UB Arts Collaboratory launches academic year programming

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Arts Collaboratory, an innovative strategic initiative at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences charged with fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, experimentation and invention to unify and amplify the collective creativity of UB and the Buffalo Niagara region, announces its formal launch with an academic year of programming.

Led by the Arts Collaboratory’s inaugural director, Bronwyn Keenan, the season’s unifying theme, “FEMALE,” encompasses a range of endeavors that include exhibitions, installations, performances, screenings and residencies.

The UB Center for the Arts serves as the base for the Arts Collaboratory, united in making the interdisciplinary process visible by opening the studio, rehearsal space and classroom doors to bring creativity out into the open.

In addition, a number of off-campus venues, formed in partnership with the creative disciplines at UB as well as collaborators from across the Buffalo community, complement the programming season. The season features the work of UB students, faculty, alumni, visiting artists and the community to engage audiences.

Highlights of the programming season include a collaborative filmmaking experiment, “Live Your Art,” that documents the experience of living and working in Buffalo as an artist; Buffalo native, Laura Parnes, presents her fiction/documentary hybrid, “Tour Without End,” in collaboration with the Burchfield Penney Art Center; and a two-part interdisciplinary installation by Marlene McCarty, “Into the Weeds,” is presented in partnership with UB Art Galleries and Silo City.

Novelist Kirsten Miller, in writing on the theme, says: “‘FEMALE’” possesses the power of creation. What she gives, she’ll soon takes away. Like Mother Earth, her dark side is destruction. Milk is her gift, but poison her weapon. When dormant, female energy hums with potential. It is the promise of all that might be. Released, her power inspires awe and anxiety. She embodies ambivalence toward the natural world. She has always been worshiped, reviled and feared. Female power is one that men can’t understand, and one kings shall never attain.”

"The Arts Collaboratory is focused on encouraging interdisciplinarity, unifying and amplifying the breadth of talent of UB and Western New York. A visiting artists program helps to catalyze new work and develop projects with students, faculty and the community. Marlene McCarty's, “Into the Weeds” is one such example of crossing boundaries and collaborating to realize a multi-faceted project,” said Keenan.

Additional information on the UB Arts Collaboratory season is available on the UB Center for the Arts website.

Collaborators and Support

Artists: Naila Ansari, Meghan Brady, Becky Brown, Adriane Colburn, Julia Anne Cordani, Melissa Dadourian, Pam Glick, Ethan Hayden, Jennifer Kabat, Tricia Keightley, Kareem Khubchandani, Justine Kurland, Hanyu Liao, Meg Lipke, Mani Mehrvarz, Marlene McCarty, Maryam Muliaee, Kirsten Miller, Liz Park, Laura Parnes, Jacob Vogan

University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Arts Management, Department of Transnational Studies, Department of Media Study, Department of Theatre and Dance, Department of Art, Department of Music, Honors College, Humanities Institute and the Sustainable Urban Environments initiative, School of Architecture and Planning Ecological Practices Graduate Research Group

About Kirsten Miller Kirsten Miller is the New York Times bestselling author of more than fifteen books for weird children of all ages. These include, “How to Lead a Life of Crime,” “The Eternal Ones,” and “Kiki Strike.”

Community Partners: Burchfield Penney Art Center, Silo City, Cass Gallery at 500 Seneca, 500 Seneca Street LLC, Charles Balbach, Holly Levy, Eleven Twenty Projects, Seymour H. Knox Foundation Fine Arts Fund.