Dallas Kirkland, a graduate student in the themed experience program, carefully touches up the Themed Experience section of the “United in Creativity” installation on Monday in downtown Orlando.
Emmy Bailey
A 28-foot immersive art installation designed and built by UCF graduate students went up Monday at the 55 West Building in downtown Orlando, marking the first time the university’s themed experience graduate program has participated in UCF Celebrates the Arts.
Titled “United in Creativity,” the piece celebrates the six core disciplines of UCF’s College of Arts and Humanities. It will remain on display at 55 West through March 30 before moving to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, where it will serve as a centerpiece exhibit for UCF Celebrates the Arts, running March 31-April 13.
More than half of the program’s 86 graduate students contributed to the project, which took roughly six weeks to complete. The installation was fabricated in partnership with CASTO Creative and supported by ModMan Training Center and Tideline Construction.
The project began following a call from United Arts and DTO Live!, which directly reached out to the College of Arts and Humanities as part of its POP UP Creative Storefronts Initiative. The program commissions artists to activate vacant retail spaces to foster cultural engagement and encourage commercial growth downtown.
Dr. Adora English, an instructor in the themed experience program, said the project scope changed significantly after they saw the space.
“Originally, when we thought it was just a window, we came up with a slightly different design,” English said. “When we realized it was going to be 30 feet wide and 10 feet tall, we had to go back to the drawing board.”
The final concept divides the installation into six sections, each representing a different discipline within the college. A QR code embedded in the center directs passersby to the UCF Celebrates the Arts webpage, where they can purchase festival tickets.
“Individually, each one of the disciplines is incredibly powerful,” English said. “And then together, when you bring them all to make up the College of Arts and Humanities, we’re just beyond powerful.”
For many students, the project was their first hands-on experience with fabrication. Lizzie Lillywhite, a graduate student on the design track, said the process was a major learning curve.
Lizzie Lillywhite, a graduate student in the themed experience program, checks the installation created to represent the English department for needed touch-ups in downtown Orlando on Monday. Lillywhite, who had no prior fabrication experience, said the project taught her the importance of intentional design choices.
Emmy Bailey
“I have never built a thing in my life,” Lillywhite said. “It really helped me understand how important it is to be intentional about design choices because building them takes time.”
Lillywhite co-designed the installation’s music section alongside a fellow student. The two created what they call a “music tornado,” a sculptural piece meant to capture the feeling of being moved by music rather than simply depicting what a musical score looks like.
“We all know what music looks like on a page,” Lillywhite said. “But when it’s played, the music really leaves the page. We wanted to embody that.”
Kellianne Robinson, a graduate student on both the design and production tracks, served as a producer during the planning stages. She said the team underestimated how long fabrication would take, but that extra time ultimately helped them finish stronger.
“It felt so abstract for so long,” Robinson said. “Now that it’s in these windows, I’m kind of in awe. It was an amazing collaborative effort between all of us.”
English said the project was intentionally structured to mirror the same end-to-end development process used in professional theme park design, from ideation and concept sketching all the way through fabrication and installation.
Two pieces representing the arts department (left) and English department (right) in the “United in Creativity” installation sit in a breezeway near the 55 West building in downtown Orlando before being installed on Monday.
Emmy Bailey
“We mimicked the same process that might be used at Universal or Disney, just on a much smaller scale,” English said. “The goal is that by the time they graduate, our students are ready to hit the industry.”
English said the program hopes to make the UCF Celebrates the Arts installation an annual tradition. The piece was built with that longevity in mind.
“If the College of Arts and Humanities loves what we did and wants to keep it for the next three, four, five years, we’ve made it sturdy enough,” English said. “They can just dust it off and use it again.”
Robinson said she hopes the project raises the program’s profile on campus.
“A lot of people don’t actually know what we do,” she said. “But this is a themed experience. It’s getting our name out there.”