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Alumni Profile: Samira Yamin, M.F.A. ’11Alumni Profile: Samira Yamin, M.F.A. ’11
By Allyson Unzicker, Associate Director & Curator, University Art Galleries Samira Yamin, M.F.A. ’11, is an Iranian-American artist based in Los Angeles who uses war photography as her medium. As an Iranian American who felt disconnected from depictions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the media...
UCI Lighting Designers ReuniteUCI Lighting Designers Reunite
COVID-19 has ushered in a new way to connect and reconnect with the people in our lives. One opportunity that faculty and students at UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts have taken advantage of is the connection through Zoom online virtual meetups. The digital platform allows people from all...
Arts Advocates: Ivan WilliamsArts Advocates: Ivan Williams
MEDIA MENTOR Q&A with Ivan Williams Ivan Williams, MBA ’96 is a former chemical engineer and oil executive who now focuses on something that first captivated his attention in high school: filmmaking. Today, he is a film, television and theater producer, and a staunch advocate of...
Tapping Into a New EraTapping Into a New Era
By Christine Byrd In his dance, “Waiting for Amazon,” Carl “Dougie” Sanders, M.F.A. ’21, moves in his living room, expressing the exhausting boredom of being stuck at home, and the angsty anticipation before a parcel delivery. We may not move quite like Sanders, but we know exactly what he’s...
Kristine N. Haag, ’06Kristine N. Haag, ’06
Costume design alumna Kristine N. Haag has been nominated for a 2020 Emmy Award. Haag is part of the costume design team nominated for “Outstanding Contemporary Costumes” for her work as the Assistant Costume Designer on the Netflix show Grace and Frankie for the episode “The Tank.” Her colleagues...
Jason Valdry Named Assistant Dean, Claire Trevor School of the ArtsJason Valdry Named Assistant Dean, Claire Trevor School of the Arts
Dean Stephen Barker has named Jason Valdry the next assistant dean for the Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA). The assistant dean is responsible for the entire scope of planning, operations, and resource management for the School, involving its administrative, instructional, and research...
Arts and WellnessArts and Wellness
By Christine Byrd The seats were empty, the orchestra silent, the studios dark. More than 700 undergraduate and 150 graduate students, and the scores of faculty and staff who teach and support them, disappeared literally overnight. It was March 17, and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts,...
UCI Music Professor Uses Technology to Build BridgesUCI Music Professor Uses Technology to Build Bridges
By Richard Chang Michael Dessen, a music professor at UC Irvine, specializes in telematics, or networked music performance. He knew his field was important and growing, but he didn’t expect the entire world of musicians to be calling him nonstop during the coronavirus pandemic. It turns out...
Artist for the FutureArtist for the Future
Gabby Miller, M.F.A. ’20, crosses disciplines to explore the possibility of a future that is not predetermined By Christine Byrd “Can we turn the black box theater into an Oracle Machine?” was a question burning in Gabby Miller’s mind during the final year of her M.F.A. program at the Claire...
Feats of Engineering & ArtistryFeats of Engineering & Artistry
By Christine Byrd If you see opera singers on a flying alligator’s back or snakes chasing Mozart, if it rains inside the theatre or a wild owl swoops overhead, it’s not magic. It’s just another day’s work for the Claire Trevor School of the Arts production team. “We’re prototyping and...
Arts Advocates: Tom NielsenArts Advocates: Tom Nielsen
ARTIST ALLY Q&A with Tom Nielsen Tom Nielsen, founder of a real estate consultancy, is a longtime advocate and supporter of Orange County arts organizations. A longstanding member of the CTSA Dean’s Arts Board, Nielsen ramped up his support of the school over the past decade,...
UC Irvine and ‘Made in L.A.’: A Relationship Through Time and SpaceUC Irvine and ‘Made in L.A.’: A Relationship Through Time and Space
By Richard Chang There’s a special connection between the Department of Art at UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts and “Made in L.A.” — the influential art biennial founded and hosted by UCLA’s Hammer Museum since 2012. This year, the biennial will also take place at the Huntington...
#UCIArtsAnywhere #UCIArtsAnywhere
As our faculty, students, and staff prepare for an unusual spring quarter of remote teaching and learning, the lyrics to Barbra Streisand’s “People” keep swimming through my mind. “People, people who need people, are the luckiest people in the world.” In a world facing an international pandemic, it...
An important update from Dean BarkerAn important update from Dean Barker
As the situation with COVID-19 continues to evolve, we want to keep you, our valued supporters and community members, updated on how the Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) in collaboration with the greater UCI community are responding. We are working diligently to quickly adapt to the rapidly...
COVID-19 Update | Spring Quarter Arts EventsCOVID-19 Update | Spring Quarter Arts Events
March 12, 2020 While there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at UCI at this time, the greatest priority at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) is the health and well-being of our students, faculty, audiences, and staff. CTSA is taking all appropriate precautions as it monitors the...
Setting Dreams in MotionSetting Dreams in Motion
New York City is ever-moving, marked by a quick flow of people and ideas. Many artists dream of calling it home, to submerge themselves in a life they have been anticipating. It is 6 a.m. in the sleepless city, and Isaiah Tadros, B.F.A. ’20, having already been awake for several hours, stands in...
Faculty Research: Embodying HumanityFaculty Research: Embodying Humanity
What if dance could make us all better people? S. Ama Wray, associate professor of dance, believes it can. “The world needs dance to connect with our bodies in terms of rhythm (since the constraints of time impact everything), and to connect with empathy to one another,” Wray says. “These things...
Anteaters in the Arts: David TorresAnteaters in the Arts: David Torres
“My Son, I will eternally miss you, you have left a void in our lives that the Pacific Ocean could not fill.” — Ricardo Torres The Claire Trevor School of the Arts community is heartbroken by the passing of recent Department of Art undergraduate David Andrew Torres (B.A...