NEXT is a magazine for the alumni and friends of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). We aspire to share the realization of our mission through stories of alumni who are transforming the world through creativity and purpose, of faculty members who are delivering world-class education to tomorrow’s creative leaders, and of supporters who are generously believing in and bolstering the mission of MCAD. MAGAZINE CREDITS
MCAD BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Ann Benrud, Editor Rita Kovtun, Associate Editor and Writer Kayla Campbell ’16, MFA, Senior Designer Dylan Cole, DesignWorks Studio Manager Josie Keifenheim, Assistant Editor
Bruce W. Bean, Chairman David Moore, Vice Chair Bill Thorburn ’84, Vice Chair Uri Camarena, Immediate Past Chair Jay Coogan, President Ta-coumba Aiken Leslie Berkshire Susan Calmenson Nancy Carlson ’76 Anne Cashill Cy DeCosse ’52
COVER ARTWORK Michael Lonchar ’19, Blue Screen of Death, 2017, mixed media Lonchar on his MCAD experience: “As a second-semester transfer student at MCAD, I’m realizing that everything I create is a direct reflection of my thoughts and feelings. With this in mind, I’ve started to look more critically at my own personal life choices and viewpoints. This has helped the artistic process immensely, both conceptually and technically. I feel healthy, and I honestly never could have imagined how much I would have evolved as a person and an artist since coming here.”
Tara Dev Joseph Donnelly Miles Q. Fiterman Greg C. Heinemann Mitzi Magid Clinton H. Morrison Elizabeth Nientimp Todd Paulson Mark D. Pihlstrom Mary Bowman Rae Howard Rubin Gary M. Surdel
TRUSTEES BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Jay Coogan President LIFE TRUSTEES Bruce W. Bean Cy DeCosse ’52
Clinton H. Morrison
AWARDS
PRESIDENT'S ADVISORY COMMIT TEE
The previous issue of NEXT received the following awards: -> Gold Award in the Single Page or Spread Design category for education magazines under 30,000 circulation from the Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association (MMPA) -> Silver Award in the Cover Design category for education magazines under 30,000 circulation from the MMPA -> Bronze Award in the Profile Article category for education magazines under 30,000 circulation from the MMPA
Jay Coogan President
Pamela Newsome-Prochniak Vice President, Human Resources
Joy Brathwaite Vice President, Finance Chief Financial Officer
Cindy Theis Associate Vice President, Institutional Advancement
Melissa Huybrecht Vice President, Enrollment Management
Karen Wirth Vice President, Academic Affairs Jen Zuccola Dean, Student Affairs
THE MAGAZINE OF THE MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
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A Letter from President Jay Coogan.......................................3 Supporting MCAD...............................................................4 Purpose-Driven Education A Letter from Vice President of Academic Affairs Karen Wirth......6 MCAD Today......................................................................7 Harmonicas, Halloween Costumes, and Honing Your Craft.........8 Making a Major..................................................................9 Health and Wellness............................................................10 Career Development...........................................................11 Honoring the Creative Voice.................................................12 New Minors.......................................................................13 Q + A with FAILE.................................................................14 Twenty Years of Launching Careers........................................16 Alumni Profile: Naomi Chan.................................................18 Thinking with Your Hands.....................................................20 2017–2018 Openings and Events............................................22 Alumni Notes.....................................................................24 Faculty Notes.....................................................................26 Who We Are.......................................................................28 Student Showcase..............................................................29
VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1, SPRING 2018 Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2501 Stevens Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404 612.874.3700 • mcad.edu
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Photograph by Rita Kovtun
President Jay Coogan with Patrick Miller ’02 in front of Fragments of You and Me..., a mural created by street art collaboration FAILE (Miller and Patrick McNeil) to celebrate the completion of NEXT/ NOW, MCAD's first comprehensive capital campaign. Mural funding was provided in part by Karin Phillips ’95. See more on page 14.
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A LET TER FROM PRESIDENT JAY CO O GAN
What is the Value of an Art and Design Education? t is a question that is increasingly being asked of higher education in general and art schools in particular. It is a fair question—art colleges need to not only teach broad skills such as creative and critical thinking, but they should also teach students to think of themselves as professionals in the making and equip them with the necessary skills to build careers following graduation. That being said, perhaps the more important question is this: what are the values of an art and design education? At the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, our guiding value to education is to put students first. My top priority as president is to keep MCAD affordable and accessible to any students talented and driven enough who want to succeed as professional artists and designers. Since 2010, the college has more than doubled the amount of scholarship aid available to students. More than 95 percent of current students receive financial aid via grants or scholarships, and more than 40 percent of our students are from low-income families.
in the foundation year, and we have spaces that allow students to explore ideas about entrepreneurship within spaces that encourage collaboration and work with outside clients. I am also very excited to announce the launch of a new product design program at the college, led by industrial designer Gabriel Ruegg (see page 8). The curriculum that he is developing is a rich blend of product design, design thinking, human factors, and entrepreneurial skills designed to help students develop product ideas into business start-ups or to launch them into careers in product design across the country. We are thrilled that MCAD has a major funding partner—Target has gifted MCAD $250,000 to help develop the program through scholarships, equipment purchases, and a design-focused lecture series. Our values also extend beyond the border of the campus and into the broader community. From our teaching artist and engaged and public arts minors (see page 13) to grant-funded community engagement programs, MCAD students can be found providing free arts programming for kids transitioning out of homelessness, working with deaf Muslim students, creating murals across Minneapolis, and even designing better visual systems for voting. MCAD students make an impact through socially engaged work locally, nationally, and internationally.
We believe art has the power to transform lives and communities.
While at MCAD, students have 24/7 access to MCAD’s facilities. Class sizes are kept small to ensure that every student receives individualized attention and instruction. Our unique approach to education stresses the importance of learning through making. MCAD students are taught creative literacy, critical thinking, artistic technique, design thinking, and key entrepreneurial skills. They are taught to combine creativity and developing skills with their own unique sense of purpose. We believe they have the ability to create meaning in their lives, rather than having meaning created for them. The college is also dedicated to providing innovative programming that uses the most current digital technologies and design processes. We offer state-of-the-art animation and media facilities, we utilize 3D printing technology beginning
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While MCAD is an institution of higher education, more importantly, it’s a community of people dedicated to the idea of the power of the creative spirit. We believe art has the power to transform lives and communities. I have seen it over and over again during my career as an artist, teacher, and administrator. And, I see it every day at MCAD. Creative literacy, problem solving, entrepreneurial spirit, and a commitment to innovation: these are at the core of MCAD’s art and design education. Collectively, they demonstrate that the true value of an art and design education is priceless.
MAKING MC AD
Supporting MCAD: Commun New Giving Initiatives With more than 95% of students receiving financial
Art Cellar Awards Every student makes their way through the Art Cellar—a convenient place to shop for art supplies and textbooks at discounted prices without leaving campus. However, even with low prices, the ongoing costs of supplies for projects and assignments add additional strain to many students’ already limited resources. Donor-funded awards of $100 are given each semester to first- and second-year students of demonstrated financial need.
Service Bureau Awards The MCAD Service Bureau is a full-service, on-campus print shop that provides students access to high-quality color inkjet prints, scanning, bookbinding, and more. Each semester, donor-funded credits of $250 are awarded to juniors and seniors to use at the Service Bureau as they complete their final projects. Full-time MCAD undergraduates who have completed a minimum of 60 credits and MFA candidates are eligible to receive an award. Recipients are selected through a random drawing. Your gift of any size will make a lasting impact on an MCAD student. To donate to student scholarships, the Art Cellar Award, or the Service Bureau Award, go to donate.mcad.edu. Donor gifts will be distributed to MCAD students, ensuring their path to becoming tomorrow’s leading artists and designers.
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Photographs by Tom Bierlein ’19 and Anna Schultz ’16
aid in the form of grants or scholarships, MCAD is continually working to stay affordable to any student who is talented and driven enough to succeed as an artist or designer. Now, in addition to scholarship support, you can donate to two new initiatives, Art Cellar and Service Bureau Awards, that also directly support student success. These new awards are funded by several generous MCAD alumni like Peter Wocken ’05, who remembers how quickly costs can add up: “Lisa and I wanted to give back because we’ve both been poor art students—illustration for me and photography for her. It’s helpful to be able to afford art supplies so you don’t need to choose between supplies and food. Hopefully our donations help in some small way to forge the next generation of creatives.”
MAKING MC AD
nity Gifts Make a Difference Celebrating Art, Design, Education, and Creativity In May 2017, MCAD completed NEXT/NOW, its first comprehensive capital campaign. The college surpassed its $22 million goal, raising nearly $24 million over five years. The funds were distributed as follows:
Photographs by Curly Jefferson ’16, MFA, and Anna Schultz ’16
-> -> -> ->
S cholarships: $8.376 million O perations: $7.7 million F acilities (M/LAB and E/STUDIO): $7.2 million P rograms: $550,000
NEXT/NOW was an extraordinary accomplishment for MCAD; it strengthened scholarships, grew operational support, revamped the Entrepreneurial Studies Program and space, and made a new state-of-the-art media wing possible. The success of the NEXT/ NOW Capital Campaign helps keep MCAD at the forefront of art and design education, ensures excellence and affordability for MCAD students, and, most importantly, helps the next generation of creators prepare to one day change the world through creativity and purpose. More than 150 donors made a gift to NEXT/NOW with 95 giving $25,000 or more. MCAD's current and past trustees, alumni, and individuals contributed to the campaign along with several major corporations and foundations such as Target, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, Best Buy, the Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation, and the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. In honor of this major milestone, MCAD asked four alumni to create installations. Margarita Jane Arguedas ’17, Jonathan Rodriguez ’13, and Arlene Birt ’02 each conceived of and implemented large-scale works that were on view in the MCAD Main Building throughout the fall of 2017, and Patrick Miller ’02 (of duo FAILE) created the first-ever mural on an MCAD facade that will be on view indefinitely. Mural funding was provided in part by Karin Phillips ’95. In mid-September, MCAD hosted Celebration Saturday, a public celebration in the south parking lot for neighbors, friends, and family to celebrate art and this moment in the college’s history. The event included an array of family-friendly, art-inspired experiences created by the MCAD community. MCAD thanks all donors and attendees for being supporters of art, design, education, and creativity!
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PURP OSE-DRIVEN EDUC ATION
MC
A Purpose-Driven Education ow do art and design shape our daily lives? How do ideas become form that can change the way we think and act? How do artists and designers contribute to communities in meaningful ways? And how do students and faculty work together to develop students’ creative talents to make that change? These are just some of the questions that inform the curricular conversations around a purpose-driven education at MCAD.
2017 2018
The new BFA in product design focuses on creating great products and acquiring an understanding of where they fit into the marketplace. Prototypes to products will be tested and refined by cutting, researching, welding, casting, programming, and 3D printing. The new creative writing minor and the new engaged and public arts minor help students focus their professional interests. In creative writing, they can hone their skills for careers that incorporate writing, ranging from poetry to technical writing. The engaged and public arts minor combines studio and liberal arts for creative practice in public or community art that includes research, fieldwork, and direct experiences. Along with the academic programs, students discover strengths through internships and professional development through a reinvigorated Career Development Office. MCAD’s health and wellness initiative makes sure that we are supporting the whole student as they develop their art, design, and scholarly skills.
300 Photograph by Lindsey Kusterman ’17
All of our programs are committed to innovative problem-solving, a balance of conceptual and technical skills, visual and verbal articulation, and classroom and experiential learning. In addition to our strong undergraduate and graduate programs, we are pleased to introduce some exciting new programs to help students define their directions.
Students fed at the Thanksgiving meal
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Sculpture Garden pieces since opening in 2011
9 trees planted on campus in 2017
bees 2 hives live on MCAD's rooftop
The energetic learning environment at MCAD includes personal, client, and community-based projects as well as hands-on studio production and technical skills, all based in a well-rounded studio and liberal arts context. MCAD features state-of-the-art facilities and equipment as well as the expertise of faculty who have active careers in the subjects they teach. At MCAD, students enjoy a creative and supportive home that provides the concepts, skills, and experience to find success and make a difference in the world. Hundreds of pounds of honey produced, some sold to the MCAD community and some saved for the bees
Karen Wirth Vice President, Academic Affairs
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PURP OSE-DRIVEN EDUC ATION
CAD TODAY 4,082 3 3D Shop Mini Gallery exhibitions
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Total exhibitions suitcase gallery and visiting artists in 2017
16 Main, Concourse, and Emeritus Gallery exhibitions
E/STUDIO gallery 4 E/STUDIO Gallery exhibitions
(on-campus supply store)
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Home of 664 artists’ books
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The Library houses more plants than anywhere on campus–45 to be exact
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646 Undergraduate / 96 Graduate / 9 Non-degree-seeking
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Service Bureau (full-service, oncampus print shop)
ANI MA TION Fastest growing program
PURP OSE-DRIVEN EDUC ATION
Harmonicas, Halloween Costumes, and Honing Your Craft
with Product Design Associate Professor Gabriel Ruegg
ringing a wealth of experience teaching and working in the field, Gabriel Ruegg was the perfect choice to lead MCAD in building its new product design program. His enthusiastic approach to the task at hand speaks to his entrepreneurial spirit and a readiness to equate “making” with both product design and curriculum. An industrial designer who has worked in a number of industries, including pet products, toys, and consumer kitchen products, Ruegg’s clients include KitchenAid, Kohl’s, Martha Stewart, and Williams Sonoma. He previously taught in the industrial design programs at Pratt Institute and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Why were you attracted to this position at MCAD and what do you hope students will learn in the program?
What sparked your interest in product design? I’ve always felt like a lot of products and spaces didn’t quite fit me. Don Norman, an early advocate of user-centered design, uses the classic example of the symmetrical push-bar on a door, where you don’t know which side of the door to push on. So encountering these little everyday things and thinking, “There’s got to be a better way!” is what first drew me to product design.
What are your favorite products? A really good kitchen knife. I worked in kitchenwares, but I’m also kind of a purist, so something that is classic, functional, high quality. But there are also products that put a little smile on your face, like the Chantal tea kettle. Instead of having a regular whistle, it’s a harmonica. It’s a little thing that’s totally unnecessary, but it’s a nice detail.
What do you like to do outside of work? In New York I was playing on some recreational soccer leagues. I’ve also done really elaborate Halloween costumes since I was in junior high, including an LED walk symbol and the New Year's Eve ball drop. I like to attend lectures and check out art museums. I moved here six months ago, so I’m still getting to know the Cities. The number one thing that has struck me is how big places like restaurants are and just the ease of getting around. Everything’s so tight in New York. It feels really livable here. � Read more of the conversation at mcad.edu/ruegg.
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Photographs by Tom Bierlein ’19
I was drawn to MCAD for the opportunity to help build a product design program from the ground up—it’s something you don’t get to do very often. In working full-time as a designer for the last decade, I feel like I have a pretty good sense of what employers are looking for. It's about understanding the user. It’s also the hard skills like drawing and 3D modeling to communicate ideas and create prototypes. The intention is to train students to design objects and systems that will most likely be fabricated by someone else, helping them understand the tools that are available to make their ideas a reality. I also hope to train students to be leaders and advocate for good design in an effective way, especially in the context of a bigger organization.
PURP OSE-DRIVEN EDUC ATION
Making a Major
A Conversation with the Product Design Committee
MCAD launched the long-awaited product design program in January 2018. This new major will enable the next generation of creative thinkers to master the interplay of design, usability, and manufacturing to develop inspiring everyday products while considering their environmental impact. The curriculum will roll out over the next four years as MCAD grows this forward-thinking program. NEXT chatted with members of the product design development committee about the genesis of the program, why it is important to have at an art and design college, and what sets it apart from others. Product Design Committee Members Gretchen Gasterland-Gustafsson Assistant Professor, Art History Jan Jancourt Professor, Graphic Design Brad Jirka Professor, Sculpture George Mahoney Associate Professor, Furniture Design
How did the product design major originate? Wirth: President Jay Coogan was interested in product design from the day he started at MCAD nine years ago. He identified that we were sitting in a place that had a lot of Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, and potential partners.
How did you look to position the program?
There was a lot of enthusiasm for a program and once it became clear we wanted to do a major, we had to consult what this needed to be, what it would look like, and what the accreditors wanted. The committee has been really open; we all represent different departments. There was a clear sense of building something new.
Mahoney: One of the studies supported the idea that we had something to offer that other schools in the Midwest didn’t have to offer.
Why is it important to launch a program like this at MCAD in 2018?
Wirth: The employers we surveyed did name other programs and suggested how we might do things differently than others.
Jirka: It’s a logical extension of what we’re already doing—explorations in multiple dimensions, furniture, environmental design, and we used to have industrial design. We do graphics, we do visuals, we do communications—we do all these things, but we also do furniture and lighting. Even in the sculpture world, there’s a real trend now for people to be producing products or designing things, essentially creating more democratic objects. Mahoney: One of the most important parts of the program is to bring in students who wouldn’t typically come to MCAD, so it’s not necessarily meant to slice up our current student body. Ruegg: MCAD also asked local design firms, businesses, and manufacturers what they wanted and one of the things was homegrown talent.
Gabriel Ruegg Associate Professor, Product Design
Wirth: Repeatedly 3M and Target have mentioned looking for MCAD talent. We developed a marketing and feasibility study that interviewed employers, high school teachers, guidance counselors, current students, and parents of current students, giving us the confidence to go forward.
Karen Wirth Vice President, Academic Affairs
What else does MCAD need to do to make this program happen?
Stephen Rueff Director, Entrepreneurial Studies
Wirth: We are in the process of evaluating space and facilities changes, along with equipment acquisition timelines and a plan for rolling out the new courses. Target is supporting the program with funding for a speaker series, equipment, and scholarships.
Jancourt: We are planning substantial hardware initiatives with regard to classroom space, studio space, lab space, and equipment requirements. It’s a huge undertaking.
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Jirka: We came at it less from an engineering side and more from a creative side and with the understanding that our students are all entrepreneurial.
Ruegg: The small scale here is unusual—the environment is conducive to really developing the individual students’ skills. Gasterland-Gustafsson: From the beginning, there’s been a focus on making and hands-on interaction other than approaching everything abstractly and digitally—and we have great facilities for that. Rueff: Being a bachelor of fine arts versus a bachelor of science degree is something we had to make a decision about, too. We don’t have engineering at this school. We’re a maker space. We’re creatives. The study talked about how the creativity piece is the piece that we need. Gasterland-Gustafsson: The engineering part is going to change radically over time. Creativity is the core skill that people will actually need to succeed in the industry long-term. Wirth: We are also looking to expand our partnerships with businesses and entrepreneurs. We have a long-standing relationship with Room & Board and have done sponsored studios with 3M and Umbra, among many others. Connecting the students and the educational mission with external partners is a win for everyone. �
Read more of the conversation at mcad.edu/pd-committee.
PURP OSE-DRIVEN EDUC ATION
Health and Wellness Considering the Whole Student
hat constitutes a well-rounded college student? It’s more than good grades. Personal growth and development are equal to intellectual development, and MCAD is committed to supporting the physical and mental health needs of students so they can complete their education and be successful in their careers. Increasingly, MCAD advances students’ growth as people by helping them create healthy habits as they graduate and integrate into the larger society. What does it take to do this? MCAD is putting forth a health and wellness initiative dedicated to enhancing the student experience across all areas of student life. This resolution strives to meet the emotional, mental, and physical needs of MCAD students. In order to meet those needs, MCAD plans to make information about on- and off-campus resources easily available. Self-help initiatives, events, guest presenters, and other educational pieces will steer MCAD students toward healthy living. Plans for facilities development, programming, and community partnerships are part of a threepronged approach to providing for the needs of the whole student.
FACILITIES • Redesign the College Center to create a more inviting communal space • Introduce more student-focused areas for activities, congregating, and casual gatherings • Create a Wellness Center in the Morrison Building for counseling and group and individual activities • Relocate and expand the fitness center • Improve and update the cafeteria area for a more healthy, comfortable, and appealing dining experience PROGRAMS • Increase student mental health counseling staffing and hours • Address needs of and build a more diverse and equitable student body • Participate in the nationwide Healthy Minds Survey to help gauge emotional well-being and mental health programming on campus • Introduce a diverse lecture and workshop series • Increase wellness resources online, on campus, and off campus • Monitor and address food insecurity issues COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS • Establish partnerships with local medical facilities for easy access to wellness check-ins • Establish partnerships with local organizations to promote activities such as rock climbing, yoga, and biking
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Photographs by Lindsey Kusterman ’17, Meg Dolan '11, and Kathy Huang ’17
Activities such as getting outdoors, the Pet Petting Zoo event, and the annual Black and White Ball help MCAD students take a break from the academic grind.
PURP OSE-DRIVEN EDUC ATION
Career Development A New Name, a New Director, and a Renewed Focus Getting Their Start
Photographs by Tom Bierlein ’19, Lindsey Kusterman ’17, Rita Kovtun, and courtesy of Maddie Kozlowski
roviding the best possible career preparation and opportunities for MCAD students and alumni is a top priority for the college. Career development is essential in adequately preparing students who are on the verge of launching their art and design careers in an ever-evolving employment landscape.
Each spring, the Emerging Talent Showcase fosters connections between seasoned MCAD talent and Twin Cities professionals interested in working with creatives. Students and recent graduates have a chance to showcase their portfolios and, for many, this event provides them with an array of new contacts, if not job opportunities. These recent grads both launched their careers through the 2017 event.
Maddie Kozlowski ’17
Becky Bates, a veteran in the career services arena, joined MCAD in January to lead the Career Development department. Bates’ experience includes twenty years of admissions and career services work in higher education. She has enthusiasm and an abundance of local connections to complement her track record. Building upon the recent success of two annual career events, the Emerging Talent Showcase (pictured below) and the Internship Fair, Bates will be working with local organizations and companies to showcase MCAD talent.
When Manhattan Toy Company’s design team came to the showcase to seek out new talent, Maddie Kozlowski’s work, which was on display in the spring commencement exhibition, caught their eye. Kozlowski, an illustration major, connected with the company at the event and was hired on full-time as a product developer directly after graduation. Since then, she says her experience at Manhattan Toy has been “priceless.” “I get to go to work and do what I love—illustrate—every day. It couldn't be a more perfect job,” she says. She has worked on baby toys, plush toys, and children's books. Several of her baby toys came out in Manhattan Toy’s January 2018 release, her favorite being a fuzzy saguaro cactus activity toy— “because who wouldn't buy a cactus for their baby?”
Joe Neumann ’17
Formerly known as Career Services, the department’s new name—Career Development—more accurately aligns with the approach of working with students as soon as they arrive at MCAD, building relationships and providing guidance as they develop their career path. Career Development works two ways: guiding students in the development of meaningful, sustainable career opportunities and helping employers from across the country find the best art and design talent in the region. The office works to reinforce the professional practice and resources provided throughout an MCAD student’s academic experience and provides support for the development of soft skills, such as presentations, interviews, networking, and follow-through. Plus, MCAD alumni have ongoing access to these resources.
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Joe Neumann was looking to apply at Polaris after his graduation, so he was happily surprised to meet Melissa Breitenfeldt ’06 at the showcase who told him about her past position as a lead designer for the company. Breitenfeldt founded MB4 Studio, which provides design, strategy, and management consulting clients largely affiliated with the outdoors and power sports industries, and hired Neumann, an illustration major, as a contract designer/ illustrator shortly after graduation. Since then, Neumann has worked on design and illustrations for apparel content as well as vinyl graphic kits for UTVs and motocross bikes. He has also worked with a team of CAD designers to create mockups for new products and helps with marketing and brand strategy. “It’s been an exciting experience learning new ways of working and how to apply my skills from MCAD,” he says. �
PURP OSE-DRIVEN EDUC ATION
Honoring the Creative Voice Tom DeBiaso’s Pioneering Approach to Education seminars he had attended at other graduate schools, DeBiaso knew that integration needed to be a cornerstone of the program. Other innovative, core aspects of the program—a personalized, mentor-based approach and a focus on intensive critique seminars and studio practice—were also in place from the beginning and continue on today. “The model continues to be relevant as students expand and elevate their education in the dynamic interdisciplinary environment,” DeBiaso says.
ready to retire from the visionary program he helped create, teach, and steer—the master of fine arts in visual studies. Having directed this community of makers, thinkers, theorists, researchers, and creative professionals for the past six years, DeBiaso feels like he’s going out on top. “This period has been a tour de force for innovation and experience in creative study made possible by building a graduate community grounded in a commitment to studio practice, setting a solid foundation for current and future students as they move into their careers as meaningful cultural contributors,” DeBiaso says. DeBiaso arrived at MCAD after founding the regional education and media access center Film in the Cities. In 1975, he joined MCAD to teach film production—just after the Main Building opened. After seven years of teaching, he proposed combining filmmaking, video, photography and animation together into an interdisciplinary program, and the Media Arts Department—one of the first in the country—was born. DeBiaso chaired the department for almost a decade, deepening his roots at the college while retaining his personal practice in filmmaking and photography. As his educational leadership role expanded, he served for three years as dean of studio programs, ushering in a series of developments in the academic life of the college. In the early nineties, MCAD President John Slorp decided the college needed a graduate program and charged DeBiaso with breathing life into the idea. Finding inspiration in his own interdisciplinary experience as well as mixed-discipline critique
A major change was one of location. DeBiaso helped relocate the program to a new facility close to MCAD’s campus that houses more than fifty studios, classrooms, production areas, and a professional gallery. A team of MCAD staff, graduate faculty, and lead architect Patrick Regan of noted local firm James Dayton Architects worked to create the MFA Studios and Gallery. Not only does the new building symbolize an increased visibility for the program, but the proximity to campus means graduate students have easier access to resources in the Main Building and partnerships with undergraduate students and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. As DeBiaso reflects on his decades-long career at MCAD, he voices that not only did he help shape the Media Arts Department and MFA Program—they shaped him, too. “MCAD has always kept me open and alive and creatively enriched me because I was working with students and colleagues from so many different disciplines,” he says. As MCAD undergoes the process of hiring a new director, DeBiaso remains optimistic that the MFA program will continue to be successful: “The program is like life is—it’s responsive enough to change. In the end, it’s all about the students, working in the curriculum and being supported by incredible faculty and staff.” � Read more of the story at mcad.edu/debiaso.
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Photograph by Shun Jie Yong ’18, MFA
n his forty-third year at MCAD, Tom DeBiaso is getting
DeBiaso originally taught in the program, but did not become director until 2012. Building on the previous twenty years of excellence, the program flourished under his leadership. DeBiaso increased the amount and attendance of exhibitions, brought in visiting artists and designers, encouraged crossover with undergraduate programs, created collaborative projects with outside groups, formalized much of the academic structure of the program, established an MFA website and social media presence, and introduced an annual thesis catalog.
PURP OSE-DRIVEN EDUC ATION
New Minors Promoting Interdisciplinary Thinking
Mural design and photograph by Dane Cree ’13
hile students focus heavily on their chosen
Engaged and Public Arts
majors during their time at MCAD, minors provide them the opportunity to pursue other interests and focus their professional and personal goals. In addition to art history and teaching artist minors, the new creative writing minor and the new engaged and public arts minor help students solidify a direction.
MCAD’s Art in Community class has had strong interdisciplinary appeal for more than a decade. Since 2006, students have planned and implemented art and design projects in collaboration with a variety of community partners across the Twin Cities, including Whittier International Elementary School and Pillsbury House & Theatre.
Creative Writing
Aiming to expand the training for students creating works for and with communities, MCAD introduced the engaged and public arts minor in Fall 2017. The minor combines the power of the liberal arts and the studio to enable students to effectively and ethically bring the imagination, craft, and skill of their art or design practice into the public sphere. Students learn about arts engagement, interventionist strategies, and collaborative practices in order to create socially engaged art. Research, fieldwork, and direct experiences within the public sphere allow students to broaden their cultural knowledge and determine their unique value as art makers.
There is demand for good writers in every field, and art and design is no exception. So, in Fall 2016, MCAD launched its creative writing minor. This area of study allows students to hone their writing skills while exploring a full range of genres including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, scholarly writing, and business writing. Students are able to tailor the minor to the specific writing skills and practices they will need for their area, whether writing narrative storylines or grant proposals. Housed under the Liberal Arts Department, creative writing has broad appeal as MCAD’s most popular minor, attracting students from every discipline who can choose to emphasize nonfiction, creative, or business writing. “The minor can help students slow down and think in terms of more nuanced arguments— to think not necessarily in a visual way and to use different parts of their brain and creative abilities,” says Liberal Arts Chair Gerald Ronning. For specific majors, learning about narrative structure in storytelling can help students creating comic books, artist’s books, animated narrative-driven video, or game design. But the minor is also there for those who use writing as a non-visual form of expression. “It’s important to have something you like to do that’s not always career-driven but is entirely for you. Writing allows a lot of room for self-expression,” Ronning says. No matter what direction students take after graduation, coherent, concise, and informative writing can also help students support their artistic practices and entrepreneurial ventures. “In an instrumental way, it teaches people to be clear and effective communicators, which is always important,” Ronning says.
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The minor follows a philosophy that an artist or designer acts a partner in making community-based work instead of working in a vacuum. “The Art in Community class is focused on posing a question around what conditions need to exist in a higher ed community-based arts program to contribute effectively to social change,” says Fine Arts Professor Natasha Pestich, who has taught the class since 2013. Other core classes of the minor include Art in the Cities, which explores the relationship between art and urban space with the Twin Cities as its primary site of investigation, and Ethnography for Artists and Designers, which educates students on how to ethically and constructively engage with the public. The minor’s faculty are excited to continue the relationships they have already built as well as collaborate—within the class, with other departments at MCAD, and with the larger Twin Cities community—to create new ones. “This minor will get MCAD insinuated into the city in new ways—throw out more lines, build more bridges, and put MCAD students out in new places,” Ronning says. �
ALUMNI PRO FILE
How did FAILE begin?
FAILE is the world-renowned street art collaboration of Patrick Miller ’02 and Patrick McNeil. In 2017, MCAD commissioned FAILE to create a mural to commemorate the successful completion of the NEXT/NOW Capital Campaign with funding in part by Karin Phillips ’95. The piece Fragments of You and Me… is the first-ever mural on an MCAD facade. NEXT chatted with Miller about the birth of street art, FAILE’s curious imagery, and his MCAD heydays.
What was the street art scene like when you entered it? The street art scene was very small in the late nineties and mostly based around graffiti. We knew we wanted to focus fulltime on making essentially paintings and the idea to put the
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Photograph by Patrick Miller ’02
Q+A
I initially went to MCAD for a year in 1997 and then left to pursue a degree in product design in LA, but ended up taking the year off. I worked at a restaurant and made art in my garage. Patrick, my best friend since I was fourteen, said to me, “What are you doing? You should go back to MCAD and look at graphic design so you can get a job,” and that’s exactly what I did. Every chance I could get, I was up in the screenprinting lab. Patrick would fly out from New York and we would make big monoprints. Eventually, he would travel to London and Berlin and Tokyo and put up the work. With 24-hour access, MCAD was a place we could make prints easily. Our first show was at Dragon Bar in London in 2001 after our work was recognized on the street. It snowballed from there, from show, to show, to then, all of a sudden, a bigger movement. It was an amazing journey rather quickly.
ALUMNI PRO FILE
L work up in the street came as a way to bypass the constrictive, formal system of fine art. But it quickly became something much more, based around having a direct dialogue with the public. People would write on the side of a poster, tear it, or work over part of it and you’d come back a week later and see its evolution. It was living and breathing in a space that was a public forum and it was exciting to see that. It was a lifestyle. It was what you did—you went out, had a few beers, and then you put up work. Around 2003, blogs started happening and then Flickr appeared in 2004—that was what propelled this movement.
visceral level. MCAD was a time of play and putting things together, and it was a nice opportunity to bring that back.
What inspired the imagery for the MCAD mural?
I think FAILE is recreating my time at MCAD—a place where people can be actively making something and bringing it to life. The thing I often reminisce about is the time when I was really deep in the middle of a project, staying up late in the studios, getting everyone together to play a game of Bump Out, and then going back to work. I remember being surrounded by others that were committed to the process. �
We enjoy the whimsical—we enjoy the playfulness of imagery. American folk art and quiltmaking are huge inspirations in our work. Since a lot of our earliest images were made at MCAD, it was important for me to look back at some of those for the mural. I’m sure people will look at it and have no clue what the hell’s going on, but to me the images have a lot of meaning. An artist is very rarely going to be there to explain their work. It’s got to impact you on a
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How does your time at MCAD feel as you look back on it? It’s romanticized for me, but not in a way that’s artificial. I was really fortunate to hit a group of students that were really motivated. MCAD is really alive to me because I still work with these people and maintain those friendships. Every book we’ve done was designed by a fellow MCAD alum, among other projects. And most importantly, because I met my wife here, it’s a special place for both of us and our family history.
Read more of the conversation at mcad.edu/faile.
M C AD ART SALE
Twenty Years of Launching Careers
Geoff Mitchell ’99, MFA
Mike Perry ’03
What are you doing now?
Founded White Apple Studios in Los Angeles as a structure for work in painting, photography, film/video, and sculpture.
Artist, animator, creative director, brand consultant, poet, and designer who runs an imaginative studio in Brooklyn.
What’s your most
f particular long-lasting impact O was my meeting with the newscaster Robyne Robinson. In 1999, she was in the beginning stages of opening Flatland Gallery. She took me on as one of her first represented artists and gave me my first solo show after graduation.
What I got out of the Art Sale was experience. It was a gigantic step toward expansion. I may have sold some T-shirts, etc., but more importantly it was my first attempt at a “pop-up,” which I still love doing to this day.
How did MCAD help launch your career?
The faculty and fellow students at MCAD were challenging and the environment was one of growth and intense creativity. I was able to forge a style that set me on a course that I would follow after I graduated and that continues to evolve.
MCAD provided me with an incredibly strong foundation. This not only allowed me to be a successful member of the art industry, but also a positive creative member of society as a whole.
What is your best Art Sale advice?
Firstly, be there in good spirits and be ready talk to guests about your work. Secondly, you don’t ever want to become the greatest collector of your own work, but price it for what it’s worth.
Lower your prices. You have a lifetime of selling things for more. Get things out there—develop an audience first and the rest will fall into place over time.
memorable Art Sale moment?
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M C AD ART SALE
In the last twenty years, the MCAD Art Sale has generated more than $3,000,000 for emerging artists. Proceeds support individual artists and the MCAD Art Sale Scholarship Fund. Considered the nation’s largest college art sale, this is a top destination for affordable, appreciable artwork by leading-edge artists and designers who are creating not only what's new, but also what's next. We asked these Art Sale top sellers to share memories and advice in honor of this beloved Minnesota tradition, always held the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Samantha French ’05
Teagan White ’12
Leslie Barlow ’16, MFA
Full-time oil painter with a studio in Brooklyn.
Full-time artist and freelance illustrator based in Minnesota.
Practicing artist, primarily an oil painter, living and working in Minneapolis.
I remember the first piece I sold my first year (and the only piece I put in). There were years when all my work sold in the first half hour and years when I got to do live TV spots. It was a pretty exhilarating experience.
The times that I've been fortunate enough to make a profit in the Art Sale, I've celebrated by buying something I loved at the end because I want the person who made it to know that someone else thinks their work is incredible, and I want them to keep making it!
onestly, all of the sales where I'm H able to meet the people face-to-face and have a conversation with them are memorable. That's one of the best things about the MCAD Art Sale—getting to connect with the people who take your work home.
MCAD gave me a rare opportunity to sell my work and be a part of the greater art community in Minneapolis while I was still in school and as an alum getting my bearings the first few years out of school.
MCAD encouraged me to branch out into all different areas of art! I developed a diverse set of styles and a breadth of knowledge that allowed me to start working as a freelance illustrator before graduating.
oing through the MFA program at G MCAD was vital as it provided the necessary time, space, and mentorship to become confident in the direction of my work.
Don't be afraid to put your work out there and keep doing it every year. Don't worry about trends or what you think people will buy. Put good quality work into the sale and people will come back year after year.
Be aware of your audience with every decision you make. People are mostly coming to buy gifts and decorations for their homes, so you may have to come up with creative solutions to make your work marketable.
Just enjoy yourself and be present. Chat with people about your work when they are floating by it.
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ALUMNI PROFILE
Naomi Chan ’17
A Commitment to Meaningful Work aomi Chan ’17 always wanted to code. “I wanted to make websites because I thought it was kind of badass to do,” she says. So she did. Chan became one of only a few students at MCAD who knew front-end web development and graduated last spring with a major in web and multimedia environments.
Photograph by Rita Kovtun
Now, Chan is a production artist at Minneapolis-based agency mono, where she prepares files for printing in the last stages of advertising campaigns and assists with web development. She started at mono as the company’s first-ever web development intern and was hired on full-time in the fall of 2017. Since then, Chan has had a hand in projects mono created for Google, Loews Hotels, and Walmart. But, like many students who attend MCAD, her path has been anything but straight. With painters for parents, Chan grew up surrounded by art. Her interest in the field crystallized during her time at the Perpich Arts High School. At the time, she was focused on photography—an interest fueled by her maternal grandfather Richard Zempel ’64, whose background spans everything from graphic design, to photography, to painting. Continuing this pursuit at MCAD seemed like the next logical step. In her first years as a student, Chan began using art to explore her identity. “I was realizing that I was a person of color, but I had never considered myself that before,” Chan says. Her mother is from Minnesota; her father, originally from Hong Kong, came to the United States to attend a design school and graduated from MCAD in 1991. (a, b) “My parents got divorced when I was really young. I never felt like I embraced my Chinese culture and identity,” Chan says. She started using her photography to explore race and self-identity.
allowed her to explore the themes that mattered to her in a new way. “I felt there was this movement that was arising when it came to politics and race and gender and it made me question myself. I had to consider that in my work and I felt this pressure to do something,” Chan says. For her senior project, she created one hundred posters for the first one hundred days of Donald Trump’s presidency, which were displayed in a large grid as both black-and-white prints and digital projections on the wall. (c)
As Chan’s interests began to shift, her medium and area of study did as well. She saw possibilities and job prospects within web and multimedia: “It’s such a new career that it can be molded into whatever you want it to be. I like working with digital and that cross between human life and the digital world.” Web also
Creating work within a real-world context is what Chan does best.“I’m not an abstract artist. I need to have a goal or a purpose for what I’m creating,” she says. Chan first got her chance to work
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ALUMNI PROFILE
(a) Photograph by Rita Kovtun (b) Photograph courtesy of Joseph Chan ’91 (c) Photograph by Anna Schultz ’16 (d) Image by Naomi Chan ’17 (e, f) Images courtesy of Richard Zempel ’64
d with clients in DesignWorks, MCAD’s in-house, studentstaffed design studio, using her web design skills to create interactive backgrounds for the college’s website. (d) But at first, she actually pushed back against being a designer. More conversations with Zempel—who majored in graphics (now graphic design) during his time at MCAD and saw in her the same spark that carried him through his multifaceted career—encouraged her. In his time, Zempel worked for several companies setting up and running art departments and photography studios. (e) Now retired and a devout Christian, he volunteer mentors veterans in the court system with a history of drug problems. And, he paints, using his art to depict Biblical scenes. (f)
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Out of art school and in the agency world, Chan has started thinking differently about how she can make an impact. “Companies that have made advertising that is racist or sexist get a lot of flack for it. It’s a power hierarchy and I wonder how we can change it from the inside out,” she says. Evidenced by forward-thinking projects and the all-female intern team she started with, Chan has discovered mono, co-founded by Chris Lange ’93, to be a place where she feels empowered to change the conversation. Chan also represents women in a field that is largely male-dominated—and becoming even more so. According to Girls Who Code, a nonprofit that works to close the gender gap in technology, the number of women computer scientists dropped from 37 percent in 1995 to 24 percent in 2017. “That’s kind of why I love being able to code, because I feel like I’m representing women,” Chan says. Chan is hoping to work toward a position in UX design at mono and says the agency is allowing her to do that. However she chooses to move forward, she will always value the relationships she built at MCAD: “The memories I made here are really important to me and so are the connections I made. This is my network. I don’t know what I would be without the people I met at MCAD.” �
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Read more of the story at mcad.edu/chan.
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STUDIO VISIT
Thinking with Your Hands Tinkering at the Exploratorium
ost people use their heads to think. Karen Wilkinson ’92 and Mike Petrich ’92 use their hands— and they encourage others to do the same. That is exactly what they do every day at the Tinkering Studio, a workshop space they created together in the heart of the Exploratorium, a museum of science, art, and human perception in San Francisco that hosts 850,000 annual visitors. “We’re trying to create the conditions for people to make sense for themselves,” Petrich explains.
Though the Tinkering Studio was officially established in 2007, it is only the latest iteration of something Wilkinson and Petrich discovered during their time in college. They have recreated it over decades, across the country and around the world, with children, adults, graduate school researchers, prison inmates, and Tibetan monks. It is born out of a studio pedagogy that they absorbed at MCAD, where they first met. In college, Wilkinson was originally focused on sculpture and Petrich photography and filmmaking. Then the lines blurred. “Karen would be working on a design project and I’d be photographing it for her and she would be creating a sculpture or painting that I’d use for a film. We’ve been working together ever since,” Petrich recalls. It was a pivotal time for both of them that shaped the course of their practice and made it inseparable from their profession. “Our work is based on a strong foundation that started at MCAD and a belief that you really think differently when you're building something,”
After MCAD, they worked at the Science Museum for five years, co-creating and teaching weeklong classes on all kinds of topics. “It’s these crazy things that we’d make up. We really developed a practice of looking at materials in different ways. We were in love with this type of thinking and learning,” Wilkinson reflects. This experience launched them into a master’s program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education where they also worked closely with the MIT Media Lab. Today, they still collaborate with former colleagues at the Science Museum and the MIT Media Lab, as well as the Lego Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and hundreds of other museums, libraries, and schools. To share their findings, they wrote The Art of Tinkering—a collection highlighting more than one hundred makers that also provides tenets like “create rather than consume” and “use familiar materials in unfamiliar ways” and activities so that readers can do some tinkering themselves. Their main goal is for people to follow their interests and work things out for themselves, because that’s what it means to be human. “We try to blur the lines between art and science and support everyone's curiosity as the driving force toward learning,” Wilkinson says. It is a belief that we are stronger together, with all of our collective knowledge. “If you look at what’s happening in the world right now, it’s interdisciplinary ways of working together. That’s the future of learning. That’s why we care so much about this,” Petrich says. � See more of the Tinkering Studio at mcad.edu/tinkering.
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Photographs by Ann Benrud and Rita Kovtun
Humming with activity, the Tinkering Studio is open to museum visitors of all ages, engaging them in playful invention and collaboration. They can explore a series of rotating exhibits, chat with artists-in-residence, and investigate a range of phenomena with Wilkinson and Petrich’s team of thirteen staff artists, scientists, and educators by participating in a collaborative activity. The public is provided an eclectic assortment of materials, tools, and technologies and encouraged to experiment as long as they like. And the team is not only facilitating—they're tinkering themselves. “It’s really a learning laboratory for us to figure out how we can design and develop experiences that are artistic in nature with scientific underpinnings,” Petrich says.
Wilkinson says. Together, they began volunteering at the Science Museum of Minnesota while still students. Then, they received their first grant from 3M to transform a detention center at a local magnet school into an exploration space consisting of various activities. “Kids would be in fistfights coming down the stairs and they’d walk into the space and all that anger would just melt away,” Petrich says. They had created their first tinkering space.
STUDIO VISIT
“Our work is based on a strong foundation that started at MCAD and a belief that you really think differently when you're building something.� 21
2017–2018 Openings and Events
MC AD HIGHLIGHTS
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MC AD HIGHLIGHTS
a. S hoppers at the 20th Anniversary MCAD Art Sale b. M CAD's Board of Trustees Left to Right, Bottom Row: David E. Moore (Vice Chair), Mitzi Magid, Bruce Bean (Chair), Ta-coumba Aiken Middle Row: President Jay Coogan, Todd Paulson, Nancy Carlson ’76, Anne Cashill, Mark Pihlstrom
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Top Row: Bill Thorburn ’84 (Vice Chair), Greg Heinemann, Susan Calmenson, Gary Surdel, Mary Bowman Rae
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Not Pictured: Uri Camarena (Immediate Past Chair), Leslie Berkshire, Cy DeCosse ’52, Tara Dev, Joseph Donnelly, Miles Q. Fiterman, Clinton H. Morrison, Elizabeth Nientimp, Howard Rubin c. F ull Fashion Panic at the 2017 Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures, hosted at MCAD d. M CAD student Hannah B. Farrell ’18 with scholarship supporter Bob Nehotte ’62 and President Jay Coogan at the 21st Annual Partners in Scholarship Luncheon e. G uests at the Tokyo Type Directors Club Exhibition opening reception, part of the 2017 AIGA Design Conference f. G uests enjoying It Takes 2, created by Frankie Castillo ’18, MFA, and Zoe Cinel ’18, MFA, at the MFA Gallery’s De/Coding opening reception g. M CAD supporters Wendy Machlitt, Mitzi Magid, Kathleen Pletcher, and Joseph Machlitt ’71 at the NEXT/ NOW Capital Campaign Closing Celebration reception
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h. J im Burke, assistant vice president of academic affairs, with his daughter at the NEXT/NOW Capital Campaign Celebration Saturday event
M C AD NE WS
Alumni Notes MCAD alumni are setting new standards across the broadest range of creative careers and include independent business owners, global marketing directors, and awardwinning animators, photographers, illustrators, artists, and designers. In addition to the recent alumni highlights below, MCAD news and updates can be found online at mcad.edu. HOTTEA's Biggest Yarn Installation Ever at MOA Last summer, Mall of America visitors got to experience the biggest installation to date by Eric Rieger ’07 (known widely as HOTTEA). Hot Lunch consisted of nearly 800 pounds of yarn. Rieger was also named a 2017 Trailblazer by the Growler and a 2017 Perrier Artist of the Year. He has created more than seventy large-scale installations worldwide and his clients include Converse, Sesame Street, and New York Fashion Week. (a)
Tyler Stefanich ’09 was an official selection for the IndieCade International Independent Games Festival in Los Angeles, known to many as the video game industry's equivalent of Sundance. Collective Action!, which premiered at Northern Spark 2017, is a performance game that invites players to work together with other participants to perform creative, collective actions that respond to climate change issues. The game was also presented at A MAZE, the 6th International Game and Playful Media Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Martin to Open Women's Darkroom Lisa Martin ’89 is starting a women’s darkroom in Brooklyn for traditional black-and-white and color photography. The darkroom will be for recent female graduates and professionals in the business to provide women a community and place to work. The space will also include a small bookstore and gallery. Martin started her career as an intern with Annie Leibovitz and was the director of photography at InStyle magazine.
Perry Illustrates for Broad City Rogers Goes Viral 2017 was a huge year for Bobby Rogers ’14: he received critical acclaim for his debut show The Blacker the Berry at Public Functionary, was named an Artist of the Year by City Pages, and received national attention from outlets including AFROPUNK, Buzzfeed, Elle, Huffington Post, and the Walker Art Center. (b)
Vasudevan Awarded 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship Pramila Vasudevan ’04, a choreographer and interdisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis, received a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship Award. Vasudevan is the founder and artistic director of Aniccha Arts, an experimental arts group that produces site-specific performances examining agency, voice, and group dynamics within community histories, institutions, and systems. She will use the fellowship to support THERE | HERE, a new large-scale durational public performance featuring one hundred performers in a threelevel parking ramp that will premiere for one night only in June 2018.
Alumni-Created Game Selected for IndieCade Game Festival A game created by Sara Fowler ’12, Media Arts Assistant Professor Ben Moren ’10, and
Benda and Lovelee Create for Bees and People Julie Benda ’16, MFA, Amanda Lovelee ’10, MFA, and Christine Baeumler (creator of MCAD's rooftop bog) are envisioning urban pollinator habitats through Bee Real Bee Everywhere, a project that involves sculptural high-rises, plant species education, and small bee sculptures to connect art, science, and public engagement. Their first pollinator "sky-rise" is a collaboration between Public Art Saint Paul and the Bee Lab at the University of Minnesota that aims to help researchers discover what kind of man-made housing will attract, protect, and nurture pollinators at a time when natural habitat is disappearing. (c)
Rivera Illustrates Publications Around the World Luisa Rivera ’15, MFA, illustrated for the December 2017 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. Her piece accompanied a feature of the book Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. Rivera also created a series of illustrations, including the cover, for the September 2017 issue of the London-based Soho House's publication House Notes and illustrated the fiftieth anniversary publication of the classic Spanish novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. (d)
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Mike Perry ’03 has been the artist behind the brief opening sequences for Comedy Central's Broad City since the show's inception four years ago. For the episode "Mushrooms," Perry created an eight-minute animation sequence in which the two heroines of the show go on a psychedelic trip. Perry also released an interactive Broad City coloring book. (e)
Alumni Commemorate Ten Years of ARTCRANK The tenth anniversary celebration of ARTCRANK, an online store and pop-up event that features limited edition bike-themed posters created by local artists, featured a collection of greatest hits from its last decade of shows. Artists included Ian Davies ’96, Jennifer Davis ’97, Joanne Grobe ’94, Steve "Mario" Marinelli ’96, and Anne Ulku ’07.
Tian Launches Charitable Designer Mitten Company In late 2017, Suyao Tian ’17, MFA, launched her unique designer mitten company Modern Cover™. Tian, who grew up in northern China, took creative inspiration from the bitter winters of her childhood to develop her idea into a full-fledged brand through her MFA thesis work. A percentage of all profits go to organizations that work to
(a) Photograph by Rita Kovtun (b) Photograph by Bobby Rogers ’14 (c) Photograph courtesy of Julie Benda ’16, MFA (d) Image courtesy of Luisa Rivera ’15, MFA (e) Image courtesy of Mike Perry ’03 (f) Photograph courtesy of Samara Golden ’95
M C AD NE WS
benefit children. The mittens are available at The Store at Mia and on moderncover.net.
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Alumni Create for Made Here Made Here is an annual experience that turns Minneapolis into an urban walking gallery. Local artists temporarily fill empty storefronts and commercial spaces in the West Downtown Minneapolis Cultural District with their artwork. Hosted by Hennepin Theatre Trust, the 2017 event featured Andy Baird ’76, Paige Dansinger ’93, Emily Eaton ’95, Kelley Meister ’08, Jane Nicolo ’16, Ben Severns ’11, and Kristi Ternes ’99.
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Golden in Whitney Biennial Los Angeles artist Samara Golden ’95 received high praise from several major media outlets, including the New Yorker and Vulture, for her installation in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. The Meat Grinder’s Iron Clothes, spanning 33 by 14 feet, is a stacked series of mini domestic interiors surrounded by mirrors that, as the New York Times puts it, “create endless kaleidoscopic reflections of class conflict.” (f)
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Mia Revisits Work by George Morrison George Morrison ’43 is being recognized for his groundbreaking work at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in the George Morrison: Drawings and Small Painting and George Morrison in Focus exhibits, on view through July 1, 2018. The latter features a newly acquired piece by Andrea Carlson ’05, MFA, who received encouragement from Morrison early on, on view for the first time.
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MCAD Alumni Represented at 2017 Film Festival The 36th Annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) featured several talented creatives from the MCAD community. Works ranged from feature-length films, to animated shorts, to music videos and more. The more than 350 films and events at the festival included those by Jaafar Alnabi ’16, Emily Fritze ’12, Chris Jopp ’10, Maria Juranic ’05, Marie Ketring ’16, Christopher Lange ’93, Margaret Polzine ’15, Christian Sundquist ’16, and Sihai Zhu ’17, MFA, as well as faculty members Sam Hoolihan and Craig Rice. Matt Berg ’11 also serves as the operations manager of MSPIFF.
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M C AD NE WS
Faculty Notes MCAD’s faculty members are not only renowned for their ingenuity, expertise, and commitment as instructors. As working artists and designers, they continue to create and receive well-deserved recognition for their professional endeavors.
Ronning Documents Music History MCAD received a grant from the Minnesota Historical Society to support Liberal Arts Chair and Professor Gerald Ronning's work documenting the Minneapolis music scene in the eighties and nineties. The funds will be used for the transcription of oral histories Ronning collected from the Knut Koupee guitar shop— which built Prince's instruments for Purple Rain—including two paid student internships.
a Jenkins Makes History!
Smith Heads Up New MA Program Lafe Smith joined the MCAD faculty in 2017 as the director of the new online master of arts in graphic and web design. The program addresses the need for contemporary designers to be well-versed in print, digital, and web environments. Smith was previously the academic director and program coordinator in the School of Media at the Art Institutes, where he also taught and assisted with online course coordination.
DeLuca Directs MA in Sustainable Design Program Denise DeLuca is the new director of the online master of arts in sustainable design program, in which she has taught as adjunct faculty since 2012. DeLuca brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of sustainability through her work with the Biomimicry Institute, BCI: Biomimicry for Creative Innovation, and as education director with the International Living Future Institute.
Sands Receives Honorable Mentions at Miniature Print Exhibition Fine Arts Adjunct Faculty Amy Sands received three honorable mentions as well as a purchase award at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking's 11th Biennial International Miniature Print Exhibition 2017.
Liberal Arts Adjunct Faculty Andrea Jenkins was elected to the Minneapolis City Council in late 2017, making her the first trans person elected to a major city's governing body and the first out trans person of color elected to any office in the United States. Jenkins won in the city's Eighth Ward after being endorsed by the Star Tribune, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and the Victory Fund.
DuCett Creates for Behind-the-Scenes Exhibition MFA Program Visiting Faculty Andy DuCett is an artist-in-residence for Museum Confidential, a unique, behind-the-scenes experience at Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that illuminates the inner workings of museums. DuCett’s site-specific installation At the Intersection of Everywhere playfully illustrates the ongoing relationship between museums and artists and runs through May 6.
Anderson's Political Illustration Inspires and Resists Design Adjunct Faculty Jaime Anderson's illustration My Body, My Choice was featured in RESIST!, a political zine edited and produced by Françoise Mouly, art editor of the New Yorker, and Nadja Spiegelman. The illustration also made an appearance in Charlie Hebdo and Teen Vogue.
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Rice Receives FilmNorth's Trailblazer Award Media Arts Adjunct Faculty Craig Rice was awarded the inaugural Gordon Parks Trailblazer Award, presented at FilmNorth's 2017 Gala and thirtieth anniversary. Rice was lauded for his accomplishments as a longestablished educator, diverse entertainment executive, entrepreneur, and award-winning producer and director internationally recognized for his distinguished career in the film, video, and television industries.
SuperMonster市City! Celebrates 200th Anniversary of Frankenstein Entrepreneurial Studies Director Stephen Rueff's SuperMonster市City! is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with a newly designed printing of the original text from 1818. Artists of various mediums were asked to create and submit artwork representing their interpretation of a section of the famous science fiction novel.
Casanova Selected for Film Residency Fine Arts Adjunct Faculty Kate Casanova ’08 was included in the 2017 Waabizipinikaan-Ziibi Filmmaking Residency. The rural, low-residency program for emerging, mid-career, and established artists was co-founded by Media Arts Assistant Professor Ben Moren ’10.
Photograph courtesy of Piotr Szyhalski
Szyhalski Premiers New Work In 2017, Media Arts Professor Piotr Szyhalski displayed his giant letterpress installation Living Banners throughout seven blocks of Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. He and Pramila Vasudevan ’04 also premiered an interdisciplinary performance piece, 3600 Cuts. Szyhalski was featured in the August/ September issue of American Craft Council and will exhibit a retrospective of his work at the Weisman Art Museum this summer. (a)
RETIREMENTS
Tom Garrett ’79
Photographs by Lindsey Kusterman ’17 and images courtesy of Tom Garrett ’79 and Linda Frichtel
Although he has taught illustration since 1986, the full MCAD experience for Tom Garrett ’79 goes back a decade earlier. “One of my first memories of MCAD is when I was a student in 1976 and the Main Building was brand new! MCAD is an incredibly special place where many students have truly been transformed. Same for me,” he says. Garrett credits his time at MCAD and mentorship from faculty and staff for launching his career, landing his illustrations in national campaigns and on the covers of major magazines. Garrett’s illustrations have been published in Food Network Magazine, Fortune, Good Housekeeping, HGTV Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Sports Illustrated, TV Guide, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. His long list of clients includes American Airlines, CBS, IBM, Mattel, Pillsbury, Scholastic, and Warner Brothers. Garrett’s work has been recognized by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of New York, Communication Arts, and the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. A cornerstone of MCAD’s illustration program, Garrett taught in the Design Department for thirty-two years. “I am certainly proud of all the national recognition that our students have received, but I am most satisfied seeing them find their creative voice with confidence and clarity,” he reflects. Garrett will be moving to Florida with his husband where they built a home.
Tom Garrett, Blue Butterfly, 2016, digital collage
Linda Frichtel
Since launching her career as a professional illustrator, Linda Frichtel has created a broad range of work for a diverse clientele. She has been commissioned for annual reports, book covers, corporate marketing, murals, packaging, posters, publications, and surface design. Some of Frichtel’s clients include Coca-Cola, Givenchy Perfume, Little, Marshall Fields, Reader’s Digest, the Royal Bank of Canada, Simon & Schuster, Target, Wausau Paper, and World Bank. Her illustrations have been published in the Atlantic Monthly, Business Week, House Beautiful, Minnesota Monthly, Ms., New York magazine, the Star Tribune, and Utne Reader. Frichtel began teaching at MCAD in 1990. “It was exciting to build classroom experiences and curriculum with Tom Garrett and the talented visiting artists and adjunct faculty. We wanted a program that would prepare our students to enter a professional field we all loved. When you look at the awards and successes of our students, I think we met that challenge,” Frichtel says. As she moves on from MCAD, Frichtel will carry with her the many fond memories she has of working with students: “So many talented, smart, funny, kind, beautiful people I got to know because I was a part of the illustration program at MCAD.”
Linda Frichtel, Blended Engagements, 2012, acrylic
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WHO WE ARE
Student Demographics
Where Creativity Meets Purpose
15% graduate/post-baccalaureate 21 average age of undergraduates 25% undergraduates from private, parochial, and homeschools 29% undergraduate students of color 32% male 35% from other areas of the country and around the world* 38% undergraduate transfer students 65% from the Midwest 68% female 76% graduates working in their fields of study full-time, part-time, or freelancing 85% undergraduate 90% first-year students live on campus 97% receive financial aid 100% undergraduates complete at least one internship
Recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to visual arts education, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design is home to more than 750 students and offers professional certificates, bachelor of fine arts and bachelor of science degrees, and graduate degrees. The campus is located just south of downtown Minneapolis and is composed of eight buildings and three acres of lawn and gardens. College facilities contain the latest in technology with multiple studios and labs open 24/7.
*California, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, New York, and Texas; Chile, China, Germany, Great Britain, India, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, and Taiwan
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STUDENT SH OWC A SE
ILLUSTRATIONS BY YUCHEN ZHANG ’18, MFA
STUDENT SH OWC A SE
b
a
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e
STUDENT SH OWC A SE
c d
a. Ethan Hellekson ’17, Arjuna's cosmic trip, 2017, acrylic b. Shun Jie Yong ’18, MFA, Kitman Figueora, 2017, photograph c. Samuel Busko ’17 and Kiley Friese ’18, Autumn, 2017, walnut, steel, upholstery d. Carly Haack ’18, Commemorative Basketball Card, 1/2, 2016, oil on paper e. Alanna Stapleton ’18, MFA, Gaze, 2017, hand embroidery on cotton f. Aimee Strzok ’17, The Truth About Worlds, 2017, hand-built glazed ceramic
sculpture installation
g. Joe Hillestad ’18, Be Quiet, 2017, digital media
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#MAKEMCAD
Bid. Buy. Collect.
Friday, May 18, 2018 The Auction at MCAD is an exclusive art party featuring a unique mix of the emerging talent, provocative creativity, and unbridled enthusiasm that can only happen at an art school. Proceeds benefit the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Scholarship Fund.
Tickets available at mcad.edu/auction.