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College of Design, Art & Performance

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Spotlight! A Free Daylong Festival of the Arts

March 5, 2026

SPOTLIGHT! returns for its second year with an all-day arts festival created for the ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé community, featuring more than 130 students showcasing their talents through 15 performances, art exhibitions, and architecture designs! Explore the College of Design, Art & Performance Arts District and enjoy FREE food*, live music, theatre and dance, pop‑up art galleries, tours, and activities across all disciplines. Drop in anytime!

Location:

Time: 12:00pm – 9:00pm
*Free food while supplies last. Food trucks arrive at noon.

Spotlight Schedule

*subject to change

Lunch
Outside Fine Arts building (FAH)

  • 12:00 PM
  • Food Trucks with free food while supplies last.
  • 3 food tickets per person.

Performances Outside: School of Music and School of Theatre & Dance
Stage on the lawn between Fine Arts building (FAH) and Contemporary Art Museum (CAM)

  • 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Audiences can look forward to performances from the School of Theatre & Dance and the School of Music, featuring theatre pieces, vocal and instrumental ensembles, hip-hop choreography from new faculty member Jennifer Archibald, and a routine by the ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé Sun Dolls led by head coach Taylor Delgado.
  • Steel Pan Performance 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM In addition to classical training, School of Music percussion students perform with the ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé Steel Pan Steel Ensemble, presenting a varied program of music spanning genres from across the Americas. The ensemble is directed by Dr. Kevin von Kampen.
  • Pep Band / Sun Dolls 1:00 PM 
  • Tuba & Euphonium Ensemble 1:20 PM
  • Opera Workshop 1:40 PM
  • Latin Jazz 2:00 PM
  • Bone Band 2:20 PM
  • Saxophone Quartet 2:40 PM
  • Hiphop Dance 3:00 PM
  • Shakespeare Sonnets 3:05 PM
  • Contemporary Dance 3:20 PM
  • Shakespeare Sonnets 4:00 PM
  • Musical Theatre Songs 4:15 PM
School of Architecture & Community Design/School of Art & Art History/Graphicstudio Pop-Up Gallery
FAH Courtyards
  • 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • The School of Architecture and Community Design will share a selection of outstanding work by graduating Master of Architecture students, with a focus on 3D studies and architectural models.
  • The School of Art & Art History will program a large-scale sculpture by two MFA Studio Art students, and a large-scale drawing class co-taught by Neil Bender and visiting artist William Downs will create a wall-to-wall display of large-scale drawings in room FAH 133.
  • Graphicstudio works installed will demonstrate a range of printmaking processes - lithography, cyanotype, etching, screenprint, and photography. Artists featured include Mernet Larsen, Sandra Cinto, Iva Gueorguieva, Vik Muniz, William Villalongo, and Robert Rauschenberg. 
  • Guided tours available.
College of Design, Art & Performance student clubs
Pathway between ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) and Theatre 1 (TAT)
  • 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Student Art Exhibition
Carolyn M. Wilson Gallery (FAS 100)

  • 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  • Wilt Theory is an exhibition focused on photography and other media that explores how decay and renewal coexist, showing how light, time, and matter slowly fade, transform, and take new forms rather than disappear. Assistant Professor Marcus Desieno, the exhibition's sponsor, will give a short gallery talk and walk-through for the event.
  • Line Weight is a drawing-focused exhibition that brings together artists, designers, and students to explore how lines—literal and metaphorical—define boundaries, agency, and lived experience, revealing how the lines we draw, cross, or are confined by shape who we are and how we exist.

CAM Exhibition Tour: Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion
ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé Contemporary Art Museum (CAM)

  • 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM 
  • One of Ireland's leading cultural figures, Maguire has turned the practice and tradition of painting into acts of visual testimony. His paintings are global in scope and derived from projects in Mexico, the Mediterranean, Syria, Sudan, the United States, and the Amazon.
  • Maximum of 30 people.

Guided Public Art Walking Tour
Starts at ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) 

  • 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
  • Led by the Contemporary Art Museum’s Curator of Education and Public Art, the tour explores selected works from the ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé Public Art Collection on the Tampa campus. Learn about the program's history and the artists and collaborators who created these site-specific works. Featured artists and works for this tour are Alexander Liberman’s ‘Icon II’, Tomás Saraceno’s ‘Caelum Dust’, Stacy Levy’s ‘Tampa Wind’, and Joe Testa-Secca’s ‘Forum II’.
  • Comfortable walking shoes are recommended.

World Music Ensemble and Commercial Music Collective
Outside ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé School of Music building (MUS)

  • 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
  • The World Music Ensemble performs global percussion works, followed by the Commercial Music Collective with covers and original songs by ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé music majors, led by Professors Kevin von Kampen, Patrick Hernly, and Dr. Clint Randles.
ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé Symphony Orchestra and The Florida Orchestra Cocktail Reception
School of Music Concert Hall Lobby
  • 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM
  • Invited attendees.

ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé Symphony Orchestra with The Florida Orchestra's Music Director
Michael Francis conducting
Peter & Cynthia Zinober Concert Hall (MUS 177)

  • 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
  • This is a ticketed event. Reserve your today!

Accessibility & Accommodations

The ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé is an affirmative action/equal access/equal opportunity institution. Please notify the ͬÐÔÁµÉ«Çé College of Design, Art & Performance box office at cdap-boxoffice@usf.edu, at least 5 working days prior to the event, if a reasonable accommodation of a disability is needed.