On May 2 and 3, the campus celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Linehan Artist Scholars Program with two days of festivities attended by dozens of alumni, current scholars, and incoming students.
Exhibitions and performances featured works by scholars from across the years, including choreography by Ryan Bailey, LAS ā16, a theatrical performance by Grace Marsh, LAS ā28, music performances by Michelle Purdy, LAS ā10 and Christian Hartman, LAS ā20, artwork by Petra Janka, LAS ā25 and Riley Payne, LAS ā29, and creativity by many other alumni and students. Featured speakers included Cameron Slayden, LAS ā99, from the very first LAS cohort and now CEO of Microverse Studios, James Dorsey, LAS ā05, a music teacher in Prince George’s County Public Schools, and Courtney Culp, LAS ā20, a designer with Warner Brothers Discovery.
Left: Brechtel and Haynes are greeted by UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby following their performance, joined by Shaness Kemp, assistant professor of dance. Right: Christian Hartman plays the cello, while Ryan Bailey and Clarisse Lukban dance on stage in Linehan Concert Hall.
“The Linehan Program has strengthened my passions for new music and interdisciplinary collaboration, and I am so grateful to the program for supporting me as an artist and providing me with so many opportunities to create and collaborate,” says Hartman, who played the cello for the event. “I was so thrilled to get the opportunity to perform once again on the stage I called home for four years, and to work with Clarisse and Ryan. I didn’t see their choreography or the projections until the day of the performance, and to see it all come together was such a breathtaking experience.”
Left to right: Darielle and Earl Linehan at the post-celebration luncheon; Jillian Casey, LAS ā27 with her mom at the post-celebration luncheon; Ann Sofie Clemmensen, director of the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, poses with Petra Janka, LAS ā25.
“Earl and Darielle Linehan’s commitment to UMBC and the Linehan Artist Scholars Program has created transformative learning experiences for hundreds of talented undergraduates majoring in the visual and performing arts,” says Ann Sofie Clemmensen, director of the program. “Our focus for the celebration was to highlight the past and the future of the Linehan Artist Scholars program, and what makes our program and community unique and essential to the undergraduate rigor at UMBC.”
Juju Ayoub, LAS ’25, and Sarah McHale perform a dance duet, accompanied by music sung by Jacob Perry, LAS ā14, with visual projections by Jillian Casey, LAS ā28.
With a deeply held belief in the importance of the arts in society, Earl and Darielle Linehan launched the Linehan Artist Scholars Program with a generous gift in the 1990s. (To this day, Earl Linehan loves to recount that he and Darielle met UMBC President Emeritus Freeman Hrabowski on a bus in Israel, and that Hrabowski asked them right then for their support.) In 2015 the Linehans fully endowed the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, ensuring its future ability to continue and grow. Now, its graduates in dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts number almost 400.
Left to right: An audience cheers on dance and music performances in the Theatre atrium; a group of Linehan Artist Scholars pose for a group photo during the post-celebration luncheon; Marlayna Demond, LAS ā11, center, talks with her husband, Adam Rhoads, and Tom Moore, director of arts and culture.
“Artists are the leading edge of creativity in our society,” says Earl Linehan. “They inspire our thinking and enrich our lives. But how can we encourage more young people to turn their talents into a career? Young artists seem to thrive best in an atmosphere that blends critical study with creative expressionsāthe kind of interdisciplinary environment that UMBC has always fostered.”
See more photos from the two-day celebration. Learn more about the Linehan Artist Scholars Program.
Tags: CAHSS, Dance, design, Linehan Artist Scholar, Music, Theatre, visual and performing arts
