College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Alumnus uses his creative voice to build connections, honor heritage, and foster peace

Shayla Brown — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:09:19 +0000

Alumnus uses his creative voice to build connections, honor heritage, and foster peace Shayla Brown Wed, 06/18/2025 - 10:09

Federico Frum, BA Art and Visual Technology ’05, believes in the power of art to bring people together. Known professionally as MasPaz—Spanish for “more peace”—Frum has spent his career fusing activism and creativity, using bold street murals, community engagement, and cultural storytelling to spread a message of unity.

Federico Frum/MasPaz poses in front of one of his murals. Photo credit Omar Garcia.

A multidisciplinary artist based in Washington, D.C., Frum most recently gained national attention for contributing to the design of a stamp for the Art of the Skateboard stamp series for the U.S. Postal Service, a project five years in the making.

“The graphic designer on the project had seen my work at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and really connected with it—especially coming from a Latino background himself,” Frum said. “When he reached out, I was thrilled. Skateboarding has been a part of my life for years—I even used to have my own skateboard company—so this project felt like home.”

That deep connection to skateboarding culture is more than a personal passion. Frum has worked in skate shops, helped manage an amateur skate team, and continues to sponsor local youth, offering them skateboards bearing his signature artwork.

While Frum’s work often appears on concrete walls, his art is rooted in something older and deeper—his Colombian heritage, Indigenous traditions, and a lifelong reverence for the planet. He draws inspiration from the intricate geometric designs of molas, the handcrafted textiles created by Indigenous peoples in Panama and Colombia.

“Growing up, my mother would hang molas around the house. They became my connection to our land, our ancestry,” Frum recalled. “Now I keep that tradition alive in a contemporary way—using a spray can or a paintbrush but always honoring that cultural lineage.”

His mural work is widely recognized for its themes of earth preservation, Indigenous identity, and community empowerment. But Frum’s impact goes far beyond public art. He visits high school classrooms, co-creating murals with students that are proudly displayed on campus—an invitation for young people to find their voice through art.

“I’ve always felt connected to Indigenous practices and the family dynamic,” Frum says. “And I’ve always respected the Earth. A big part of who I am is about protecting and preserving the planet.”

As a student at George Mason, Frum studied photography and digital art, with a thesis in 3D animation. He credits classes in web design and printmaking with giving him the technical foundation to support his creative vision. He also found mentorship from School of Art professor Chawky Frenn, a fellow advocate for art as a force for peace.

“My heart is filled with so much joy and gratitude to see that Federico is using his artistic voice for social change,” says Frenn, a two-time Fulbright Scholar whose own work explores art and peace. “As teachers, we never truly know what seeds we’re planting—but seeing Federico’s journey is a beautiful reminder of what’s possible.”

Frum’s work has been featured by ABC News, Telemundo, and The Washington Post, and he has collaborated with major institutions including Nike, National Geographic, Sierra Club, Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, and the New Museum.

Recently, Frum returned to George Mason’s Fairfax �� to install We All Belong, a 30-by-30-foot tapestry mural on the Art and Design Building. The vibrant piece weaves together earth elements, ancestral motifs, and community imagery to deliver a powerful message of inclusion.

“It’s about showing that we’re all connected—that we matter,” Frum says. “That art can help us remember: We all belong.”

Topics

Alumni

School of Art

Community Engagement

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Boris Willis Is Helping Students Rethink What a Career in Game Design Can Be

Lakin Raybuck — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 17:13:22 +0000

Boris Willis Is Helping Students Rethink What a Career in Game Design Can Be Lakin Raybuck Mon, 06/02/2025 - 13:13

In This Story

Boris Willis

For Boris Willis, the future of games has always been bigger than pixels and code. Long before the rise of virtual production and interactive storytelling, Willis was blending technology, dance, and design into new forms of creative expression.

Now, as an Associate Professor at ��, he's helping students rethink what a career in game design and creativity can look like.

Boris Willis of �� Computer Game Design. Photo credit: Tiffany Richardson

For a long time, those interests lived separately. But over the years, Willis began weaving them together, exploring how technology and the body could speak to each other. Today, as an Associate Professor in ��'s Computer Game Design Program, Willis helps students see game design as something much larger than entertainment or technology. It becomes a way to tell stories, build worlds, and imagine futures.

"I've always been drawn to the intersection of the physical and the imaginative," Willis says.

That intersection defines everything Willis brings into the classroom. Before arriving at George Mason, Willis spent years pushing creative boundaries: collaborating on projects that translated dance notation into computer animation, developing live performances enhanced by motion capture, and designing interactive experiences where audiences shaped the outcome of a story. This was long before the words "interactive media" became commonplace.

The thread running through it all is clear. Willis understands that movement, whether physical or digital, is at the heart of every great interactive experience. It's not enough to learn how to program a character. Students need to understand how players feel moving through a space and how story and tension build through choice and motion.

This approach stands apart from many traditional game design programs, where the focus often stays narrowly on coding, engineering, or entertainment. At George Mason, students are encouraged to see the field through a broader, more creative lens, and faculty like Willis make that difference tangible by opening up new horizons and possibilities.

"The artistic process and the design process are the same," Willis explains. "You have an idea. You test it. You iterate. You revise. Whether you're making a dance, a play, or a game, you're shaping an experience."

In Willis' classes, concepts like "up, down, over, under, around, and through"—terms drawn from choreography—become part of the vocabulary of level design. Students learn that building a world isn't just about filling empty spaces. It's about creating an emotional journey, guiding players the way a choreographer leads an audience through a performance.

Assignments often push students well beyond what they expect. Rather than duplicating popular games, students are tasked with reimagining how games can work: remixing storylines, combining dissimilar concepts, and creating entirely new kinds of experiences.

"I try to get students to move beyond what they know," Willis says. "There are thousands of games made every year. Why not create something no one's seen before?" This emphasis on creative risk-taking is not just academic. It's essential for future careers and can inspire students to push the boundaries of game design.

That creative risk-taking isn't just academic. It's essential for future careers. The industry is evolving fast. Today, game engines are used not only to build entertainment but also to produce films, train healthcare workers, develop educational tools, design virtual museums, and simulate real-world experiences.

Students trained purely in technical skills may find themselves boxed into narrower roles. Like Willis encourages, students trained to think like creators, collaborators, and innovators are prepared for opportunities across industries that barely exist today.

This bigger-picture thinking is part of what makes George Mason's program distinct. The school doesn't just teach students how to make games. It teaches them to think like artists, designers, and problem-solvers ready to adapt, imagine, and lead.

Willis' own work models that future. His projects range from interactive poetry games to virtual museums of student dance films. He sees games not as isolated products but as evolving conversations between technology, culture, and human experience.

"Games are a text," Willis says. "They're not just about winning. They're about experiencing, connecting, imagining. They're about possibility."

For students at George Mason, learning from faculty like Willis means more than building technical portfolios. It means leaving with a mindset. One that sees connections where others see limits, one that understands that creativity is a skill as critical as coding.

Willis believes that the future of games will belong to those who can blend disciplines, think across fields, and imagine more. And at ��, that future is already being built.

Topics

Computer Game Technology

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Alumni

Honors College course uses opera to explore landmark court case

Shayla Brown — Thu, 22 May 2025 18:28:04 +0000

Honors College course uses opera to explore landmark court case Shayla Brown Thu, 05/22/2025 - 14:28

Historical dramas may be nothing new to the theater, but an original opera based on a landmark Supreme Court Civil Rights case? Rick Davis knew this was something different.

After learning that Virginia Opera was planning to stage their new opera, Loving v. Virgina—based on the historic Supreme Court case striking down a Virginia law that banned interracial marriage—Davis seized the unique opportunity for his students. 

The result was HNRS 360 Opera as Social Change, an Honors College course taught by Davis, the dean of ��’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, that explored the role opera can play in presenting—and changing—a community’s shared history. 

“I love bringing the arts together with other subjects because I want to get people from the community interested in the arts by meeting them at their personal interest—in this case, through opera,” said Davis. “I pitched the idea for the class to the Honors College, and they're always so wonderful about backing experimental course design ideas.” 

Rick Davis poses with a student's project. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding.

“[In the class] we focused on the intersection of arts and politics,” said government and international politics major Kayla Goldschmidt.  

“I’ve learned that opera is another way to tell important stories and it can make it more accessible to different populations. This course did such a great job of highlighting that,” she added.  

The course, which took place in fall 2024, culminated in the students creating final projects that represented the court case as expressions of public dramaturgy, the connection of theater and stagecraft with contemporary society. 

Goldschmidt used the system software ArcGIS to create an interactive story map using an assigned reading from the class: Race, Sex, and the Freedom to Marry by Peter Wallenstein. “I settled on this idea because I’m very passionate about geography and in the assigned reading, I felt that the geographical aspect was very present throughout the narrative,” said Goldschmidt. 

Kayla Goldschmidt poses with her project. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding.

“[The book] takes us to every location of the Loving story, so I tried to simulate that with my final project. It was so different from anything I had done for a final before in college,” she said. 

For her final project, junior forensic science major Madison Dragon created a reference paper that spelled out “loving,” with each letter referencing other relevant court cases or people who were monumental in the Civil Rights movement. 

“People can pick out a letter, and I provided a little blurb on what the letter represented, so it was more educational. I had the court cases written as the foundation for different themes, so one was on marriage law, for example,” said Dragon, who is currently obtaining her bachelor’s and master’s degrees through George Mason’s Bachelor’s to Accelerated Master’s program. 

“Working in the CFA is actually how I met Rick. He knew of my love for the arts, so at one of the shows I was working, we talked about this course and I was immediately interested in joining,” said Dragon, who is the house manager at George Mason’s Center for the Arts. 

“The goal of opera is to make you question what you know and whether you should be taking action. Referencing this historic court case in class was amazing because we’re still seeing similar issues in today's society,” Dragon said. 

The course also featured guest speakers including George Mason faculty members LaNitra Berger, Wendi Manuel-Scott, Richard Leech, and Jennifer Casey Cabot. 

Berger, director of George Mason’s African and African American Studies Program, talked about the historical background of the Loving case with the students. “We discussed the segregation laws prohibiting interracial contact and the price the Lovings paid for falling in love across racial lines and refusing to back down when they wanted to get married.” 

The students' final projects. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding.

“Unfortunately, I think that younger people, including our students, have real-world experience about what it looks like to discriminate against people for who they are,” Berger said. 

Guest speakers from Virginia Opera included composer Damien Geter, librettist Jessica Murphy Moo, and conductor Adam Turner, as well as Gregory Spears and Kevin Newbury, the composer and director, respectively, of the opera Fellow Travelers, staged by the company in 2023.

When Loving v. Virginia was performed in the Center for the Arts on May 3-4, the students’ final projects were on display in the Concert Hall. Read more about the world premiere opera performance here.

In This Story

Rick Davis

LaNitra M. Berger, PhD

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Honors College

Center for the Arts

Bachelor’s/Acclerated Master’s Program

innovative classes

Students

This alumna was a production supervisor for the Oscar-winning film "Anora"

Shayla Brown — Fri, 02 May 2025 20:17:28 +0000

This alumna was a production supervisor for the Oscar-winning film "Anora"  Shayla Brown Fri, 05/02/2025 - 16:17

Only five years after graduating from ��, alumna Rhyan Elliott, Film and Video Studies ’20, was recently a production supervisor for the five-time Oscar-winning film Anora (2024), directed by Sean Baker.  

“I've always been interested in telling stories, but everything really started happening for me when I got to George Mason,” said Elliott. 

Rhyan Elliott. Photo provided.

When she first arrived on campus, Elliott joined the student organization Delta Kappa Alpha (DKA), which focuses on the professional growth of students who hope to work in the cinematic arts. 

Although Elliott initially pursued a screenwriting concentration and had hoped to work in video game production, she soon realized she liked working in film production. 

“[With] DKA, I learned a lot more about myself as a creative artist and discovered that I also loved the office side of things, since we’re required to do a lot of different paperwork for events and things like that,” said Elliott.

Elliott credits George Mason professor and award-winning filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu and her course FAVS 475 Advanced Fiction Directing for inspiring her. 

“Professor Jusu was very influential to me as a creative artist. I did a couple of projects for George Mason’s Best of Film that are the results of her classes and guidance,” said Elliott. 

The two projects were the student short film Close Call, which won a student Capital Emmy and the short film, Always Carry a Bible, which she screened at the Washington West Film Festival for. 

“I had the pleasure of teaching Rhyan and was immediately struck by her unshakeable confidence and ability to harness a room,” said Jusu. 

“She is a talented, unique storyteller and thinker who bravely made her way to New York after graduating from Mason. It comes as no surprise that she found her place in the crew of such a poignant indie film.”

George Mason’s Film and Video Studies Program also requires its students to complete an internship before graduation. 

Rhyan Elliott (bottom right) with the Anora film crew. Photo provided.

 “I went to New York in summer of 2019 and worked on two films, Naked Singularity and Black Lady Goddess, as a production assistant, and everything just snowballed from there,” said Elliott, who has worked on multiple indie films, television shows, and A24 productions since graduating. 

She was also a health safety officer on sets in the wake of the pandemic. 

“We started pre-production for Anora in November 2022, so this has been a years-long journey,” said Elliott. 

As production supervisor, Elliott worked closely with the film’s line producer, managing the finances and budget of the film, and making sure that spending was on track with projections. 

“The cast and crew members are still pretty close, so we had an Oscars watch party at a really cool bar in New York,” said Elliott, who also attended the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France. 

“It’s surreal to think that this little movie that we put all of our blood, sweat, and tears into and worked so hard and passionately on is now on the big screen and receiving so much praise. There have been so many big moments that you don’t realize are building up to something so amazing,” she said. 

In This Story

Nikyatu Jusu

Learn more about the College of Visual and Performing Arts

Listen to Access to Excellence EP 51: Nikyatu Jusu

Topics

Alumni

College of Visual and Performing Arts Film and Video Studies

Awards

Capital Emmys

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

The Hylton Center Celebrates Successful 15th Anniversary Gala

Kirstin Franko — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:54:29 +0000

The Hylton Center Celebrates Successful 15th Anniversary Gala Kirstin Franko Wed, 04/30/2025 - 13:54

In This Story

Rick Davis

Gregory Washington

The Hylton Performing Arts Center hosted its 15th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, April 26, celebrating 15 years of artistic excellence in Manassas and throughout the Northern Virginia region. The event welcomed 237 guests and raised $162,500 in support for the Hylton Center’s artistic programming, Veterans and the Arts Initiative, and Education Initiative.

Ten percent of net proceeds will also fund the Hylton Center’s Endowment, and funds raised through the Gala contribute to ��’s Mason Now: Power the Possible, a university-wide comprehensive one-billion-dollar fundraising campaign.

Rick Davis, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts and executive director of the Hylton Performing Arts Center; Sam Hill; Lillian Hill; Gala Honoree Marion Wall; Deborah Johnson, LaToya Asia Smith, Gala Honoree Dominion Energy; Jason Hickman, Presenting Sponsor Compton & Duling; Gregory Washington, president of ��. Photo by Sean Kelley.

The Hylton Center’s 15th Anniversary Gala festivities began at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 26, with a cocktail reception in the Didlake Grand Foyer, featuring a French 75 signature cocktail crafted by MurLarkey Distilled Spirits. Guests then enjoyed an elegant dinner on Merchant Hall stage, which was catered by Susan Gage Caterers, before the evening’s program commenced.

Rick Davis, executive director of the Hylton Center and dean of ��’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA), opened the program with a dimming of the lights in memory of William Reeder, founding dean of CVPA, who passed away on April 12 and whose visionary leadership enabled the creation of the Hylton Performing Arts Center.

In a video presentation, Dean Davis and other important figures from the community looked back at the beginnings of the Hylton Center and toward its promising future. “As we celebrate 15 years at the Hylton Center, we envision continued growth in the quality, the quantity, and the impact of the arts that we create here, and the arts we present," Davis said. "Everything that we do at the Hylton Center is a testament to the vitality of having a world-class performing arts center right in your community.”

President of �� Gregory Washington speaks to the guests.
Photo by Sean Kelley.

George Mason President Gregory Washington built on Davis’s remarks, “The Hylton Performing Arts Center is a crucial component of George Mason’s broader role as a cultural hub for the region, a talent incubator for our students, and a gathering place for so many in our community. I’m proud to join in celebrating 15 impactful years of creativity and innovation in the arts, and express my deepest gratitude to the leaders, staff, and supporters who have brought us to this milestone anniversary.”

The honoree tribute was dedicated to Marion Wall and Dominion Energy, two longtime champions of the Hylton Performing Arts Center. Wall was celebrated as a steadfast supporter since the Hylton Center’s earliest days, who played a pivotal role in the planning, development, and ongoing success of the venue. Dominion Energy was recognized for making a profound impact on the cultural landscape of Northern Virginia, including investment in George Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, programs like the Veterans and the Arts Initiative, and other benefits to ensure accessible arts experiences for all.

The event also included a live auction of unique arts experiences, Raise Your Paddle fundraiser, and wine-and-whiskey pull in support of the Veterans and the Arts Initiative, which offers free workshops and concerts for local Veterans, Servicemembers, their families, and community members. These activities raised more than $27,000 for the Veterans and the Arts Initiative, continuing the celebration of its 10-year anniversary and its mission of creativity and service.

Champagne skirt performer recognizing Gala Presenting Sponsor Compton & Duling.
Photo by Sean Kelley.

The evening closed in a lively fashion with an after-party that featured a mix of George Mason students and professional musicians in a 10-piece swing band from Mason Music Productions, a swing dance experience led by dancers from Gottaswing, a champagne skirt performer from Carbone Entertainment, and a Blackberry Sage Smash cocktail crafted by MurLarkey Distilled Spirits.

The Hylton Center’s 15th Anniversary Gala was supported by many regional businesses and individual donors, including Presenting Sponsor Compton & Duling, L.C., Cocktail Reception Sponsor Appliance Connection, Live Auction Sponsor United Bank, Raise Your Paddle Sponsor Todos Supermarket, Wine Pull Sponsor Whitlock Wealth, and Wine Sponsor Thomas Sabal and Daniel Tucciarone. Other generous sponsors of this year’s event included: City of Manassas; Rick Davis and Julie Thompson; Didlake; Dominion Energy; ECU Communications; �� Foundation; Carolyn Hays and Jeff Burke; The Law Office of Sheyna Nicole Burt, PLC; Micron Technology; Potomac Health Foundation; Sentara Health; Stanley Martin; UVA Community Health; Wall Foundation; and Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley, & Walsh, P.C.

To view additional images from the event visit the 15th Anniversary photo gallery.

Niyati Dhokai, program director of the Veterans and the Arts Initiative confirming the impact of the program on the military-connected community. Photo by Sean Kelley.

Some of the notable guests in attendance included: Mayor of the City of Manassas Michelle Davis-Younger; Virginia State Senator Jeremy McPike and Sharon McPike; Virginia Delegates Briana Sewell, Ian Lovejoy, Josh Thomas, and Luke Torian; Manassas City Councilmembers Theresa Coates Ellis, Tom Osina, Ralph Smith, Ashely Hutson, and Mark Wolfe; Manassas City Manager and Hylton Center Executive Board Member, Steve Burke and Cary Burke; Prince William Board of County Supervisors Vice Chair Andrea Bailey and Reverend Cozy Bailey; Prince William Board of County Supervisors, Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry and Woodbridge District Supervisor Margaret Franklin; Managing Member of Compton & Duling, LC Jason Hickman; Vice President and Site Executive of Micron Technology Virginia Delbert Parks; President of Pitkin’s Home Center Sarah Pitkin; Vanderpool, Frostick & Nishanian, P.C. President V. Rick Nishanian and Nunik Nishanian; Todos Supermarkets Owner Carlos Castro; President and CEO of NOVEC, Kristen Senechal; President of Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, Jeff Joyner; Senior Policy Advisory of Nelson Mulling and Hylton Center Executive Board Member Rod Hall and Lena Hall; Artistic Director of Manassas Ballet Theatre Amy Wolfe; Hylton Center Executive Board Chair Sheyna Burt; Hylton Center Executive Board Vice Chair Joyce Connery; Hylton Center Executive Board Member the Honorable Ann Wheeler and John Wheeler; and Hylton Center Executive Board Member Gayle Whitlock and Bennett Whitlock, and Hylton Center Executive Board Member Kris Nohe and Martin Nohe.

Interested in contributing to ensure the success of the next 15 years of the Hylton Center? Explore ways to give on the Hylton Center website.

Enjoy a video from the event, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Veterans and the Arts Initiative.

Topics

Hylton Performing Arts Center

Hylton Center

Rick Davis

Gregory Washington

veterans and the arts

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Mason Arts

Mason Now: Power the Possible

�� News

philanthropy

Graduate student uses the healing power of art to help other veterans

Katarina Benson — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:59:31 +0000

Graduate student uses the healing power of art to help other veterans Katarina Benson Mon, 04/28/2025 - 11:59

Death has been the constant companion in Steven Luu’s life—from war-torn Vietnam to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But through art, Luu, now a master of fine arts (MFA) student at ��’s School of Art, within the College of Visual and Performing Arts, has discovered peace, purpose, and a path to healing.

“All of my artwork is about revisiting,” said Luu. “Art is not to forget, but to express.”

Luu wasn’t yet born when his unlikely odyssey began 50 years ago this month, following the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975. Nearly a year later, he came into the world as his family’s life was upended by war and political upheaval. His father, a South Vietnamese government official, along with his grandfather and uncle, were lost in the war, and the family home was confiscated. When Luu was just a year old, he and his family were sent to a re-education camp, where they endured harsh poverty and uncertainty.

When he was 7, Luu and his family managed to escape Vietnam by sea, in search of freedom in a small boat packed with refugees. Their harrowing journey lasted more than two months; by the time of their rescue by the British Royal Navy, nearly half of the passengers perished from starvation. Luu was just shy of his 8th birthday when he was forced to help push lifeless bodies overboard—a memory that has haunted him since.

After years of adversity in trying conditions in refugee camps in Hong Kong, Luu and his family made their way to the United States in 1991. Following his high school graduation in 1995, he enlisted with the U.S. Air Force and became a medic, driven by a desire to save lives after witnessing so much suffering, and determined to do everything he could to prevent others from enduring the same fate. His 20-year career in the U.S. military included deployments to the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan, often alongside special operations units.

Luu with one of his works. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“I have seen the worst part of humanity,” said Luu, who will turn 48 later this year. “And it stays with you.”

In 2012, while serving in Afghanistan, Luu was severely wounded. His lengthy convalescence at Walter Reed Medical Center, then located in Washington, D.C., marked a turning point. There, a hospital official introduced him to the healing power of art by providing him a canvas and drawing utensils.

“In that moment, I saw art as a way to let something inside me out, without having to say it,” said Luu, who while working on his degree also serves as documentarian for Mason Exhibitions.

He found making art incredibly therapeutic. Sculpture, especially using raw and rigid materials like concrete and epoxy resin, has become a personal healing ritual.

Although he had no formal art background, Luu knew he had found his voice. After earning a BA in theology from Catholic Distance University in 2010, he applied to George Mason’s School of Art, earning his BFA in sculpture in 2022. He recognized that art was more than a way to help himself, it also allowed him reach other veterans grappling with the same guilt and isolation he felt after leaving the military. He’s on track to complete his MFA in 2026.

All of his sculptures are made with recycled materials. “Like me, these materials have been given a second chance at life,” Luu said.

Artist Peter Winant was the director of George Mason’s School of Art when he first saw Luu’s early drawings in 2017.

“There was something really deep in them,” Winant said. “Some form of truth that few of us could approach.”

That truth now fuels Luu’s mission to help other veterans navigate their own trauma—a mission he pursues with deep purpose and gratitude for the opportunity. He creates art with a focus on mental health and uses his story to encourage others to find their own form of expression.

In 2024, the U.S. Air Force invited Luu to work with Wounded Warriors, teaching recovering airmen about the healing power of art, and how to channel their experiences into creative expression. He’ll do the same this November, during a weeklong George Mason conference for 400 recovering veterans spanning all military branches. The week will conclude with a public art exhibit featuring the veterans’ creations.

His solo exhibition Steven Luu: A Path to Healing & Transformation is on display through May at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago. It is a powerful testament to one man’s journey through unimaginable pain and his unwavering pursuit of peace.

“Art is the one universal language—it’s always been the language of humanity,” said Luu. “I cannot physically fix what happened in the past, but at least I have closure. Like life as a whole, you adapt in art to survive.”

In This Story

Steven Luu

See more from the College of Visual and Performing Arts

Topics

Alumni

College of Visual and Performing Arts

Military

Students

School of Art

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Remembering William Reeder, College of Visual and Performing Arts founding dean

Colleen Rich — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 18:07:14 +0000

Remembering William Reeder, College of Visual and Performing Arts founding dean Colleen Rich Thu, 04/17/2025 - 14:07

William Reeder, the founding dean of ��’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA), died April 12, 2025, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80.

William Reeder. Photo provided

Reeder joined George Mason in 2001 to lead the newly formed college after a distinguished career as an operatic tenor and arts administrator. Prior to joining George Mason, Reeder served as vice president and general manager of the Washington Performing Arts Society, executive director of the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C., president of the Saint Louis Conservatory of Music, and executive director of Opera Music Theatre International.

For eight years, Reeder was a leading operatic tenor in the Zurich Opera Company. As a professional singer, he performed more than 40 leading tenor roles in 15 major opera houses throughout Europe.

Through his efforts, the college grew its operating budget from $9 million to $30 million and oversaw the development of $150 million in new facilities, fueled by both philanthropic and public investment.

Reeder had a hand in physically transforming the arts landscape on the Fairfax ��, securing for CVPA the planned Academic V facility, now known as the award-winning Art and Design Building, and coordinating philanthropic, state, and university support for the de Laski Performing Arts Building addition and renovation of what became the Music Theater Building.

Some say his crowning achievement was the successful realization of a long-held community vision for an arts center serving Manassas and Prince William County—the Hylton Performing Arts Center on the Science and Technology ��.

“Bill's tenacious, loquacious, always-optimistic advocacy, expressed in countless breakfast meetings in diners, neighborhood gatherings, political forums, and rounds of golf with prospective supporters, led to the creation of the Hylton Performing Arts Center,” said CVPA Dean Rick Davis. “At times it seemed as if Bill was almost single-handedly willing the center into existence—but it was really his tireless behind-the-scenes coordination of university, civic, and volunteer energy that carried the day.”

Davis said Reeder was honored for his accomplishment at the Hylton Center’s fifth Anniversary Gala in 2015.

“At this year's gala, we will take a moment—or three—to remember Bill's foundational contributions,” Davis said.

Reeder also held the Heritage Chair of Cultural Criticism and was named a Virginia Eminent Scholar.

After stepping down as dean in 2015, he continued to teach at George Mason as a faculty member in the Arts Management Program, one of three new academic programs (including Film and Video Studies and Computer Game Design Programs) launched under his leadership. These programs have helped shape CVPA into the comprehensive arts college that it is today.

“Bill will be remembered for his energetic and passionate advocacy for artists of all kinds and at every stage of their journeys,” said Davis. “I will always be grateful for his friendship and mentorship over 25 years of personal and professional collaboration.”

Details regarding memorial arrangements are forthcoming.

The college is inviting the university community to share memories and photographs of Reeder through this form.

Topics

Faculty and Staff News

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

New art course teaches students how to think differently about design

Shayla Brown — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:49:48 +0000

New art course teaches students how to think differently about design Shayla Brown Wed, 04/02/2025 - 11:49

“Furniture isn’t just a tangible item that’s supposed to mold to your body, but it can also mold to your lifestyle,” said Katherin Salazar, a �� senior art and visual technology major.

She is currently taking a new College of Visual and Performing Arts special topics course, AVT 496, which focuses on furniture design and is offered through the university’s School of Art.

AVT 496 students discussing their sculptures. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding.

“The goal is to teach students about the power of furniture and how the built environment is constantly communicating and reorchestrating hierarchical structures,” said Mallory Kimmel, a Washington, D.C.-based interdisciplinary artist who created and teaches the course.

“We’re learning how to cultivate a greater awareness of the intended power dynamics in space, and also to become a curator of reshaping hierarchies in space to be more oriented to social justice ethos,” she said.

Salazar, who has contracts with Smithsonian Folklife Festival and Skate Folk creating competitive atmospheres that serve as a gateway for local skaters, is currently building a quarter pipe ramp for a class project.

AVT 496 student showcases the functionality of a sculpture. Photo provided.

“The techniques we’re learning in this course go hand in hand with building a lot of structures related to skating,” said Salazar, who works as a student monitor in the university’s Sculpture Studio under the supervision of Ben Ashworth, sculpture and foundations supervisor in George Mason’s School of Art.

“Mallory and Ben have taught me the ways of the art world and how it's constantly changing and growing. The biggest lesson I’ve learned so far is to take pride in my skills and realizing the worth of them,” she said.

As a part of the course, the students will tour the National Gallery of Art and put what they’ve learned to practice by identifying and recommending ways to create a more welcoming environment for people to experience the art.

The students will also present how their finished sculptures address hostile architecture, which Kimmel defines as the “built environment containing features that aim to reject certain people or behaviors.”

An example of hostile architecture is public benches that have handrails in the center so that it's prohibitive for the houseless population to lay down, explained Kimmel.

AVT 496 student showcases the functionality of a sculpture. Photo provided.

“[This course] has allowed me to expand my thinking beyond just the functions of furniture, but about its design ethics and the body itself,” said Roland Payabyab, a senior art and visual technology major.

For Payabyab’s first project, he focused on posture in honor of his parents.

“I'm noticing as they age, they're developing a lot of back problems, so I'm creating a bench meant to relieve some of that pain by incorporating a function within this piece to move with them as they need, for example, when they’re bending over to put on shoes,” he said.

Payabyab was able to build his project with techniques, such as woodworking and joinery.

AVT 496 students discussing their sculptures. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding.

“Joinery was one of the things I was most excited to learn about, and it just so happened to be the first topic we would cover,” said Payabyab. “Now I know how to combine different materials without nails or screws to build my sculptures, which is great for me because that’s what I’d like to do as a career after I graduate.”

In This Story

Mallory Kimmel

Benjamin Ashworth

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College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

National Gallery of Art

Mason Korea to Host 2025 Korea-US-Japan eSports Tournament

Pam Muirheid — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:35:54 +0000

Mason Korea to Host 2025 Korea-US-Japan eSports Tournament Pam Muirheid Thu, 03/27/2025 - 11:35

Original article written by Lee Sang-beom in N News (Korea), March 25, 2025:

�� Korea will host the '2025 Korea-U.S.-Japan eSports Tournament' in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Korea, the U.S. Embassy in Japan, and Coupang. Photo by Ji Kang

�� Korea, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Korea, the U.S. Embassy in Japan, and Coupang, will host the 2025 Korea-U.S.-Japan eSports Tournament, a global initiative to foster strategic thinking, teamwork, and digital engagement among young gamers from Korea, the U.S., and Japan.

This tournament is an innovative global program where participants will learn teamwork, leadership, and conflict resolution through gaming as an eSport, and is an educational platform that develops essential cognitive and collaborative skills in a competitive environment while strengthening trilateral relations among Korea, the United States, and Japan. The eSports Tournament is open to young Korean, American, and Japanese citizens aged 20-39, and requires English communication skills.

Participants will participate in online training and weekly activities from April to May, and will participate in the eSports tournament in Incheon in June.

Through this tournament, �� Korea will provide a special opportunity for young gamers to communicate with peers from diverse cultural backgrounds and improve their problem-solving skills, adaptability, and leadership capabilities. Professor Sang Nam, Professor of Computer Game Design at ��, Co-Director of Virginia Functional Game Research Institute, and Director of Korea Functional Game Research Institute, said:

"This '2025 Korea-US-Japan eSports Tournament' is an innovative platform designed to promote digital literacy, cross-cultural collaboration, and leadership development beyond games as entertainment and competition." He added, "We are pleased to demonstrate the role of eSports as a bridge to strengthen trilateral cooperation among Korea, the United States, and Japan."

“The trilateral partnership among the United States, Japan, and Korea is a vital component of our shared effort to ensure safety, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Joshua Lustig, Public Diplomacy Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. “We anticipate that the 2025 Korea-U.S.-Japan eSports Tournament will bring our three countries closer together by further strengthening the network of youth champions among them.”

The program is fully sponsored by Coupang through a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of State, and the event is co-hosted with Company E, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

The application deadline for the event is March 28, and eSports training and in-person eSports tournament matches will take place starting April 5.

In This Story

Sang Nam

Visit Mason Korea

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Computer Game Design

Mason Korea

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

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Strategic Direction

Renowned American Composer Joins the Dewberry School of Music for a Mason Opera Residency

Emily Schneider — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 20:00:05 +0000

Renowned American Composer Joins the Dewberry School of Music for a Mason Opera Residency Emily Schneider Thu, 03/20/2025 - 16:00

In This Story

Prof. Richard Leech

Prof. Patricia Miller

�� students and Mason Arts’ audiences have a rare opportunity to experience the music and creative insights of one of America’s most successful and prolific composers of art song, opera, and musical theater, Ricky Ian Gordon.

Ricky Ian Gordon, world-renowned composer, writer, and educator.

Gordon will be an artist-in-residence with Mason Opera, within George Mason’s Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music from April 14-18, 2025.

During this week-long residency, Gordon will work with the school’s voice, musical theater, and composition students in class and individual sessions, many of which will be open to the public. Students will work with him on pieces from his extensive catalog of vocal music, and Mason Opera will present the first university production of his stunning opera 27.

Gordon will return for Mason Opera’s performances of 27 on April 25–27 in Harris Theatre on the university’s Fairfax ��, where he will introduce each performance with his own insights about this unique and engaging opera.

“We are thrilled and very fortunate to have celebrated American composer, Ricky Ian Gordon as an artist-in-residence at ��," said George Mason’s Voice Area and Opera Program Director Professor Patricia Miller, "and to have our Mason students in vocal studies, composition and opera, experience firsthand the brilliant artistry of his art song compositions and his outstanding opera 27.”

After studying piano, composition, and acting at Carnegie Mellon University, Gordon settled in New York City, where he quickly emerged as a leading writer of vocal music that spans art song, opera, and musical theater. Mr. Gordon’s songs have been performed and or recorded by such internationally renowned singers as Renee Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Nathan Gunn, Judy Collins, Kelli O’Hara, Audra MacDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Nicole Cabell, the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Frederica Von Stade, Nadine Sierra, Andrea Marcovicci, Harolyn Blackwell, and Betty Buckley, among many others.

Stephen Holden, writing in the New York Times said, “If the music of Ricky Ian Gordon had to be defined by a single quality, it would be the bursting effervescence in fusing songs that blithely blur the lines between art song and the high-end Broadway music of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim…It’s caviar for a world gorging on pizza.”

Mason Opera stage director and celebrated former Metropolitan Opera tenor Richard Leech, now George Mason faculty, said, “I am inspired every day by our wonderfully talented students as they meet the challenges, and discover the joy of presenting a work as brilliant as Ricky’s 27. We couldn’t be more excited to have him join us to work with our students on interpreting his music. It is an honor.”

In 27, the audience is invited into the famed Paris salon, located at 27 Rue de Fleurus, of American writer, Gertrude Stein and her wife, Alice B. Toklas, as the two weather both world wars. Along the way, while the paintings sing, the audience meets Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and others among the great artists and writers that Stein hosted and mentored. Originally commissioned by the Opera Theater of St. Louis, 27 received its world premiere in 2014. In a score of just over 90 minutes, Gordon’s spritely music and Royce Vavrek’s clever libretto take the audience on a journey spanning two world wars and give a clear-eyed look at the inspiring and controversial life of this legendary author.

Commenting on his residency at George Mason, Gordon wrote: “I am so looking forward to working with the incredible Richard Leech on an opera of mine that is SO DEAR TO MY HEART! 27 sprang to mind in an INSTANT when I was asked to write an opera for Stephanie Blythe, as Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are lifelong heroes of mine, and their salon became for me a paradigm of how I wanted my life to look, and for George Mason to be doing the first college production is thrilling as well as brave and innovative! Bravi tutti!”

Residency events open to the public include:

Meet the Artist & His Music – Ricky Ian Gordon

Monday, April 14, 2025
12:30 – 1:20 p.m.
Harris Theatre, Fairfax ��

Vocal Masterclass with Ricky Ian Gordon

Wednesday, April 16, 2025
12:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Monson Grand Tier III
Center for the Arts, Fairfax ��, ��

Mason Opera presents 27

*Each performance will feature an introduction by the composer:

Friday, April 25, 2025 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 3 p.m.

Performances will be in Harris Theatre on the Fairfax �� of ��

Tickets: $20 General public, $15 Seniors, and $5 Students

There is also a standing ticket offer for individuals impacted by federal layoffs, which can be applied to the Mason Opera performances.

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Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Dewberry School of Music

Students

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Alumnus uses his creative voice to build connections, honor heritage, and foster peace

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Mason Korea to Host 2025 Korea-US-Japan eSports Tournament

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Renowned American Composer Joins the Dewberry School of Music for a Mason Opera Residency

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Residency events open to the public include:

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