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UMBC’s Ann Sofie Clemmensen explores The Kennedy Center’s REACH through choreography

“In To and Out Of is a three-part site-inspired performance that examines the physical and invisible qualities of a place,” explains Clemmensen.

In the second part of the work, two dancers — Linehan Artist Scholars, Deven Fuller and Emily Godfrey — perform against a long narrow wall, often leaning or pressing on its surface. “The flow of people moving in and through a space doesn’t happen in isolation,” says Clemmensen. “The spaces around us have an impact on how we move around.”
Other UMBC colleagues are involved in the performances (Linehan Artist scholars names in bold). In addition to Fuller and Godfrey, In To and Out Of features students Jody Cole, Joshua Gray, Sylvia Lagas, Kayla Massey, Kasey Mannion, Jahnaye Samuel, Michelle Ye, Gretta Zinski, and Katie Blake. Read complete article here.


The Linehan Artist Scholars Program

is for talented students who are serious about pursuing their art in a university setting. Scholars are able to explore their artistic endeavors with UMBC’s internationally acclaimed arts faculty. Rigorous academics and challenging coursework prepare artists for success in multiple fields. A generous gift from Earl and Darielle Linehan supports the Linehan Artist Scholars Program. This is a four-year scholarship, for students who enter UMBC as freshmen with a major in the arts. The Linehan Artist Scholars Program looks for students who distinguish themselves both academically and artistically.

Linehan Artist Scholars live and work in a nurturing environment that includes weekly seminars and frequent cultural excursions to develop creativity and success, inside and outside of the arts. UMBC provides a strong liberal arts education and is home to a faculty of composers, choreographers, directors, designers, photographers, computer artists, painters, filmmakers, video animators, art historians and performers who actively engage students in creative and analytical work.

The Linehan Artist Scholars Program includes:
  • A first-year seminar course with the Director, Stephen Bradley. Activities include frequent attendance at performances and exhibits, workshops with arts faculty and artists-in-residence at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance, digital story telling workshops, grant writing and making artworks to investigate significant ideas in contemporary art.
  • Living in the Visual and Performing Arts Living Learning Community, during freshmen and sophomore years
  • Fall and spring trips to performances and important museums in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. Recent trips have featured performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ireland’s Abbey Theatre, Bill T. Jones Dance Company and exhibitions at the New Museum, Museum of Modern Art and the Barnes Collection.
  • Research opportunities through the Linehan Summer Research and Study Award, the Undergraduate Research Award and the UMBC Education Abroad Office.
  • Participation in faculty research with beautiful and stunning results.
The Linehan Scholars speak:

“Human trafficking is the byproduct of so many other inequalities. Bringing together artists to create art and community in the name of awareness is one way to help dismantle inequalities at all levels.”
—Mia Rickenbach

Mia Rickenbach ‘19, theatre, is the founder of Create Freedom, a new Baltimore City non-profit that combines her love of the arts and commitment to increasing public awareness of human trafficking. Rickenbach became aware of the scale of human trafficking through reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide as part of UMBC’s New Student Book Experience. The book informed her of the many industries that create and sustain a demand for human trafficking around the world.
Mia was able to explore her next steps through an Entrepreneurship Undergraduate Research Award, granted by UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. It was an opportunity to combine both her passions through a community arts organization. The award helped her research the idea, complete a feasibility study, develop a business plan, and map out a timeline for implementation.

Mia working on theatre set models.

Create Freedom is a non-profit, digital community built upon the principles to create a sustainable network for change. It’s a home to artists committed to creating community and awareness. Throughout the year, the organization will host events where local artists and community members can gather to create and offer tax-deductible art purchases, to build awareness about human trafficking and build a network of like-minded people.

Below the 2017 Seminar class creating ‘Passion’ mural.