Connie Furr Soloman

Associate Professor, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University

Education:
Bachelor of Creative Arts, UNC Charlotte (1983)
Master of Fine Arts, University of Tennessee (1986)

Hometown: Pineville, NC

Connie Furr Soloman teaches costume design, drawing, makeup, and the history of fashion in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, where she is an associate professor. She has designed more than 300 productions for theatre, opera, and television, including work for Actors Theatre of Louisville, Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Syracuse Opera, and Orlando Opera.

When Connie first entered UNC Charlotte, she was a nursing major. In order to spend more time with her boyfriend, who was studying set design, she began voluteering for theatre productions. Soon she was enrolled in the Bachelor of Creative Arts degree. 

“It was an intensive, grueling, creative, and fabulous program led by some of the most influential people in my life. The department at that time was small; when we were creating a show everyone was involved. I fluctuated for a while deciding what my emphasis was to be, then I met costume designer, Professor Bob Croghan. Croghan changed my life.”

Connie became Croghan’s assistant, working on every show that he did. “We had big dreams as to the productions that we would mount. Croghan, fellow costume students, and I would find ourselves stitching until the wee morning hours.”

Even after graduating, Connie and Croghan continued to work together, traveling across the eastern United States giving mask workshops and on occasion designing together. “The years that we worked together forever shaped me. When I got married it was Croghan who gave me away.The students that I work with today are definitely impacted by my experiences with him.”

Connie was named the 2015 Distinguished Alumna in the Department of Theatre, the first alum to receive the honor.