Associate Chair, Undergraduate Program Director
Senior Lecturer of Costume Design
abele@umbc.edu
http://www.ericabele.com
B.A. Dramatic Arts, Centre College
M.F.A. Costume Design, University of Tennessee
Pronouns: He/They
Eric Abele, a multi-disciplinary artist and designer, joined the faculty at UMBC in 2014. His research investigates the crossover of art and theatre design education, primarily through digital costume design pedagogy. The aim of this pedagogy is to teach learners how to incorporate more realistic representations of pattern, body, and texture within a sketch while increasing speed and strengthening communication. In partnership with his fellow researcher, Professor Lauren Roark of the University of Tennessee Knoxville, he co-owns Digital Theatre Design, LLC; together they host and produce Design with Procreate: an online learning community teaching rendering skills to students and professionals of all experience levels: http://designwithprocreate.com.
Professionally he has designed costumes for Baltimore/DC area theatres including Everyman Theatre, REP Stage, Imagination Stage, Adventure Theatre, and Interrobang Theatre Company. Eric is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.
At UMBC, he teaches a wide range of courses including Theatre Design I: Fundamentals, Theatre Design III: Costume, Senior Capstone, Fashion, Culture and Society, and a variety of electives like Graphic Design and Digital Rendering. Eric has also taught as adjunct faculty in Costume Illustration at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television.
Eric is currently pursuing a BFA in Painting, Drawing and Printmaking and a BS in Art History at Towson University.