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Lab-based Experiential Learning

Lab-based Experiential Learning


IN THIS SECTION
  • Visual & Performing Arts
  • Music Lessons, Ensembles, & Performance
    • Applied Music Lessons Application
  • Theatre Production
    • Auditions
  • Visual Art Exhibits & Studios
    • Sagamore Studios
    • The Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery
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Contact Visual & Performing Arts
Learning Resource Center
Suite LRC-325
VPA@worcester.edu
508-929-8145

Visual & Performing Arts Creativity Opportunities at Worcester State

As a Visual and Performing Arts major, your arts education takes place within the classroom and expands beyond its walls. You’ll take the knowledge and techniques you learn in class and apply them to a unique array of exhibits, concerts, and productions on campus and beyond. Check out what our students have done on VPA’s Instagram Page and YouTube channel.

Art

VPA’s art classes take place at Worcester State’s Sagamore Studios (transportation provided by a shuttle service), where we offer courses in drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking as well as topics like the history of American art, modern art, and museum studies. Plus, special topics courses convey a unique insight into a specific art form.

Exhibit opportunities include:

  • Open Art Calls – Professors keep on top of open art calls and encourage students to enter.
  • Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery – The on-campus gallery exhibits the work of students, faculty, and renowned artists.
  • Open Studios – Students exhibit work during open studio events at Sagamore Studios.

Music

VPA offers opportunities to study music through applied instrumental and vocal lessons and through coursework in composition, theory and history. Students compose music in Sagamore Studios, perform on and off campus, and prepare for lessons and performances in practice rooms.

For information about instrumental and voice lessons contact Professor of Music Kyle Martin at kmartin@worcester.edu and for choral programs contact Professor of Music Christie Nigro at cnigro@worcester.edu.

Performance opportunities include:

  • Private music lessons (applied music) in all instruments and voice. Students perform at fall and spring mosaics and other opportunities as they arise. Contact VPAMusic@worcester.edu.
  • Choral programs offer a Chorus and a capella Chorale group that perform at Mechanics Hall Holiday Pops and WSU Concerts. Contact cnigro@worcester.edu.
  • WSU offers ensembles in jazz, winds, guitar, brass, voice, strings, African drumming, and Musica!, Worcester State’s Latin American Music ensemble. Students perform at fall and spring mosaics and other opportunities as they arise.

Theatre

VPA offers a wide variety of theatre courses including acting, stage and costume design, stagecraft, directing, stage combat, lighting and sound design, history and more. VPA’s Worcester State Theatre produces three fully-realized productions each academic year and offers students opportunities in front of and behind the curtain. Selected students also attend the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 1 each year for a week of workshops, discussions, and performances.

Performance opportunities include:

  • Productions – Students audition for productions. Students participate in costume, set design, light and sound tech, and more.
  • Almost Off Book – This student club offers opportunities to write, create, and act, and serve the WSU community.
Visual & Performing Arts Creativity Presentations
Worcester State VPA student Bellalorraine Carey-Hicks designed costumes for "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" as part of her senior capstone project.
What would Picasso and Albert Einstein be wearing if they had a chance meeting in a Parisian café in 1904?
Bellalorraine Carey-Hicks, who graduated in December '21 with a double major in theatre and English, had to come up with an answer for that question as the costume designer for the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which was produced by VPA last fall. In a recent interview, she said her goal was to accurately portray the historical era in a way that also resonated with modern audiences. She worked on the costume project, which was her senior capstone project, under the guidance of VPA Chair Sam O’Connell through the Student Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG) program. READ THE FULL STORY by Nancy Sheehan.
VIEW and LEARN MORE about this capstone work
Julian Wagner performs "Took Me Forever," his own work, in Worcester State VPA's Spring 2022 Mosaic of Music Performance
Music Senior Spotlight
Check out an impressive variety of work achieved by VPA Major and Music Composition and Technology Minor Julian Wagner '22 during his four years at Worcester State - from composing music for the Spring 2022 theatre production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to performing a gig on bass at Worcester's Birch Tree Bread Company, and so much more!
View a Senior Spotlight on Julian Wagner '22
Thesis Art Exhibit Students at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery at Worcester State
Nine VPA Students Present Thesis Work in Gallery Exhibition
Worcester State seniors Trang Duong (Serena), Logan Hampsey, Emily Parish, Mark Parella, Julian Wagner, Abigail Snopkowski, Jonathan Paine, Jennifer Caswell, and Angie Morales presented an impressive variety of capstone work - from music composition and animation to sculpture and paintings - at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery in Spring 2022. Check out their diverse inspirations and exciting work here!
View Student Thesis Art Work

Visual & Performing Arts News

Visual and Performing Arts

Visual and Performing Arts “Extreme Artery” initiative pays tribute to founding faculty and presents chorale, jazz and musical mosaic concerts, theater production & art exhibition April 26, 2022

Read Story

Student Art Exhibition showcases imagination, artistic vision and a skull made of teeth. March 8, 2022

Read Story

Annual ArtsWorcester College Show showcases work of three Worcester State students in juried exhibition, Feb. 25, 2022

Read Story

VPA Department’s Steve Gagliastro to Appear in Star-Studded Film and TV Projects, Sept. 15, 2021

Read Story

Boston Music Award Nominees Include VPA Music Professor Carlos Odria. Nov. 30, 2021

Read Story
Visual and Performing Arts Department and students recognized for excellence by regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival

Visual and Performing Arts Department and students recognized for excellence by regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Feb. 14, 2022

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 1, a district spanning eastern New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, recognized Worcester State University’s Visual and Performing Arts Department for excellence in theatre production with a special invitation to stream its Spring 2021 presentation of “Dancing with Demons.”

Read Story

New VPA Production Marks the Return of Live Theater at Worcester State. Nov. 12, 2021

Read Story

Faculty Art Show Marks Reopening of Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery. Oct. 12, 2021

Read Story
Visual and Performing Arts Department Offers New Theater Major

Visual and Performing Arts Department Offers New Theater Major. March 16, 2021

Students will soon be able to major in theater through the Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA). The new Bachelor of Arts in Theater will provide interdisciplinary and specialized artistic education that prepares students for professional lives in the arts.

Read Story

Ensemble Creates Music, Together from Afar, With Innovative Technology

Read Story

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Contact Visual & Performing Arts
Learning Resource Center
Suite LRC-325
VPA@worcester.edu
508-929-8145
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508-929-8000
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