The University of Toledo

Dean's Greeting

As Dean, it is my pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the students, faculty, staff and alumni to the College of Communication and the Arts(CoCA).

The College website is designed to assist you with information on our activities, events, and academic programs. The College proudly houses the Departments of Art, Communication, Music, and Theatre and Film. The CoCA Department of Art is accredited by the National Schools of Art and Design and the Department of Music, by the National Association of Schools of Music. We offer seven bachelor's degrees, a Bachelor and Master of Art Education and Music Education and a Master of Music Performance.

We are located on two campuses, the Main Campus where you will find the Center for Performing Arts and the Department of Communication's Broadcasting Studio in Rocket Hall. The Museum Campus houses Center for the Visual Arts, designed by Frank Gehry. The CVA is adjacent to the Toledo Museum of Art. Both faculty and students in the college are practicing artists and scholars who regularly perform and exhibit locally, regionally, and nationally. Faculty scholars and artists are internationally active as well. A listing of a few recent noted faculty activities:

T.J. Gerkens designed the lighting for the world premiere musical The Jungle Book, at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in association with Walt Disney Theatricals this summer. He will also be designing lighting for productions at the Huntington Theatre (Boston),  McCarter Theatre (Princeton), Goodman Theatre (Chicago), and a possible opera at Teatro LaScala in Milan, Italy this coming year.

Matt Yockey's, Batman (TV Milestones Series), Wayne State University Press will hit the shelves in 2014, as will Paulette Kilmer's chapters in Sensationalism -Murder, Mayhem, Mudslinging, Scandals, and Disasters in 19th-Century Reporting, edited by David B. Sachsman and David W. Bulla.

Ben Pond had his drawings exhibited at Manifest Press in the 7th International Drawing Annual, Manifest Creative Research Gallery & Drawing Center. Jazz pianist, Tad Weed will be performing at Carnegie Hall November 1st with The New York Pops Symphony Orchestra, recreating the 75th anniversary of Clarinetist Benny Goodman 's first Carnegie Hall concert. Through the faculty's excellent professional activity students learn from true professionals.

The College shares rewarding partnerships with the Toledo Museum of Art, WGTE, The Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Buckeye Cable Sport Network (BCSN), The Arts Commission, and the Glacity Theatre Collective, as well as other colleges and departments throughout the University. Mozart's Amadeus will be featured in our third annual interdisciplinary arts and humanities series with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. The series will feature lectures, film screenings and performances by college faculty in the visual and performing arts, along with humanities faculty from the College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences. The Toledo Symphony Orchestra's AMADEUS: IN CONCERT, with TSO's Stefan Sanderling, conducting and UT's Cornel Gabara, directing will be performed in the Peristyle of the Toledo Museum of Art, February 7 & 8.

All departments in the College continue to sponsor internationally renowned visiting artists, scholars and performers. Jill Dawe will perform October 13; as a guest pianist in the Department of Music's Dorothy MacKenzie Price Piano Series. Our own Robert Ballinger will perform in November for the Toledo Museum of Art Great Gallery Concert series. Filmmaker Laura Colella will be in residency in September in the UT Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Colella is the Writer/Director/Editor for Tax Day and for Stay Until Tomorrow. She has been a Sundance Institute Directing and Screenwriting Fellow. For the Stay Until Tomorrow production, Sundance arranged for extensive donations of equipment and services. Stay Until Tomorrow has been screened at over thirty festivals and venues internationally, winning five awards. Artist Natalie Lanese's immersive mural installation PANORAMA will be on exhibit in the Department of Art, CVA Gallery this fall. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), together with LAND studio, chose Ms. Lanese for the Innerbelt Project public art mural program. Cleveland’s Innerbelt Bridge is a critical component of the City of Cleveland’s infrastructure and one of Ohio’s most essential transportation corridors. 

The Department of Communication will host the Banned Books Week Vigil celebrating our freedom to read in Carlson Library October 10. The Ohio Humanities Council granted The Banned Books Council $1,000 to sponsor Alan Kitty's performance as Mark Twain in Libbey Hall on October 19, 2012.

A very special update, Marilyn Horne is scheduled  for an Interview and Master Class in October, more details to come. 

We hope to see you at our upcoming CoCA sponsored offerings, whether you are looking for an exhibition, lecture series, theatrical production, film series or concert. Please join us.

CoCA Fall Events Brochure