By Jonathan Morales

2023年11月14日

一个音乐讲师用他的萨克斯管充满了一个通风的法庭。 大厅里，博彩平台的一位教授分享了她对机场安全的研究。 在楼上，一名新聘用的教员带领一群人进行安静的跨文化祈祷，四周都是加州风景的标志性画作。

Anyone wandering through the Crocker Art Museum on the evening of Nov. 9 would have been treated to an eclectic -- and impressive -- array of the University’s talent and scholarship.

That variety is exactly the point of U-Nite, an annual showcase from 囊状态’s College of Arts and Letters that brings faculty and student work from each of the college’s 10 departments into the heart of downtown 萨克拉门托 for the public to experience.

• 更多来自2023年纽特大学的照片

In her opening remarks, Arts and Letters Dean Sheree Meyer focused on the word “and” that joins the two words in the name of her college and that, she said, encapsulate the spirit of U-Nite.

“University night at the Crocker and for the community. Past, present and the future,” Meyer said, repeatedly stressing “and.” “Teaching and scholarship and creative activity. These are the things in which our faculty excel, and it’s ‘and’ that bridges those experiences.”

U-Nite, now in its 11^th year, filled the Crocker with 36 presentations led by 囊状态 faculty, from book readings and film screenings to theater, music, and dance performances.

One thing Meyer consistently stresses is that faculty, not administration, was the impetus behind U-Nite’s origins. 该活动始于2012年 当时，传播学教授伊莱恩·盖尔（Elaine Gale）正在寻找一种与克罗克博物馆合作的方式，并招募了一些教职员工在一次公共活动中分享他们的工作。

Many of those original faculty, including Gale, participated in this year’s event. They were joined by newer faculty eager to take part in what has become the College of Arts and Letters’ signature showcase.

二年级音乐讲师萨拉·沃尔德（Sarah Wald）就是其中之一。 沃尔德在今年早些时候第一次了解到u - ite，并知道她想参与其中。

沃尔德找到了她的同事，长笛手凯茜·苹果（Cathie Apple）和大提琴手蒂姆·斯坦利（Tim Stanley），他们同意在活动上首演学生的作品。 然后，她招募了两名音乐作曲专业的学生为阿佩尔和斯坦利创作作品，与她自己新创作的长笛大提琴二重唱一起表演。

结果正是U-Nite设计的展示类型：学生和教师合作分享他们的专业知识和技能，供公众欣赏。

“A lot of us faculty and students are ensconced in the university setting, and within our own discipline it can get very insular,” Wald said. “It's always great to be able to reach a broader public with our research or our creative works or expression of any kind.”

For Stephen Whelan, a senior Music theory and Composition major working in Wald’s studio this semester, having a composition performed publicly at the Crocker was “an opportunity I couldn’t skip on.”

“This is the first time I've had anything of mine performed somewhere that wasn't Capistrano Hall, so that's really exciting,” he said, “I have to go drive downtown and watch my piece get premiered. 这有点疯狂。”

Rey Jeong, a first-year assistant professor of Art hired as part of a cohort of social justice-focused faculty, organized the Path of Prayers, a unique event where participants sat in a circle in the Crocker’s ornate “Early California” gallery and took turns whispering prayers in their native language into a tape recorder.

最近跟随母亲和祖母的脚步开始修习佛教的郑女士说，她想与拥有不同传统的人分享祈祷的时刻。

她说，她很感激克罗克为她提供的分享艺术的平台，以及在校外这样做的机会。她的艺术作品通常涉及社会正义问题。

“Museums can be intimidating or elitist places, but the Crocker museum, through the U-Nite event, they are lowering the bar and inviting people no matter if they are interested in art or not, and they want to have a conversation,” Jeong said.

During and after the event, Meyer pointed out the many other ways 囊状态 partners with the Crocker, including the museum 展示学生作品 and allowing students to 为博物馆展览制作语音导览.

“It’s powerful for us to share what we have done, what we have learned, and what we have made, beyond J Street,” Meyer said. “The arts and humanities are meant to be public. 我们处理公众关注的问题； 我们把公众聚集在一起，庆祝我们社区正在发生的事情。

“We are a public university, and as such, we serve the public in ways that extend out from the classroom.”

2024年1月14日，克罗克艺术博物馆将展出一场教师作品展览。 欲了解更多信息，请 参观博物馆网站.