Photo credit: Clare Britt
2025 Art & Design Convocation Speaker Robyn Farrell
Robyn Farrell is Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Kitchen in New York where she oversees the exhibition, performance, and publication program. Recent exhibitions include The Kitchen in Focus featuring Sheryl Sutton at 47 Canal (2024), Desire Inc. (2024) with Lynn Hershman Leeson and Patricia Domínguez’s Tres Lunas Mas Abajo (Three Moons Below) (2024) as part of The Kitchen’s Video Viewing (VVR) Program. From 2013-2023 she worked at the Art Institute of Chicago, most recently as Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. Farrell served on the curatorial teams for over fifty exhibitions including Kara Walker: Rise Up Ye Mighty Race! (2013), Kemang Wa Lehulere: In All My Wildest Dreams (2016), and Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again (2019). She curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions during her tenure in Chicago, notably the 2021 exhibition with Barbara Kruger, THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU, the Chicago presentation of Gregg Bordowitz: I Wanna Be Well (2019), Christine Sun Kim: Cues on Point (2023), and Maren Hassinger: This Is How We Grow (2023). Farrell has contributed to publications and artist monographs, spoken widely on contemporary and time-based media, and is an internationally recognized scholar on the work of German filmmaker and video art pioneer Gerry Schum, including his landmark art on television broadcasts such as Land Art (1969). Farrell holds a BFA in Art History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an MA in Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she has served as a visiting lecturer and moderator for the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Photo credit: Clare Britt
2025 A&D Convocation Deadlines
2025 A&D Convocation Deadlines
Monday, January 6 Student cap and gown online ordering is activated (herff.ly/Illinois)
Monday, February 17 Updated student and family addresses due
Monday, April 14 Last Day for students to order regalia at early order discounted rate
Friday, April 11 A&D Convocation Ceremony Form due
Monday, April 14 A&D Convocation Tickets may be picked up-132 A&D
Monday, May 5 Reserved Convocation Tickets must be picked up
Tuesday, April 29 Student regalia website no longer active after 10:59 CT
Sat., May 17, 9:30 a.m. University-wide Commencement ceremony, Memorial Stadium
Sunday, May 18 (12:00 p.m. sharp) Graduates arrive at Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Building, 707 S Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL
Sun., May 18, 1:00 p.m. A&D Convocation Ceremony, followed by reception
If your guests have any accommodation requirements, please contact Terry Dederich at dederich@illinois.edu. He can answer questions about wheelchair seating, easy access seating, and accessible parking.
If graduates need any special accommodations, please contact Audra Weinstein at audra@illinois.edu.
Some accommodation requests (such as American Sign Language Interpreters) received after Friday, April 11 will be given due diligence to be filled but may not be guaranteed.
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions | 2025
- What is Convocation? How is it different from Commencement?
Commencement is the official University of Illinois academic ceremony at which the Chancellor presides, and the President confers degrees. https://commencement.illinois.edu/
A convocation ceremony celebrates the completion of your program and includes individual recognition of each student who has conferred a degree. These smaller ceremonies are dubbed Convocation to avoid confusion with the university-wide Commencement ceremony. A&D’s Convocation ceremony is scheduled so as not to conflict with the Commencement ceremony; thus, you and your guests may attend both ceremonies.
- Do I have to graduate in spring 2025 in order to be eligible to participate in the A&D Convocation?
Not necessarily. PhD candidates need to have finished all graduation requirements (including the dissertation deposit) to attend the A&D Convocation. However, EdM/MA/MFA degree candidates are eligible to attend the A&D Convocation ceremony, while they have a maximum of 8 hours of unfinished coursework left (and/or a thesis deposit). BFA and BA candidates may participate in the A&D Convocation if they are graduating in May, August or December 2025 or graduated August or December 2024.
- Does registration for graduation automatically register the student for the A&D Convocation, and vice versa?
No. The graduation process is separate from the Convocation ceremony. Each event has their own registration process.
- Why do we need tickets for the A&D Convocation ceremony?
Graduating students who are participating in the ceremony do not need tickets. However, your family and guests (including babies) do. Foellinger Auditorium, where Convocation will be held, requires tickets to all its events. However, tickets are free.
We hope to have tickets available for pick up beginning Monday, April 14. Five tickets are guaranteed if you pick them up by Monday, May 5 Additional tickets may be picked up on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Wednesday, May 7. A&D makes every effort to ensure that each student can get the tickets they need, and that no guest is turned away. But please pick up tickets during regular business hours; they will not be available after hours or on weekends.
- Both my family and I received the Convocation Ceremony Form. Who should complete it?
Either you or a family member may complete the Convocation Ceremony Form. We send a paper copy of the form to both the family and students so that everyone has the same information. We encourage students, however, to consult with their family about their plans and complete the form themselves. We would prefer that you use the online version (https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/113724094), but either one is acceptable. Either way, the form is due on Friday, April 11, 2025.
- Why do we need to complete the Convocation Ceremony Form?
The School needs to know who is participating in the ceremony, to ensure that you will have a seat with your program, and to list you in the Convocation’s printed Program. Students who have not submitted a form may be omitted from the printed Program and will be seated out of order, space permitting. We do not wish to disappoint family and guests by omitting a student’s name from the Program. Graduates seated out of order may have to squeeze by their fellow students when their name is called. This detracts from everyone’s enjoyment of the ceremony.
- Do I have to RSVP for the reception after the A&D Convocation? Are tickets required?
You do not have to RSVP for the after-convocation reception, which will occur in the Link Gallery (which connects the A&D building and Krannert Art Museum) immediately after the ceremony; however, RSVPs are encouraged. The reception is a relatively unstructured event that allows students and their guests the opportunity to mingle with fellow students, faculty, and staff and view the BFA exhibits in Krannert Art Museum.
- What about graduation attire—when and where do I order it?
Academic regalia must be ordered through Herff Jones’ website. The early order discounted rate deadline is Monday, April 14 at 10:59 p.m. CT, and all regalia orders are due by Tuesday, April 29. Please consult the Commencement Website for up-to-date deadlines and procedures (https://commencement.illinois.edu/may-commencement/graduates/academic-attire/).
- How do I get on stage?
Please arrive promptly at 12:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 18 for procession instructions at the
Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Building, 707 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL. Enter from Mathews and look for directional signs/A&D faculty. From there, you will walk/process to Foellinger Auditorium.
Your name will be printed on a card and placed on your seat. Seating will be by program in alphabetical order.
- Accommodations
If your guests have any accommodation requirements, please contact Terry Dederich at dederich@illinois.edu. He can answer questions about wheelchair seating, easy access seating, and accessible parking.
If graduates need any special accommodations, please contact Audra Weinstein at audra@illinois.edu.
Some accommodation requests (such as American Sign Language Interpreters) received after April 11 will be given due diligence to be filled but may not be guaranteed.
Useful dates and deadlines
Monday, January 6 Student cap and gown online ordering is activated (herff.ly/Illinois)
Monday, February 17 Updated student and family addresses due
Monday, April 14 Last Day for students to order regalia at early order discounted rate
Friday, April 11 A&D Convocation Ceremony Form due
Monday, April 14 A&D Convocation Tickets may be picked up-132 A&D
Monday, May 5 Reserved Convocation Tickets must be picked up
Tuesday, April 29 Student regalia website no longer active after 10:59 CT
Sat., May 17, 9:30 a.m. University-wide Commencement ceremony, Memorial Stadium
Sunday, May 18 (12:00 p.m. sharp) Graduates arrive at Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Building, 707 S Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL
Sun., May 18, 1:00 p.m. A&D Convocation Ceremony, followed by reception
Useful links
Commencement: http://commencement.illinois.edu/
Order regalia from Herff Jones: http://herff.ly/illinois