Viewing category '2010s'
Celebrating the Past, Looking to the Future
Dean David Woods served the School and the University from 2000 to 2012. His successor, Dean Brid Grant, served from 2012 to 2015.
The timeline team extends our thanks to both of these leaders. Their enthusiastic support has made this timeline possible. Please visit our Acknowledgments page to learn about many other contributors.
Alfredo Jaar named Sackler Artist-in-Residence
2010
Jaar is an internationally acclaimed artist, photographer, architect and filmmaker. Here is a link to one of his shorter films, “Alfredo Jaar en la Galeria Oliva,”about five and a half minutes long, released during the same year he visited Storrs. “Alfredo Jaar en la Galeria Oliva”
Funds for SFA/School of Engineering Digital Tech Lab approved by Provost
2010
“$315,000 was granted from the Provost’s Office to help initiate a Digital Technologies Laboratory in Dramatic Arts, Art and Art History, and Music. Interim Head of the Department of Dramatic Arts, Tim Hunter, initiated this multi-disciplinary request. . . With Dean Mun Choi of the School of Engineering, Dean Woods coordinated the establishment of an interdisciplinary Digital Arts Plan for the School of Fine Arts and the School of Engineering. Dean Choi and Dean Woods will continue to work together to expand this concept and to apply for state and federal grant money to advance the project.” — School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut. Annual Report 2009/2010: Executive Summary. Storrs: School of Fine Arts, 2010.
J. Mark Scearce is Sackler Composition Prize Winner, 2010
March 16, 2010

Composer J. Mark Scearce. His prize-winning composition was premiered in April, 2011. — Photo from an NC State web page announcing the award, viewed July 8, 2015. Scearse comes to Connecticut
“The 2010 prize was given to J. Mark Scearce for a Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. . . Scearce[,] who is Director of the Music Department at North Carolina State University, was chosen from among 60 entries from 10 countries and 18 states. The adjudication panel included Robert Bernhardt, conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra and Opera Orchestra; Gerardo Dirie, Director of the Department of Music of the University of Western Australia; and David Tomatz, former Director of the School of Music at the University of Houston.” — School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut. Annual Report 2009/2010: Executive Summary. Storrs: School of Fine Arts, 2010.
Composition by 2009 Sackler Prize Winner Premiered at von der Mehden
March 21, 2010
Nathan Currier[‘s composition] was selected from 60 entries received from 22 states and 6 countries as the winner of the 2009 award. . . The premier performance of his Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra was held on March 21, 2010 in von der Mehden Recital Hall on the UConn-Storrs campus and on March 22, 2010 . . . in the GenRe Auditorium on the UConn-Stamford campus. . . In 1999, he received the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for Lifetime Achievement in Composition. He has also been honored by prizes such as the prestigious Rome Prize for Composition, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a grant from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship at Tanglewood, the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and two ASCAP awards.” — School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut. Annual Report 1999/2000: Executive Summary. Storrs: School of Fine Arts, 2000.
The composer’s website quotes music critic Tim Page: “Wildly virtuosic . . . the listener always has the sense of a civilized, companionable intellect at play. . . . Ultimately, Currier is an independent, with no seeming allegiance to any creed . . .” — “Gaian Var,” (gaianv.com), Nathan Currier. Web. 27 July 2015.
Fundraising for 2009-2010 exceeds $1.5 million
May, 2010
“Dean Woods helped raise $1.5 million for the School of Fine Arts during the 2009-2010 academic year and, most recently, was the recipient of an additional $100,000 from Dr. Raymond Sackler to add to the Sackler Composition Competition making the annual award $25,000.” — School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut. Annual Report 2009/2010: Executive Summary. Storrs: School of Fine Arts, 2010.
NASM Accreditation Team Impressed with Music Department
2010
“The Department of Music was reviewed for reaccreditation by the National Association of Schools of Music. The evaluation team was particularly impressed with the strong interim leadership of Karla Fox, the recently adopted goals and objectives for the Department, and the quality of the Music and Dramatic Arts Library in the School of Fine Arts.” — School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut. Annual Report 2008/2009: Executive Summary. Storrs: School of Fine Arts, 2009.
5th Annual MFA Art Alumni Exhibition held in NYC
May 4, 2010
An exhibit was “arranged in New York for graduating Studio Art students, . . . in Chelsea at the SoHo 20 Gallery.” — School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut. Annual Report 1999/2000: Executive Summary. Storrs: School of Fine Arts, 2000.