Bronwyn Keenan, the inaugural director of the UB Arts Collaboratory in the College of Arts and Sciences, is leaving UB to take a position at a Los Angeles-based artist studio. Her last day at the university is Sept. 3.

Since joining UB in 2019, Keenan has “created space for artists, musicians, filmmakers, dancers and actors to come together,” says Robin Schulze, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Bronwyn worked to create a bridge between the university and the greater Buffalo art scene through programming, original projects and student-centered collaborations.”

In her role as director of the Arts Collaboratory, Keenan launched dynamic programming each semester that explored a variety of themes, Schulze says. She offered collaboration grants for artists, provided experimental pop-up space for artists at The Space Between, the collaboratory’s incubator in the community, and started the artist-in-residence opportunity for a UB student in the arts to receive a live-work space at 500 Seneca.

Under Keenan’s direction, the Arts Collaboratory regularly brought visiting artists and guests to UB as part of the Working Artists Lab, among them renowned painter Cecily Brown; hip-hop artist Grandmaster Flash; Michael Mwenso, leader of Mwenso & the Shakes; UB alumnus Alan Zweibel, an Emmy Award-winning original writer for Saturday Night Live; and, most recently, Asad Raza, a multidisciplinary artist.

Schulze says she will soon appoint an interim director to oversee Arts Collaboratory programming.