Meet the Director

Doug Hamby is a choreographer who specializes in works created in collaboration with dancers, composers, visual artists and engineers. Before coming to UMBC he performed in several New York dance companies including the Martha Graham Dance Company and Doug Hamby Dance. He is the co-artistic director of Baltimore Dance Project, a professional dance company in residence at UMBC. Hamby’s work has been presented in New York City at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Riverside Dance Festival, New York International Fringe Festival and in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. His work has also been seen at Fringe Festivals in Philadelphia, Edinburgh, Scotland and Vancouver, British Columbia as well as in Alaska. He has received choreography awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maryland State Arts Council, New York State Council for the Arts, Arts Council of Montgomery County, and the Baltimore Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Arts and Culture. He has also appeared on national television as a giant slice of American Cheese.

What creative and special opportunities do students have in Linehan Artist Scholar Program?

When a Linehan Artist Scholar comes to UMBC, she or he joins a community of artists made up of highly creative students and faculty. Linehan Scholars engage in the following activities:

FRESHMAN SEMINAR
Freshmen Linehan Artist Scholars attend a weekly seminar with me, the Director. Seminar activities include frequent attendance at performances and exhibits on and off the campus, workshops with arts faculty. Seminar artistic projects include the creation of a personal digital story, grant writing practice and artworks that illustrate important trends in contemporary art. In fall 2011 seminar students will work side by side with professional artists at the Baltimore Creative Alliance as they create works that challenge the imagination. This year, Seminar students will also attend performances at the Kennedy Center, the Baltimore Symphony and the Transmodern Festival.

SCHOLARS FIELDTRIPS
Each semester Linehan Scholars go on field trips to professional performances and internationally important museums in New York and Washington, DC. In the fall of 2011, the Scholars will spend a day in Brooklyn to tour the Brooklyn Museum and see a performance by the Kronos Quartet at the Brooklyn Academy or Music. Last spring the Scholars went to Philadelphia to see the Philadelphia Museum of Art and attend a performance by Ireland’s Abbey Theatre Company.

VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS LIVING LEARNING COMMUNITY
Freshmen and Sophomore Linehan Scholars may choose to live in the Visual and Performing Arts Living Learning Community in Harbor Hall. This community provides students with a deep sense of connection with each other and fosters a spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration between all Scholars in the Linehan Program.

Residential Life

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES AND AWARDS
Linehan Scholars frequently participate in faculty creative research. Several Dance Scholars perform with the Baltimore Dance Project, the resident modern dance company at UMBC. Music Scholars perform and record original musical compositions by the music faculty. Linehan Theatre Scholars often perform leading roles in the main stage productions. In spring 2011 several Linehan Theatre Scholars performed at the Kennedy Center for the American College Theatre Festival, where UMBC won first prize. Linehan Visual Art Scholars often receive internships at the UMBC Imaging Research Center, a state-of-the-art animation and computer visualization facility.

Linehan Scholars may also apply for the Linehan Summer Research and Study Award. This $2,500 award provides support for four Scholars each summer, to engage in extended and in-depth study with international scholars in the arts. The four Scholars who received the 2011 award studied Dance in London, Theatre in London, Visual Design in Milan and flute performance with faculty from the St. Louis Symphony and the Fort Worth Symphony.
Research opportunities also include the Undergraduate Research Award and the UMBC Study Abroad Program.

How does the Linehan Program prepare students for a career or graduate study?

Everyone on the arts faculty at UMBC is either a professional artist or an academic researcher at the top of her or his field. Linehan Artist Scholars often engage with the Arts faculty one-on-one, as the faculty and student creates works in photography, music, theatre, dance, film, video and digital media. This close association between faculty and students creates a high level of artistic and academic excellence, in and out of the classroom. Graduates of the Linehan Artist Scholar’s Program are highly competitive in respect to careers in the arts, education and for admission to graduate school.