Classes & Workshops

Ceramic Rhythms and Community

  • Friday, January 10 – Saturday, January 11, 2025
  • Time: 10:00 am – 04:00 pm
  • Location: Main Campus
  • Fee: $275

ENROLL NOW
***Fri. Jan 10 10am – 4pm and Sat. Jan 11 10am – 2 pm***
***Performance Sat. Jan. 11 7 pm UCF Visual Arts Building  ***

Raheleh and her husband Reza will conduct a two-day hands-on weekend workshop on the art of crafting clay darbuka drums using traditional techniques, culminating in a drum circle performance that weaves together clay and music to foster cultural connection, collective identity, and community healing. While the ceramic drum bases will be pre-formed, the process of creating the drum—from construction to decoration—will be covered

Required Supplies

Special Notes

Reza Filsoofi
Reza Filsoofi is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer born in Tehran, Iran. He plays santoor, setar, and principal percussive instruments such as daf and tonbak. Filsoofi commenced his musical journey in Iran under the tutelage of master musicians such as Zarrabian, Shoaari, and Arash Farhangfar and under the supervision of the great master Naser Farhangfar. He has performed with masters such as Davood Azad, Faramarz Aslani, and Ardeshir Farah. His collaboration with Davood Azad in 2015 at the Asia Society and Museum in New York City and at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas has been his milestone professional achievement.

Instructor

Raheleh Filsoofi

Filsoofi is collector of soil and sound, an itinerant artist, and a feminist curator. Her
geographical, disciplinary and conceptual practice take on critical narratives about movement,
immigration, and social activism. Clay and sound are the nexus of her practice and act as
expressive mediums. With their cryptic and architectural qualities engendering new narratives
through diverse aesthetic strategies such as multimedia installations and immersive sound
performances. Her art disrupts the borders that exist between us and seeks a more inclusive
world, illuminating and challenging policies and politics.
Her current and recent exhibitions include Imagined Boundaries, an interactive multimedia
installation at Gibbes Museum in Charleston, SC (2023-2024), and Only Sound Remains, an
interactive multimedia installation at the Sharjah Biennial 15, Thinking Historically in the Present
in Sharjah, UAE (2023).
Filsoofi’s Imagined Boundaries a multimedia installation, consisting of two separate exhibitions,
debuted concurrently in a solo exhibition at the Abad Gallery in Tehran and group exhibition
Dual Frequency at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Florida in 2017. The installation in
each country connected audiences in the U.S. and Iran for few hours in the night of the show
opening.
Filsoofi’s project, ‘Listening: The Fourth String,’ in collaboration with musician Reza Filsoofi,
introduces an interactive instrument and platform called ShahTár. Through public
performances, it highlights the contributions of the silenced Iranian musician and Sufi,
Moshtagh Ali Shah, to music while emphasizing the power of listening to drive community
engagement and promote social change.
Filsoofi is the 2023 recipient of Joan Mitchell Fellowship award, the 2022 Winner of the1858
Contemporary Southern Art Award and the recipient of the 2021 Southern Prize Tennessee
State Fellowship. She is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics in the Department of Art at
Vanderbilt University and holds the secondary appointment at the Blair School of Music. She
received her M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Florida Atlantic University and a B.F.A. in Ceramics from
Al-Zahra University in Tehran, Iran.