Loyola Visual & Performing Arts

Read on to learn more about what the 2023-2024 school year had in store for our talented students, faculty, staff, and alumni!

This year's student exhibition featured impressive student art from Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 photography and studio arts courses. Awards were presented to three photography and three studio arts students for particularly outstanding work. The awards were juried by award-winning Baltimore artist, Devin Allen!

Photography Award Winners

1st place: Izzy Paiva, ’26

2nd place: Kenneth Noah Mansfield, ’25

3rd place: Sophia Randle, ’25, and Vilnis Chakars, ’25

Studio Arts Award Winners

1st place: Trevor Sangiorgio, ’26

2nd place: Warren Megger, ’24

3rd place: Katherine Albert, ’26

Poster design by Molly Clement, ’25

Concert Choir (MU 212/312)

Cantorei (MU 327)

Chamber Ensemble (MU 220/320)

Guitar Ensemble (MU 230/330)

Jazz Ensemble (MU 211/311)

Jazz Combo (MU 323)

Steel Pan Ensemble (MU 231/331)

Private Lessons

Applied Music Lessons (MU 360/361) are offered in voice, piano, brass, woodwinds, strings, guitar, percussion, and more!

Ensembles and lessons are open to all Loyola students. Some ensembles require an audition. Lessons are free for performing arts majors with a music or comprehensive concentration, music minors, first year students, and first-semester sophomores. All ensembles and lessons can be taken for academic credit. Contact Dr. Price (cprice1@loyola.edu) for more information.

Photo by Lindsey Bonavita, ’25

In 1838, the Society of Jesus sold 272 enslaved individuals to keep Georgetown University financially viable, a group now known as "the GU272". Loyola University Maryland was among the Catholic institutions of the Maryland province to benefit from the sale of the GU272, with the funds ultimately contributing to the founding of the University. For nearly two years, a group of Loyola faculty, administrators, and students, along with two members of the GU272 descendant community, conducted scholarly research to better understand the University’s connections to slavery. This spring, the Visual and Performing Arts Department participated in a series of events related to slavery and its legacies at Loyola.

In combination with their exhibition, Unrested, 2023-2024 Artists-in-Residence strikeWare ran workshops that were attended by over 20 Loyola classes. The workshops brought students into a creative learning process that allowed a way into the conversation and revealed the impacts and reverberations that slavery and racism have had and continue to have on our community.

In March, the Theatre Program hosted the performance piece Here I Am by Mélisande Short-Colomb. Written and performed by Short-Colomb, directed by Dr. Derek Goldman, and produced by the Lab for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown, Here I Am weaves narrative, music, and multimedia imagery, inviting the audience on an experiential journey celebrating Short-Colomb's 11 generations of maternal grandmothers and exploring her complicated relationship with the institution that enslaved her ancestors. Short-Colomb is a direct descendant the GU272 and has been an anchoring member of the President’s Task Force Examining Loyola’s Connections to Slavery.

This April, Apprentice House Press released Untold Truths: Exposing Slavery and its Legacies at Loyola, a book exploring Loyola’s historical connections to slavery, Jim Crow, and racial injustice. Privileging the voices of the GU272, Untold Truths features original scholarship and creative work written and edited by Loyola students and faculty. Four studio arts students from the Spring 2023 section of Public Art – Evan Casas, ’23, Allie House, ’25, Randi Little, ’23, and Sophia Randle, ’25 – created banners for the launch of Untold Truths. Emblazoned with the phrase, “Strong Truths Well Hidden”, the banners were exhibited at the event and on the quad for two weeks following the book launch.

• Nez Blaho, ’24 (theatre major and studio arts minor) was accepted into the Master of Arts in Theatre Education program at the Catholic University of America.
• Emily Coccovizzo, ’25 (music minor) was the Assistant Stage Manager for Iron Crow Theatre’s award-winning production of RENT.
• Anna DeBlasio, ’15 (theatre major) was the substitute for the roles of Hilma and Cornelia in the world premiere of Hilma – a contemporary opera about the early 20th century queer mystic and artist Hilma af Klint – at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia.
• Christina Guerra, ’23 (art history major) was awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education to study languages in the graduate program at the South Asia Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
• Izzy Guerrero, ’24 (photography major) won first place in the arts category at the Undergraduate Student Research and Scholarship Colloquium. Their presentation, “Hacking Instantaneous: Process-Based Creative Explorations in an Everyday Medium”, built off their creative work completed in the Fall 2023 Senior Capstone for Artists.
  
• Anna Landi, ’24 (studio arts major) served as a Research Assistant for Professor Friebele for the Spring 2024 semester.
• Riley Loz, ’24 (theatre minor) was accepted into the Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program at Loyola University Maryland.
• Joe Mucciolo, ’17 (theatre major) was a company member at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia, for their 2023-2024 season. Joe also became a member of the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).
• Matt Piccinini, ’24 (theatre major) was mentored by Professor McAfee in an internship in which he was the Head Electrician for the Theatre Program's spring musical, The Prom.
  
• Tenley Pitonzo, ’13 (theatre major), an Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) stage manager, served as the Stage Manager for Public Obscenities at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C.
• Monyaé Smalls, ’24 (music major) was accepted into the Master of Divinity program at Wake Forest University.

• Dr. Irene A. Bal received a grant from the Maryland Center for Computing Education to provide computer science professional development to the entire education faculty at Loyola’s School of Education and support the integration of Computer Science into the initial certification Education Program.
• Dr. Natka Bianchini was named Managing Director of Iron Crow Theatre, Baltimore’s award-winning and critically acclaimed queer theatre, in November 2023. Under her leadership, the company’s production of Jonathan Larson’s RENT transferred to the brand-new M&T Bank Exchange. This transfer was history-making, representing the first time a small theatre company in Baltimore transferred a production to a union, equity house.
• Dr. Kerry Boeye presented a paper at the 2024 College Art Association Annual Conference in Chicago.
  
• Dr. James Bunzli performed his original solo performance piece, 1973 Dodge Monaco Station Wagon, at the Charm City Fringe Festival in October 2023.
• Professor Billy Friebele was awarded the Environmental Justice Artivist Fellowship, which is supported by the Aspen Institute, Social Art and Culture, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
• Professor Giulia Livi was named as a semifinalist for the 2024 Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize.
• Dr. Chris Lonegan was granted emeritus status after over two decades of service to the University, making him an Assistant Teaching Professor Emeritus of Studio Arts.
  
• Professor Jon Malis was awarded a competitive Artist Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council in recognition of his ongoing creative practice.
• Dr. Barnaby Nygren presented a paper about the Thebaid in Early Colonial Mexico at the Renaissance Society of America Conference in Chicago.
  
• Professor Daniel Pinha was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for his set design for The Tell-Tale Heart at Synetic Theater.
• Dr. Michael Rickelton was named Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society.

Dedicated in memory of Dr. Janet Headley, the new Visual and Performing Arts Department lounge is located on the ground floor of College Center West, between the music practice rooms and the main department office.

Dr. Headley earned a B.A. in art history from the University of Delaware, a M.A. from Temple University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. She was an Andrew Mellon Faculty Fellow at Harvard University and was twice a fellow of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Dr. Headley was a scholar of public art, especially the public monuments of late-19th century Boston. She also served for over 20 years as the chair of the Department of Fine Arts (now Visual and Performing Arts). Above all, Dr. Headley was an extraordinary teacher and mentor.

The Dr. Janet Headley Lounge is open to everyone Monday-Friday, 9am-6pm. After hours and on weekends, the lounge is accessible via ID card for Visual and Performing Arts majors, minors, faculty, and staff.

Hey Class of 2024! As you leave Loyola, we’d love to hear about your experience in the Visual and Performing Arts Department and what your future plans are. Is there a professor who helped guide you? Was there a class that you absolutely loved? Do you have exciting post-graduation plans that you’d like to share? All feedback is welcome.

The Visual and Performing Arts Department has Federal Work-Study positions open in music, photography, studio arts, and theatre! Interested students should submit their applications via Handshake at the beginning of the fall semester. Students who are eligible for Federal Work-Study for the 2024-2025 academic year are strongly encouraged to check their Loyola email account over the summer for important communications from the Office of Financial Aid.