Center for the Arts

Dance Alumni Concert Video

The Center for the Arts Video Production team produced this fantastic video about the recent UB Dance Alumni All-Stars concert and fundraiser for the dance residency program. 

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo to host the Society for the Arts in Healthcare's 20th Annual International Conference

The Center's Arts in Healthcare program and partnership with Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute to be showcased before an international audience April 22-25, 2009

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will host the Society for the Arts in Healthcare's 20th Annual International Conference. The Conference will be held April 22-25, 2009, with the majority of events scheduled to take place at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

Designed to highlight best practices, innovative programs and cutting-edge research in the field of Arts in Healthcare, more than 300 students, educators, healthcare professionals and artists from across the United States, Canada, and Europe will convene in Buffalo. The conference will also highlight the work being done locally with the Center for the Arts' partner institutions - Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute - as well as the many assets of the Western New York community.

The Society for the Arts in Healthcare works to promote the arts in healthcare in order to humanize the healthcare experience and connect people with the power of the arts at key moments in their lives. A range of arts in healthcare initiatives supporting patients, families, caregivers and communities will be represented, including music, dance, drama, visual arts and literary arts programs.

Selected conference highlights include:

• A conference session entitled "Arts in Healthcare: The Next Decade, Challenges & Opportunities Ahead" will be presented as a panel discussion with: Donald L. Trump, MD, FACP, President & CEO Roswell Park Cancer Institute; Paul T. Hogan, Vice President, John R. Oishei Foundation; Paula Terry, Director of the Office of AccessAbility, National Endowment for the Arts; and Naj Wikoff, President, Creative Healing Connections. In addition, Cheryl Klass, President of Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo and Vice President for Kaleida Health will be part of a panel for the "Buffalo Arts in Healthcare Showcase."


• The conference will mark the launch of "Arts & Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice" published by the Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group in association with the Society for Arts in Healthcare.


• A performance by Julia Sweeney in a special staged reading of her one-woman show "God Said Ha!" on Thursday, April 23 at 8:00pm in the UB Center for the Arts co-sponsored by the Society for the Arts in Healthcare. Julia Sweeney is best known for her four hit seasons on "Saturday Night Live," and many will remember her androgynous character "Pat." (note: conference registration is not required to purchase tickets to this event).


• Erie County Executive Chris Collins and UB President John B. Simpson will welcome the Society's delegates at the Opening Plenary Session on April 23.  

This Arts in Healthcare initiative was established by the Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo to bring the performing and visual arts into healthcare settings at Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. This is the first comprehensive program of its kind in Western New York, and is made possible by the John R. Oishei Foundation, Seymour H. Knox Foundation, and Bank of America Foundation. Support for the program at Roswell Park Cancer Institute comes from: Samuel Son & Co., Inc., The Pepsi Bottling Group, and The Cameron and Jane Baird Foundation.

The Center for the Arts is dedicated to the cultural enrichment of the University at Buffalo and its surrounding communities through the presentation of public arts and cultural events of the highest quality. Celebrating the creative process through innovative programming, the Center crosses socio-economic, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries. The Center nurtures excellence and innovation in the arts through education, presentation, community service, and research in the visual and performing arts, while broadening the base of understanding, appreciation, and support for the arts through meaningful community partnerships.

The Society for the Arts in Healthcare (SAH) is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization located in Washington, DC. Founded in 1991, the Society is dedicated to advancing the arts as integral to healthcare. With over 1,700 members from around the globe, the Society advocates for the arts in healthcare through partnerships with arts and healthcare providers and related organizations; provides technical assistance through a national consultant service; convenes conferences, symposia and webinars on cutting-edge topics; offers information about model programs and best practices, including research and evaluation; and manages grant and awards initiatives that support innovative program development.

Attendance at conference events is open to the general public, but registration is required. For more information, please visit www.thesah.org. For more information on the Center for the Arts' Arts in Healthcare program, please visit www.ubcfa.org. ####

Arts in Healthcare Initiative in the Buffalo News

The Arts in Healthcare program was the cover story in Sunday's Buffalo News
"Spotlight" section.

You can read the story here:
http://www.buffalonews.com/185/story/467772.html

The News also put together a nice audio slideshow:
http://www.buffalonews.com/webextras/story/467945.html

Readers are also leaving comments on the ArtsBeat Blog:
http://buffalonews.typepad.com/artsbeat/2008/10/the-healing-pow.html

Cirque du Soleil professionals visit UB theater class

Adam Miller (Artistic Director), Pierre Luc (Sound Technician), and Alain Gauthier (Asst. Production Director) of Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco visited a tech theatre class at the UB Center for the Arts today.  The gentlemen spoke about what it is like to work for Cirque du Soleil, what they do in their jobs, and how Cirque grew from 125 employees in 1990 to nearly 5,000 today.  

Miller has been a dancer and choreographer for 20 years before joining Cirque du Soleil for this tour of Saltimbanco.  Pierre started as a technical intern, helped the company in an emergency, and was hired shortly thereafter.  Returning to Montreal after playing hockey in Europe, Alain began as an usher for the show in Montreal at its beginning.

Saltimbanco continues this weekend at HSBC Arena. 

Explore the Arts This Week

The Center's annual summer program for kids entering grades 5-8 is a great time for kids interested in the many aspects of theatrical arts.  Participants learn technical concepts and get practical hands-on experience in lighting, stage design, sound and sound design, costume and textile design as well as performance, improv, and movement. 

Support Summer Program Scholarships with UNO Chicago Grill Gift Cards

Trying to make lunch plans?
Not sure where to meet for Happy Hour?

The Center for the Arts has partnered with UNO Chicago Grill on Maple Road in Amherst for a special project, and you can help!  You can help raise money to send a deserving child to our Explore the Arts Summer Program just by eating and drinking at UNO!! 

All you have to do is stop by Suite 103 at the Center (directly behind the Box Office) before your next visit to UNO, purchase special Center for the Arts UNO Gift Cards, and use them to pay for your order ($10 and $5 increments are available). When you use these cards to pay for your order, 20% of your total bill will be donated to our Explore the Arts Scholarship Fund!

Click here to learn more about the Explore the Arts Summer program.

Hudson Vagabond Puppets visit Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo

As part of the pilot year for the Center's arts in healthcare outreach program, puppeteers from the Hudson Vagabond Puppets performed and played with patients and their families in the playroom at Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo.  Puppeteers performed three interactive stories with costumes and props, using the entire playroom as a set. 

Tango and Robert Bluestone

Last night was a very busy night at the Center for the Arts.  Before the performance by professional Argentine dance company Tango Buenos Aires, the Buffalo Argentine Tango Society gave demonstrations and tango lessons in the Atrium.  Barbara Cavanaugh led the lessons with volunteer members of the Society available as dance partners.  Everyone was invited to join in  - and they did! 

Check out more photos at:

http://buffalo.myspotted.com/pages/gallery.php?gallery=297387

Meanwhile, the smaller Drama Theater was a venue for a much different performance.  Classical guitarist Robert Bluestone performed soft, ancient music for a small crowd of Center patrons.  Bluestone is in Buffalo working with the Center's pilot program of Arts in Healthcare, a new initiative based on the concept that artists and performers will engage hospital patients as part of the healing process.  Bluestone is actively engaged in these types of programs all over the country and has experience performing for and engaging patients and their caregivers in treatment centers, in the public spaces of the hospital, as well as in individual rooms.

Buffalo Loves an Outdoor Concert

Even in the rain, local Buffalonians turned out last night for the first installment of the new UB on the Green concert series on the lawn of Hayes Hall on UB South Campus.  People came prepared for rain with ponchos & umbrellas, to hear the New Orleans sound of Mumbo Gumbo and LeeRon Zydeco.  If you missed the event, the next concert is next Tuesday, July, 24, featuring dance by Le Ballet Touba 'n' Dame Fall with Rochester's Garth Fagan Dance, and artists Edreys Wajed and Iris M. Kirkwood.

Buffalo.com/Spotted posted a gallery at this link: http://buffalo.myspotted.com/pages/gallery.php?gallery=296317

Shopping Online Benefits the Center

The Center for the Arts is a registered cause with iGive.com,  a service that funnels a percentage of your online purchases to non-profits and causes of your choice.  Shop through iGive.com, and the stores send a percent to The Center!  It costs you nothing extra and the donations go towards the Center's outreach programs: the School Time Transportation Fund, the Explore the Arts Scholarship Fund, the annual dance residency, and Music is Art Live @ The Center.