Visual Voices is a Professional Lecture Series offered by Mason Exhibitions. The purpose of the lectures are to broaden students’ exposure and vocabulary to professional work being created today. It also provides an opportunity for Art & Design students and members of the public to interact with speakers via a Q&A following their lecture, giving them the chance to exchange ideas and pose questions to the guest speakers.
If you miss the live presentations, recordings of the lectures will be available one week after the live event. Find recordings of the lectures on Mason Arts Amplified.
Visual Voices events are free to attend and open to the public. Registration is required!
For more information, please contact Jeffrey Kenney.
Thursday, September 24, 4:45 - 6:30pm
Ali Fard
Hybrid Event - live at GMU Harris Theater and Zoom
Ali Fard is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and the Director of MIST Lab at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.
Fard’s work explores the spatial, ideological, and environmental dimensions of contemporary infrastructure. Through award-winning design and research projects, Fard's work emphasizes architecture's critical and multiscalar role within the territorial dynamics of urbanization, offering a timely and critical lens on the systems that shape urban life.
Fard is the author of Grounding the Cloud: Urbanism in the Shadow of Data (University of Minnesota Press, Summer 2026) and the co-editor of NG7: Geographies of Information (Harvard University Press, 2015). Fard has held teaching positions at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Waterloo. He was a research associate at the Urban Theory Lab at the GSD and served on the editorial board of New Geographies (2013-2018). Fard holds a Doctor of Design (DDes) in architecture and urbanism from Harvard University, and a Master of Architecture (M.Arch) from the University of Toronto.
Visit Ali Fard’s Website
This event will be held at the Harris Theater on the GMU Fairfax campus and online via Zoom. RSVP is required to receive the Zoom link via email the day-of!
Thursday, October 8, 4:45 - 6:30pm
Moira McGuire
Hybrid Event - live at GMU Harris Theater and Zoom
CAPT (ret) Moira G. McGuire is a retired nurse officer with the US Public Health Service who has more than three decades of leadership across federal healthcare systems, national public health initiatives, and integrative wellness programs. She has developed and scaled pioneering programs addressing chronic disease, behavioral health, and the care of wounded, ill, and injured service members. She led the creation of nationally recognized arts and health initiatives, authored operational and evaluation frameworks adopted across federal and civilian platforms, and advised on strategic policy for multiple federal agencies. She established the Arts in Health Program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the first of its kind across the Defense Health Agency, and is a passionate advocate for the use of creativity and self-expression as tools for health, prevention, and well-being. She is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine and George Mason University’s Arts Management Program. She serves as the Co-Executive Director of the US Public Health Service Music Ensemble, is a member of the Editorial Board for the journal Perspectives on Arts in Health, and is a board member of the National Organization for Arts in Health.
McGuire is the curator of the exhibition As You Were currently on view in Mason Exhibitions’ Gillespie Gallery through November 11, 2026. The exhibit features the work of thirty-one artists encompassing veterans, family members, and caregivers. As You Were tells a story of transformation—of warriors who have put down their weapons and picked up tools of creativity: paintbrushes, looms, paper pulp, cameras, and pens. Through these and other tools, they navigate life after service, process trauma, and build bridges back to themselves, their families, and to society.
Visual Voices lectures are now available to watch online! Mason Arts Amplified has a new look and platform to make watching and browsing arts content even easier. This online platform is a digital stage and learning space featuring curated arts experiences including livestreamed concerts, releases of previously recorded content, behind-the-scenes talks with artists, and more. It requires a free registration.
Past speakers have included:
Dr. Giovanni Aloi / Morgan Ashcom / Sadie Barnette / Sharif Bey / Rodrigo Carazas Portal / William Christenberry / Sonya Clark / Carolyn Drake / Andriy Dubchak / Kayla E. / James Elkins / Ann Fessler / Colette Fu / Maria Gaspar / Sam Gilliam / Steve Heller / Jon Henry / Leslie Hewitt / Kei Ito / Nora Krug / Steve Kurtz / Lucy Lippard / Taekyeom Lee / Ellen Lesperance / Ellen Lupton / MasPaz / J.J. McCracken / Dr. Cheryl D. Holmes MIller / Adriana Monsalve / Dorothy Moss / Silas Munro / Alyce Myatt / Laurel Nakadate / Jordan Nassar / Lori Nix / Mendi+Keith Obadike / Eddie Opara / Adriana Ospina / PARABOLA Architecture / Michael Rakowitz / Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz / E. Carmen Ramos / Wendy Red Star / Dario Robleto / Mia Eve Rollow / Chemi Rosado-Seijo / Phyllis Rosenzweig / Mario Rossero / Amanda Ross-Ho / Rozeal / Paul Rucker / Carrie Schneider / Simon Schwartz / Bahia Shehab / Kuiyi Shen / Renee Stout / Siebren Versteeg / Angela Washko / Robert Whitman / Daniel Wickerham and Malcolm Lomax / Bruce Willen / Deborah Willis / Krzysztof Wodiczko / Agustina Woodgate / The Yes Men