On Nov. 2, UNC Greensboro celebrated the opening of its newest and most ambitious learning spaces. Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony, members of the UNCG community and elected officials were among the first to experience the Jeanne Tannenbaum Center for Creative Practice, exploring its cutting-edge technology and collaborative studio environments.
The Tannenbaum Center at the corner of Tate St. and Gate City Blvd. is the flagship of the University’s Millennial Campus Initiative. Its industry-standard tools will support innovative and creative partnerships among faculty, students, and experts from outside UNCG. The Center honors alumna Jeanne Tannenbaum ’64, whose generosity helped make the project possible. A longtime University volunteer and philanthropist, Tannenbaum has served in leadership roles across UNCG and helped advance major initiatives, including the recent Light the Way campaign. As he welcomed guests, UNCG Board of Trustees Chair George Hoyle said “For generations to come, the Jeanne Tannenbaum Center for Creative Practice is a powerful example of how one person’s belief in this University can create opportunities that will benefit countless others.”
Chancellor Gilliam said the Tannenbaum Center was “founded on a simple but powerful belief: that creativity, dialogue, and emerging technologies can help us better understand our world and shape its future.”
Before Tannenbaum and more than a dozen representatives of the UNCG and the City of Greensboro cut the ribbon, Student Government President Lena Brown and arts administration major Amarah Pearson rang UNCG’s iconic bell, signaling a new era of expanding community impact and academic opportunities for Spartans and beyond.
Tannenbaum Center Brings Enhanced Technological Tools to University, Community
Juliette Bianco, associate vice chancellor of museums and creative practice, invited participants to explore the Tannenbaum Center’s interior spaces. She spoke on how Tannenbaum Center, with its light-filled hub, makerspaces, and technology-enhanced studios will be “a welcoming gathering space designed for interaction” and that the “success of the Tannenbaum Center will be measured by the people who gather here, the relationships they build, and the ideas they create together.”
The most breathtaking attraction was the 40-foot-long LED volume in the immersive studio, one of the largest and most accessible in the Southeast. Its curved space and markerless OptiTrack motion capture technology allow UNCG to host three-dimensional engagements for teaching, performance, and research. It brings a Hollywood-scale virtual production wall into a publicly accessible university setting.
Creators from different fields have already begun using the space within programs like Tannenbaum Made, an incubator to spark collaboration across disciplines. Its inaugural cohort includes ethnobotanist and Grammy-winning musician Justin Robinson. He partnered with filmmaker D.L. Anderson and UNCG’s Genetic Counseling Program to produce “German Soul,” a documentary that uses food to explore his family history.
Four UNCG faculty members are also hard at work within the PROTOTYPE Faculty Fellows program. The current cohort represents the disciplines of dance, media studies, interior architecture, and genetic counseling. They will host public events to let the community see their work in progress and even contribute to their projects.
With the Tannenbaum Center, UNCG is excited to see ingenuity take on a new meaning.
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography by Micciche Photography, University Communications; and Sean Norona, University Communications
