NEXT: The Magazine of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design by Minneapolis College of Art and Design

EXT is a magazine for the alumni and N friends of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). The magazine showcases the realization of MCAD’s mission through stories of students and alumni who transform the world through creativity and purpose, faculty members who deliver worldclass education to tomorrow’s creative leaders, and supporters who generously bolster the college.

ve the Date

MAGAZINE CREDITS Ann Benrud, Editor Rita Kovtun, Associate Editor and Writer Kayla Campbell ’16, MFA, Senior Designer Dylan Olson-Cole, DesignWorks Studio Manager Josie Steen, Assistant Editor COVER ARTWORK Luisa Rivera ’15, MFA, Yakushima, 2015, watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper Rivera on her MCAD experience: “During my MFA at MCAD, I had the time and space to investigate all the different layers in my work, and therefore I felt encouraged to try new things within my illustration practice. That taught me to always be in a state of exploration and never stop challenging the outcomes. Yakushima is a result of that, and a painting done only a couple of days before I left Minneapolis, so it’s a symbolic way of summarizing my time at MCAD.” MCAD BOARD OF TRUSTEES Greg C. Heinemann, Chair Mitzi Magid, Vice Chair David Moore, Vice Chair Bruce W. Bean, Immediate Past Chair Karen Wirth, Interim President Chris Barry Leslie Berkshire Susan Calmenson Uri Camarena Anne Cashill Cy DeCosse ’52 Tara K. Dev

Miles Q. Fiterman David Hartwell Christopher Hermann Greg Hoffman ’92 Clinton H. Morrison Todd Paulson Mark D. Pihlstrom Mary Bowman Rae Howard Rubin Elizabeth Sarquis Gary M. Surdel Greg Van Bellinger Hunter Palmer Wright

TRUSTEE BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Karen Wirth, Interim President

0 ay , May 31, 2

LIFE TRUSTEES Bruce W. Bean Cy DeCosse ’52

David Hartwell Clinton H. Morrison

PRESIDENT'S ADVISORY COUNCIL Karen Wirth Cindy Theis Interim President Vice President, Institutional Advancement Joy Brathwaite Vice President, Finance Gerald Ronning Chief Financial Officer Interim Vice President, Treasurer, Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Sarah Harding Executive Assistant, President’s Office Secretary, Board of Trustees The previous issue of NEXT received the Bronze Award in the Single Page or Spread Design category for education magazines under 30,000 circulation from the Minnesota Magazine + Publishing Association.

Melissa Huybrecht Vice President, Enrollment Management

Jen Zuccola Vice President, Student Affairs

THE MAGAZINE OF THE MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

2 A Letter from Interim President Karen Wirth

6 Building Community through Creative Collaboration

4 Restored to Grandeur

8 Becoming Global Citizens

5 Spreading the Goods

10 Designing for the Future

14 Laboring Together 18 The Pioneers of Public Art and Creative Placemaking

22 2018–2019 Openings and Events 22 Refreshed Garden

20 Enough for Everyone

24 Alumni Notes 25 Alumni Spotlight 26 Faculty Notes 27 Faculty Spotlight

28 A Network of Lifetime Learners 29 Changing Perspectives 30 Student Showcase

11 Finding Common Ground

4: The recent renovation of the Morrison Auditorium enlivened a campus gathering space that has hosted events like this 1927 student dance for more than a century. 6: Zoja Chmielarczyk ’18 worked with students at Chicago’s Dyett High School for the Arts as part of MCAD’s teaching artist minor program.

18: With initiatives like the Poetry Parking Lot, John Davis ’84 led Lanesboro, Minnesota, to become the first small town arts campus in the country.

22: Sticky Chromosomes (steel and pine plywood) by senior Michael Lonchar is one of the new works in the MCAD Sculpture Garden.

30: Senior Jenya Armen painted Stress during her off-campus study at the Laguna College of Art and Design. 24: Kate Worum ’11 (right) and Jennifer Jorgensen of She She created artwork for ’Sota Pop, an interactive experience part of Super Bowl LII.

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1, SPRING 2019 Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2501 Stevens Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404 612.874.3700 • mcad.edu

A LET TER FROM INTERIM PRESIDENT K AREN WIRTH

Infusing Education with Collaboration

chairs identify client-based projects that connect learning with doing. These kinds of hands-on learning experiences create win-win-win situations: not only do they allow both parties to jointly define problems and create solutions—they also deepen ties and build stronger, more interdependent communities on a local, national, and international scale. On an institutional level, MCAD is building its own robust community. Diversityequity-inclusion committees and faculty/ staff training sessions are ongoing efforts to ensure MCAD is a place accessible to all. The college’s strategic plan secures this commitment to inclusivity as a priority into the future. The college is creating even more avenues for students to engage with communities. This spring, MCAD is launching the first-ever Arts Entrepreneurship Competition—a chance for students to pitch big ideas that have a meaningful impact on the community, generate economic opportunity for artists and designers, and can be carried out in an environmentally sustainable way. A panel of entrepreneurs, changemakers, alumni, and supporters of MCAD will determine awards to help turn the best ideas into reality. And, MCAD recently launched an advertising minor, providing students with more opportunities to collaborate on teams and work with real clients. This issue of NEXT magazine highlights just some of the many collaborations that strengthen both our learning community as well as our neighbors. Shared resources, engaged conversations, and tangible results are integral to the two-way exchange that fuels shared success. Karen Wirth Interim President

Photograph by Grace Olson ’19, MFA

Real-world learning experiences allow students and partners to jointly define problems and create solutions while building stronger communities on a local, national, and international scale.

There was a time when going to college meant entering a closed educational system— inside buildings at a remove from the rest of town. Faculty imparted their wisdom, students took notes and tests, degrees were granted. Go forth and apply! Buildings are no longer boundaries, and colleges look outwardly as much as inwardly. Education is rich with opportunities that engage students, faculty, staff, and the larger community. Our mission states: The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) educates individuals to be professional artists and designers, pioneering thinkers, creative leaders, and engaged global citizens. This is supported by two of the college’s values—Community Involvement: We maintain the strength of our community through respect, diversity, communication, openness, and accountability; and Engagement: We advance a just and sustainable society through collaboration and engagement with our neighbors and the world. To steward the mission and values, it is important that MCAD has a clear understanding of what it offers both students and the broader community. Arts and humanities disciplines deliver a rich experiential education that provides students with the opportunity to confront urgent challenges with unexpected approaches. It is grounded in the belief that critical examination and thoughtful production of visual and material culture is essential to sociocultural well-being. MCAD’s values are validated by active engagement with a wide range of communities through an invigorating curriculum. Students gain professional experience in their fields through internships with area businesses. Others do real-world projects through classes or grant opportunities that widen their perspective on what a studio practice can be. Faculty and department

Photograph by Dronoptix

A LET TER FROM INTERIM PRESIDENT K AREN WIRTH

M C AD NE WS

Restored to Grandeur

a. MCAD faculty and staff enjoy the 2018 back-to-school mixer in the newly renovated auditorium. b. In the late fifties/ early sixties, the auditorium was equipped with modular temporary room dividers, serving as the school’s principal exhibition space. c. Dan Madsen of Dusty Signs applies gold leaf to the refinished entry doors using a reverse glass water gilding process.

(a) Photograph by Grace Olson ’19, MFA (b) Image courtesy of the MCAD Library/Archives (c) Photograph by Rita Kovtun

Perched on the north end of the MCAD campus sits the historic and stately Julia Morrison Memorial Building. More than a century old, it bears witness to the history of this vibrant art and design campus. The Morrison Auditorium, located in the heart of the building, recently underwent a much-needed renovation, enlivening the space to its earlier grandeur. In September of 1915, Ethel Morrison Van Derlip and her brother, Dr. Angus Washburn Morrison, funded a building to be named in honor of their mother; the Julia Morrison Building was completed in 1916. At this time, the Morrison Auditorium was the largest space on campus and was used for a variety of purposes— not just as a drawing and painting studio. MCAD Librarian and Historian Allan Kohl reports that the auditorium served as the primary location for social events such as dances and parties, the school's main exhibition space before the construction of the MCAD Gallery in the Main Building, and a venue for lectures, performances, and the showing of motion pictures. According to Kohl’s research, at one time in the midwinter, it was a recreational space—there was even a basketball backboard and hoop mounted on the south wall! Over time, the stately auditorium fell into disrepair and was not as inviting as it once had been. Members of the Morrison family graciously stepped forward to provide the underwriting for a reimagined campus gathering space. The renovation of the auditorium, completed in the fall of 2018, included the refurbishing of the windows, stage, and doors, the latter of which received a gold-leaf treatment that restored them to their stately presence. On behalf of the Morrison family, MCAD board member Hunter Palmer Wright, a great-great-granddaughter of Julia Morrison, states, “With the important refresh of the Morrison Auditorium, the heart of MCAD continues to offer a permanent home for learning and creative production. It is an honor for the Morrison family to continue supporting creativity and MCAD students.” Once again, the Morrison Auditorium is a drawing and painting studio, a gathering space, and an environment conducive to launching fresh new ideas.

D O N O R SP OTLIGHT

(a, b) Photographs by Rita Kovtun (c) Photograph by Barbara Iams Korein ’75

Spreading the Goods When Barbara Iams Korein ’75 thinks of her time at MCAD, she remembers her dynamic instructors. “Peter Seitz taught me a discipline and work ethic that is all about quality. I think of him often whenever I am tackling a design project or steering a committee,” she says. “Kinji Akagawa ’68 was a warm, inclusive, and encouraging teacher at a time when I needed that kind of support.” As a donor to the Peter Seitz Legacy Design Scholarship Fund and the Kinji Akagawa Fund for Interdisciplinary Studies, Iams Korein is a firm believer in the power of art education; after MCAD, she became a high school art and photography teacher herself. Now, she is on the advisory board of Behind the Book’s literacy programs, and she is involved with Materials for the Arts (MFTA), a forty-yearold New York City reuse center that collects unneeded items from businesses and individuals and provides them free of charge to thousands of nonprofit arts organizations, government agencies, and public schools. Iams Korein is the board chair for Friends of Materials for the Arts, the nonprofit organization that guides and supports MFTA, providing funding for a robust education department, gallery, and artist-in-residence program. Two days a week, “shoppers” from member organizations are invited to peruse bunches of buttons, rolls of fabric, buckets of paint, piles of postcards, and rooms of furniture at the MFTA warehouse, which is operated by New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. The organization regularly receives donations from the fashion, theater, manufacturing, and film industries. “In New York City, there is incredible waste. MFTA provides a much-appreciated service to industries and individuals who want to give their surplus goods to people who need them, keeping them out of the landfill,” she says. To Iams Korein’s knowledge, there is no other free reuse center of this scale. “We get site visits regularly from people all over the world who want to start this kind of program,” she says. MFTA also uses the materials to teach visiting school groups about creative reuse and creating a sustainable art program that relies on no- or low-cost materials. This education is key to not only helping ensure the materials have a second life but also encouraging people of all ages to think creatively—something Iams Korein wholeheartedly supports, whether at MFTA or at MCAD. “Art education is built on the idea that there are multiple correct answers to a single question,” she says. “That is the key to innovation if ever there was one.”

a a. Barbara Iams Korein ’75 in the Materials for the Arts (MFTA) warehouse in Long Island City. b. On average, MFTA takes in more than a million pounds of reusable materials each year. c. MFTA offers professional development workshops for educators to learn creative reuse skills to take back to their classrooms.

8 6

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y

(a, c) Photographs by Tom Bierlein ’19 (b) Photograph by Lynda Monick-Isenberg

We live in a world that is increasingly more interdependent and interconnected. Understanding each other, communicating effectively, and working together is key to our collective longevity.

a, c. In summer 2017, MCAD collaborated on a mural with the Native Youth Arts Collective and Little Earth of United Tribes along Minneapolis’s Midtown Greenway, funded by the Carolyn Foundation and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. Project coordinator: Kate Mohn ’14, MA; teaching artist: Heidi Hafermann ’91; lead muralist: Melodee Strong ’06; assistants: Courtney Cochran ’19, Jonathan Herrera ’17, and Patricia Jacques ’18. b. Kehayr BrownRansaw ’19 (front left) and a Barton Open School algebra class that he worked with through MCAD's teaching artist minor program display a group project.

c Artists and designers have long used creativity as a vehicle for the kind of social reflection that breaks down barriers and brings different kinds of people together. MCAD supports this tradition of creative leadership by cultivating students, alumni, faculty, and staff who are both active and responsible participants in all of their communities. This type of engaged global citizenship starts at home: using a variety of avenues, MCAD aspires to advance a just and sustainable society through collaboration with its neighbors and the broader world. For students, classwork, internships, and grant-funded projects allow them to engage with small businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, corporations, and other community partners, who are regarded as cocreators of knowledge. These kinds of opportunities increase students’ motivation for learning, invite them to apply knowledge in new ways, and help them develop skills in communication, teamwork, and critical thinking. Ultimately, student-community partnerships bring about mutually beneficial outcomes and build stronger, more resilient networks. These skills and experiences go on to manifest in MCAD alumni careers in myriad ways, whether it’s collaborating with other artists on projects or forging careers in community engagement as curators, city artists, human-centered designers, teaching artists, consultants, and more. Many stay close to MCAD, thanks to the wealth of public art opportunities, grassroots and nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions to be found in the Twin Cities, and others go elsewhere; both help impact positive local, national, and international change. Similarly, many MCAD faculty and staff members dedicate their time and leadership to communities outside of the college. For artists and designers, engaging with communities outside their own often leads them to consider new ideas and ways of working. It allows them to tap into passions and values like sustainability and equity. This true pairing of creativity and purpose is a powerful agent for change, achieved by working together with multiple stakeholders. As evidenced by the stories on the following pages, members of the MCAD community all have a hand in using art and design to create more empathetic, connected, and dynamic networks.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y

Becoming Global Citizens Whether it is through the curriculum, internship program, or grant-funded positions, giving students opportunities to have professional life experiences is a key part of an MCAD education. Although many MCAD classes allow students to augment their learning through engagement with outside communities, certain programs are specifically structured around providing students with these kinds of tools. MCAD’s engaged and public arts minor follows a philosophy that an artist or designer acts as a partner in making community-based work. Three core classes—Art in Community, Art in the Cities, and Ethnography for Artists and Designers—allow students to learn about arts engagement, interventionist strategies, and collaborative practices in order to create effective and ethical art and design work. In the same vein, the teaching artist minor guides students through engaging with communities, but specifically as a professional artist with the skills of an educator who can effectively engage a wide range of people in arts learning and experiences in schools, afterschool programs, community organizations, social service agencies, health care, creative aging, and more. Fine Arts Professor Lynda Monick-Isenberg, creator of the program, sustains partnerships with an ever-growing network of artists, schools, and art organizations, which provide students opportunities for teaching, shadowing, and networking. (a) MCAD senior filmmaking major Courtney Cochran has taken classes in both of these programs. Originally from Duluth, Cochran is affiliated with the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and wanted to get involved with the Indigenous community in the Twin Cities. MCAD Art Cellar Cashier Heidi Hafermann ’91, who cofounded the Native Youth Arts Collective (NYAC) to offer arts access to youth who are underserved in that area, connected Cochran with the organization her first year at MCAD. Now, Cochran’s relationship with NYAC runs deep: she worked with the collective through her self-identified Art in Community class project, currently peer mentors the youth, and is doing her teaching artist practicum with them this year. “It’s really a reciprocal thing—I learn a lot from the youth. I’ve been getting to know myself as an artist and also learning about their unique visions,” Cochran says. (b, c) Other programs equip students to launch professional art and design careers as well as work collaboratively in a multitude of settings. The entrepreneurial studies major gives students the opportunity to make connections between business, art, design, and science, while collaborating on teams with real clients on real projects locally, nationally, and globally. These classes arm students with a host of skills, from project management to starting and running a business. And, baked into each major are professional practice courses, which require students to pursue real-world opportunities like off-campus exhibitions, meetings with artists, and open calls for submissions, sometimes taking them in unexpected directions.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y

(a) Photograph by Brandie Zaspel ’17 (b, c) Photographs by Courtney Cochran ’19 (d) Photograph by Grace Olson ’19, MFA (e) Photograph by Rita Kovtun (f) Illustration by Emma Eubanks ’18

A fine arts studio professional practice course sparked an ongoing collaboration between senior Tom Bierlein and Ian Hanesworth ’18, manifesting in several sculptural installations. (d) Hanesworth has also worked with local urban farms, taught a trans visibility/skillsharing weaving workshop, and interned for the art gallery and education department at Silverwood Park. “Art has the power to encourage philosophical shifts, and that entails dialogue. Working collaboratively allows those conversations to develop more organically,” Hanesworth says. In addition to the curriculum, the Career Development Department supports students’ off-campus experiences. To help satisfy the MCAD internship requirement, the department hosts the annual Internship Fair to help pair students with employers—which is how Emma Eubanks ’18 and Missy Weir ’18 landed internships with the Whittier Alliance, MCAD’s neighborhood association. (e) Both illustrators, Eubanks and Weir, helped organize the first-ever Whittier Works Together, a three-day community-building event focused on neighborhood safety held in summer 2018. (f) “The internship gave me a peek at budgeting, planning, and working with different partners to organize a big event,” Weir says. Several MCAD community-based efforts are being knit together to support a larger and sustained commitment to engagement. Grantfunded opportunities offer one more avenue for students to engage with communities, and often the best candidates have built the necessary skills through engaged and public arts and teaching artist classes. MCAD has provided arts programming by partnering students with Simpson Housing, Tasks Unlimited, MacRostie Art Center, and other organizations across Minnesota. Patricia Jacques ’18, who has been part of multiple grant-funded projects, says she likes working with children, some of whom don’t often get a chance to make art: “It’s inspiring to see them light up while creating.” � Learn more about the teaching artist minor program at mcad.edu/teaching-artist-program.

a. Through teaching artist connections, Brandie Zaspel ’17 partnered with ArtsWork, a summer work program for vulnerable youth, to help implement a mural they designed for the St. Paul Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary. b. As a Native Youth Arts Collective (NYAC) peer mentor, Courtney Cochran ’19 assisted with a papermaking workshop the youth took with Ana Laura Juarez '14 at MCAD. c. NYAC experimented with adding sacred Indigenous medicines like cedar, sage, and sweetgrass to cotton fiber paper. d. Together, Tom Bierlein ’19 and Ian Hanesworth ’18 have created multiple largescale works: their one-day installation Making Room, a constructed gathering space along the Midtown Greenway that displayed art by other MCAD students and alumni, examined the relationship between the natural and human-made environment. e. Whittier Alliance interns Emma Eubanks ’18 (left) and Missy Weir ’18. f. The interns designed promotional materials for Whittier Works Together, an event that “helped people in the Whittier neighborhood understand we are all one community,” Eubanks says.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: PRO GR AM SP OTLIGHT

Designing for the Future A Conversation with Sustainable Design MA Program Director Denise DeLuca

b What makes MCAD’s program unique? This is the most holistic sustainable design program I’m aware of. One thing I often see missing in sustainable design is the ability to step back and see the big picture, also known as systems thinking. If you don’t have that, you might be solving the wrong problem and actually make the problem worse. MCAD students learn problem-solving approaches and tools that are universal across their different design disciplines as well as associated disciplines like business, architecture, communications, and environmental science. Sustainability is a global and interdisciplinary issue—you have to be able to work across departments, across countries. This online program allows students to learn with each other around the world in real time. You can have someone in St. Paul talking to someone in Copenhagen working for someone in Brazil. This equips students to deal with the modern work world.

What exactly is sustainable design? The most simple definition is it’s designing products, processes, and policies that are healthy, and ideally regenerative, for people and the environment, now and into the future. It’s also looking at both sustainability and design from a holistic perspective. Nature has its own rules—when they are violated, things die. So, sustainable design follows principles of biomimicry, which applies nature’s rules to everything from manufacturing processes to organizational structures in order to make them more efficient, effective, and resilient.

Talk about the importance of educating sustainability professionals. It’s a growing field. More and more employers are recognizing the need for sustainability, in particular at the leadership level. Students often enter the program thinking they’ll get a job after graduating and then leave wanting to change the world by creating their own enterprise or teaching others. I was excited to join MCAD because the tagline, “where creativity meets purpose,” is exactly what I think the MA program is about. We desperately need creativity to achieve sustainability. � See more at mcad.edu/designing-future.

(a) Photograph by Beatrix Lencses (b) Image courtesy of Reebok

a. Tim Coffin ’18, MA, designed an outdoor fitness trail with nature-inspired obstacles and a space for stretching and meditation to strengthen the mind-body-nature connection, which he is now working to implement at FortWhyte Alive in Winnipeg, Manitoba. b. A material manager for apparel at Reebok, Kelly Wilcox ’17, MA, educates employees to integrate sustainability in all areas of product development. Reebok’s recent Guresu shoe, in collaboration with Thread International, utilizes recycled plastic purchased from women entrepreneurs around the world.

Growing out of a 2002 lecture series, MCAD’s fully online master of arts in sustainable design—the only one of its kind in the nation—launched in 2013. Created for those who want to make a positive impact on people and the planet, the MA program enlists a global community of world-class instructors who teach cutting-edge theories, practical applications, and leadership strategies that are relevant across a variety of disciplines and industries. NEXT talked with Program Director Denise DeLuca about finding answers in nature, solving the right problems, and marrying creativity with purpose.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: ALUMNI PROFILES

Finding Common Ground At a time when divisions by political affiliation, race, religion, and economics seem so high, interacting with others is often the first step to finding common ground. These MCAD alumni all work with community in different ways but do so with a similar philosophy of creating a free-flowing exchange of information, ideas, and inspiration. They have built their careers not only creating objects, programs, experiences, and systems for and with various communities but also creating and holding space for other people, whether on local or global scales. See more at mcad.edu/common-ground.

(a, b) Images courtesy of Stacy Barnes ’07 (c) Photograph by Christopher Michel

Stacy Barnes ’07: Designing for People When faced with a design challenge, Stacy Barnes ’07 believes the user is central in providing a solution. Barnes is a practitioner of human-centered design (HCD), a creative approach to problemsolving that fully involves the client and tailors solutions to their needs. She started at MCAD as an entrepreneurial studies (then visualization) major—which teaches similar ways of working to HCD—but found graphic design to be a better fit because of its conceptual nature. After jobs with advertising agencies and design studios, Barnes was recruited to work at IDEO, a pioneer of the HCD field. She designed for fashion, media, and government organizations before transitioning to help with the launch of IDEO.org, created to tackle social issues with HCD. (a) Barnes is clear that her role as a humancentered designer is to listen, ideate, and facilitate rather than tell someone what to do. “Every project begins with talking to people and understanding the problem. Then you start making things so people can respond to them, and then you synthesize everything and come to insights,” she says. (b) In 2013, IDEO.org sent Barnes and two team members to the Kabare region of the Democratic Republic of Congo for an American Refugee Committee project. They worked closely with residents to design a self-sustaining business called Asili (Swahili for “foundation”) that offers clean water, agricultural services, and a health clinic. Today, the people of Kabare operate four Asili clinics. (c) Barnes now works as a freelance designer who joins various teams to collaborate on social impact projects. One of the latest is the Envision Community, an affordable housing project developed by Upstream Health Innovations at Hennepin Healthcare. Using HCD, the team worked side by side with people who have experienced homelessness to create a plan for an intentional, micro-home community with an innovative business model that would increase health equity and decrease costs. For Barnes, these collaborations result not only in lasting solutions but also in meaningful personal experiences: “Being able to learn about people, see different ways of life, and understand how unbelievably generous human beings can be blows my mind.”

c a. While at IDEO.org, Stacy Barnes ’07 created a humancentered design (HCD) book and website for other practitioners to reference the nonprofit’s approach to creative problem solving. b. “When gathering research for a project, I like to adopt a posture that puts people at ease and hopefully communicates humility,” Barnes says. c. Asili has distributed millions of liters of water, bolstered local farmers’ incomes and outputs, and treated thousands of patients at its four clinics.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: ALUMNI PROFILES

b (a) Photograph by August Schultz ’16 (b) Photograph by Dasha Bea (c) Photograph by Jonathan Herrera Soto ’17

Jonathan Herrera Soto ’17: Bridging Studio and Public Practice Jonathan Herrera Soto ’17 knows his public artwork is successful when he can no longer tell what is his and what is the viewer’s: “It dissolves into this collaborative, organic thing that’s autonomous. It belongs to the people in a way.” This sentiment stems from a growing shift in his practice; as a recent graduate, his work has largely evolved in the past few years. While at MCAD, Herrera Soto contemplated majoring in painting, illustration, and comic art before settling on print paper book. He began investigating historical instances of state-sponsored violence and trauma inflicted on politicized bodies in Mexico, his country of heritage, and the rest of the world, finding printmaking to be an especially fitting medium. “It was that slicing, cutting, etching, burning, placing under immense pressure—the violence that is inherent in the process itself was feeding the conceptual framework of my practice,” he says. Craving a space to openly discuss political and social issues, Herrera Soto helped found the People’s Library, a reading-turnedaction student collective. Collaborative projects with the group allowed him and his peers to engage with the public—something he felt was missing in his studio practice. Herrera Soto began bridging the two through his senior project, a series of 220 unique portraits of international political prisoners printed on the floor of the MCAD Gallery with clay that degraded over time, speaking to the passive violence of bystanders. (a) Without access to the People’s Library and his studio after graduating, Herrera Soto sought out collaborators and participated in residencies in Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Utah, Vermont, and Italy in order to continue connecting his studio and public work. (b) He worked with writers and performance artists, creating such works as poems cut into fabric and projected onto decrepit sheds in a rural town populated by under-resourced families and recent Hispanic immigrants. (c) These experiences have pushed Herrera Soto to make work that is less dogmatic and more universal in its approach—something he hopes to continue. “I’m no longer concerned about someone getting a single narrative that I want to communicate. I’m open to a variety of views and interpretations,” he says.

a a. In Between / Underneath, senior project by Jonathan Herrera Soto ’17, installed in the MCAD Gallery. b, c. These Clouds Will Not End But Labor Does, gel transfer on rocks laid on Herrera Soto’s body; Tu y Yo / You and I series, in collaboration with Dasha Bea. Both works

were created as part of the 2018 Frontier Fellowship AiR program facilitated by Epicenter, Green River, Utah.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: ALUMNI PROFILES

(a, b) Photographs by Tiffany Bolk ’98 (c) Photograph by Julie Benda ’16, MFA

Amanda Lovelee ’10, MFA: Spurring Creative Civic Engagement Many artists work within one medium. Amanda Lovelee ’10, MFA, chooses whichever is best for the idea—but there is always one common thread: human connection. She entered MCAD’s interdisciplinary MFA program as a photographer; by the end, she had created a video and book installation about Minnesota beekeepers and ice fishers, which sparked an epiphany: “I realized that to understand the work you needed an MFA, and that was never the intention. It was the relationships with the people I interviewed I was excited about.” Lovelee began to examine the idea of exchange through a project in which she traded photographs of wildflowers for strangers’ love stories, premiered at a residency in a Montana ghost town and later exhibited at a Walker Art Center Open Field event. She continued the investigation through her Jerome Fellowship at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts with Call and Answer, a project comprising artist’s books, a documentary, and social experiments exploring physical connection through square dancing. She landed her dream job as an artist-in-residence for the City of Saint Paul in 2012. “It was life-changing in the work I do and how I think about the world—being part of a system in order to change it,” Lovelee says. While there, she dreamed up impactful works like PopUp Meeting, a repurposed truck designed to bring underrepresented voices into urban planning in exchange for popsicles; (a) Urban Flower Field, an unused plot of land converted to a welcoming park through soil remediation and a lively mural; (b) and Bee Real Bee Everywhere, a multifaceted project promoting awareness and habitat for urban bees. (c) No matter the project, Lovelee’s approach is the same: take it slow. “The key to community work is relationships and relationships take time,” she says. Lovelee recently transitioned to a parks ambassador for the Metropolitan Council, where she is responsible for making sure the regional system of fifty-six parks is accessible to everyone. She brings to it a philosophy that artists are leaders who possess a unique and valuable perspective: “We’re not going to solve one problem in one sector; we need cross-sector collaboration. An art degree gives you skills that others don’t: listening, learning, and asking questions— maybe even ones everyone else is afraid to ask.” �

b a. Amanda Lovelee ’10, MFA, (left) with City of Saint Paul intern Abby Kapler ’16. b. Lovelee collaborated with University of St. Thomas Professor Adam Kay and his biology students to test diverse flower plots' ability to extract harmful substances from the soil. She also commissioned MCAD Fine Arts Faculty Ed Charbonneau ’02, MFA, and Jeremy Szopinski to paint a Fibonacci-inspired mural. c. Christine Baeumler, Julie Benda ’16, MFA, and Lovelee installed three sculptural pollinator “sky rises” to serve as bee homes and research sites.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: FACULT Y PROFILE

For Media Arts Professor Piotr Szyhalski, art is a social act. “At the very core of it, it’s always about making some sort of connection, whether with one other person or a small group of people or even a connection that the work facilitates between other people. Those are essential moments where the art really happens,” he says. This is how Szyhalski approaches the work he creates through his ongoing multimedia project Labor Camp, often in partnership with the talented MCAD artists and designers who take his classes. Labor Camp incorporates elements of design, printmaking, sound, performance, installation, photography, film, and more, so it’s no surprise Szyhalski has taught in almost every department over nearly twenty-five years at MCAD.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: FACULT Y PROFILE

The project’s motto—“we are working all the time”—calls out not only the fact that artists are working nonstop, whether observing, ideating, or producing, but also the endless cycles of various types of production all humans are implicated in. Together, an ever-changing team of Labor Camp collaborators creates works that are “porous,” leaving room for others to interact with them on their own terms. Boundaries blur—between observer and participant, student and collaborator, teacher and artist—allowing for fluid, unique, and often meaningful experiences for all involved. (a)

From Students to Collaborators a. Piotr Szyhalski’s Soap Factory installation Three Litanies of Labor featured hand-drawn salt calligraphy that disintegrated with audience interaction. b. Szyhalski has designed, printed, and given away eight editions of Labor Camp posters.

Szyhalski’s teaching and art-making are very much intertwined. In certain classes he has taught at MCAD—such as Politprop (Art for the Broad Masses of the People), a series of fifteen performances that examined tools of political propaganda; Street Lab, a fully off-campus summer session that posits the city as a studio; and Ideation and Process, a course that entails one hundred small, everyday projects— the teacher and artist are the same. Experimenting with class structure, acting as a collaborator, and taking students outside of MCAD allows Szyhalski to create unique opportunities for learning. His collaborations with students have produced lasting creative partnerships, including several large-scale multimedia performances with Pramila Vasudevan ’04. Another partnership involves the People’s Library, an MCAD student-organized artist collective cofounded in 2015 by Candice Davis ’18, Jonathan Herrera Soto ’17, and Nancy Julia Hicks ’18 to help end colonial, institutional, and systemic violence through art and education. (d) “In more than two decades at MCAD, I have never seen an art collective that is a cultivated, socially motivated, and action-oriented group of young artists that continues to sustain itself,” Szyhalski says. Although the group formed independently of Szyhalski’s involvement, Herrera Soto says he had an investment in their success from the beginning, nominating People’s Library for a 2016 Soap Factory 3x5 Emerging Artist Residency. “From the get-go, Piotr believed in us. He provided a resource to the group as faculty and artist support,” Herrera Soto says. (e) From there, Szyhalski and the People’s Library began working together, teaming up for A Pressing Matter, their joint 2017 MCAD exhibition. “The premise of the show fit both of our ethos in productivity in a performative way and also by engaging with the public,” Herrera Soto says. The People’s Library turned the second floor of the Main Building into a public printing space, producing images and visual slogans to be displayed in storefronts, at protests, and in both public and private spaces around and beyond the Twin Cities. Labor Camp also continuously printed THEM, an ongoing project, throughout the run of the exhibition.

Creating Fluid Artworks Growing up in Communist-ruled Poland imbued Szyhalski with a deep understanding of the reality of systemic oppression as well as the power of printed words and images, as reproduced on political posters and leaflets, which figures prominently into his work today. (b) Evolving from a background in mail, internet, and sound art, Szyhalski began experimenting with involving others in both the production and reception of his work through large-scale multimedia performance events such as Empty Words (2011) and Permanent Labor (2013) that premiered at the Northern Spark festival. In Permanent Labor, Labor Camp intentionally created opportunities for audiences to enter the work through a reading room centered on the idea of immaterial labor and a visual musical score that invited people to perform it. Twenty-four performers dressed in shades of gray, most of them MCAD students and alumni, took part in the activities as well, serving to encourage audience engagement while also appearing casual enough to blend in with the rest of the participants. Since then, Labor Camp has staged multiple large-scale performances that follow a similar structure: the line between performer and observer is flexible; the message is pointed but the work is open. (c)

(Pages 14–15) Photograph by Zoe Cinel ’18, MFA (a) Photograph by Rik Sferra (b) Poster by Labor Camp

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: FACULT Y PROFILE

(c) Photograph by Tom Bierlein ’19 (d) Image courtesy of the People's Library (e) Photograph by Lindsey Kusterman ’17 (f) Photograph by Christopher Selleck ’16, MFA

Amplifying Voices Szyhalski originally created a giant letterpress apparatus to print large-scale banners for a Labor Camp exhibition at the Soap Factory. The project took a turn in late 2015 when, in the wake of the murder of Jamar Clark, Szyhalski posted on Facebook inviting the community to print their own banners using his press. “I was learning how to constructively be an ally in a very complicated social and political context. None of these were my words. The banners became something to be taken ownership of by people who perhaps needed an amplifying device,” he says. In the micro-communities that form within these intimate banner printing sessions, Szyhalski is inspired by the idea of strangers coming together to create a sense of kinship. The process is a group effort that involves using one’s body weight to press two-and-a-halffoot-tall letters made out of insulation foam onto a three-foot-wide banner. (f) He’s also spent hundreds of hours printing alongside the People’s Library, who were “absolutely instrumental” in making banners for two weeks straight for Living Banners, a 2017 Labor Camp project in which the Nicollet Mall construction zone was wrapped with a poetry-inspired, three-mile-long print. The banners have since surfaced at the Women’s March on Washington, DC, and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The latter was facilitated by the People’s Library, who collected financial and art material donations for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and organized a communal trip to the site. “We asked Piotr for access to his machine to print the banners. He not only gave us access but printed with us,” Herrera Soto recalls. The communal experience is central to all Labor Camp projects and something Szyhalski sees continuing on: “I am always trying to understand where those openings exist and what I can do as an artist to encourage that to happen.” �

c. MCAD students and alumni in Labor Camp’s Fall 2019 performance Manure and Poetry in MCAD’s College Center. d. Members of the People’s Library at one of their first meetings. e. (Clockwise from back left) Szyhalski with People’s Library cofounders Jonathan Herrera Soto ’17, Candice Davis ’18, and Nancy Julia Hicks ’18 during their Soap Factory residency. f. Carly Haack ’18 inking letters to print banners for Labor Camp's THEM project during A Pressing Matter.

See more at mcad.edu/laboring-together.

Pages 14–15 MCAD students and faculty collectively march a five-hundredfoot banner around the Whittier neighborhood.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: ALUMNI PROFILE

Pairing Artists with Audiences

It’s a fact that is becoming increasingly clear: Whether in small towns or urban centers, art is integral to thriving communities. Artists do more than create valuable objects. They use their creativity to solve problems, engage different audiences, and inspire paradigm shifts that then affect public policy, city planning, community health, and more. Jack Becker ’76 (a) and John Davis ’84 (b), who have transformed the physical and cultural landscape of Minnesota over the past several decades, prove the value of creative thinkers. Both have pioneered the fields of public art and creative placemaking and see themselves as social sculptors—individuals who use the arts to reimagine society.

Though Becker and Davis graduated from MCAD nearly a decade apart, their education played a formative role in helping each establish a philosophy for their own work. Becker shaped his democratic view of art under instructors Siah Armajani and Kinji Akagawa ’68 and organized pop-up exhibitions with fellow students. Shortly after graduating, Becker was hired as a gallery director for the Minneapolis Arts Commission through a federal job training program. The only catch? The city of Minneapolis was his gallery, and Becker was to organize exhibitions at the parks, plazas, libraries, and government centers. He assumed the role of a matchmaker, pairing artists with venues: “What kind of artists want to reach what kind of audiences with what kind of messages?” Funding for the program was limited to one year, concluding in 1978. Building on this experience and the connections he made, Becker founded Forecast Public Art, a nonprofit organization serving artists working in alternative venues, public spaces, and communities. In the late eighties, Forecast began a public art regranting program with the support of the Jerome Foundation and, with help from a local monthly arts publication, launched a magazine called Public Art Review. These two ventures worked in tandem: One funded emerging artists and the other shared their stories along with stories of public art worldwide. Eventually, with thousands of artists in its database, Forecast also began consulting on public art projects and events. (c)

a a. Jack Becker ’76 c. In 2017, the Mall of America hired Forecast Public Art for a temporary yarn installation by HOT TEA (Eric Rieger ’07).

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: ALUMNI PROFILE

He proposed the idea of looking at the whole town as an arts campus; Lanesboro rejected it. Over the course of a decade, the city warmed up to the idea, holding community workshops to solicit citizens’ input. They also collaborated on the public art project Discover Sculpture Explore Lanesboro with Becker and the Forecast team. In 2014, Lanesboro became the first small town in the country to declare itself an arts campus—with features like haiku poetry in the parking lot and a community green space—receiving the 2014 Bush Prize for Community Innovation. (d, e) Forecast began venturing into similar territory, helping cities across the state—St. Paul, Duluth, Eagan, and more—and beyond Minnesota envision and implement their own public art plans. They also recently launched a public art learning tool for city planners. “We realized just helping artists isn’t good enough. We need to help city planners, architects, and engineers,” Becker says. The perceived value of the arts is growing. “Switching the word ‘innovation’ for ‘arts,’ you get a totally different response from community developers, mayors, and economic developers. People are now looking at creative placemaking as a strategic way to maximize impact for more sustainable communities, jobs, and quality of life,” Davis says. For Becker, it’s about getting people to see artists as creative problem solvers at every table, instead of just object makers— a win all around: “When artists tap into what they care about in the world with their creativity, it’s a powerful combination.” (f) Both Becker and Davis are now trying to expand the reach of their work. Becker is focused on growing and diversifying Forecast’s consulting program. Davis is about a quarter through his two-year 2018 Bush Fellowship, focusing on learning about national arts policy and trying to amplify Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment to other states. “Minnesota has an opportunity to share its pioneering work in putting a value on arts, culture, and the environment,” Davis says. “Given how divided our country is right now, the arts have some unique opportunities to help bring people together.” �

(a–d) Photographs by Rita Kovtun (e) Photograph by Vital Traffic Labs (f) Photograph by Michael Bellotti

b b. John Davis ’84 d. A view of downtown Lanesboro, Minnesota, a community of about 750 people. e. Work by regional artists on sale at Lanesboro Arts, the town’s multidisciplinary arts organization.

Changing the Rural Narrative Davis credits former entrepreneurial studies director Jerry Allan with having the biggest impact on his trajectory, from whom he learned to use creativity to solve problems. “That ended up being one of the core principles in working with small communities—how do you look at challenges as opportunities?” he says. After MCAD, Davis bought an abandoned farm in New York Mills (NYM), a town of 1,000 people in central Minnesota, and spent three years fixing it up. “I just had the idea of living in a rural community and something magically would happen,” he says. He discovered there was the same thirst for the arts as in the metro area—there just wasn’t access to it. “I didn’t think that was fair.” So, Davis started a rural residency program for urban artists, which gave the community more exposure to the arts. Amid high skepticism, Davis convinced the city to donate money and an abandoned building for a new arts center. It opened in 1992, and within five years, jobs increased by 40 percent and seventeen businesses either opened or relocated to NYM; within twenty years, the town’s population increased by 27 percent. “The narrative of rural communities is they're dying, but when you have a positive narrative in a community, it helps with people wanting to locate there,” Davis says. His work in NYM not only served as an inspiration in the creation of Our Town, the National Endowment for the Arts' creative placemaking grants program, but it also sparked a rural renaissance, helping small communities across the country change their narratives, secure funding for their own arts projects, and revitalize their towns.

See more at mcad.edu/pioneers.

Weaving Art into the Fabric of Cities After NYM, Davis moved to Lanesboro, a rural community in southeastern Minnesota, to help the city develop a new multipurpose arts center that would combine the existing theater and gallery.

f. Forecast partnered with GoodSpace Murals (Greta McLain ’12, MFA) and artist Drew Peterson to install four murals on the side of Sheridan Arts Spanish Dual Immersion School in Northeast Minneapolis. Every student helped design and paint the murals, engaging in joyful, active learning.

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: STUD IO VISIT

The Coven Reenvisions Modern Work

a Now in its second year, The Coven offers annual memberships that provide access to the space as well as workshops, events, and other programming. (c) The organization operates on a 5-for-1 scholarship model to help reduce inequity, meaning that 20 percent of people receive a membership free of charge. Aside from open workspaces, The Coven also includes a prep kitchen and coffee bar, locker room and changing area, beauty and self-care room, parent and prayer room, conference room, and private phone booths. (d) From the artwork on the walls, to the hair and skincare products they carry, to the speakers they feature, the founders of The Coven are always considering, if any one person walked in, would they feel like they belonged, and if not, why? “We imagined a world where women and nonbinary folks come first, where they feel seen and heard and validated regardless of their background, where they are connected to each other,” Iverson explains. The name was chosen in reference to a group of witches; the founders believe that when women come together, they create real magic. They also borrow a mantra of “do the most good” from Wiccan culture. Though this is Iverson’s first time running a business, the seeds for this compelling venture were planted during her time in MCAD’s (now entrepreneurial studies) visualization program, where futureoriented systems thinkers like former directors Lester Shen and Jerry Allan taught her to think big. “Artists are dreamers, they’re visionaries, and that is 100 percent things that the MCAD environment fostered in me,” she says.

a. Bethany Iverson ’06, one of the founders of the collaborative community and coworking space The Coven. b. Coven cofounders (left to right) Iverson, Liz Giel, Alex West Steinman, and Erinn Farrell.

(a) Photograph by Rita Kovtun (b) Photograph by Bethany Birnie

Stepping into The Coven, everything feels warm—the colors, the smiles, and of course the temperature upon ducking in from a chilly winter day. People are peppered throughout the space, occupying the top two floors of a light-filled, historic brick building in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis. Some sit at tables with laptops, some have conversations on plush chairs, some make tea in the kitchen, some refresh in the beauty and self-care room. The space buzzes with a calm energy—people here are busy, yet unhurried. At The Coven, a community workspace for women and nonbinary folks, there’s enough room, enough supplies, and enough time for everyone. “We don’t want anybody to ever be here and not feel welcome,” says Bethany Iverson ’06, one of the founders of The Coven. (a) This philosophy was the impetus for the space. Iverson and cofounders Erinn Farrell, Liz Giel, and Alex West Steinman had built successful careers in advertising but didn’t feel the industry reflected their appearance or their values. (b) Through both their leadership positions and organizations like MPLS MadWomen and the North Leadership Council, which is how they connected, the four women fought hard to create change around diversity and inclusion in advertising but ultimately were not able to affect the shift they wished to see. “It just wasn’t going to happen, and that’s an indictment on a system that is fundamentally broken,” says Iverson, who built a twelveyear career in strategy at a few of Minneapolis’s top ad agencies. “The four of us came to that realization together and started thinking about what we were going to do instead.” Enter The Coven.

(c, d, f) Photographs by Rita Kovtun (e) Design by Precious Wallace ’17

BUILDING COMMUNIT Y: STUD IO VISIT

c. The Coven supports more than four hundred members from a broad spectrum of backgrounds. d. Coven members have access to a prep kitchen and coffee bar stocked with complimentary snacks courtesy of the Wedge and Linden Hills Co-op. e. Personal branding by Precious Wallace ’17 for her two ventures King P. Studio and Charlie Run. f. Wallace sets up shop in The Coven’s beauty and self-care room.

Iverson started out studying photography and graphic design at MCAD but switched focuses because of her love of collaborating with others and making ideas happen. “The creative and critical thinking skills that MCAD gave me were very important for my career in advertising and probably serve me even better in my career as an entrepreneur because it requires so much flexibility, open-mindedness, and comfort with ambiguity,” she says. Iverson will continue to apply these skills in helping grow The Coven, which is raising $5 million to expand to four additional locations in the Midwest and South in the next two years. With a mix of individual business owners, mid-career workers, late-career execs, and early retirees, The Coven is fertile ground for cross-sector, cross-generational conversations and collaborations. “Some days there will be a senior vice president of a bank talking to a community organizer. The alchemy of unexpected connections that happens here is a magical thing,” Iverson says. “We’ve had people who have met their cofounders, gotten their first big investor, found their web designer, or just made new friendships at The Coven. To be a small part of the incredible stories that are unfolding in this space is such an honor.” �

See more at mcad.edu/coven.

All in One Place “I come here and I make things,” says Precious Wallace ’17. A Coven member since summer 2018, she uses the space to run two ventures, freelancing on design and public art projects through King P. Studio and versing women in art therapy to help heal depression and anxiety through nonprofit Charlie Run. Wallace’s go-to spot at The Coven is the beauty and self-care room, where she records YouTube videos, works on projects, writes grants, and holds meetings. “I record a video, go upstairs, get some tea, get something to snack on, then come back down and work, work, work,” she says. Wallace has met clients, grant editors, contract gurus, and friends at The Coven, growing her business, network, and overall happiness. “It’s easy to create a team around here,” she says. “You can find everyone in one place.”

2018â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2019 Openings and Events

Established in 2011, the MCAD Sculpture Garden is filled with permanent and rotating works by MCAD students, alumni, faculty, and friends. Coupled with the course Public Art/Art in Public Places, the space allows students to learn, experiment, and collaborate while invigorating not only the MCAD campus but also the Whittier neighborhood as a whole. Enjoy this selection of 2018 additions to the garden.

Refreshed Garden

MC AD HIGHLIGHTS

a. Farewell celebration for Jay Coogan, MCAD’s sixteenth president, September b. (Left to right) KNOCK, Inc. employees Jason Miller, Jodi Grundyson, Reginaldo Reyes, Creighton King, Caitlin Sidey ’12, and Ryan Floss at the twenty-first annual MCAD Art Sale, November c. (Left to right) Mary Vento, George Quist ’75, and Eileen Connor ’78 at the 50th Reunion Alumni Reception, December d. Guests Sarah Mitchell, Devon Diebel, and M.E. Kirwan bid at the fifth annual Auction at MCAD, May

e. The Back of Beyond Opening reception in the MCAD MFA Gallery, September f. (Left to right) Career Development Advisor Sam Wencl, Interim President Karen Wirth, visiting Nike recruiters Christopher Hopkins and Stephanie Saylor, Career Development Director Becky Bates, October g. Students at the twenty-second annual Partners in Scholarship Luncheon, April h. Jen Neville ’19 walks through a piece by Media Arts Adjunct Faculty Sarah Petersen at the 2018 Faculty Biennial in the MCAD Gallery, September

a. View of the garden, located on the south end of campus, from 26th Street b. Kehayr BrownRansaw ’19 18 over 4 Steel, canvas c. Eli deVries ’19 Under the Big Top Wood, tile, plaster d. James Paul Palmer-Wilson ’19 inside outside PLA, mixed media e. Hillary Shepard ’20 Garden Piece Plywood, fir, nylon f. Joel Terry ’17, MFA Home Slice Vinyl, carpet, TV tray

The garden has been made possible in part by Donna MacMillan and the late Cargill MacMillan Jr.

MC AD HIGHLIGHTS

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 award-winning 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. Perry Wins Emmy Mike Perry ’03 is now the proud holder of an Emmy Award for Outstanding Motion Design. The award recognizes Perry’s work as the animation director for the “Mushrooms” episode of Comedy Central’s hit series, Broad City. Although Perry is no stranger to the show—in fact, he has been working on Broad City's opening sequences since its first season—this was his first experience creating a longer animated sequence. (a)

Chesworth Nominated for Academy Award One Small Step, co-directed by Andrew Chesworth ’07 and Bobby Pontillas, received a nomination for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards. This is the first film produced by their start-up company Taiko Studios, which currently has various projects in the works that include feature films, another short film, and television shows.

a Imady Named Artist of the Year Essma Imady ’16, MFA, was named one of ten 2018 Artists of the Year by City Pages. Imady’s installation and film work “bravely tackles sociopolitical contexts with complexity and beauty.” Her successful year included exhibiting at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in the spring, curating a show at Walker Art Center in the summer, and receiving an Art(ists) on the Verge fellowship through Northern Lights.mn. (f)

Draplin Designs Postage Stamp Dennis’s Pilot Short a Hit After it became the most viewed short in the channel’s history, Cartoon Network greenlit Infinity Train by Owen Dennis ’09, debuting this year. Created through the network’s Artist Program, a development lab for new series, this mystery adventure follows a precocious young girl named Tulip who finds herself on a train full of infinite worlds and tries to find her way home. (b)

VP Takes Cinematography to New Heights Joshua VP ’06 was the cinematographer for Columbia Sportwear’s ad campaign Global Ski, which followed US, Canadian, and Russian athletes as they trained and tested Columbia Sportswear’s gear in some of the harshest conditions. (c)

Worum and Mary Celebrate Minnesota Kate Worum ’11 and Ashley Mary ’18, MA, were involved in ’Sota Pop, the interactive pop-up experience that shows Minnesota’s full spectrum of fun through a gallery of shareable #OnlyinMN photo ops. This event coincided with Super Bowl LII, which took place in Minneapolis in 2018. (d)

Aaron Draplin ’00 designed a postage stamp for the United States Postal Service. Star Ribbon is a design that features a tri-colored ribbon of red, white, and blue folded into a patriotic symbol. This stamp, intended to evoke the connectedness of the American people, is available in coils of ten thousand and in panes of twenty. (e)

Courtright's Show Coming to Cartoon Network Victor Courtright ’07 will be airing his production ThunderCats Roar on Cartoon Network this year. The original ThunderCats aired from 1985 to 1989 and the new show plans on staying true to the original’s premise, featuring lots of action and leaning into the inherent comedy of the world.

Oxborough to Paint Former Governor Former student Paul Oxborough has been selected to paint former governor Mark Dayton’s official portrait. He hopes to capture Dayton in his own environment and reflect his humble nature. “He’s very soft-spoken, sort of a gentle man. That’s got to come through,” Oxborough says of the portrait.

Rabbitt at Achievement Awards in Hollywood Emerson Rabbitt ’18 has been chosen as a winner of a worldwide illustrating contest and will be honored at the 35th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards this April. A native of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Rabbitt finds inspiration from the likes of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game and H.R. Giger.

Rivera's Campaign Is Very Lush Luisa Rivera ’15, MFA, this issue’s cover artist, illustrated for the cosmetics retailer Lush. Rivera’s work was featured in the storefront of Lush’s Oxford Street location in London and in the Essential Oils Handbook, an essay written by Annabelle Letten, editor at Lush, explaining the origins, benefits, and stories behind essential oils.

Friese Awarded Prestigious Fellowship Kiley Friese ’18 received a 2018 Craft Windgate Fellow. This prestigious award, worth $15,000, is one of the largest awards offered nationally to art students. Out of ninety-nine total applicants, ten are chosen based on artistic merit and potential.

(e) Image courtesy of Aaron Draplin ’00 (f) Photograph by Zoe Cinel ’18, MFA (g) Photograph courtesy of Nicollet Mall Art (h) Photograph by Jeffrey Fortson (i, j) Images courtesy of Paige Dansinger ’93

(a) (Left to right) Erica Perez, Mike Perry ’03, Barbara Benas, Maya Edelman, Isam Prado; Photograph by Anna Wolf (b) Image courtesy of Cartoon Network (c) Photograph by Joshua VP ’06 (d) Photograph by Aimee Gauthier ’09

ALUMNI SP OTLIGHT

Alumni's New Animated Series on Adult Swim

Dansinger Builds a Better World

A new animated series by Andrew Koehler ’04 and Benjamin Martin ’04 premiered on Adult Swim this January. Tigtone is the saga of a quest-addicted hero who slashes his way across a satirical fantasy universe with melodramatic ferocity, always obeying the letter of the law but never its spirit. This quarter-hour-long animated show is produced by Koehler, Martin, and Blake Anderson (of Workaholics fame).

Paige Dansinger ’93 is passionate about using technology to bring people together. “I believe that participatory social experiences can go against isolation. I see all of these wonderful potentials for technology,” she says. Dansinger is the founding director of the Better World Museum, which began on Facebook as a community of people interested in creating opportunities for underserved youth and adults and is now a physical art space in downtown Minneapolis. The museum features rotating exhibitions, participatory mural walls, an indoor edible garden, an augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR) center, and a makerspace dedicated to creating projects that champion climate justice. Open to all, the museum also hosts events that allow the public to access the expensive technology of virtual reality. Out of more than six thousand applicants, Dansinger was selected as a 2018–2019 Facebook Community Leadership Fellow for her work with the Better World Museum. Fellows in the pilot program’s inaugural year receive leadership training, network support, and up to $50,000 in project funding. Better World Museum has proposed to create a modular, digitally immersive pop-up museum experience, which Dansinger plans to install in city centers, malls, and airports. The project will include multi-touch video walls, interactive projections, and an eco-garden. The pop-up's first interactive exhibit, VR Garden, is an online and offline global project that Dansinger has used to connect communities through interactive AR and VR art-making. She recently traveled to Cambodia and Singapore to draw with students and women in VR Garden. “I use AR/VR to create more equitable, empathetic, and inclusive space,” she says. Dansinger will be testing the first pop-up experience in Shenzhen, China, and Silicon Valley this summer. She will also partner with ARVR Women and Allies and the Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice to host a VR Climate Summit. “I’m focusing on creating work that repairs the world and leads the future for museums,” she says.

i Aiken, Akagawa, and Morrison Return to Nicollet Mall Works by alumni Ta-coumba Aiken ’74, George Morrison ’43, and Professor Emeritus Kinji Akagawa ’68 were reinstated along Nicollet Avenue upon the completion of its two-plus-year renovation. The work included cast-bronze insets created by Aiken and Seitu Jones in 1992 entitled Shadows of Spirit, wood seating services by Akagawa entitled Enjoyment of Nature, and A Native American Mosaic by Morrison. (g)

Bergstrom on the Late Show Stand-up comedian Erik Bergstrom ’05 stopped by the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform a set. He shared his comedic take on topics such as how to react to being walked in on in a public restroom, renaissance festival fashion, and living in New York. Also a cartoonist, Bergstrom’s work has previously appeared in the New Yorker.

j h. Paige Dansinger ’93 wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset and a zip-up with augmented reality (AR) flower patches. i. The first image that Dansinger drew in VR Garden was featured at a TEDxMinneapolis event. j. Dansinger’s avatar with common poisonous garden flowers that she drew in VR Garden to help educate others.

M C AD NE WS

Dandona Awarded Four Grants

Faculty Notes MCAD’s faculty members are renowned for their ingenuity, expertise, and commitment as instructors. And as working artists and designers, they continue to create and receive well-deserved recognition for their professional endeavors. In addition to the recent faculty highlights below, MCAD news and updates can be found online at mcad.edu. Verostko’s Exhibits Computer-Generated Art Professor Emeritus Roman Verostko recently exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Pompidou Center in Paris, and MCAD. Roman Verostko and the Cloud of Unknowing, his retrospective exhibition in MCAD’s Main and Concourse Galleries, included seventy original works. Michael ’88 and Suzanne Welch ’88 of ABZORB Design created the exhibition identity and designed a full-color, 168-page catalog to accompany the show. The project was generously supported by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation with additional funding by David E. Moore. (a)

O'Brien Illustrates for New York Times and More Master of Arts in Graphic and Web Design Adjunct Faculty James O'Brien illustrated for a few high-profile publications last year. His work accompanies “How I Became a 37-Year-Old Snowbird” in the New York Times, “The Next Phase of Business Sustainability” for the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and “The Simplest Course I Ever Taught” for the Chronicle of Higher Education. (b)

Jirka Talks Sculpting Fine Arts Professor Brad Jirka ’76 and his wife/collaborative partner Katherine Jones ’79 were the Growler’s featured artists in the January 2019 issue. Jirka discussed his passion for sculpting, both hands-on and digitally fabricated.

Luken Receives Bank Employee Honor Master of Arts in Graphic and Web Design Adjunct Faculty Matthew Luken has received U.S. Bank’s highest employee honor, the Legends of Possible Award. Luken was nominated by colleagues and was selected out of thousands of nominees. The award honors an employee whose work best represents the company’s core values.

Williams Receives Book Artist Award Fine Arts Adjunct Faculty Jody Williams is the 2019 winner of the Minnesota Book Artist Award, which she also received in 2008. At once a book, a box, and a puzzle, her winning work For Now is a meticulously designed exploration of the number four. The sections of the book focus on places from Williams’s own experience and correlate to the four directions and elements: West/Water/Hawaii; North/Earth/Minnesota; East/Air/Ireland; and South/Fire/Florida.(c)

Stupica Celebrates Women/ Trans/Nonbinary Animators

Aller Awarded Grant

Media Arts Adjunct Faculty Lux Stupica ’12 is the director of Strong Women in Motion (SWIM). What started as a podcast dedicated to spreading the word about women in the animation industry became a community of Minnesota animators who identify as female, trans, or nonbinary. To celebrate SWIM’s revamp, a launch party took place in July.

Fine Arts Adjunct Faculty Jonathan Aller ’18, MFA, was awarded a grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. This is one of the most prestigious grants available to emerging artists around the world. To date, approximately 1,800 students and artists in forty countries have been provided financial assistance through the foundation.

Liberal Arts Associate Professor Jessica M. Dandona, PhD, received four fellowships to support her research sabbatical. She was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant, a Short-Term Research Grant, the Dr. Edward H. Bensley Osler Library Research Travel Grant, and a Franklin Travel Grant from the American Philosophical Society. She is undertaking research in the United Kingdom, California, Canada, and Paris.

Pope Brothers Join Mia's Collection Drawings by Design Adjunct Faculty Rowan Pope and Bly Pope have been accepted into the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). Rowan’s drawing is based on author Franz Kafka’s short story A Hunger Artist. Bly's Maryanna depicts the brothers’ grandmother. Mia acquired the drawings during the brothers’ special exhibition The Mn Twins: Bly and Rowan Pope. The show was called a “must-see” event by Minnesota Monthly.

Sands and O'Malley’s Collaborative Project Fine Arts Adjunct Faculty Amy Sands and Bridget O'Malley were featured in Surface Design Journal for their collaborative project Interweave II. To create the work, Sands and O’Malley used translucent plant fibers and formed them into thin sheets of paper. Layers of pulp were carefully placed on the screen, then displaced and disrupted by drops of water. What emerged were featherlight representations of lace with intricate patterns of light and shadow.

Monick-Isenberg Hosts Kennedy Center Class Fine Arts Professor Lynda Monick-Isenberg hosted an observation drawing class for teachers at the Kennedy Center last March. Her hands-on workshop debunks the myth that talent is a key factor in drawing. Participants learned how to see like scientists by utilizing simple drawing strategies that they can confidently use with their students.

(a) Artwork by Roman Verostko (b) Illustration by James O’Brien (c) Photograph by Jody Williams (e) Photograph by Karen Gergely (f) Photograph by Phil McCollam

FACULT Y SP OTLIGHT

e e. Social Practice Zines installed at the Constance Gallery at Graceland University in Iowa. f. Survival Skills installation at the Weir Farm Art Center in Connecticut.

Mueller Heads Up MFA Program c

In Fall 2018, Ellen Mueller joined MCAD as the director of the master of fine arts in visual studies program. Previously a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Colorado State University-Pueblo, she was recognized with the Outstanding Educator Award from the Mid-America College Art Association last year. Mueller is an interdisciplinary artist who explores issues related to the environment, hyperactive news media, and corporate management systems. Working in installation, performance, video, drawing, and sculpture, Mueller maintains both a public practice for socially engaged work as well as a private studio practice. This multimedia background made her an ideal fit for heading up the interdisciplinary MFA program. “Since I’m familiar with the unique challenges of working in multiple media, I enjoy helping others navigate this type of practice,” Mueller says. “MCAD’s MFA program supports these interdisciplinary practices, keeping in line with the contemporary art world.” Mueller has been meeting with students, alumni, faculty, and staff, learning she has inherited an “incredibly strong foundation” and thinking of how to respond to existing needs. Her priorities include assisting current students with professional practice, finding them more financial support, adding value to alumni careers, and building community partnerships, all of which she is implementing through workshops, talks, and a group New York trip. “If I’m doing my job right, I will help chart a path with every student to meet their goals. MCAD’s program succeeds because it is uniquely flexible and individually driven,” she says. For Mueller, this position is also a homecoming; she completed her undergraduate degree in visual art, theater, and design technology at Bemidji State University and then spent several years in Minneapolis before leaving to complete her MFA at the University of South Florida. “I’ve lived a lot of different places all over the country and, with the level of artistic activity and investment here, no place is like Minneapolis/St. Paul,” she says.

PRO GR AM SP OTLIGHT

A Network of Lifetime Learners Continuing Education (CE) at MCAD has offered top-notch, relevant, and engaging art and design programming for kids, teens, and adults taught by professional working artists for decades. CE brings together passionate students of all ages, levels, and backgrounds to experience the energetic learning environment at MCAD, build relationships with instructors and classmates, and take their newly polished skills back out into their communities. With more than twenty classes between them, these two students share what keeps them coming back to MCAD.

What is your day job? I am a freelance illustrator. How did you decide to take your first class? I was looking for a print shop I could stretch out in and be my experimental self. Why have you continued taking CE classes? The Open Edition class provides access to exceptional printmaking equipment and camaraderie among classmates. With each semester, I look forward to seeing friends that I have made over the years.

Mattie Weiss

What is the learning environment like? It is an environment open to questions and generous with both technical support and promotion of each other’s work. There is community. There is also room to make your own workspace—both physical space and mental space.

How did you decide to take your first class? I saw a really beautiful sketch in the home of a friend, which she had made in a figure drawing class at MCAD. She had inspiring things to say about her experience and I had been yearning to make art in a more deliberate way, so I signed up for a class.

How have you applied what you’ve learned through CE classes? I make my living in Adobe Illustrator. I have used that software since the beta version in 1987. I studied painting in college. The two are finally coming together to make, I think, unique imagery that should keep me busy for a long time. MCAD CE is a major part of my art-making experience, from art creation to exhibition. How brilliant it is to share this experience with my CE community rather than working alone in a private studio or not making art at all.

What has been your favorite class and why? Abstract Painting with Sarah Wieben was incredible. It provided the discipline I needed to paint regularly and I learned an enormous amount. I also loved her summer Landscape Painting course.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a student? We are always students. Taking these classes at MCAD reminds me that this is the case. I think this is easy to forget as we get older and set in our ways. Thanks to CE, I get to be among students young and old.

a. Marty Harris Thistle 2018 Monoprint, screenprint

b. Mattie Weiss Untitled 2018 Oil on paper

What is your day job? I am a vice president of The Management Center, which helps social justice leaders build and run more effective organizations.

What is the learning environment like? I appreciate that CE students are treated with dignity and respect. We are viewed as people committed to making art and learning. How much time do you devote to your practice and where do you find inspiration? I work full-time and am the mom to two young boys, so I mostly try to fit painting in the margins. However, since starting CE classes, I ran a crowdfunding campaign to take a two-month sabbatical from work and focus on painting, had a booth in the Powderhorn Art Fair, and was selected to be part of a giant mural collaboration between the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Hope Community, and Project for Pride in Living. I draw inspiration from being part of PoliGraphix, a collective of visual artists who are deeply committed to social justice work. It’s been incredibly meaningful to find my community of artists.

(a) Print by Marty Harris (b) Painting by Mattie Weiss

Find CE class offerings at mcad.edu/ce.

Marty Harris

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Changing Perspectives "I traveled to Italy, Greece, and England during my studies, made incredible friends who became like family, and gained an independence and confidence I did not know I had. I found it amazing that when language barriers made it difficult to communicate in class settings, the art transcended those boundaries." —Sam Rickner ’19 (a) "While abroad, I studied proclaimed LGBTI public spaces and how they relate to the homosexual history of Italy, specifically Renaissance sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. I discovered many Queer artists and artworks in my travels across Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Spain, which helped me contextualize my own work." —Gunnar Blakeway-Walen ’18 (b) "Having arrived at MCAD without big expectations, I am more than satisfied with what I’m experiencing and learning. My artistic practice is a direct response to my environment. In my first performance here, I built a room out of furniture found around MCAD’s neighborhood and invited visitors to share stories of their personal living situations. I was enthusiastic and grateful for people’s active participation." —Nora Spiekermann (c) "I came to MCAD about three years ago, knowing just about no one in the entire continent. I was both terrified and insanely excited. I’ve met some wonderful people and have grown so much, both in my interpersonal relationships and my ability to create art and present it to people."—Magdi Hazaa ’19 "In LA, I was integrated into the fashion and underground rap community. The unique style and sense of fashion inspired me to pursue a long-time dream: creating a clothing brand. Back at MCAD, I have used photos shot in LA to make cyanotypes on fabric and use them in repurposed garments for my brand INFAMOUS."—Shane Toomey ’19 Whether they leave their home country to study at MCAD or leave MCAD to study elsewhere, students can learn valuable lessons through a change of environment. International students at MCAD hail from sixteen countries. US-based students are able to study either abroad or within North America at another Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) school.

a. Sam Rickner ’19 Photography Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany Spring 2018 b. Gunnar BlakewayWalen ’18 Drawing and painting Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze Florence, Italy Spring 2018 c. Nora Spiekermann Performance/video MFA international exchange student Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany d. Roshan Ganu ’20, MFA Illustration International student Goa, India e. William Stock ’19 Filmmaking AICAD Exchange Ontario College of Art and Design Toronto, Ontario, Canada Spring 2018 f. Alyssa Johnson ’19 Photography Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze Florence, Italy Spring 2018 g. Jenya Armen ’19 Drawing and painting AICAD Exchange Laguna College of Art and Design Laguna Beach, California Spring 2018 Not pictured Magdi Hazaa ’19 Web and multimedia environments International student Yemen Not pictured Shane Toomey ’19 Photography AICAD Exchange Otis College of Art and Design Los Angeles, California Spring 2018

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b e

STUDENT SH OWC A SE

These works were created during or inspired by students’ time away from their home environment. a. Nora Spiekermann Living_space 2018 Performance b. Sam Rickner ’19 Settled 2018 4x5 large format photograph c. Magdi Hazaa ’19 cosmicchat.net 2018

Browser-based game

d. Eleni Leventopoulos ’19 Six Months in Europe 2018 Handbound photo book e. Katherine Kisin ’19 Heads in the Cloud 2018 Publication f. Alyssa Johnson ’19 Lisbon 2018 Digital photograph g. William Stock ’19 Cradled by the fleeting moments of one's youth 2018 16mm color negative film h. Gunnar Blakeway-Walen ’18 Narcissus 2018

Acrylic and oil on canvas i. Shane Toomey ’19 Untitled, Rose Hills Memorial Park 2018 Photograph j. Roshan Ganu ’20 Madhubani Art (Inspired by Baua Devi) 2018 Pen and ink on paper

#MAKEMCAD

Carry-on Homes Hosts Immigration Stories Conceived by five artists from five countries (Zoe Cinel ’18, MFA; Preston Drum ’16, MFA; Aki Shibata; Peng Wu ’13, MFA; and Shun Jie Yong ’18, MFA), Carry-on Homes at The Commons is a multifunctional pavilion that shares stories of immigrants in Minnesota through community gatherings, workshops, and performances. The installation features a stage, colorful mural, reflecting garden, photo gallery, and sculpture built from repurposed suitcases. It was the winner of the 2018 Minneapolis Creative City Challenge, premiering at the Northern Spark festival, and will be installed at St. Paul's Hamm Park in partnership with Indigenous Roots this May. Carry-on Homes was made possible by the City of Minneapolis’s Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy program in association with Northern Lights.MN and The Commons. Photograph by Yong.