Meet the seven graduating students who have been recognized for their dedication to their studies in performing arts, recording arts, media forensics, art practices, art history, and film & television.
"Art can powerfully comment on any aspect of the human experience," Shepard Fairey says. Three decades into his art career, Shepard Fairey still sees the value in street art and using art as a means of protest.
(Radio Free Europe) Romania is in the process of electing a new president, and the election has taken a dubious turn. CU Denver professor and director of the National Center for Media Forensics Catalin Grigoras was sought for his expert opinion on some images one of the candidates posted on her Facebook account appearing to depict two of the other presidential candidates attending a clandestine meeting. Grigoras concluded that the images had likely been altered.
(Westword) World-renowned street artist Shepard Fairey will be at CU Denver on May 6 for a special event, Emmanuel Art Gallery Conversations: Shepard Fairey & Gregg Deal. The event is open to both the CU Denver community and the public, and it’s part of an ongoing effort to bring bold, creative voices to campus. Fairey hopes that the work he and Deal have done will inspire people to use their voices creatively.
(Baltimore Banner) Dazhon Darien, the former athletic director of Pikesville High School, has been sentenced to four months in prison for using artificial intelligence (AI) to create a fake recording of Eric Eiswert, the principal of the school, making racist and antisemitic remarks. Catalin Grigoras, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver and director of the National Center for Media Forensics, concluded that the audio recording in question contained traces of AI-generated content.
Each year the CAM community looks forward to experiencing the work of its graduating students. This year's visual arts thesis events have been organized into three days of panels, celebrations, and screenings.
"Guilty" 2025 was a round up of students in CAM as well as some outside the college. The title of the exhibition is a clever nod to the visual arts norm of a juried show, where a juror determines whether submitted artwork gets placed into a gallery.
(DU Clarion) The CU Denver band Blackberry Crush performed at KXDU's latest Tiny Dorm Session, a creative take on NPR's tiny desk concerts. The band consists of College of Arts & Media students Charlie Laxague and Pyper Tiffany on guitar and vox, supported by bass player GG Tyler and Nick Schell on drums. Laxague shared that the band is putting the finishing touches on a record that’s coming out under the indie label Mean World Records.
(Yahoo) Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, who formed the band Tennis in 2010, have announced that their new album, Face Down in the Garden, will be their last. The couple met as students at the University of Colorado Denver and went on to create 7 albums and tour. The couple says they are dissolving Tennis to pursue other creative pursuits.
(Patch) Boulder-based illustrator Penny Serrano and author/actor George Psomas from New York City have been honored with Christopher Awards for Manoli the Greek Mouse. Penny attended the University of Colorado Denver, earning her B.F.A. in illustration and a minor in creative writing. Penny uses digital media for her illustrations where she plays with color and texture.
(Denver Post) Denver Post art critic Ray Mark Rinaldi has included the CU Denver Experience Gallery on a list of galleries in Denver offering "interesting" art and exhibitions. The CU Denver Experience Gallery is a collaborative venture between the University of Colorado Denver and the city's department of Arts & Venues. The gallery is located in the plaza of the Denver Performing Arts Complex.
CAM hosted its first Alumni Day & Awards Ceremony in March. Five alumni, representing a diverse range of industries, were honored at the ceremony. The day included networking sessions, tours, and a chance for alumni to reconnect with the people who made their CAM experience special.
(Cañon City Daily Record) “Nothing Safer,” is a documentary that highlights the Prison Trained K-9 Companion Program — launched by Colorado Correctional Industries more than 20 years ago. Director Cynthia Cazañas Garin is a film professor in the College of Arts & Media and the director of the film. "Nothing Safer" premiered on Rocky Mountain PBS in March.
During her studies at CU Denver, artist Bella Briganti (’23) had the opportunity to help curate an exhibition in the Emmanuel Art Gallery, volunteer as a performer for performance artist Oliver Herring, and create her human-form-entwining BFA thesis collection called “Carrier Pigeons.”
Renée Albiston used her classes at CU Denver to transition from a career in medical sales to art history, driven by a desire to work in a more fulfilling field. “What motivates me is the fact that I have the potential to right a wrong of the past and to leave behind some kind of positive mark on the world.”
(Westword) An outdoor mural created by artist Jann Haworth and celebrating 34 heroes of Denver’s art scene will be unveiled Friday, March 14th on the exterior of the Buell Theater on Chapma street between 13th and 14th streets. The mural features Jeff Lambson, director of CU Denver’s Emmanuel Art Gallery, and Rian Kerrane, professor of Art Practices in CU Denver’s College of Arts & Media. Last summer, a workshop to create the stencils that would be used to create the mural was hosted in the Emmanuel Art Gallery.
(CanvasRebel) Kathy Pham is a multi-/inter-/anti-disciplinary artist, graphic designer, and writer-researcher. Her work explores the intersections between pop culture, art, technology, and society. Kathy graduated from CU Denver in 2023 with a BFA in Digital Design.
(Westword) The group has been making waves with its madcap sound and stage presence, which you can see for yourself at Globe Hall this weekend alongside Gestalt and Tiny Tomboy. Horse Bitch was founded in 2020 by David Knodle and Ashley McKinney, who met while studying at CU Denver.
(CU Denver News) Rowan Petersen ’24 and Clara Kay ’24 both got their professional start with a paid internship at Youth on Record, a Denver-based nonprofit that offers free and paid music, podcasting, and creative career development programs in schools and at their recording studio and community space.