The arts are central to life at the University of Virginia. Set within our historic 1,149-acre Grounds, UVA offers access to world-class art and performances at historic Old Cabell Hall, the Ruth Caplin Theater, The Fralin Museum of Art and Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. Through UVA Arts and signature events, such as the Virginia Film Festival, the University cultivates a vibrant community that promotes creative expression and unites artists and performers across the Commonwealth, nation and world.
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Uzo Njoku:
My name is Uzo Njoku, and I am a fourth-year studio art major at the University of Virginia. When I first started painting, I would paint just to decorate my house, and I would post it on Facebook.
And people started giving me feedback about how they loved it, and I decided that this might be a course I wanted to pursue further, and so I changed my major to studio art. I am trying to create an experience based on my identity.
I am Nigerian. That’s my culture. But then I also was raised in America, so it’s kind of like a blurred line. I’ve always knew that I wanted to make a coloring book because that was kind of what interested me in colors and art when I was younger.
And I felt that women of color were not as represented as much in a coloring books. So I said, I can do this, and I can try to capture as many different aspects of femininity as I can in this book.
I actually created it in a month because I wasn’t sleeping. I was working on this coloring book every single day. I don’t like waiting. I learn by experience. And I expected to sell only 50.
The first orders of books were, like, 1,200 Like, I reached out to a company, they were able to print the many books I needed. More international people started following my Instagram, and I had orders as far as New Zealand.
If I went through a publishing company, they might have turned me away. If you don’t do things yourself, you’re going to find yourself waiting a long time, you know, doubting yourself.
You know yourself. You know what you want to do. Go for it.
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UVA fourth-year student, Uzo Njoku, takes the adage your college career is what you make it to a new level with her art and best-selling coloring book, The Bluestocking Society.
Through the Graduate and College of Arts and Sciences, UVA offers rich curricula in music, studio art, drama, creative writing, art history and dance. Our School of Architecture provides an undergraduate education in architecture, urban planning and environmental design and architectural history, and it offers some of the top graduate programs in the country.