For Alexandra Joye Warren, starting her own dance company was not so much an act of entrepreneurship as it was a calling. It just took her some time to listen to it.

Warren was in her senior year, completing a BA degree in Drama with a concentration in Dance/Pre-Medicine from Spelman College, when she first heard that calling. She had begun looking for medical schools and planned to pursue a career in dance science, physical therapy, or even orthopaedic surgery when she realized that wasn’t the path for her:

“It dawned on me — I was not pursuing dance because I was a little bit afraid. Dance is such an uncertain field. But I realized that as much I was interested in science and medicine, that interest was rooted in the desire to be secure. Security is not a bad thing, but it’s not enough. At the end of the day, I’m an artist no matter how risky that can be. So I shifted my search for med schools to MFA programs.”  (more…)

UNCG Grammy nominees on local podcast

“We were told we were important. We were told everyone had a responsibility to build a better world by creating healthy homes and better communities. We were encouraged to find our dreams and pursue them. And always we were taught to practice the Golden Rule—‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’” 

Laura Greene Knapp shares those words from her mother, Frances “Fran” Cornwell Greene, who graduated from UNC Greensboro in 1949 with a degree in music education.

To honor her mother and a life spent bringing music to others, Knapp (’86 BS and ’88 MA Economics) has established the Frances Cornwell Greene Scholarship Endowment in Music Education with a gift of $100,000.

Frances “Fran” Cornwell Greene grew up on a cotton farm in Cleveland County, North Carolina. When she came to UNCG in the 1940s, it was known as Woman’s College. The Chancellor was Dr. Walter Jackson, and the Dean of Women was Harriett Elliott. These are building names now, but they were real people who presided over a weekly chapel program that Fran Greene attended. 

Knapp says according to her mother, “Seats were assigned, and attendance was checked. Many fussed and many slept, but the weekly chapel service was the soul of the college. Fran lived her life according to these values.”

After graduation, Greene began her career as a public school music teacher. After a few years, Fran moved on to church music. She was a minister of music for more than 30 years in Elkin, North Carolina. She first served at First Baptist Church and then at Elkin Presbyterian Church. In 1960, she founded the Elkin Community Chorus, an ecumenical choir that performed an annual Christmas concert for the community. Fran directed the chorus for more than 40 years. Upon retiring in 1993, Fran volunteered at the Hugh Chatham Nursing Facility, where she organized a weekly music program for the residents. After the death of her husband in 2013, Fran resided at the Brookdale Memory Care Facility in Chapel Hill; she frequently played the piano and led fellow residents in singing hymns:

“Fran had a gift for making everyone in her life feel special, and she will long be remembered by family and friends as a woman of deep faith who treated everyone with kindness and grace,” recalls Knapp.

The Frances Cornwell Greene Scholarship Endowment will provide financial aid to Music Education majors, preferably students in their senior year to reduce dependence on loans and outside employment as they meet student teaching requirements.

Gifts may be made by contacting Director of Development David Huskins at 336-256-0166 or [email protected].

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the United States, presenting over 5,000 years of art from around the world, but pieces from the collection don’t always stay on site. Sometimes art is loaned for special exhibitions, and when it is, it is in the good hands of CVPA alumna Catherine Burns (’08 BA German, ’10 BA Art History).

Burns is a Collections Specialist in the Modern and Contemporary Department at the Met, primarily responsible for coordinating acquisitions, which means she oversees the process of cataloging the work and working with the curators and conservators. She also accompanies the art when it leaves the museum:

“One perk of working in collections management is that you often get to travel with the art when it goes on loan to other institutions. I am there to make sure the art is being cared for properly throughout its journey to the borrowing museum. That can sometimes include hours of standing in a cargo warehouse watching a work be packed and loaded. Once you arrive at the borrowing museum, you’re there to make sure the work is installed safely and following the Met’s requirements related to lighting, temperature, humidity, and security.”  (more…)

Sherrill Roland ’16 MFA Studio Art) is one of 42 recipients of the 2021 Creative Capital Awards. His project “The Jumpsuit Portal”, in the multimedia Social Practice category, is eligible for up to $50,000 in funding. Read more about the award here.

About the Artist:

Roland is an interdisciplinary artist who creates art that challenges ideas around controversial social and political constructs, and generates a safe space to process, question, and share. He was born in Asheville, NC, and received an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Inspired by his experience in prison for a crime he did not commit, he founded The Jumpsuit Project to raise awareness around issues related to mass incarceration. Roland’s socially-engaged art project has been presented at Open Engagement Chicago, Oakland City Hall, and the Michigan School of Law. He was awarded the Center for Documentary Studies Post-MFA Fellowship in the Documentary Arts at Duke University in Durham, NC, and the Rights of Return USA Fellowship. After completing the Fountainhead Residency in Miami, Florida, Roland returned to North Carolina as an artist-in-residence at the McColl Center of Art + Innovation.