News
School of Performing Arts

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, senior associate dean of RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named interim COLA dean effective June 1. McQuiller Williams succeeds Dean James Winebrake, who is leaving RIT on June 30 to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 36: The right academic major can be a pathway to a dream career. Professor Tina Lent, director of RIT’s museum studies program, talks with 2019 alumna Katherine Hensel about how her degree in museum studies led to her dream job as a U.S. national park ranger.

Dean James Winebrake will be leaving RIT’s College of Liberal Arts to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Winebrake, who came to RIT in 2002 as chair of the Department of Public Policy and became dean in 2011, will leave RIT effective June 30.

RIT students and faculty have found a way to still connect for private music lessons, with video conferencing offering a unique, and some say helpful, way to teach.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 33: Community partnerships are one way RIT provides its students with experiential learning opportunities. James Winebrake, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and Juilee Decker, associate professor of museum studies, talk about a unique partnership between the college and one of the Finger Lakes Region’s cultural gems, the Genesee Country Village & Museum.

RIT's endowed partnership with Genesee Country Village & Museum—which was established in September by a gift from RIT alumnus Philip Wehrheim ’66 (business) and his wife, Anne—is one of the ways students connect with the Rochester community.

The Alfred Hitchcock classic Dial M for Murder has a new twist as NTID Performing Arts translates the play into American Sign Language, making it accessible to deaf audiences. Deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members can also experience cutting-edge closed-captioning technology using smartglasses developed by Vuzix Corp.

Classic sci-fi; an interpretation of a Tony Award-winning musical; a story of faith and friendship; and New Yorkers struggling with drug abuse, AIDS and homosexuality are all part of a new collaborative season by the NTID Performing Arts program and the College of Liberal Arts.

Six members of the RIT Game Symphony Orchestra took top honors and a $1,000 prize in the third annual Dr. Munson’s Performing Arts Challenge on Friday.

The diverse talents of RIT students take center stage Friday night at the third annual President Munson’s Performing Arts Challenge. The competition, sponsored by Rochester Regional Health, is free and open to the public and begins at 6 p.m. in Ingle Auditorium.

This October, the whole RIT and NTID community was treated to the first performances in the University’s joint theatrical season—performances that showcase a unique blend of Deaf and hearing actors on one stage.  The season’s first production, “I and You,” ran from October 25-27 in NTID’s 1510 Lab Theatre, and included students from degree programs across the university

In an effort to help RIT develop the leading performing arts program in the nation for non-majors, nearly 150 first-year students interested in performing arts this year received partial scholarships.