2010), Wed. Sept. 13, 6 pm - 7:30 pm, in Hayes Hall 403 on UB's South Campus. The screening to be followed by a Q&A with Yamazaki and Nicholas Bruscia, clinical assistant professor of architecture, who leads UB's study abroad program in Tokyo. This event is FREE and open to the public.

Imagine a performance that would involve professional musicians, children, teenagers, senior citizens, adults with developmental disabilities, and physically challenged individuals performing choreography in their wheelchairs.

Since arriving in the US in 1980 from his native country Brazil, Cyro Baptista has emerged as one of the premier percussionists in the country. During his Spring-Summer 2017  Residency, Baptista worked with Buffalo sculptor Shasti O’Leary Soudant and UB students on the creation of a unique sculpture/percussion instrument, the Beat Blossom, that was installed in the Percussion Garden at Artpark. His residency culminated in a performance marking the opening of the new permanent installation on July 30, 2017. This performance included Baptista, Billy Martin, Tom Kolor, UB music students, participants in the Sound of the Community workshop, and others.

Since arriving in the US in 1980 from his native country Brazil, Cyro Baptista has emerged as one of the premier percussionists in the country. During his residency, Baptista worked with Buffalo sculptor Shasti O’Leary Soudant and UB students on the creation of a unique sculpture/percussion instrument to be installed in the Percussion Garden at Artpark.

Cyro Baptista is a Brazilian musician, recording artist, and teacher (although he disavows the title) specializing in percussion in the genres of jazz and world music. His mastery of Brazilian percussion and the many instruments he creates himself, have catapulted him into world renown. During his Creative Arts Initiative residency, Baptista conducted a series of masterclasses with UB percussion students and faculty.

The culmination of Shantell Martin's residency will be the creation of a permanent public mural in the East Side neighborhood  in connection with the Albright-Knox Public Art Initiative’s Mural Program.

Rebecca Allan and Laura Kaminsky led a tour of the traveling exhibit Mabel Dodge Luhan & Company: American Moderns and the West at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. 

Following a screening of excerpts from some of her other chamber operas, composer Laura Kaminsky discussed the development of Today It Rains that she is currently composing with librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. 

New York based artists Laura Kaminsky (composer) and Rebecca Allan (visual artist) invited students, faculty, and members of the public to learn about their creative processes by engaging with the artists while they worked.

Rebecca Allan is a New York-based visual artist known for her richly layered and chromatically nuanced abstract paintings. Her work investigates watershed environments of the Northeast, Pacific Northwest, New Mexico, the Gulf Coast, Lebanon, France, and Norway, and is inspired by her interest in landscape ecology, botany, and geology.

Composer Laura Kaminsky met with students to discuss composing music and and the journey that her to compose chamber operas. Kaminsky discussed elements of the development process that include theme/storyline; music and lyrics; identifying creative partners; securing funding, etc.

As part of M&T First Fridays @ the Gallery, Shantell Martin and the AK’s Curator of Public Art, Aaron Ott, had a conversation in the AK’s auditorium about Martin’s work and creative process. This talk was FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Martin’s exhibition, “Someday We Can,” was also be free April 7, May 5, and June 2, 2017.

CAI Artist-in-Residence, Shantell Martin, shared her creative and career journey with UB students, faculty, and the public providing an opportunity learn about her work, philosophy, and creative process.

During her CAI residency, Martin will tour the East Side neighborhood with Arts Management students to identify potential sites for the public mural installation that will be the culmination of her residency.

To celebrate of the opening of her exhibition Shantell Martin: Someday We Can, Martin held a live drawing demonstration in the Albright-Knox’s Sculpture Court.

Acclaimed printmaker Stella Ebner, whose work has been exhibited and collected in museums across the country, will conclude her spring 2017 residency with a workshop for UB art students, along with lunch and a showing of her work for UB students, faculty, and the public.

Acclaimed printmaker Stella Ebner, whose work has been exhibited and collected in museums across the country, will open her spring 2017 residency with a workshop on Feb. 18 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Western New York Book Arts Center, 468 Washington St. in Buffalo.    

During her CAI Residency, internationally acclaimed teacher, dancer, and choreographer, Jennifer Nugent offered  master classes for the dance community. Dancers from as far away as North Dakota came to Buffalo to take advantage of these opportunities for artistic growth and development.

Center for the Arts, Drama Theater Stage

UB Theatre & Dance Department opens their season with the Zodique Dance Company Fall Concert featuring Jennifer Nugent’s new work.

The Faust Project: A Staged Reading with Live Music of Goethe's Faust, an inventive reworking of Goethe’s epic by Yale Drama Award winning playwright Neil Wechsler and former Tanglewood Music Center compositional fellow and UB alumnus Nathan Heidelberger. The Faust Project was presented in two evening performances at the Burchfield Penney Art Center as part of A Musical Feast concert series. 

Wechsler and Heidelberger led discussion about Faust, hosted by the Analytical Psychology Society of WNY.

Wechsler and Heidelberger worked with young writers at Just Buffalo's Writing Center.

The musicians involved in The Faust Project opened up their limited rehearsal time to allow the public to "peak behind the curtain."

During their residency,Weschler and Heidelberger will be sharing their expertise and thier experience with students through in-class presentations:

Music by Steve Reich & Georg Friedrich Haas with special guests UB students and faculty, February 12, 2016

Open to the Public. FREE tickets required.

Everyone in the UB community who can read music and play an instrument/sing was invited to join Ensembe Signal in a "flash orchestra" performing Terry Riley's minimalist masterpiece, In C. 

Now you see them, now you don’t! Ensemble Signal brought 21 micro concerts to the UB Student Union, the Commons, and the Center for the Arts. Concerts ranged between 3-15 minutes each, depending on musical selections. 

Ensemble Signal teamed up with UB students and faculty to perform drumming of all kinds. Drumming on bongos, cello, and even flower pots! An audience from Buffalo's westside neighborhood, from the very young to the more "seasoned", enjoyed a dynamic performance. Some even tried their hand at a little drumming after the show.

Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund gave the US premier of Isola in Buffalo thanks to CAI’s Artist-in-Residence program in partnership with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Renowned Finnish violinist and composer Jaakko Kuusisto visiting UB and Buffalo in October 2015 for the US premier of his Violin Concerto thanks to CAI’s Artist-in-Residence program in partnership with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.