Lecture by: UCF History Professor Robert Cassanello , followed by a walk through of our lower gallery displaying work from our permanent collection.

About the Presenter:

Robert Cassanello is an associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida. He is a social historian who writes about Jim Crow America and the Civil Rights Movement. His book To Render Invisible: Jim Crow and Public Life in New South Jacksonville won the 2014 Harry Moore Award by the Florida Historical Society. His other books include, Migration and the Transformation of the Southern Workplace since 1945 with Colin J. Davis and Florida's Working-Class Past: Current Perspectives on Labor, Race, and Gender from Spanish Florida to the New Immigration with Melanie Shell-Weiss.

He has also produced numerous media projects such as the films. His films are The Committee, Filthy Dreamers and Marching Forward with all with film professor Dr. Lisa Mills. Additionally he produced the podcasts A History of Central Florida and The Florida Constitutions both won the Dunn Internet Broadcasting Award with the Florida Historical Society. 

Lecture will be Located in the Madorsky Theater

Camera is the heartwarming story of loss, hope, and healing, following OSCAR, a 9-year-old boy who cannot speak — who has just moved with his widowed mom to a struggling fishing town.  Picked on and bullied, nobody realizes that Oscar sees great beauty where others only see despair. Nobody, that is, until a broken film camera brings him together with ERIC (Beau Bridges), an eccentric old repairman, and an unlikely friendship develops. Under Eric’s mentorship, Oscar finds his voice through photography, and in doing so, heals a wounded community.

Robert Burrill worked in partnership with Ruth Bernhard to complete her feature-length autobiographic film, "Illuminations: Ruth Bernhard, Photographer." The film premiered in 1989 at the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco and on local PBS station KQED in 1990. Her work, distinguished by its exquisite use of light and subtle exploration of form and texture, earned her critical acclaim and a place among the leading figures in 20th-century photography. In Illuminations, Ruth Bernhard reveals her deeply personal vision, which reaches beyond ordinary perceptions. 

As one of the world’s preeminent photographers, Sally Mann creates artwork that challenges viewers’ values and moral attitudes. Described by Time magazine as “America's greatest photographer,” she first came to international prominence in 1992 with “Immediate Family,” a series of complex and enigmatic pictures of her own children. This work, and the controversy that followed it, was chronicled in Steven Cantor’s award-winning short film, Blood Ties.

COMING SOON: Thesis & Departures 2024 will be on display from May 2 to July 31. An opening reception will be held in the gallery on May 2 from 6-8 p.m. Please join us to celebrate the achievements of our UCF Photography B.S. and DSC Photographic Technology A.S. graduates!

Image credit: Kassandra Ramirez, Henry Crespo, 2024. From the series Borikèn Tainos.

Practice mindfulness and relieve stress with this interactive yoga workshop, led by Daytona State College professor Dr. Heather Eaton. This workshop is all-levels friendly.

Join us for a free origami workshop for veterans in our community!

I Am My Music shifts the focus away from the creation of music to the experience of listening to it, and to the formats that have shaped and ultimately defined that experience. From vinyl, cassette tape, CD, and MP3, each generation has had a piece of musical media to call its own– a way of listening that determines not only how and where we listen, but also the manner in which we collect, store, and share the music we love.

Image credit: Mick Jagger in Soundbreaking. © The Bob Bonis Archive

Chronicling the era in which MTV forged an indelible and inextricable link between recorded music and the newly emergent music video, Sound and Vision considers what it means to see music as well as hear it. Tracking the music video from MTV to the internet, Sound and Vision tells the story of how a one-time marketing tool became a powerful mediator between artist and audience. lluminates the role of the music video in popular music.

This screening will be followed by a special presentation from guest speakers Jake Nicely and Scott Velazco.

The World in Yours looks at a musical revolution that was not only inspired by recording but born from its history: the art of sampling––a kind of musical equivalent of Adam’s rib.  Beginning with the pioneers of hip hop, the episode tracks the way in which the practice of borrowing fragments from existing records created a new genre––a potent musical form that emerged from the margins, up-ended the establishment, and set in motion a controversy over copyright that has yet to be resolved.

If the vocal track is the heart of a song, the rhythm track––the beat––is its body. It’s the sonic element that taps into the most primal part of us and makes us want to move. Four on The Floor breaks the beat down, and examines the endless experimentation that has taken place at its core, the very bedrock of all music. Charts the progression of the beat from drum and bass to beatbox and beyond––from Little Richard and James Brown to disco and EDM.

Image credit: Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Chic, and Alfa Anderson in Soundbreaking. © Jill Furmanovsky

Going Electric tells the story of the most elemental force in recording–-electricity––and the musical revolution it sparked. Highlighting the way in which electricity has been harnessed and channeled to create new and never-before-heard sounds, Going Electric traces both the chain reaction unleashed by the invention of the electric guitar and the evolution of synthesized music, highlighting how the power of technology is used to redefine music.

Image credit: Malcolm Cecil in Soundbreaking. © William Matthias

Celebrating the most powerful of all instruments––the human voice––the third episode of Soundbreaking surveys the range of ingredients that go into a perfect vocal track. Featuring rare studio footage of some the world’s most renowned vocalists––from blues divas to suave crooners to rock star screamers––the show considers the gamut of tricks and techniques that can both enhance and alter the human voice.

Image credit: Adele in Soundbreaking. Courtesy Sony Music Archives.

The advent of magnetic tape and multitracking technology allowed artists to experiment with music in new ways, from the 4- and 8-track productions born of the friendly rivalry between the Beatles and the Beach Boys, to the 16- and 24-track productions created by Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac, to the digital innovations that today fuel the work of artists such as Beck, Bon Iver, and Radiohead.

Image credit: George Martin and the Beatles. © Abbey Road Studios

Soundbreaking begins where a recording does––at the intersection of inspiration and execution. There stands the enigmatic figure of the record producer, the person charged with the critical task of both realizing an artist’s vision and capturing it for posterity. Profiling some of the most accomplished and revered producers in the recording industry, Episode One offers a study in contrasting styles and approaches.

Image credit: Sly Stone in Soundbreaking. © Warren Paul Harris

Join us on May. 30th at 5pm for a presentation by composer Nina C. Young, Mentoring Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts residency program. Young’s compositions explore the intersection of instrumental and electroacoustic music, characterized by an acute sensitivity to tone color, manifested in aural images of vibrant, arresting immediacy. Her projects, ranging from concert pieces to interactive installations, strive to create unique sonic environments that explore aural architectures, resonance, and ephemera.

Join us on May 25th at 5pm for an artist presentation by film maker and visual artist Sky Hopinka, Mentoring Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts residency program. Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) was born and raised in Ferndale, Washington and spent a number of years in Palm Springs and Riverside, California, Portland, Oregon, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Portland he studied and taught chinuk wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin. His video, photo, and text work centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape, designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal, documentary, and non fiction forms of media.

Join us for a virtual artist talk featuring Michael Grecco, who will give a presentation about his time in the 1980's punk scene, and his experiences in being both photographer and active participant in this era of musical history. This virtual presentation will include a video segment as well as a Q&A session at the end.