College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

William Reeder, the founding dean of George Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA), died April 12, 2025, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80.

The new College of Visual and Performing Arts special topics course AVT 496 focuses on furniture design and is offered through the university’s School of Art. As a part of the course, the students will tour the National Gallery of Art and put what they’ve learned to practice by identifying and recommending ways to create a more welcoming environment for people to experience the art.

George Mason University Korea, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Korea, the U.S. Embassy in Japan, and Coupang, will host the '2025 Korea-U.S.-Japan eSports Tournament,' a global initiative to foster strategic thinking, teamwork, and digital engagement among young gamers from Korea, the U.S., and Japan.

Renowned American composer Ricky Ian Gordon will offer masterclasses, coaching, and public presentations in a week-long residency with the Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music. During Mason Opera’s spring performances of his opera “27”, Gordon will introduce each performance with his insights about this unique and engaging opera, based on Gertrude Stein's famed Paris salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus.

In February, George Mason students in a publication design course had the opportunity to design book covers for a novel that is being published by the university’s Stillhouse Press, an independent small publisher affiliated with the English Department.

Brianna Camp is the 2025 recipient of the Young Alumni Commissioning Project Award
, and Marina Vianello is the recipient of the 2025 Young Alumni Creative Development Award.

Following renovation, the performing arts venue on the Fairfax Campus will be renamed the Barry Dewberry and Arlene Evans Center for the Arts.

New content will launch throughout January 2025 on Mason Arts Amplified, Mason Arts’s digital venue which features live and on-demand performances, lectures, behind-the-scenes talks, and more from George Mason University’s Center for the Arts, the Hylton Performing Arts Center, and College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Four students in George Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts will have original animations displayed on screens in six Metro stations as part of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Art in Transit Program, beginning the first week of December 2024. These animations will be on rotation in the stations for a full year.

Mason Korea recently hosted the opening ceremony for its Korea Serious Game Institute (KSGI), marking the global expansion of George Mason University’s Virginia Serious Game Institute (VSGI), which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.