About

About Visual & Performing Arts

About the Department of Visual & Performing Arts at UCCS

Cutting-edge creative opportunities across the arts

A Message from the Department Chair

Glen Whitehead, DMA
Department Chair

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts houses programs in Art History, Film Studies, Museum and Gallery Practice, Music, Theatre & Dance, and Visual Arts, including a broad spectrum of degree offerings. Our programs share a mission to explore interdisciplinarity and artistic innovation, and cultivating a thriving student experience is the reason we are here. Our classes remain small and individual mentorship is our mantra.

Are you multitalented in and across the arts? 
Students receive strong discipline-specific training while simultaneously gaining unique interdisciplinary breadth. All students are required to take the VAPA Core Curriculum – a unique set of interdisciplinary arts courses that connect across the arts. This curriculum encourages collaboration and sets us apart from other undergraduate arts programs. In this way, students are encouraged to develop their own unique artistic directions that can reach well beyond their home program. 

Artistic practice and scholarship work hand in hand.  
Our world-renowned faculty are artistic explorers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and visionaries, contributing to new artistic ecosystems at home and beyond. As in artistic periods of the past, the arts play a critical role in our culture today. Our faculty are dedicated to addressing the challenges of our time: diversity, equity and inclusiveness; climate change; health and wellness; new technologies, and more all have homes in our scholarship, curriculum, and creative work. Moreover, our faculty collaborate and connect with fields outside of the arts in the humanities, sciences, education, business, city planning, engineering, psychology, sociology and many more. 

Our alumni thrive in careers across the arts and well beyond, regionally and nationally. VAPA graduates become K-12 teachers; gallery owners; actors in theatre, television, and film; opera singers; professional instrumentalists in orchestras and chamber ensembles; rock stars, professors, professionals in the television and movie industry, lawyers, business owners, radio DJs, digital media professionals, studio owners, audio engineers, special effects artists, lighting and sound designers, game designers, composers for game design, film and TV, and more. Moreover, many of our alumni have gone on to some of the best graduate programs in the country.

We look forward to welcoming you into our programs!

Mission Statement

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts is founded on the principle of engaging students in scholarly and creative work in the programs of Art History, Film Studies, Museum Studies and Gallery Practice, Music, Theatre & Dance, and Visual Arts, while creating, maintaining and offering a strong foundation of interdisciplinary arts education and practice throughout integrated VAPA programs. 

DEI Statement

The VAPA Department strives to foster a diverse community of artists and scholars who create transformative experiences that build a more compassionate, open, and just society. Throughout our teaching, creative practices, research, and service, we champion a broad range of identities and backgrounds across races, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, ages, socioeconomic statuses, religious beliefs, neurodiversity, and abilities. Click HERE for the full VAPA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement.

Academic Focus

The academic purpose of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) is to offer collaborative opportunities for scholarship and creative work within an array of integrative arts disciplines. This is achieved through different ways of knowing and studio practice as well as performance and creative applications of media and technology. Students engage in an investigative approach to the arts inspired by critical thinking, research, creative work, dialogue, and improvisation within an atmosphere of learning and teaching where diversity of thought and action is intrinsic to artistic process and practice.

Department Faculty

Faculty across VAPA are engaged artist-scholars who maintain their own artistic and performance practices as a basis for classroom innovations.

VAPA faculty push the boundaries of their disciplines, rethinking the role of the arts in society, and are nationally recognized performers, artists, and scholars who are able to bring the top names in their fields to campus.

VAPA students benefit both from faculty connections to luminaries in the art world and from the genuine commitment of those faculty to their students' success and growth. 

Facilities

Students and faculty in VAPA programs have access to multiple state-of-the-art performance, exhibition, and creative production venues including a large concert hall, a smaller recital hall, a large theatre, a black-box theatre, recording and dance studios, gallery spaces, practice rooms, studio spaces, darkrooms, and more. Most are located in the Ent Center for the Arts Complex, with others in additional campus spaces as well as a smaller gallery near the downtown campus. See more below!

Explore Our Facilities

people viewing art in gallery space
Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery of Contemporary Art

The UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art are the most progressive and experimental contemporary art galleries in Colorado Springs, showcasing award-winning work by artists of significant national and international reputation. GOCA's newest exhibition space, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery of Contemporary Art, is located in the Ent Center for the Arts. Designed as a flexible and transformable museum-quality exhibition space, this 2,600 square foot white cube gallery is state-of-the-art with certified humidity control systems. The gallery's flooring system and grid of strong points in the ceiling can accommodate art installations in nearly any configuration. 

three people dancing in studio with large windows overlooking Front Range
Landis Family Overlook Studio

This studio is a practice and performance space with unobstructed views to the south and west. Fully outfitted for dance, the space has ballet barres and state-of-the-art sprung marley floors. 

Osborne Theatre with minimal set design
Osborne Theatre

The Osborne Theatre is the main performance venue for full-scale collaborative theatre productions and for VAPA Theatre student productions. A flexible black-box theatre with a professional control booth, the Osborne can be rearranged in multiple configurations and seat up to 120 people. 

Chapman Foundations Recital Hall
Chapman Foundations Recital Hall

The Chapman Foundations Recital Hall is the central music performance venue of the VAPA Department and is designed to be one of the highest quality acoustic music spaces in the region. Seating 230, its compelling beauty and technical grandeur provide artists and audiences alike with an unparalleled experience. VAPA senior and junior recitals take place here, as well as frequent performances by our ensembles, faculty, visiting artists, and more.

exhibit space in Centennial Hall with students
The Dock

The Dock is an installation space and student-run gallery and events center branching off the Painting/Printmaking Studio. Located in Centennial Hall.

Room with desks, chairs, and Mac workstations
VAPA Multimedia Lab

The VAPA Multimedia Lab consists of 30 Mac Studio workstations equipped with the latest multimedia software including Adobe Creative Cloud, Final Cut X, DaVinci Resolve Lite, Audacity, Logic, Pro Tools, Max, and Processing. Scanning capabilities include print, slides, and negatives. In addition, students have access to audio and video recording equipment through the Visual Resource Center. Located in Columbine Hall.

GOCA 121 exhibit space with people installing exhibit
GOCA 121 Gallery

The UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art are the most progressive and experimental contemporary art galleries in Colorado Springs, showcasing artists of significant national and international reputation. GOCA 121 is off-campus, located in the heart of downtown and focuses on innovative collaborations between local, national, and international curators and artists. GOCA 121 also hosts the VAPA Visual Art senior thesis show each May. GOCA takes student employees in addition to Museum Studies & Gallery Practice students and provides one-of-a-kind experience in art preparation, installation, and curation.

Margot Lane Rehearsal Hall
Margot Lane Studio

The Margot Lane Studio is a 2,000 square foot rehearsal room for many ensembles, recordings, film scoring and other collaborative uses. With pristine acoustics, this room boasts large wall-sized windows with astounding views of Pikes Peak.

Two professional printers and a scanner
Visual Resource Center

The Visual Resource Center houses two professional Epson Stylus Pro printers, a graphic arts scanner, and two iMac desktop computers - both with Adobe Creative Cloud. Students may also check out manual cameras, dSLR and mirrorless digital cameras, microphones, lighting equipment, audio recorders, digital projectors, tripods, and GoPro and video camcorders for course-related projects. Located in Columbine Hall.

Recording studio and audio lab
Recording Studio & Audio Laboratory

The recording studio and audio laboratory is a state-of-the-art facility wired directly into the Margo Lane Rehearsal Hall, the Chapman Foundations Recital Hall, the Osborne Theatre and the Shockley Zalabak Theater. This facility serves a broad array of functions within the VAPA Department including audio recording engineering, sound design, film scoring, and multimedia production.

woodshop
Sculpture Studio

The Visual Arts Sculpture Studio is a multi-use warehouse building located near the Ent Center for the Arts. It holds a woodshop (image), a metalwork room with welding facilities, materials for use in casting and ceramics, and two clean rooms for installation.

Shockley-Zalabak Theater
Shockley-Zalabak Theater

Seating 757, this is the largest venue in the Ent Center for the Arts, designed to feel intimate despite its capacity and incorporating technically advanced features to showcase a diverse array of events, from dance to orchestra to choral performances and more.

Practice room with piano, drum set, and mirror
Practice rooms

The music wing houses several practice rooms and small rehearsal studios constructed with high level acoustic isolation.

empty classroom with desks, music stands, chairs
Music program classrooms

Music Program classrooms in the Ent Center for the Arts are dedicated to musicians of every discipline. The rooms feature state-of-the-art technology and computer workstations.

wood instrument lockers
Lockers

In the Music wing of the Ent Center we have hallways of lockers for student instruments.

people viewing exhibit of artwork in Heller Gallery
Heller Center Gallery Space

Within the grounds of the UCCS Heller Center for the Arts & Humanities is a small gallery space that hosts exhibits of student work as well as other curated collections. Through internships with the Heller Center, MSGP students have the opportunity to design and curate entire exhibits based on their own research.

darkroom
Darkroom

One of our visual art classrooms in Columbine Hall includes an attached darkroom.

Classroom with projector, screen, and flat desks for drawing
Drawing and design classroom

Visual Art has classrooms in Columbine Hall for photography and drawing courses, as well as art storage lockers for student use.

GOCA 121 exhibit space with people installing exhibit
GOCA 121 Gallery

The UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art are the most progressive and experimental contemporary art galleries in Colorado Springs, showcasing artists of significant national and international reputation. GOCA 121 is off-campus, located in the heart of downtown and focuses on innovative collaborations between local, national, and international curators and artists. GOCA 121 also hosts the VAPA Visual Art senior thesis show each May. GOCA takes student employees in addition to Museum Studies & Gallery Practice students and provides one-of-a-kind experience in art preparation, installation, and curation.

classroom with screen, chairs, easels
Art Studios

Visual Art has a number of spaces including classrooms, studios, and student art storage space in Columbine Hall for 2D artwork.

painting studio
Painting Studio

Next to the Dock, Visual Art maintains a large painting classroom and exhibit space in Centennial Hall.

Acting studio with eleven people in masks
Acting Studio

The Acting Studio adjoins the Osborne Theatre and is VAPA Theatre & Dance's main acting space. Classes and rehearsals for main stage productions start here, in a beautiful room with sprung floors, floor to ceiling mirrors and breathtaking views of Pikes Peak. 

Arts multi-use classroom with storage, tables/chairs, and podium
VAPA Interdisciplinary Arts Lab

The VAPA Interdisciplinary Arts Lab (ECFA 245) is a multiuse, collaborative space for the interdisciplinary curriculum of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts programs (Film Studies, History of Art & Visual Culture, Music, Theatre & Dance, Visual Arts), equipped with an array of technology and resources including multi-media technology, installation and sculpture capabilities, sound, green screen for film, and more.

Ent Center Set Shop
Ent Center Set Shop

The Ent Center Set Shop is VAPA's headquarters for technical theatre classes and production builds. The shop is outfitted with the best tools and equipment and includes our Tech Classroom, complete with a lighting grid and plenty of space to practice construction, painting and design. 

Dusty Loo Bon Vivant theatre space with no people or scenery
Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater

The Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre is the home of Theatreworks, the professional theatre company at the Ent Center for the Arts. Student productions are scheduled here once yearly. This black box theater seats up to 300 and has a partially trapped floor and a rolling gantry, designed to facilitate flexible performance configurations. 

two people in masks holding Native American artifact
Seyhan Dwelis Curation Facility

The Seyhan Dwelis Curation Facility, housed within the UCCS Department of Anthropology, gives students practice in collections management through paid internship opportunities.