News

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts spring production, Men On Boats, opens at 7:30 p.m. tonight with additional performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday in Webb Auditorium in James E. Booth Hall.

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts began the academic year under new leadership. Dean Anna Stenport joined RIT from Georgia Institute of Technology’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts in September following a nationwide search. Stenport is a professor of communication and an expert in transnational cinema and media, modern literature and drama, and visual and cultural studies, with a focus on the Arctic and Nordic regions.

Architect Michael Maltzan, whose firm is the design architect behind RIT’s performing arts complex, will be the next featured speaker for the Vignelli Center for Design Studies' Design Conversations Lecture Series.

A $5,000 gift from Michael and Joanna Grosodonia of Rochester will allow performing arts students at Rochester Institute of Technology to see live, professional theater productions at Geva Theatre Center. In addition to tickets, the gift also pays for transportation to bring the students from the main campus to the theater in downtown Rochester.

While the SHED takes shape at the heart of the RIT campus, working groups are filling in the details of what will go inside the building.

RIT President David Munson addressed COVID, Imagine RIT, RIT Dubai, athletic scholarships, and more during his latest “Ask Munson” question-and-answer interview Wednesday on WITR (89.7) radio. The show  is scheduled to be aired again 10 a.m. Saturday.

A variety of RIT performing artists will showcase their talents at IGNITE, organized by NTID's Department of Performing Arts and Dance at RIT. IGNITE will have four shows Feb. 11-13 at Robert F. Panara Theatre in Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall.

Midnight Waves, a band formed by RIT students last semester, were named overall winners of Friday’s Ovation: RIT Performing Arts Showcase with its Latin/jazz combo performance of “The Tiger of San Pedro.”

The RIT Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Professor Michael Ruhling, is offering a series of four free performances Wednesday afternoons this semester, exploring the music of Ludwig van Beethoven.

RIT students are already benefitting from a new partnership with Garth Fagan Dance. RIT Performing Arts Scholars Program students are taking master classes and students are working on a semester-long arts management capstone project to deliver suggestions for the internationally known dance company to potentially implement.

With thousands of RIT students involved in performing arts expected in the next few years, plans are moving forward for a performing arts complex that will feature a 750-seat theater and eventually a 1,500-seat orchestra hall for larger audiences.

The largest construction project on the RIT campus in more than 50 years remains on track to open in fall 2023. When complete, the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) will cover more than 120,000 square feet of new construction as well as more than 83,000 square feet of renovations in two existing buildings.