Thomas Warfield

Rochester Business Journal Staff//June 30, 2023//

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Professor, RIT / PeaceArt International

Years in current role: 25

What do you enjoy most about your position in your company and/or your role in the community?

As Director of Dance at RIT, I have the daily opportunity to engage students in thinking creatively, guiding young minds to expand and nurture these imaginations. It is incredibly rewarding. In the broader community of Rochester, I am also able to use art and creativity to help foster greater human understanding and peace.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish before the end of the year?

At RIT we are opening up a new building, the SHED (Student Hall for Exploration and Development). I have been given the task to create the opening performing arts production — AstroDance on Dec. 1. It will combine dance, astrophysics, technologies of motion capture, AR, projection mapping, and Ariel dance, student composers, dancers and musicians. I’m looking forward to building connections between the arts and technology and design.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome in your career?

One of the biggest challenges I think I have continually faced is within my own mind. Being Black, gay and an artist hasn’t always been received with positive encouragement. But instead of thinking of it as a challenge I’ve been teaching myself that who I am is a gift not only to me but to the world.

What are your favorite things about the Rochester area?

Rochester is a nurturing environment that fosters artists, technicians, innovators within diverse demographics and ideas. Rochester recreates itself and so is a master teacher in helping us to do the same with our own individual lives. Also, my favorite place in Rochester is Highland Park!

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing Rochester?

We, as a community, must continue to learn ways to connect with in our greater community. There is a tendency to be siloed and separate which feeds fear and can lead to violent behaviors but one way to combat that is to keep building bridges to one another. If we want to find solutions to poverty, violence, educational deficiencies, housing and food shortages then we must work at combining forces, ideas and lives.

This profile is part of Rochester Business Journal's Power List for LGBTQ+ Business Leaders for 2023. Information used in this profile was sourced from the honoree. View the full list at rbj.net.