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From left, astronomy professor Roger Chevalier, music professor Nicole Mitchell Gantt and biology professor Raymond Keller are among the newest fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Music

Accolades: American Academy of Arts & Sciences Welcomes 3 More UVA Faculty Members

Add three more University of Virginia faculty members to the list of American Academy of Arts & Sciences fellows. The prestigious honorary society and research center announced April 23 that biology professor Raymond Keller, music professor Nicole Mitchell Gantt and astronomy professor Roger Chevalier join this year’s 250-member class. The academy dates to the American Revolution, and fellowship is considered one of the highest academic honors for faculty.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/accolades-american-academy-arts-sciences-welcomes-3-more-uva-faculty-members

Three UVA Cavalier Daily writers are pictured
Creative Writing

Roundtable: From Arts and Entertainment Bylines to New Beginnings

The University’s arts scene is a thriving one with student-run theater productions and a cappella concerts, coupled with film screenings, gallery shows, comedy nights and literary journals. This is, in no small part, a result of the passionate student artists on and around Grounds who bring it to life — not just as performers or creators, but as writers, editors and commentators.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/05/roundtable-from-arts-and-entertainment-bylines-to-new-beginnings?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest

A picture of The Merton Spire, which is a tower carved from soft, porous limestone.
Visual Art

So Hoos Asking: What Is a Limestone Spire From Across the Pond Doing on Grounds?

Don’t worry if you’re unsure about the three-ton limestone sculpture in the lower garden of Pavilion VI, why it’s there remains a mystery. The sculpture is the Merton Spire, a really big gift from Merton College, Oxford, that originally perched atop a chapel buttress. A plaque on the piece reads “A pinnacle of Merton College Chapel Tower, erected 1451, presented to the University of Virginia, 1927, by Merton College, Oxford.”

https://news.virginia.edu/content/so-hoos-asking-what-limestone-spire-across-pond-doing-grounds

Grid of various movie covers, some including Lilo and Stitch, Barbie, and Minecraft
Film

Why Are Movie Reboots So Successful?

In the first episode of the Apple TV series, “The Studio,” Seth Rogen plays a Hollywood studio boss tasked with making a box-office hit and prestige film about the Kool-Aid Man. He recruits director Martin Scorsese to make the movie, only for the Oscar-winning director to become intent on making a movie about Jonestown, the cult settlement in Guyana where followers took their own lives drinking poisoned Kool-Aid.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/why-are-movie-reboots-so-successful

Yellow box with the word Overcranked

Overcranked Film Festival’s Final Act Was a Celebration of Year-long Endeavors

As the academic year winds to a close, students begin to reap the fruits of their labors from the previous two semesters. Some students have particularly tangible, triumphant final projects — namely those who debuted their short films Monday night to a crowd of around one hundred attendees at the Ruth Caplin Theater during the Overcranked Student Film Festival.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/05/overcranked-film-festivals-final-act-was-a-celebration-of-year-long-endeavors

Cast members Marc and Yunina shared their excitement about the production, highlighting its innovative approach.
Drama

'Hamlet' Gets a Hilarious, Modern, Queer Twist in 'Fat Ham' at Austin Playhouse

Shakespeare's classic tragedy "Hamlet" is getting a fresh, funny, and modern twist with "Fat Ham," now playing at Austin Playhouse. This unique adaptation brings a queer perspective to the timeless tale, promising audiences a theatrical experience like no other. Cast members Marc and Yunina shared their excitement about the production, highlighting its innovative approach. "It's Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' but with a funny, modern, queer twist," they said, inviting theatergoers to witness this bold reimagining.

https://cbsaustin.com/features/we-are-austin/hamlet-gets-a-hilarious-modern-queer-twist-in-fat-ham-at-austin-playhouse

Ubuhlanti: Solution Oriented Being at The Fralin Museum of Art. Photo by Stacey Evans.

UBUHLANTI FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO UVA: Solution Based Curating at The Fralin Museum of Art

What does it mean to bring the world to UVA? In recent years, “curating” has become a hot-topic everywhere from museums and universities to fine-dining and social network influencers. As consumers, we can now select from a global array of options in every domain of life. While this has made us more attuned to the diversity of “world” experiences, it has also resulted in the inequalities that curator Geraldo Mosquero has identified, between “curated” and “curating” cultures. Bridging this divide has been a central question for Profs. Noel Lobley (music) and Henry Skerrritt (art history) as they developed the Co-Present Art Initiative with Xhosa artist Xolile ‘X’ Madinda in both Makhanda, South Africa and Charlottesville, Virginia.

June 5, 2025
The Heart Sellers with an illustration of a person in a red dress carrying a suitcase with writing on it
Drama

Casting Announcement for "The Heart Sellers"

he Virginia Theatre Festival has announced the cast and creative team for its upcoming production of playwright Lloyd Suh’s The Heart Sellers. The Heart Sellers will run from July 11-July 20 and will be directed by Desdemona Chiang, who returns to VTF, where she directed Harvey in 2018. Pulitzer Prize-finalist Lloyd Suh’s sweet, funny, and deeply moving play highlights the experiences of two 20-something immigrant women, one from the Philippines and one from South Korea, who meet, by chance, in a grocery store on Thanksgiving night. Set in 1973, eight years after the passing of the Hart-Celler Act, which abolished immigration quotas in America, the play finds Luna and Jane bonding over their common longing for the homes they left behind and the excitement for what lies ahead in a new land.

https://virginiatheatrefestival.org/casting-announcement-for-the-heart-sellers/

Get Happy Female presenting figure with black hat and suit on
Drama

Casting Announcement for "Get Happy!"

The Virginia Theatre Festival has announced the creative team for its season-ending production of Get Happy! A Celebration of the World’s Greatest Entertainer with Jenna Pastuszek. The show lives up to its name by taking audiences on a joy-filled journey powered by the songs of the legendary Judy Garland.

https://virginiatheatrefestival.org/casting-announcement-for-get-happy/

Matthew Burtner
Music

A Day in the Life of a Music Professor Conducting Summer Field Work

An internationally acclaimed composer, sound artist and ecoacoustician, Music professor Matthew Burtner has performed his work in concerts around the world and has had his music featured by organizations ranging from NASA, the U.S. State Department and National Geographic to the BBC and PBS NewsHour. Burtner is spending part of this summer teaching at UVA's Morven Farm as part of a sustainability-focused teaching, research and engagement program. This video offers a glimpse of a day with the Alaskan-born Burtner and his "Sound and Sustainability" students as they take their sound field kits to Morven's Japanese Garden and surrounding landscapes to record the musical sounds of nature.

https://as.virginia.edu/day-life-music-professor-conducting-summer-field-work

Detail of Autumn Samone's Work
Visual Art

Arts This Week: Ruffin Gallery’s Echoes of the Shadows

The Ruffin Art Gallery graduation exhibition is open until June 6th. The exhibition is a collection of student works curated by two of the department’s graduate students. For Arts This Week, we spoke with Elena Yu Ganiyu Jimoh and Elnaz Latifpour.

https://www.wtju.net/arts-this-week-ruffin-gallerys-echoes-of-the-shadows/

David J. Getsy, the Eleanor Shea Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for his work exploring how non-normative genders and sexualities have shaped art and cultural history. Photo credit: Evan Kutsko

David J. Getsy Awarded Prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

David J. Getsy, the Eleanor Shea Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. The honor recognizes his groundbreaking research at the intersection of art history, queer studies, trans studies and performance studies. Getsy's work has significantly contributed to understanding how non-normative genders and sexualities have shaped art and cultural history.

https://as.virginia.edu/david-j-getsy-awarded-prestigious-guggenheim-fellowship