UCO College of Fine Arts and Design

From Oklahoma City to London. 🌍🎶

This summer, ACM@UCO students had the opportunity to attend SXSW London, where music, technology and entrepreneurship come together on a global stage.

Alongside exploring London’s vibrant arts and cultural scene, students connected with industry professionals, discovered emerging trends and experienced firsthand how the music business operates around the world.

Experiences like these are part of ACM@UCO’s commitment to providing real-world learning opportunities that prepare students for careers in the music industry — whether close to home or across the globe.

📸 Pictured (left to right): Sydney Moody, Ashton Hubbard, Emma Barnes and Cooper Anderson.

Some artists perform music. Others use it to ask life’s biggest questions.

UCO School of Music alumnus Kangwa Mundende is doing both.

Recently featured by the Oklahoma Gazette, Mundende discusses his work as a composer, educator and multi-instrumentalist, including his opera “The Burning,” inspired by the Tulsa Race Massacre. In the article, he reflects on music’s power to explore difficult emotions, build community and help us better understand ourselves.

We’re proud to celebrate Kangwa’s accomplishments and the impact he’s making through his artistry and teaching.

Read the full feature: https://www.okgazette.com/music/joy-in-darkness/

📷 Oklahoma Gazette.

From New York City to Newport, Rhode Island, UCO interior design students spent part of their summer exploring world-class design, architecture and the arts.

Members of the Student Interior Design Association visited the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, toured leading design firm HOK, experienced Broadway, explored the Museum of Modern Art and visited several historic Gilded Age mansions in Newport.

These hands-on experiences help connect classroom learning to the professional world while creating memories that will last a lifetime. We’re proud of the students whose fundraising efforts helped make this incredible journey possible.

📸 Swipe through to see highlights from the trip!

UCO's Department of Dance is thrilled to welcome this week's Dance Camp participants to our Edmond campus! From June 1–5, our faculty will be leading daily classes in ballet, modern, and jazz for dancers ages 8–18 across three tracks.

Whether you're stepping into a studio for the first time or preparing for a college or professional dance career, we're so glad you're here. We can't wait to see what you bring to the floor — and we'll see you at the showcase on Friday! 💛💙🩰

The University of Central Oklahoma is proud to welcome music educators from across Oklahoma this week for the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association State Conference 2026 — "The Stories We Tell": Celebrating Imagination, Creativity, and Innovation. 🎶

May 29–30 | University of Central Oklahoma

Two days of concerts, workshops, and conversations about the art and craft of teaching music.

Welcome to UCO, OMTA! 🎹

UCO College of Fine Arts and Design Dean Charleen Weidell's work is part of the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London — and this week, CFAD students got to see it firsthand.

Students on the London Study Tour visited the V&A South Kensington to view Weidell's "Tart server," a forged and engraved sterling silver piece she designed and made in San Diego in 2001. The sculptural server is part of the Rabinovitch Collection, a group of contemporary silver pieces commissioned over 20 years by Professor Benton Seymour Rabinovitch and donated to the V&A through the American Friends of the V&A.

Pictured with students are CFAD professors Barbara DeMaio, D.M.A. and Becky McGuigan, M.F.A.

Interested in studying abroad? UCO's Broncho Study Abroad program offers several study tour options for credit. Visit bronchosabroad.uco.edu to learn more about future opportunities.

Congratulations to Alaina Gunn, class marshal for the College of Fine Arts and Design!

Meet our Class Marshal, Alaina Gunn.

Alaina Gunn is a dance education and forensic investigations double major with a 4.0 GPA in the College of Fine Arts and Design. From Frisco, Texas, she is a member of the Kaleidoscope Dance Company, the Student Academy for Forensic Science and Dance Department Student Choreography. She has been awarded the Outstanding Dance Education Student Scholarship, the Jamie Jacobson Memorial Endowed Dance Scholarship, the Dr. Joann McCarthy Endowed Student Teacher Scholarship and the Maja Kristin Scholarship for Dance.

After graduation, she plans to return to Texas to teach high school forensic science and work with a drill or dance team.

1. What advice would you give to a student just starting their journey at UCO?

“Find the balance that fits your life. College can be challenging as you juggle school, a social life, extracurriculars and living on your own. You cannot give everything 100% all the time, so decide what matters most and prioritize that. It will look different for everyone, and that is okay.”

2. What’s one moment from your time at UCO that you’ll carry with you forever?

“Performing in Konstanz, Germany with Kaleidoscope Dance Company alongside the Konstanz University Dance Department is something I will never forget. It was inspiring to meet dancers from across the world and perform together. That experience created so many defining memories from my time at UCO.”

3. You’re graduating with two very different majors. How did those worlds shape you, and did they overlap in unexpected ways?

“I have always been passionate about both dance and forensics, and pursuing both taught me how much I value balance. When my semesters leaned too heavily one way, it felt incomplete. That pushed me to keep pursuing both areas.
Even though they seem different, they overlap more than you might think. In my Forensic Interviewing course, I learned how to communicate effectively and gather information, which directly connects to working with students and parents as an educator. We also talked about how testifying in court is similar to teaching, you have to meet people where they are to explain complex ideas. Overall, both paths have taught me how to stay calm and confident in high pressure situations.”