Welcome from the Dean
Welcome to UNC Greensboro College of Visual and Performing Arts’ 2024–2025 Community Report. Last year UNCG was one of only forty US colleges and universities to have received the 2024 Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement Classification, an elective designation awarded by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that highlights an institution’s commitment to community engagement. Unlike the outdated concept of community outreach, community engagement is defined through mutual benefit plus reciprocity according to the Carnegie Foundation. Community engagement is part of UNCG’s DNA as an institution and one of the core values that we teach our students. CVPA is proud to join with community partners to present programs, activities, and events for children and young adults and those who are young at heart. All told, CVPA has sixteen community programs and opportunities in art, dance, music, and theatre. As the Dean of this College, I could not be prouder of our faculty leaders who are at the helm of these collaborations.
Educational programs and activities are a way that CVPA and community partners collectively build ongoing, permanent relationships for social benefits and outcomes. All these programs and activities are teaching CVPA students how to become community-based artists during their time in Greensboro and equipping them with skills for lives in the arts. This report is divided into three sections: community-focused events where CVPA takes a performance, exhibition, or event off campus for an occasional, short-term project; community-placed where CVPA establishes a recurring pattern of taking a performance, exhibition, or event into the community; and finally, community-engaged, which involves long-term, co-created projects between this College and a community partner. CVPA’s Community Engagement, under the expert direction of Caitlyn Schrader, is a resource to support faculty, students, and community partners and is being supported by a grant from The Cemala Foundation. Community Engagement is guided and informed by our belief in and commitment to community and place. CVPA’s 2020–2025 Strategic Plan, The Path Forward, challenges us to transform—and be transformed by—our community. I hope that these programs will spark your interest and creativity and cause you to become involved with our College!
Sincerely,
bruce d. mcclung, PhD
Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts