We recently spoke with Marika Niko, our outgoing Duke Arts Administrative Fellow for the 2023-24 academic year, who shared about their experience in the year-long role. Marika has been invaluable to the Duke Arts team and will be missed! If you’re interested in this opportunity, applications are now open for the 2024-25 Duke Arts Administrative Fellowship.

This year, join us in celebrating Julia Piper who will graduate with Duke’s one-of-a-kind graduate degree in dance! The Duke M.F.A. in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis (MFAEIP) supports artists whose creative research connects movement-based knowledge to critical discourses within and beyond the arts.

Emi Hegarty is the winner of the 2024 Louis Sudler Prize, given every year to the graduating senior who has demonstrated the most distinguished record of excellence in performance or creation in the arts.

In this interview, Mauro Mastrapasqua '25—a 2023 Benenson Awardee—shares how funding from this award supported his dream project. His passion for woodworking and playing the bass inspired him to build an electric bass guitar from scratch.

The seventh year of Duke’s signature arts mentorship program pairs thirteen students with professional mentors to develop their creative projects, including literature, theater, film, visual arts and more.

The seventh year of Duke’s signature arts mentorship program pairs thirteen students with professional mentors to develop their creative projects, including literature, theater, film, visual arts and more. Duke Arts ...

Duke Arts Studio, formerly StudioDuke, the creative and professional support for undergraduate student projects in the fields of arts, entertainment and media is now accepting applications for 2023-24 projects through Friday, October 6, 2023.

Nathaniel Maxwell is the winner of the 2023 Louis Sudler Prize, given every year to the graduating senior who has demonstrated the most distinguished record of excellence in performance or creation in the arts.

Congratulations to the seventeen students who received a 2023 Benenson Award in the Arts. This year's group of awardees submitted a wide range of projects to be explored this summer – including printmaking, film, visual arts, music, dance and creative writing.

Join us in celebrating the third cohort to earn Duke’s one-of-a-kind terminal graduate degree in dance practice! The Duke M.F.A. in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis (MFAEIP) supports artists whose creative research connects movement-based knowledge to critical discourses within and beyond the arts.

In this interview, Benenson Awardee Milena Ozernova ’22 shares how she intertwines her passions for social justice and storytelling to document neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago and San Diego effected by gentrification.

In this interview, Benenson Awardee Jacob Egol ’23 shares his experience building his skills as a cellist during the 7-week summer orchestra program at Brevard Music Center Summer Institute & Festival.

Seven advanced chamber music students were selected to visit the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in a pilot run of the new Duke Arts Exchange Program.

The sixth year of Duke’s signature arts mentorship program pairs twelve students with professional mentors to develop their creative projects, including podcasts, literature, theater, film, visual arts and more.

Twenty-four Duke students received a Benenson Award in the Arts this year to support and sustain their work over the summer months and help launch the graduating seniors into the next phase of their life.

Join us in celebrating the second graduating cohort of Duke’s MFA in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis (MFA/EIP). The MFA/EIP is a one-of-a-kind terminal degree program in dance focused on how artists work today and how dance contributes to crucial issues and conversations across arts and non-arts discourses.

Theater major Samantha Streit ’22 reflects on her senior project, a one-woman show titled This Green Plot Shall Be Our Stage, which she will perform April 14–16 at the Duke Gardens. The show centers on the idea that nature—in particular, the forest—acts as a metaphorical place of potential, freedom, and magic in Shakespeare’s works.

This year’s StudioDuke students and mentors share favorite memories, valuable takeaways, and helpful advice from their experiences. StudioDuke is a program of Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship in collaboration with DEMAN and Duke Arts. This signature program provides students the opportunity to take their advanced, on-going creative projects to the next level.

Join us in celebrating the work of this year’s graduating cohort in the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts program. Learn more about graduating students' thesis exhibitions, which are on view at Duke and in Durham from March 25 to April 15.

In this interview with Duke Arts, Jess Chen ’20 reflects on her experience as a two-time Benenson Award in the Arts recipient and offers advice to students applying for the award. “My two summer experiences were very different, but that’s the advantage of the Benenson: it is an extremely open-ended grant,” she says.

In this interview with Duke Arts, Sophie Caplin ’18 reflects on her experience as a Benenson Award in the Arts recipient and offers advice to students applying for the award. “[The Benenson] fueled my fire for performance, and it gave me motivation to work hard,” she shares.

For this installment of our “Artists as Researchers” series, we profile Brittany J. Green, a Ph.D. student in music composition and the current director of the Duke New Music Ensemble. She worked with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to record her latest orchestral work, “Against/Sharp,” which explores the relationship between music and Black feminist theory; it will premiere online in January 2022.

Morgan Biele '23 shares a piece she wrote for Duke Medical Ethics Journal, an undergraduate-led publication that features students' voices in blogs and articles that center ethics in dialogue with medicine. “I’m extremely passionate about how art depicts health and well-being, and in turn how health and well-being inform art,” Biele shares.

Students in Shambhavi Kaul's "Expanded Cinema" course created immersive, large-scale installations in the Rubenstein Arts Center in Fall 2021. Their work demonstrates the value of designated spaces for instructional arts learning, experimentation, and practice.

The fifth year of Duke’s signature arts mentorship program pairs twenty students with professional mentors to develop their creative projects, including manuscripts, documentaries, podcasts, XR, TV pilots, animation and more.

Get to know the students behind the scenes of Duke Arts! From writers to social media superstars, each is an important advocate in supporting our work in growing a culture for the arts across campus.

This summer, Lizzy Kramer '22 worked with Durham-born artist John Felix Arnold III on one of his recent installations, “Reimagining Cerberus,” which calls attention to the human impact on climate change. We invited Kramer to share her reflections on the experience, including her belief in the ability of art to pose questions and challenge perceptions.

We showcase the work of this year’s graduating cohort in the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts program in this special series of interviews. Fellow artists, MFA EDA alumni, faculty, and mentors interviewed each graduating student about their thesis exhibitions, which are on view at Duke, in Durham, and online May 7 through June 5.

Jayne Yu Wang's “The Unfinished Utopia” is an installation of a fictional city, Fangchuan, at the border of China, Russia, and North Korea. Following a foreign flaneur’s diary, viewers will have the opportunity to explore the city through audio, photography, architectural design, Instagram posts, and ordinary objects in this city.

Duke University Union has honored three Duke seniors with awards for their contributions to the arts: Omolola Sanusi, who received the Hal Kammerer Memorial Prize for Film and Video Production; and María Zurita Ontiveros and Cameron Oglesby, who both received the Graywill Award for Arts Leadership & Service.

A Bass Connections team has created an art installation on view in the lobby of the Rubenstein Arts Center. “This project is emblematic of the integrative and synthetic thinking that society needs to tackle the wicked challenges of climate change and sea level,” says Betsy Albright, assistant professor at the Nicholas School.

Fourteen Duke students received a Benenson Award in the Arts this year to support and sustain their work over the summer months and help launch the graduating seniors into the next phase of their life.

We celebrate the inaugural cohort of Duke’s MFA in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis, a program dedicated to embodied knowledge and practice-led movement discourses.

Congratulations to the 2021 awardees receiving the Robert E. Pristo Filmmaking Award, established in 2019 to support student filmmakers.

On March 27, a group of Duke students painted a portrait of their friend, Raj Mehta, a member of the Class of 2022 who passed away in 2020, on the Campus Drive free expression tunnel. We share a statement from Shivam Patel ’22, Raj’s former roommate, about this painted tribute.

The Enviro-Art Gallery is an annual showcase of artwork that aims to bring awareness to environmental issues through visual media. Featuring a monthlong virtual gallery of over 600 works and 15 speaker sessions from April 5 to 10, students Cameron Oglesby and Isabel Wood share how this year's showcase has expanded in spite of the pandemic.

On April 15, 17 and 18, Duke Theater Studies will present its spring mainstage production, Medea. Directed by senior María Zurita Ontiveros and set designed by senior Ash Jeffers, Medea is the first mainstage Theater Studies has produced with students at its helm. The show will be performed in person and live streamed to virtual audiences.

Lockdown poses many hurdles for artists, but it has not stopped Duke student filmmakers from making new work. In times of uncertainty, trust, working at smaller scales, and being true to yourself are essential.

Multy Oliver ‘21 began interning with the Hayti Heritage Center last summer and loved the experience so much she continues to support programs remotely. In honor of the upcoming Hayti Heritage Film Festival, we invited Oliver to share her experience with one of Durham's leading arts non profit organizations.

Sophia Roth '22 shares her first original single written during the winter break contemplating what it means to be in a place during the pandemic.

Emma Steadman '22, co-founder and president of Runway of Dreams at Duke, shares the story of the club's founding and partnership with NCSU textile design students in advance of "Coming Together, Creating Change," a virtual adaptive runway show premiering Thu, Feb 11.

Gianluca Corinaldesi started his position at Duke just three weeks before COVID stay at home orders. Learning to play the piano with his sons has brought joy to the Corinaldesi family home. "[It] puts me in a good mood like few other things," he reflects.

Wondering which movies you should watch during winter break? Junior Brandon Xie has compiled a list of “The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time” using statistics from 23 different movie websites.

Sofia Zymnis '21 shares a project started as a pseudo-autobiographical documentation of her own experience during lockdown that has now developed into a constantly-growing website, inviting people to share their own balcony community in order to grow a shared virtual one.

Jonathan Homrighausen, PhD '23, shares a calligraphic piece, "Heaven's Roof," inspired by the relationship to home during COVID-19.

Brittany J. Green, Duke PhD student in Music Composition, shares "Connected," a short piece for viola, piano, and fixed media inspired by paradoxical feelings of isolation and mediated connectedness that many have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fourth year of this collaboration with Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Duke Alumni pairs sixteen students with professional mentors to develop creative projects in creative writing, film, music, and visual arts.

Duke Magazine's Scott Huler writers about a new Duke University MFA program that "endorses dance as a politically, socially, and spiritually transformative force in society."

"Bridging the Gap" aims to speak with Duke’s diverse student body and discuss their experiences navigating identity, discrimination, tokenism, and more at a predominantly white institution. Duke students, staff, faculty, and alumni are invited to submit their stories.

Watch the Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba performance, which was filmed at the Greensboro Science Center and premiered online Sun, Sep 13.

Are you a Duke student interested in performing piano around campus, rearranging contemporary music for keyboard, or connecting with other musicians from around the world? If so, Duke’s premiere a cappella-style piano group wants you!

Hoof 'n' Horn invites submissions to a reinvented audition process and fall production!

Robinson channelled his academic focus on environmental science and documentary studies into a film, “Louisiana’s Missing Coast”—it’s now a 2020 Student Academy Awards Finalist.

duARTS, Duke's umbrella organization for student arts groups, is hosting three upcoming open houses featuring student panelists

"I'm excited to see what we'll create together. I'm excited to join you in rising to the challenges that we face and moving through them together."—John V. Brown, JD, Vice Provost for the Arts

Three leaders of Duke's student-run record label, Small Town Records, learned how to innovate, adapt to digital platforms, and create new music opportunities during a pandemic summer. “I can assure you that we will have STR running in some capacity, helping to shape the culture at Duke, for as long as we can," says Ryan Briggs,'21.

Introducing a new series by Duke Small Town Records: Breaking Down Gatekeeping in the Music Industry. Join the STR team weekly on Mondays, 6pm, EDT for break room sessions on the music industry, producing, songwriting, and more.

Meet Detavio Samuels, Duke '02 and the newest COO of Sean "Diddy" Combs' REVOLT TV, leading the way for social justice, journalism, and hip-hop.

When the coronavirus crisis led to an unexpected and impressive turn in the final project for Michael Faber's "Graphic Design in Multimedia" class. The result? A 50-page magazine about graphic design and staying connected called "Connectere."

Blythe Davis '20 graduated with a minor in dance this spring. As part of finishing her studies, she was asked to submit a photo of how she was navigating remote learning, classes, projects, and making the most of a chaotic situation. This photo was paired with a brief reflection on her experiences since the transition to social distancing.

A new collection documenting our coronavirus spring by the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts community.

Where can your passion in the arts take you at Duke? Meet rising junior Sarah Yu, who is busy developing her interests in illustration into a possible long-term career.

Talya Klein, who taught "Acting for the Camera" this spring, shares the class's final project, an original feature filmed titled "EMERGENCY CONTACTS" set in 2030 during a new, fictional pandemic that explores and incorporates present experiences during the coronavirus crisis.

Abhilash Sivadas shares a drawing of the goddess Durga he's created utilizing the sacred rhythmic measure known as Navatala, the use of Navatala, and how he views art as a tool to elevate consciousness.

Graduate student Stanley Sun shares an acrylic painting depicting social distancing that he painted to process the feeling of separation that comes with the coronavirus crisis.

Michelle Liang, a student in Professor Kelly Alexander's course Our Culinary Cultures (CA285S/DOCST 344S) shares her final paper for the course: "From MSG to COVID-19: The Politics of America’s Fear of Chinese Food."

Sophia Li shares her final photography project, "Food for Trash"—created for the course Ways of Seeing: Storytelling through Photography with Professor Charlotte de la Fuente Nørregaard (DIS Copenhagen)—which meditates on the meaning of food scraps during the coronavirus crisis.

Hard work, love of music, and generous mentors have taken 2020 Louis Sudler Prize winner Thandolwethu Mamba from a township in southern Africa to the opera stage at Duke and beyond.

Student groups also found new ways to present their work, lifting each other up and offering an antidote for social distancing to the Duke community. We honor their inventiveness and hard work with this round-up.

Students in this documentary studies and cultural anthropology course taught by Kelly Alexander “opened their hearts and minds to cooking and eating ‘apart together.’"

Kelly C. Tang, a PhD Candidate in Art History, shares mixed-media drawings on letters she's made for friends during the coronavirus crisis, sharing how snail mail has allowed her to focus on those connections and relationships.

James Budinich, a PhD candidate in Music Composition, is giving a talk with his artistic collaborator, Gabrielle Lamb, on creating work together, from a distance. James reflects on the strategies that helped them produce Plexus: a work in knots, "strategies that can benefit all artists in our post-COVID reality."

Congratulations to the inaugural awardees receiving the Robert E. Pristo Filmmaking Award, established in 2019 to support student filmmakers.

Ashleigh Smith, Nasher intern and Duke Class of 2020, was excited to organize a small exhibition at the Nasher Museum this spring. When the museum temporarily closed, she converted the installation to a multimedia online project, which includes a Spotify playlist and podcast episode. An extension of her senior thesis, the project is the product of two years of research.

Students share their Visual Arts capstone projects online in lieu of a physical exhibition.

Nasher Museum Educator Ryan Helsel reacted to the global pandemic by creating online art projects for teachers and families stuck at home. “We need art to process the world in which we live,” Helsel said. “That will never go away. I see more awareness and appreciation of this need in the broader public already, which makes me hopeful for an increased awareness of the value of all sorts of arts and artists in the future.”

Debora Cordero Martinez, a sophomore at Duke shares her photography series that comments on the targeting of black people in the United States as part of our "Art and Artists are Essential" collection and invitation.

Oliver Greenwald is a first year studying Computer Science and Visual Arts while pursuing a minor in Psychology and an Innovation & Entrepreneurship certificate. He shares his digital artwork as part of our "Art and Artists are Essential" collection and invitation.

Robin Yeh is a senior visual arts major who has completed an independent study and capstone project with Beverly McIver. She shares her artwork as part of our "Art and Artists are Essential" collection and invitation.

Aaron Zhao, a visual arts and biology major, shares a video he made while sheltering safely at home as part of our "Art and Artists are Essential" collection and invitation.

Yukai Qian, a mechanical engineering and visual arts major and a math minor, shares photographs as part of our "Art and Artists are Essential" collection and invitation.

Are you a student artist who has been working on a project this year? Do you enjoy hearing friends talk about their art? Join us online!

A sculpture made by Susan Hynes '19 inspired by an Entomology course travels from the Rubenstein Arts Center to Durham's Museum of Life + Science.

Submit your art to be a part of DUU Visarts' Annual Spring Student Showcase! Submissions due March 1, 2020.

Riddell will lead discussions on how to build a stronger arts culture at Duke, how to build a professional career in the arts, and what Duke's administration can do to help students with interests in the arts.

Meet Duke senior Naomi Lilly before she launches NAL-Nay Lilly, a networking platform for diverse creative talent in this student-to-student interview.

Since 2006, the student group ArtsConnect has partnered with the Emily K Center to bring arts activities to elementary school children. Joyce Huang, an ArtsConnect member, interviews the group's co-founder Eric Oberstein of Duke Performances.

In this student-to-student interview, a Duke senior and pre-med major shares his journey from the classroom to joining 9th Wonder's team at Jamla Records.

Five questions for Tyler Edwards (Class of 2022), biology major and producer for Hoof 'n' Horn's The Wiz, the first production with an all-black cast and a sensory friendly performance.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, write duuvisarts@gmail.com for more info and to apply.

A fresh-minded PhD in musicology from Duke, Mosley is a bassoonist and pioneer among the new generation of scholars who have made social media an intrinsic part of their academic sphere.

Evan Morgan (T'19) has been awarded the 2019 Louis Sudler Prize, given to an outstanding senior in the creative and performing arts at Duke. Read on to learn more about Evan and his creative process.

In this interview with Reilly Johnson (Trinity ’19), we learn how this Program II student’s love of costuming and textiles grew into an extensive senior research exhibition in the Ruby.

Meet the undergrad Creative Arts Student Team (CAST) members of Duke Arts! CASTs fulfill a variety of roles, from offering tours of the Ruby to operating Duke Arts social media accounts. Applications for CASTs '19-20 are now open.

Living Invisible is a multimedia project exploring what it is like to live with a chronic—but invisible—illness at Duke. Alexandra Bateman (T' 19) discusses her senior capstone project, which is on view in the Ruby through May 12.

Professor Beverly McIver’s introductory painting class took on a special commission this spring for Durham's Cucciolo restaurant.

Having a strong mentor is a key part of personal and professional development—no matter your field. StudioDuke forges mentorships through one-on-one connections with professionals who have attained distinction in their creative fields.

A Bass Connections team, "Music for Social Change," seeks to serve music education activists where they live. Duke sophomore Dayna Price channeled her experience playing flute into developing research tools for El Sistema USA—and fed her interest in clinical psychology in the process.

We look back at 10 years of the Me Too Monologues at Duke. "It is a communal experience and I think that’s the core of what it means,” says Anne Delmedico, this year's producer. "No matter what challenges you’re facing—whether you relate to the challenges on the stage or not—you are not alone."

“This show is such a beautiful showcase of a culture that is often misrepresented,” says Maria Zurita-Ontiveros, a Duke Sophomore and Director of Hoof ‘n’ Horn’s Spring 2019 production of In The Heights. Duke Arts sits down with Maria and lead cast member, Gustavo Andrade, to learn more about how this special show celebrates Latinx diversity and empowers individuals to proudly represent the communities they call home.

A new music department ensemble opens the vast world of Chinese music to the Duke community. “We mix both Western and Eastern music together,” explains Elizabeth Zhang (Class of 2022). Discover the story behind the music before their performance on Sun, Mar 31.

Students sat down with alumni Detavio Samuels (T'02, Urban One Media) and Amanda Lewellyn (T'17, theSkimm) at a recent DEMAN & Donuts. "I would say continually challenge yourself and problem solve your way to making your dreams and ideas a reality," shared Lewellyn. Read on for more creative career insights.