On Tuesday, December 8 at 3pm, in the screening room of the UB Center for the Arts, UB professors David Felder and Bruce Jackson will explain and answer questions about UB’s new, $1 million, four-year investment in a new artists-in-residence program at the university. The UB Creative Arts Initiative, of which Felder and Jackson are co-directors, “is dedicated to the creation and production of new work of the highest artistic standards of excellence while fostering creative investigation and engagement among students, faculty, visiting artists, and the community.” It aims, in some degree, to restore UB’s once pivotal role in the regional arts community by providing working artists—both established and emerging–with the opportunity and support to create new work, and by making the artists and their available to students and to the public at large.

“No one has done anything like this before. I’m very excited with the opportunities presented by inviting established artists to UB on a regular basis, working here, utilizing our facilities and spending time with our students,” Jackson told Bert Gambini for an article that appeared in the UB Reporter. “We want to work more closely with the people at the center of arts activity in our community and involve our students more closely with them.”

“UB has a history of bringing artists and scholars to campus that is so important,” Felder told Gambini. “But we’re talking about something more sustained and much wider in its circulation by inviting artists to stay here after a performance or exhibition, to work and meet with students over the course of a few days, a whole week or maybe an entire semester.”

At Tuesday’s discussion, Charles F. Zukoski, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, will introduce the program. Then Felder and Jackson will explain its goals, how the artist residencies will work and how to apply, as well as other aspects of the program. There will be plenty of time for questions. Anyone interested in learning more about CAI is welcome and encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served at 2:45pm.