Nature Writing as Ecologists: Literary Salon & Zine Release
Tuesday, May 6 from 5-7 PM
Ecology Building room 117
Ecology graduate students will share original works of creative writing on the theme of “nature writing as ecologists.’” Come ready to listen, mingle, and enjoy! Supported in part by an Arts Collaborative Mini Grant.
Zero Waste UGA Film Screening: The Cigarette Surfboard
Wednesday, April 23 from 5 to 7:30 PM
Cine, 234 W. Hancock Ave.
Join Zero Waste UGA for a free screening of The Cigarette Surfboard and panel discussion with the filmmaker in a conversation about ocean stewardship and strategies to reduce single use plastics. The evening will include Regarding the Discarded, a temporary exhibition of art that engages material reuse and reduction.
https://www.thecigarettesurfboard.com
After a young designer realizes that a surfboard – which he crafted from thousands of littered cigarette butts picked up off California beaches – could captivate the eyes of millions across the globe, he decides to use it as the impetus to do something more. The Cigarette Surfboards become a platform to spark ocean stewardship and the symbol of a campaign to hold Big Tobacco accountable for their toxic, plastic waste. Surfing is the medium, but the message is universal.
Zero Waste UGA is an interdisciplinary experiential learning initiative to foster a culture of sustainability through waste reduction. The UGA campus will function as a living laboratory to support teaching, research, service and outreach, student engagement, and operational innovations toward a circular economy.
Event sponsors: UGA Office of Sustainability, UGA Sustainability Certificate, UGA Marine Extension / Sea Grant, UGA Arts Collaborative, UGA Department of Anthropology.
Continue reading “Zero Waste UGA Screening: The Cigarette Surfboard”
Arts Collaborative Conversation: Starting a Non-Profit Organization
Friday, April 11 at noon
Lamar Dodd Building Room S360
Join the founders of SonAlt Arts Organization (Claudia Aizaga, Sum Yee Lee, Mateo Wojtczack)
for a conversation on their journey of launching an arts nonprofit organization and organizing an
international music festival. The mission of SonAlt Arts is to empower emerging musicians
through classical and contemporary music-making that promote cultural exchange with Latin
America. Their upcoming realization of this mission will be the SonAlt Arts Music Festival in July
2026, where performers and composers from around the world will be invited to Otavalo,
Ecuador for a week of educational and performance opportunities.
For more information, visit: https://www.sonaltarts.org
Nkululeko Zungu Doctoral Recital
Wednesday, March 19 at 6 PM
Dancz Center for New Music
Arts Collaborative Research Affiliate Nkululeko Zungu is a graduate candidate at UGA where his studies focus on contemporary writing styles in composition. He finds pleasure in exploring music from traditional Classical to modern Electronic and can be heard writing with the frame of mind, “Let me not, no, just add to the noise. Let me harmonize to the silence.” For more information, visit:
https://harmonizeto.pixpa.com
My Name Is Rachel Corrie
Performance and Panel
Saturday, March 15 at 2 PM
Balcony Theatre, UGA Fine Arts Building
Free admission
My Name Is Rachel Corrie is play based on the writings of a young American activist whose devotion to the idea that “everyone must feel safe” situates her in the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada in 2003 to deliver humanitarian assistance. After tragically losing her life, the compilation of her journal and email writings serves as a revelation to question our commitments to morality, mortality, and humanitarian ideals.
The play will be followed by a panel on art and activism, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and the legacy of Rachel Corrie. The panel will be moderated by Aayush Umesh (Theatre and Film Studies student) and will include Dr. Eli Sperling (SPIA, Israel Institute Teaching Fellow), Dr. Roger Stahl (Communication Studies, Interim Department Head), Dr. David Saltz (Theatre and Film Studies, Theory/History Head), Imam/ah Trina Jackson (Unity Mosque, Imam/ah – spiritual leader), and Asia Meana (Theatre and Film Studies student).
https://a2ru.org/a2ru-statement-on-executive-orders-and-the-effect-on-higher-education/
Mar 11, 2025
Dear a2ru Members, Partners, and Friends,
“I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.”
—John Fitzgerald Kennedy (inscribed on the Kennedy Center)
At a2ru, we reaffirm our commitment to the essential role of the arts in shaping knowledge, driving discovery, and confronting the grand challenges of our time. Across the country, on university campuses and in communities, artists and researchers are leading bold, interdisciplinary innovations—pushing creative research beyond traditional boundaries and ensuring the arts remain central to human progress. As a national network, we recognize that these efforts are happening within a rapidly shifting landscape. Changes in funding structures, research priorities, and institutional policies have created new challenges for many in our fields.
Continue reading “a2ru Statement on Executive Orders and the Effect on Higher Education”