UCCS Department of Visual and Performing Arts

Congratulations to the Visual & Performing Art Department's Outstanding Students for Spring 2026! 🏆🎨🎶🎭

Art History - Lila Pacheo
Film Studies - Katherine Monsen
Film Studies Minor - Nikki Wright
Music - Autumn Choate
Theatre - Kaya Cogger
Visual Art - Riley Rhodes
VAPA - Emily De Smidt

The VAPA Film Festival is a local event highlighting student achievement in film and showcases different genres such as horror, comedy, documentaries, horror, & musical videos, featuring students and local actors, tackling social issues, highlights future stars, all through the eyes of future film makers.

This year, there were many talented artists! Here are the winners of each category:

Audience Choice and Favorite Thriller: Is That Yours: Suitcase II (dir. Rob Bowen)
Favorite Comedy: Professional-ish (dir. Journey Forrest)
Favorite Horror: No Strings Attached (dir. Val Tostado)
Favorite Experimental: Project Eternity (dir. Jonathan Heisler)
Favorite Animation: Big Mouth (dir. Riley Rhodes)
Favorite Documentary: Robert von Dassanowsky (dir. Jeurdan Directo)

Students from Visual Art Teaching Professor Stacy J. Platt's class have been working on semester-long personal photography projects, and are exhibiting their work tonight in a pop-up show at The Packaging Express, located at 618 Garden of the Gods Rd. The exhibition is TONIGHT, May 1st, from 4:30pm-7:30pm. Food and drinks will be served.

From first note to full fiesta—the UCCS Mariachi Ensemble, performing with Mariachi Diamante, is bringing the heat from rehearsal to the stage TONIGHT, 7:30pm, at the Ent Center for the Arts! 🔥🎺 Mariachi Diamante has been mentoring our new program and passing on the beauty of this tradition to the next generation of learners and advocates. This event is free and open to all, but ticket reservation is required at loom.ly/WqedEEE.

In VA 1040: Drawing Foundations, students participated in a project called the 'Collaborative Grid Portrait.'
How its made: A black and white printed photo of a person relevant to our culture today is gridded and then cut into over one hundred 1 x 1" squares. Every student is given ~ seven random squares and then they draw 6 x 6" enlargements of each square using charcoal on drawing paper. Their goal is to match the value, texture, pattern, space, and composition of the original small square within each larger drawing, while not knowing who or what they are drawing. Once the drawings are complete, we cut them out and tape them together, thereby reconstructing the portrait. The result is a large-scale, distorted, almost pixelated translation of the original image. This year, Professor Corey Drieth chose Alysa Liu for the project due to her positivity, grit, grace, and cultural impact.

Thank you for Carrying the Light! Your generosity on UCCS Giving Day helps create opportunities for students and strengthens UCCS.

🚀 It’s UCCS Giving Day! Join the UCCS community today and support students, research, and innovation at vapa.uccs.edu/giving.

You can choose to donate to specific programs such as visual art and theatre, or to VAPA in general! UCCS Giving Day is only 24 hours! Don’t miss your chance to be part of something BIG.

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📣 Get ready! UCCS Giving Day is tomorrow! Join the Mountain Lion community to make an impact!

UCCS is the only university in the US where students in the visual and performing arts receive cutting-edge education and training in their fields of specialization while also benefiting from a department that allows them to articulate their interests, skills, and performances across artistic approaches backed by a strong interdisciplinary curriculum.

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🎉 Only two days until UCCS Giving Day! Are you ready to Carry the Light and support UCCS students?

The Visual Art program helps students realize their unique artistic aspirations through a myriad of culturally relevant artistic practices. By way of a curriculum emphasizing an experimental, cross-disciplinary approach in the studio, complemented with the study of art history and critical theory in the classroom, the visual art faculty helps students expand the scope of their artistic vision while thoroughly preparing them for a professional life in the contemporary art world.

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