DOHA: Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCU-Qatar) held its 2015 Commencement Ceremony on Monday at the Education City Student Center, conferring 61 Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in fashion, graphic, interior design and painting and printmaking and seven Master of Fine Arts degrees in design. The 14th Commencement brings the number of VCUQatar alumni to 538.
“Graduation is a time for celebration and reflection. Your work and actions throughout your years at VCUQatar express your transformational learning experience,” said VCUQatar Dean Allyson Vanstone. “As critical artists, designers and scholars, you confront existing expectations and create new paths; you seek out unknown opportunities and build bridges of understanding across people and cultures. You have the knowledge, skills and abilities to approach any challenge with experimentation, collaboration and commitment.
Dr Gail Hackett, Virginia Commonwealth University’s newly appointed provost and vice president for academic affairs also addressed the graduating students during the ceremony. Sculptor and VCUarts alumna Diana Al Hadid delivered the commencement address to the 68 graduates during the afternoon ceremonies.
Al Hadid reflected on her own post-graduate years in her Brooklyn studio, emphasizing the importance of self-motivation and encouraging the young artists and designers to trust the direction of their work .
Fashion design graduate and Valedictorian Dylon Adonis highlighted the unique brand of tenacity and camaraderie that characterized the Class of 2015, citing it as key to the
graduates’ success—both in the past and for the future. “We, as designers and artists, have a duty to improve the visual world, the buildings we enter, the clothes we wear, and the political and social causes we wish to address. Here at VCUQatar, the professors have guided us and, at times, allowed us to guide ourselves to find our identity as a designer and artist to advance.
“We look past gender, race, and religion. We do not box individuals to provided the ‘us vs. them’ movement seen too frequently throughout history. We congregated underneath VCUQatar’s umbrella to constantly improve others and ourselves. Our diverse community repetitively adhered to our desire to progress,” he said.
Following the Valedictorian’s speech, Dr. Gail Hackett, provost and vice president for academic affairs at VCU, presented the candidates of the Master of Fine Arts degree in Design their diplomas; Dean Vanstone presented the candidates for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree their diplomas and Dr. Hackett conferred upon them their MFA and BFA degrees. Dr. Barry Falk, dean of the Honors College at VCU Richmond, also recognized the honors graduates.
The Peninsula
