College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

For Boris Willis, the future of games has always been bigger than pixels and code. Long before the rise of virtual production and interactive storytelling, Willis was blending technology, dance, and design into new forms of creative expression.

Historical dramas may be nothing new to the theater, but an original opera based on a landmark Supreme Court Civil Rights case? Rick Davis knew this was something different. After learning that Virginia Opera was planning to stage their new opera, Loving v. Virgina—based on the historic Supreme Court case striking down a Virginia law that banned interracial marriage—Davis seized the unique opportunity for his students. 

Only five years after graduating from George Mason University, alumna Rhyan Elliott, Film and Video Studies ’20, was recently a production supervisor for the five-time Oscar-winning film Anora (2024), directed by Sean Baker.

The evening raised $162,500 and featured a cocktail reception, dinner on Merchant Hall Stage, special tributes to Honorees Marion Wall and Dominion Energy, a lively after-party, and more.

Death has been the constant companion in Steven Luu’s life—from war-torn Vietnam to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But through art, Luu, now an MFA student at George Mason University’s School of Art, has discovered peace, purpose, and a path to healing.

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.