University of North Carolina Charlotte
The Arts at the University of North Carolina Charlotte
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) offers a robust and inclusive arts environment through its College of Arts + Architecture (CoA+A), integrating visual art, architecture, music, theatre, and dance across both its main campus and vibrant uptown presence.
At the heart of UNC Charlotte’s visual arts programming is the Rowe Arts Building, home to the Rowe Lower Gallery, Upper Gallery, and Side Gallery. These galleries showcase work by regional, national, and international artists, alongside student and faculty exhibitions—most notably the biannual MacKillop alumni exhibition and the student-centered Side Gallery. Located in The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City, the Projective Eye Gallery expands the university’s public engagement with major exhibitions by national and international artists, curated for both campus and city audiences.
Hands-on studio learning takes place within the CoA+A in spaces such as the Rowe 3D Studio, offering comprehensive fabrication equipment for bronze and aluminum casting, stone carving, mold-making, and much more! The Rowe Digital Fabrication Lab (RoFL) is used for multi‑disciplinary prototyping, including 3D printing and CNC machining. Architecture students work in the Storrs Hall FabLab, supporting robotic arms, CNC mills, laser cutters, and outdoor construction yards for experimental material assemblies. Performing arts flourish at Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts, which houses the Anne R. Belk Theater, a Black Box Theater, and the White Box Theater in Rowe Arts for student-generated performance. The building includes costume and scenic shops, dance studios, and performance labs supporting theatre, music, and dance training, with music students also performing in Rowe Recital Hall. Across campus, the Popp Martin Student Union Art Gallery showcases exhibitions organized by students, such as the Nova Literary‑Arts Magazine, creating a visible conversation between campus life and creative expression.
UNC Charlotte offers an integrated arts ecosystem combining professional-grade facilities, exhibition platforms, performance venues, fabrication labs, and regional collaborations that make the arts a central and dynamic component of the university’s cultural identity.
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José L.S. Gámez is the Dean of the College of Arts + Architecture. He was previously the Interim Dean for the College of Arts + Architecture and the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in the College of Arts + Architecture at UNC Charlotte. He has served as the Interim Director of the School of Architecture, as the Associate Director of the School, as a Provost Faculty Fellow, as well as a Research Fellow with both UNC Charlotte’s Institute for Social Capital and Urban Institute. He is currently serving as an advisory board member for the Dean’s Equity and Inclusion Initiative and representing Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and in July 2023 will begin serving as the Second Vice President of the ACSA.
His research explores questions of culture in architecture and urbanism through action-based research and public scholarship. His work has been published in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Places: A Forum of Environmental Design, The Journal of Urbanism, The Journal of Applied Geography, and The Plan Journal. He is also the co-editor of the books Rio de Janeiro: Urban Expansion and Environment and Vertical Urbanism: Designing Compact Cities in China and he has contributed essays to books such as Writing Urbanism: A Design Reader, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Charlotte, NC: The Global Rise of a New South City, and Latino Urbanism: The Politics of Planning, Policy and Redevelopment. His design contributions to the work of assemblageSTUDIO have been featured in New Museums: Contemporary Museum Architecture Around the World, Models: Architecture and the Miniature and Architectural Record.
Prior to joining the faculty at UNC Charlotte, Gámez taught at Portland State University and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He received his Bachelor of Environmental Design from Texas A&M, his Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in Architecture and Urban Design from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Currently a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Society for Research in Music Education Executive Committee (2018-2024), Dr. Orman is widely recognized as one of the top scholars in the world in the field of music education. From 2012-2018, she served as the United States Commissioner for the International Society for Music Education (ISME) Research Commission and was Chair of the Research Commission from 2016-2018. Recently, she served as a member of a Scientific Research Review Panel for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is a past member of the editorial boards of Update: Applications of Research in Music Education and the Journal of Research in Music Education. Dr. Orman is author of the seminal studies in refereed research journals investigating the use of immersive virtual reality to enhance music teaching and learning. Her research appears in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Distance Education, Journal of Band Research, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Journal of Music Therapy, Journal of Research in Music Education, and Update: Applications of Research in Music Education. She regularly presents her research at national and international conferences including the National Association for Music Education, the Clifford K. Madsen International Symposium on Research in Music Behavior, and the International Society for Music Education Research Commission Seminar and World Conference.
Dr. Orman has served as a Director of Bands at the middle school, high school, and collegiate levels. Her previous university posts include positions at the University of West Alabama, George Mason University, Louisiana State University as the Julian R. & Sidney Nicolle Carruth Professor of Music Education, and 2015-2017 Distinguished Professor of Music Education at UNC Charlotte.