Penn State College of Arts & Architecture 2016 Magazine by Penn State College of Arts and Architecture

2016 MAGAZINE

FEATURED INSIDE

ON THE COVER: A collage of Bill Doan’s working images from his graphic novel to be published by Penn State Press in early 2017.

Living in Limbo: Theatre Professor Works Through Personal Tragedy Via Writing, Drawing

DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS: Joyce Hoffman

Live from Borland, It’s an Online Course!

EDITOR: Amy Milgrub Marshall, aacommunications@psu.edu

Graphic Design Students Help Fight Pediatric Cancer By Designing Logos for THON

10 Digitizing the Band: New Technology Means More Time for Music with the Penn State Blue Band

Cellist-Printmaker Collaboration Helps to Break Down Boundaries

Remembering Hellmut Hager

When Good Kids Are Not So Good: New Play Generates Discussion about Sexual Assault

Getting Inked: Art History Ph.D. Candidate Explores Concept of Tattoo as Art Object

2016 College of Arts and Architecture Alumni Award Winners

SCDC: Bridging Disciplines and Technologies to Design Human Solutions

BRIEFS

This publication is available in alternative media on request. The University is committed to equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment for all persons. It is the policy of the University to maintain an environment free of harassment and free of discrimination against any person because of age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, service in the uniformed services (as defined in state and federal law), veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, physical or mental disability, gender, perceived gender, gender identity, genetic information, or political ideas. Discriminatory conduct and harassment, as well as sexual misconduct and relationship violence, violates the dignity of individuals, impedes the realization of the University’s educational mission, and will not be tolerated. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to Dr. Kenneth Lehrman III, Vice Provost for Affirmative Action, Affirmative Action Office, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Email: kfl2@psu.edu; Tel 814-863-0471. U.Ed. ARC 16-156 MPC138583

The “We Are” Sculpture: Inspired By a Long-Ago Story of Courage

Back Cover

NEWS

WRITERS: Amy Milgrub Marshall, Alex Bush, Kendall Mainzer, Scott Tucker, Susan Clare Scott

Alumni Society Scholarship Winner Makes the Most of Her Penn State Experience

Tacconi Receives President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration Student Engagement in the College of Arts and Architecture Award Established in Memory of Promising Ceramicist College Mourns Passing of Don Leslie Family, Friends, and Blue Banders Contribute to Endow Bundy Scholarship

Focus on Arts and Design Research Zabel Honored for Outstanding Teaching Cook Receives Faculty Scholar Medal in the Arts and Humanities SoVA Graduate Student Wins National Grant for Native American Photography Project

Tarantino’s Fulbright Award Will Support Her Art and Design Work in Brazil

WE WANT TO hear from

YOU!

Share updates on your life and career, including address changes, via the online form at alumni.arts.psu.edu, or send an email to jeh7@psu.edu.

We appreciate your

SUPPORT! Make a gift today at arts.psu.edu/philanthropy, or contact Don Lenze, director of development, at 814-863-2142 or donlenze@psu.edu to discuss how your gift can make a difference. Donors Mac Emmert (left) and Evan Bush with scholarship recipient Maria Wirries, a musical theatre undergraduate.

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN Long gone are the days when those in higher education worked within their disciplines. Today, they work within, around, between, and, most importantly, in collaboration with people in other disciplines. “Interdisciplinary,” “multidisciplinary,” and “transdisciplinary” are the name of the game. Our cover story highlights interdisciplinary work undertaken by Bill Doan, who suffered a family tragedy that he ultimately chronicled through both writing and drawing. Throughout his creative process he consulted with neurologists, bioethicists, health care administrators, and others who work with individuals confronting end-of-life decisions for family members. His graphic novel, Limbo, will be published by Penn State Press’ Graphic Medicine Series in early 2017, and his play, Drifting, will have its full professional premiere in Harrisburg in spring 2017. Our Arts and Design Research Incubator has supported the development of Drifting, support Bill says has been critical to the evolution of the play. Our faculty members are not the only ones pursuing interdisciplinary work. Last fall, cellist Tania Pyatovolenko, who graduated in May, initiated a collaboration with a printmaking class, under the guidance of faculty member Robin Gibson. She performed for printmaking students who then created works inspired by her cello playing, which were exhibited at one of Tania’s recitals. These are just two examples of the innovative and creative work being undertaken by our faculty and students—the type of work that is helping us to achieve our goal of raising the visibility of the arts and design at Penn State and beyond. This magazine highlights the wide and wonderful range of projects accomplished in our college and by our graduates.

Editor’s Note In addition to the two former Arts and Architecture administrators whose memorials are published in this magazine, the college lost several other retired faculty members this spring whose contributions to their individual academic areas played an important role in the education of hundreds of students. Those are: Arthur Anderson (Architecture), Stuart Frost and Ken Graves (Visual Arts), and Manuel Duque and Peg French (Theatre).

Support from alumni and friends like you continues to be crucial, and you realize that—thirty-two new scholarships, endowments, and named annual funds have been created in the past two years. By supporting the education of the artists and designers of tomorrow, you are demonstrating your belief that the arts can change lives. I encourage you to take the time to read the articles in this issue. They will inspire you and make you proud to be part of the College of Arts and Architecture family. Thanks, as always, for your support.

Barbara O. Korner, Ph.D. Dean, Penn State College of Arts and Architecture aadean@psu.edu

LIVING IN

o b Lim

Theatre Professor Works Through Personal Tragedy Via Writing, Drawing It was six months after the tragic car accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury. Bill Doan began sketching his sister in hopes he could one day, after her recovery, show her the images. That

day never came. But the sketches have lived on. Doan is currently working on a graphic novel, highlighting his family’s experience with navigating the health care system and endof-life decisions, to be published as part of Penn State Press’ Graphic Medicine series in 2017. Doan and his family—brother Ronald Doan, sister Sherry Anderson, and mother Mary Cline—lost their beloved Sam in December 2014, two years after the accident that put her into a permanent vegetative state. “The book confronts the health care system’s willingness to do whatever it takes to keep someone alive,” said Doan. “But the real question is, why are we so afraid of helping people to die?” The book, which has a working title of Limbo, will feature two-page spreads with a single illustration and brief text, revealing Doan’s

2016 M.F.A. Acting graduates Megan Pickrell and Aaron Densley perform a scene from Drifting in the workshop premiere at Dixon Place in New York City. Photo: Cody Goddard

questions and innermost thoughts: Will she wake up? Can she hear us? Will we ever be able to take her home and care for her? Most of his illustrations document the physical decay of Sam’s face and body. The drawing experience has been heart wrenching but, Doan explained, also necessary. “Watching her deterioration was horrifying, but I realized I wouldn’t want to forget it,” he said. Doan never planned for his sketches to go beyond his inner circle, let alone be featured in a book. But after he showed them to Michael Green, a physician and bioethicist at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Dr. Green put Doan in touch with Susan Squier, Brill Professor of English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and co-editor of the Graphic Medicine series.

From left: Andy Belser, Elisha Clark Halpin, and Megan Pickrell at a Drifting rehearsal in the Arts and Design Research Incubator. Photo: Bill Doan

Squier talked to Doan about a book, and also encouraged him to submit his sketches to some publications. He had his first sketches—a 12-panel comic— published in January 2016, in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “I stumbled into graphic medicine totally by accident, thanks to Michael and Susan,” Doan said. “They gave me the idea that I could use drawing to form another version of Sam’s story, and suddenly I was thinking seriously about a graphic novel.” The “other” version of Sam’s story is Doan’s play, Drifting, which addresses his family’s experience in a different way. The play, which had its premiere workshop production at Dixon Place in New York City in March 2015, is about siblings who find a way to connect across the great divide of altered consciousness. Drifting is slated to have its professional premiere at the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg in spring 2017. With only three characters—SHE, who suffered the traumatic brain injury; ME, her brother, the writer, who struggles with the issue of medical technology keeping SHE alive; and HE, the primary care provider—the play brings together issues of science and faith, and the medical experiences of the two-year journey from Sam’s accident to her death. “It’s really an intense look at a sibling relationship, as compared to the book, which is more about how we navigated the health care system,” explained Doan. “Together Drifting and Limbo have helped me come at the questions I was left with. They have helped me reflect on bigger questions: What is consciousness? Are there different kinds of consciousness? Do siblings share a form of consciousness?”

Those questions about consciousness are at the core of the play, and what attracted Andrew Belser, director, to the work. Belser is professor of theatre at Penn State and director of the College of Arts and Architecture’s Arts and Design Research Incubator (ADRI), which has provided funding for the development of the play. “I knew from the first read that I wanted to be involved with this project,” said Belser, who has collaborated with Doan in the past. “The play asks questions about how we communicate through time and space with each other. It’s full of delicious challenges, like how to have a body remain in bed while the consciousness of a person drifts about the room, through memories, and into conversations with others.” According to Doan, ADRI has been critical to the development of Drifting, both in terms of funding and constructive feedback. “In large part because of the project’s connection to ADRI, I have been able to assemble experts from other fields, such as neurology, and palliative and hospice care,” he said. “Reaching out to people from under the research umbrella of the ADRI has had a significant impact on the work.” It’s a work that was written when Doan and his family were trying to process what had happened—and would happen in the future—to Sam, only 42 at the time of the accident and mother to two children. It’s deeply personal, but also relates to Doan’s work as a professor and theatre historian who teaches the evolution of tragedy and tragic forms. “Theatre artists have been writing, staging, and playing death for centuries in an effort to enter into what may well be the thing that makes us human: knowledge that we have to die,” said Doan. “On the other hand, taking on problems like how to write a play with a central character who is in a prolonged vegetative state, and how to account for the complex personal, religious, philosophical, and scientific tangle that

the situation creates, has taken me to places I never ventured into previously. Particularly since I was doing it as my sister was nearing the end of a two-year ordeal.” For Doan, writing the play was a “complete creative experience,” because it helped him deal with the situation on a personal level while also exploring the larger topic of severe traumatic brain injury, including how often they occur, treatments, and the related costs—emotional, psychological, and financial—for society as a whole. According to Belser, Drifting, while personal, epitomizes ADRI’s mission of supporting and promoting multidisciplinary work. “This play is an exemplar of coupling several very different domains—arts, healthcare, and ethics. As a kernel at the center of a much larger sphere of activity, Bill’s play is a model for ADRI projects.” As director, Belser’s goal is for Drifting to “cultivate a sense of the enormity, wonder, and delicacy of human consciousness” while prompting conversation about the ethics of health care at the end of life. Doan’s goals are, in the short term, to see Drifting get its first fully staged professional production and to publish it through one of the national play publishing groups. “I also want to help shepherd it into both the world of theatre and the curricular world of medical schools for doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and others.” In addition to Belser and Doan, the original Drifting team included Mark Ballora (sound), Elisha Clark Halpin (choreographer), Joe Julian (neurologist and sculptor), and Cody Goddard and Cynthia White (filmmakers). — AMY MILGRUB MARSHALL

FOR MORE ON DOAN’S WORK, VISIT

doandraws.wordpress.com and driftingplay.weebly.com 5

Peter Aeschbacher records a lecture. Photo: Cody Goddard

Live from Borland, Live television. If you’re on the East Coast, you probably don’t see the exact moment the stars are dancing or the American idols are singing, but you do watch a recording of their live performance. That concept of recorded live television is what guided Cody Goddard (’10 B.A. Integrative Arts), multimedia specialist for the College of Arts and Architecture’s e-Learning Institute, to develop a “new and improved” format for faculty to record lectures for online courses. Instead of Goddard spending extensive time recording and editing faculty lectures and inserting visual aids, faculty now record their lectures live in the e-Learning studio and click through their own PowerPoint presentation, which is directly incorporated into the lecture. The faculty members are doing what they always do, but the post-production time is slashed. “This is more intuitive for the faculty, because they can use PowerPoint, or whatever software they’re used to, to create their presentations,” said Goddard. “It takes less time and leads to a higher-quality product, and gives the student more of a feeling of being in the room with the faculty member due to the live nature of the editing.” According to Gary Chinn, director of the e-Learning Institute, the new system is not only fast, but also allows for consistent quality of production. “Cody has created a system that eases the production process for faculty while ensuring that the resulting video material looks the way we want it to. Both of these aspects matter a great deal to the e-Learning Institute, because we are radically increasing the amount of

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE’S E-LEARNING INSTITUTE, VISIT

eli.aanda.psu.edu 6

IT’S AN ONLINE COURSE!

instructional video in our online courses while still insisting on the kind of visually engaging content that’s expected of an arts and design college.” Peter Aeschbacher, associate professor of landscape architecture and architecture, used the new format in spring 2016, for Arts and Architecture 121: Design, Design Thinking, and Creativity, a general education course. He said he appreciates that the system allows him to be visible to the student as an engaged instructor, rather than a disembodied voice over static slides. “Being able to control the slides and the image overlays while presenting more closely replicates the experience of giving an in-course lecture,” he explained. “This is important because the be-here-now aspect of education is what gives both students and faculty their creative spark.” According to Goddard, this “record live” format is related to Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology’s One Button Studio, a simplified video recording setup, used primarily by students, that requires no video production experience. “I wanted to take the philosophical underpinning of that studio—recording live—and apply it to online lectures,” he explained. E-learning teams in other units across Penn State have expressed interest in Goddard’s strategy, which he says he is still perfecting. In the future, he plans to assist other units interested in purchasing the software and hardware—the additional components are relatively inexpensive for units that already have lights and a camera—needed to implement this system. Aeschbacher said student feedback has been positive. “They appreciate the personal connection and that it helps them maintain their attention.” — AMY MILGRUB MARSHALL

Graphic Design Students Help Fight Pediatric Cancer By Designing Logos for THON When Penn State Graphic Design student Saige Sommese learned the 2016 THON theme was “Believe Beyond Boundaries,” she immediately thought of outer space— a “boundary” that we have overcome. So, when assigned the task of designing a possible logo for THON 2016, she chose to visually represent the theme with a bright yellow rocket ship breaking through a turquoise semicircle dotted with white stars. Sommese is the most recent in a long line of Graphic Design students who have created the THON logo. The Graphic Design program’s collaboration with THON began in 1991, when professor Kristin Sommese observed the event had a “scattered” identity. So she offered the services of her third-year students, who would design the logo as a class project. The partnership has continued ever since. (See logos from 1991 to 2015 on the next two pages.) The students’ potential logos are submitted anonymously to the THON executive committee, which selects one logo to be used for that year—meaning it’s featured on signage at the event, merchandise available for sale, and the t-shirts worn by thousands of dancers, volunteers, and THON families. Saige said she was both excited and surprised when she learned her logo was selected, and the experience became more meaningful when she heard from a high school classmate and former pediatric cancer patient who benefited from THON.

THON benefits Four Diamonds, which supports pediatric cancer patients at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, and is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. Designing the logo for such an event is a feather in any designer’s cap. But the project is also valuable work experience. According to Kristin Sommese, the experience of creating the logo is beneficial because it gives students a glimpse into what they may encounter in their professional careers. “It really parallels what they may find in a design firm, with multiple people working on different options for a brand identity,” she explained. Eric Pohle, merchandise director for THON 2016, was involved in selecting this year’s logo. He said the committee looks for the best representation of

that year’s theme, which is announced at Homecoming. The THON logo is revealed in December at the annual carnival for Four Diamonds families. “It’s always exciting to see the logo on t-shirts around campus after the reveal,” Pohle said. For Saige, the logo not only represents the theme, but also what young cancer patients and their families are experiencing. “I wanted my logo to serve as a visual beacon of hope, of breaking through the boundaries that these kids face in their everyday life, fighting pediatric cancer.” — AMY MILGRUB MARSHALL

TO ORDER MERCHANDISE WITH THIS YEAR’S LOGO, VISIT

store.thon.org

“When Sophie [Restall] contacted me on Facebook and told me how much the logos meant to her when she attended THON—that she remembered each year by the logo—I realized how important the logo really is,” said Saige Sommese. “It’s cool that something I designed could mean so much.” Saige Sommese holds a mug featuring the logo she designed for THON 2016. Photo: Brandon Rittenhouse

THON Logos

1991-2015

The Blue Band uses Pyware software to review and share drill on iPads. Photo: Alex Bush

Digitizing the Band: New Technology Means More Time for Music with the Penn State Blue Band It’s Saturday morning on the University Park campus. The Penn State Blue Band marches from the O. Richard Bundy Blue Band Building to Beaver Stadium, and crowds line the streets, cheering as they pass. “We love the Blue Band!” 10

For many a Penn State Football fan, the Blue Band is a crucial part of game-day spirit, but according to director Gregory Drane (’06 M.Ed. Music Education), the band also plays an important role in the lives of its students. “This is an academic unit, so we’re trying to improve the educational environment… to take things to the next level, to move out of the nineteenth century,” he said with a laugh, noting the Blue Band has existed for more than 115 years.

Drane is working with Arts and Architecture Information Technology (AAIT) director Scott Lindsay to streamline the process of managing the band by implementing technology such as a digital inventory system, iPads with drill-writing apps, and a web database of student information. “What we’ve been doing for so long is tried-and-true,” he shared. “Put it down on paper; write it down. We’ve perfected that method, and it worked so well. But it was so time consuming. I’m not necessarily trying to change that process, just the tools we’re using.” Thanks to an endowment from Penn State Athletics, and funds raised by the Floating Lions Club (the band’s official booster organization), Blue Band directors and staff are able to utilize iPads loaded with Pyware drillwriting software. “In the past, I would tell students to look at something when they got home, before the next rehearsal. Now, I can send someone over with an iPad and they can work it out right away,” said Drane. “Our pregame show is very individualized. We have a booklet with twenty pages of instructions per person. We’re going to digitize that so we’re not carrying these books with us wherever we go.” The band currently has ten iPads, but by digitizing drill and data, students and staff are able to pull up valuable information on their smartphones as well. Drane said he hopes that eventually the Floating Lions Club will be able to help the band acquire ten to twenty more iPads, in order to maximize their potential by putting them in the hands of student leaders in the band.

Additionally, technology creates opportunities for students to come to auditions and rehearsals prepared to work at a higher level. When videos are shared online, students can conduct self-assessments and practice maneuvers on their own time. As a result, Drane “can bring the band to the next level. Not only do we have more time with the students, but the time we have is more valuable.” Lindsay pointed out that for this generation of students, working from their smartphones is simply what they do. “This is their technology; it’s their life. They can adapt to working this way.” Drane observed that across Penn State, students are incredibly engaged with technology, so it’s important to him that when they come to the Blue Band Building, they utilize that familiarity to take the band to a higher level of performance. iPads and digital databases are just some of the latest technological advancements in a recent push by the Blue Band to bring the program’s operations up to twenty-first-century standard procedures. Several years ago, AAIT partnered with the band to set up computers for registration during auditions, and in fall of 2015, they implemented online registration.

“I think AAIT saw how much room we had for growth, and I’m grateful to them for sharing their expertise,” said Drane. “Thanks to their support, things have become seamless.” Lindsay acknowledged the impact of the initiatives, sharing, “The new things we’ve implemented are really exciting. I like to see somebody benefit from the work we do.” In addition to making the daily operations of the band more efficient, the new technology has also made the band more sustainable. “For a half-time show, we use approximately twenty-five to thirty pages for a drill. We hand that out, and make approximately 180 copies, and we do that for seven shows, which works out to be over 30,000 pieces of paper,” said Drane. By digitizing drill, the band is able to make drastic cuts in the amount of paper used each marching band season. “We’re taking small steps, but they have huge implications for us,” said Drane. — ALEX BUSH

Greg Drane (left), director of athletic bands, and Eric Bush, assistant director of athletic bands, review drill on an iPad. Photo: Alex Bush

“My approach is always to put these things in place to save time, to make it easier, to be more accurate, but also, it’s so I can increase instructional time,” said Drane. “That’s the number-one goal. The less time we have to spend on inventory or attendance, those two or three minutes saved translate directly into time the staff and I can spend making the band a better musical group.”

Cellist-Printmaker Collaboration Helps to

Break Down Bound School of Music graduate student Tania Pyatovolenko was used to carting her cello around campus. But one morning early in the fall 2015 semester, she took it to a place where she had never performed before—a printmaking class. Pyatovolenko played excerpts from pieces from her upcoming recital, including works by Beethoven, Bach, and twentiethcentury composer George Crumb. The printmaking students listened intently—and then got to work.

Left to right: Tania Pyatovolenko, Kelsey VanHorn, and Kristina Davis look at the artist’s book created in Davis’ class. Photo: Alex Bush

The resulting artwork, inspired by Tania’s cello playing, was exhibited in the lobby of Esber Recital Hall for her solo recital on November 14, 2015. This unique collaboration was initiated after Pyatovolenko, as part of her summer 2015 internship duties in the College of Arts and Architecture’s development office, talked to printmaking faculty member Robin Gibson about an endowment she had created in Penn State’s School of Visual Arts (SoVA). Their project was funded by an Institute for the Arts and Humanities Graduate Residency Grant.

Sophie Najjar

daries “When I first started talking to Robin, she asked me about myself, and then we began talking about collaborating,” said Pyatovolenko, who graduated in May with her M.M. in Music Performance. “This project became a vital learning experience and significantly impacted students by developing their creative mind and imagination.” According to Graeme Sullivan, director of SoVA, the collaborative project allowed artists in different disciplines to see their work in new ways. “Printmakers are a unique community of artists bound by a passion and knowledge that allows them to continually explore new ways of working. The collaboration with Tania Pyatovolenko began with mutual fascination with each other’s craft and the outcome is a compelling narrative of sight and sound.”

Amanda MacDonald

According to Pyatovolenko, it’s crucial for students in the College of Arts and Architecture to make connections between departments. “My level of creativity increased through this collaboration,” she said. “I was able to explain why I love playing the cello, and I think this helped the printmaking students appreciate the music in their own way.”

Gibson said she hopes for more interdisciplinary collaborations in the future. “Without a doubt, we want to do more of this. It’s a way of breaking down boundaries.” — AMY MILGRUB MARSHALL

Tania performed for and spoke with students in an introduction to printmaking class, taught by Gibson, and an artist’s book class, taught by visual arts graduate student Kristina Davis. Following her performances, she answered questions from the students, who were interested in the composers and other historical background of the music. “It was very eye-opening to discover what interested the printmaking students,” Pyatovolenko said. “It helped me understand how people outside music think. And it was inspiring, in a sense, because I learned what type of information I need to explain to the general public about my music.”

Kelsey VanHorn created this folio after hearing Tania Pyatovolenko play the cello for her class. The work includes filament reminiscent of the strings on the instrument, as well as pieces of rosin, a material used to create friction between the bow and the cello strings. Photo: Alex Bush

Photos: Susan Clare Scott

Remembering Hellmut Hager Dr. Hellmut W. Hager, longtime Art History faculty member and head of the department from 1972 until 1996, died November 10, 2015. He taught Italian and German Baroque and Rococo architecture from 1971 until 2001, retiring as professor emeritus. An Evan Pugh Professor—Penn State’s highest honor for a faculty member—he was renowned for his contributions to international journals, conferences, and research, especially his work related to the seventeenth-century Italian architect Carlo Fontana. Susan Clare Scott, one of his graduate assistants, shares some of her fondest memories.

We never saw him without a jacket and tie. From the day Hellmut Hager entered the Arts Building as head of the Department of Art History in 1972, he exuded a courtly, old world manner that charmed everyone he met. I remember entering his office in the Arts Building for the first time. It was an awe-inspiring experience. Packed to the ceiling with books, the only free wall space held a huge Piranesi engraving of eighteenth-century Rome. The atmosphere was one of quiet but intense intellectual activity. Seated behind his desk, overflowing with more books, slides, and papers, Professor Hager pushed aside the project he was working on and greeted me with a warm smile. Congenial, friendly, but formal, he turned his attention immediately to my visit. And that is the way he always was—never too busy to talk, to advise, to mentor, to solve problems. When not in Rome, where he lived every summer, Dr. Hager could be found in that office seven days a week, working intensely on his latest article on Carlo Fontana, a paper for an international conference, or his comprehensive book on Carlo Fontana’s drawings in Windsor Castle (with London scholar Allan Braham), which was published in 1977. As his research assistant, working on that book was an extraordinary learning experience for me. I remember doing the index, with huge piles of three-by-five cards, sitting in my stifling fifth-floor pensione near the Spanish Steps in Rome, where I spent the summer of 1976. Proofreading that book, checking and rechecking footnotes, taught me the excitement I never lost for art historical research. Dr. Hager brought to the classroom the same high standards of European learning that he himself experienced at the Freie Universität in Berlin, the Universität Cologne, and the

Universität Bonn, where he received his Ph.D in 1959. Art historians used slides in those days and our department produced thousands of them for our faculty. Dr. Hager’s method of preparing his classes centered totally on the images. He never used any notes (oh, very rarely he would dig in his coat pocket for a scrap of paper, on which he had scribbled a few dates or a name); invariably, the material he was teaching was all in his head. Dr. Hager taught courses in Roman (also German and Austrian) Renaissance and Baroque architecture; he was recognized internationally as the foremost scholar on Carlo Fontana and Bernini’s school, which included students at the Roman Accademia di San Luca, from all over Europe. By the fall of 1974 I was his graduate assistant and I enrolled in every course he taught. As a multi-linguist, Dr. Hager’s language skills were impressive. He was fluent in English and Italian, and quite at home with Spanish, Latin, and French. These language skills, and his still-evident German accent, sometimes

caused some amusing incidents in our classroom, which even today are held fondly in the memories of his closelyknit group of graduate students. But one of Dr. Hager’s most endearing qualities was his ability to laugh at himself, so there was never any awkwardness or embarrassment. In fact, Dr. Hager was determined to “Americanize” his English; on the lower shelf behind his desk was a Dictionary of American Slang. He practiced often, causing us to break into laughter when he said: “They’ll sell like hotdogs!” No matter how often we corrected him, he insisted on the hotdogs. Dr. Hager was an exacting and demanding teacher. After each class he arranged the slides he had presented on one of the large slide screens in our department slide room. For our exams, we studied those images intensely; we had to know them all. Christine Challingsworth (’90 Ph.D. Art History) used to say, “It’s easy to study for Dr. Hager’s exams: you simply have to know everything.” For those of us who were working on our degrees under his direction, this was excellent preparation for our doctoral exams—I can still dredge up, though with some difficulty, the names and dates of all the Popes from 1585 to 1750! Dr. Hager instilled his own research methods in his graduate students. When we began to work on the collection of drawings from the architectural competitions at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, Dr. Hager taught us how to investigate, what questions to ask, how to hypothesize, what sources to look for.

Hellmut Hager with Susan Clare Scott, at the Festschrift celebration in his honor, January 16, 1993. Photo courtesy of Susan Clare Scott.

We had five intensive seminars on the Concorsi Clementini in preparation for an exhibit of the drawings at the Penn State Museum of Art (now the Palmer Museum) in 1981, which also traveled to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York. Our individual seminar presentations were often two hours long, and sometimes our classes extended hours beyond the scheduled time. Our small group of devoted graduate students soon knew that material inside and out; we built on our knowledge from one seminar to the next. It was the most intense research experience we had ever had, and the results produced the catalogue of the exhibition, Architectural Fantasy and Reality: Drawings from the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome: Concorsi Clementini 1700–1750, published by the Museum of Art. The catalogue was out of print within a year, and extolled by Henry A. Millon (dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art) as one of the top ten publications of the decade on Baroque architecture. This is the kind of teacher Dr. Hellmut Hager was. The research we did for that project led eventually to two M.A. theses and five Ph.D. dissertations, and most of us went on to careers in college teaching. Dr. Hager used to say that this was a once-in-a-lifetime professor’s dream, but it was his dream, and without that dream, and his amazingly high standards, we would never have accomplished what we did. Dr. Hager’s legacy extends worldwide, but those of us who fell under his spell as graduate students have endeavored to carry on the high standards of teaching, research, and scholarship he instilled in us, and we will never lose the thousands of fond memories we have of him—scholar, teacher, mentor, kind and gentle friend. —SUSAN CLARE SCOTT

Susan Clare Scott, who holds master’s and doctoral degrees in art history from Penn State, as well as a bachelor’s degree in art education, is professor of art history at McDaniel College.

Not

When Good Kids Are

So Good

The cast of Good Kids. Photo: William Wellman

New Play Generates Discussion about Sexual Assault The small town of Steubenville, Ohio, made the national news in 2012 when, thanks in part to social media, people across the country learned of several high school football players’ alleged sexual assault of an intoxicated young woman.

The horrific events of that August night became the basis for Naomi Iizuka’s play, Good Kids, the inaugural effort of the Big Ten Theatre Consortium’s New Play Initiative. The Penn State School of Theatre produced the play in fall 2015 and presented post-performance panel discussions featuring representatives from the Center for Women Students, Counseling and Psychological Services, Penn State and local police, and other organizations. According to Good Kids director Holly Thuma, the play presented an opportunity to continue the ongoing—and necessary—conversation on college campuses about sexual assault.

“The play is very disturbing, but it’s not graphic,” explained Thuma, assistant professor of voice and speech. “There is a lot of victim blaming in the play, which unfortunately happens all too often in our culture.” The victim in the play is Chloe, who attends a drunken party at a friend’s house and wakes up the next morning in the basement of a boy she doesn’t know. She is one of several strong female characters in the play, which is a goal of the New Play Initiative. The initiative, the first of its kind, was established in order to support female playwrights and provide young female theatre students and professionals with substantial roles. “The New Play Initiative is about plays written by women, for women, that have social relevancy,” said Thuma. “It is not as if there are no women writing plays, or no highly regarded woman playwrights—it is that they are not being produced very often.... I do think things are changing, though, and I think the New Play Initiative is part of that change and will further foster change.” Another strong female character in Good Kids is Deidre, a wheelchairbound whiz kid with lots of computer savvy. She reveals she knows how to retrieve deleted—and sometimes incriminating— text messages, cell phone photos, and videos.

Jerrie Johnson as Deidre in Good Kids. Photo: William Wellman

That type of electronic documentation made up much of the evidence that led to the rape conviction of two teen boys in the Steubenville case. Throughout the play, a chorus of “good kids” share their version of what happened on the night in question. Their backand-forth banter reveals a combination of insecurity and bravado, giving insight into the mindset of “good kids” who realize something bad happened but don’t know how to handle it. What to do in the case of suspected rape was one of the many topics addressed in the post-performance panel discussions. The speakers talked about the legal issues related to how to report a rape, the criminal process of prosecution, the difficulty in getting a conviction, and the role of alcohol in sexual assault. They also stressed the importance of seeking

help and highlighted the many resources for victims and those who might know someone who has been a victim of rape or sexual assault. Some of those resources—from organizations like the Center for Women Students and University Health Services— were available at an information table. Susan Russell, associate professor of theatre and Penn State Laureate in 2014–15, was the inspiration behind the panels and moderated the first week of discussions. They were organized by Kim Menard, assistant professor of criminal justice and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and co-chair of the Commission for Women’s Personal Safety and Sexual Assault Awareness Committee. In addition, many people from across the University volunteered their time and expertise to sit on the panels.

According to Thuma, many artists want to create or be involved in work that makes a difference in the world, and Good Kids is an example of a play that allows theatre artists to achieve that goal. “Our training and our craft are about more than skill acquisition. We want to create work that has meaning and can reach the audience,” she explained. “The Good Kids cast worked very hard, partly, I think, because they felt they were part of a bigger conversation. They believed the story needed to be told, especially at their beloved Penn State.” — AMY MILGRUB MARSHALL

Getting

Inked:

Art History Ph.D. Candidate Explores Concept of Tattoo as Art Object Body art. Yes, we’re talking about tattoos. For some, they are a mark of rebellion. For others, they are a declaration of love…a creative outlet…an extreme display of fandom. For Karly Etz, Ph.D. candidate in art history, they are the subject of her doctoral research.

Etz studied classical art as an undergraduate at Denison University before coming to Penn State for her master’s degree in art history, which she received in 2015. “I pretty much did a 180. When I got to Penn State, I realized I was interested in the social aspect of art,” she explained. “There has to be an interaction between two people in order to view a tattoo, and I think that’s really interesting.”

Karly Etz shows off her most recent tattoo, by Amanda Wachob, an abstract piece mimicking painting. Photo: Alex Bush

Body art is an ancient practice, although, Etz notes, it did not become popular in the United States until around World War I and then experienced a resurgence in the ‘80s. Today, 14 percent of U.S. residents have a tattoo, according to research performed by the Pew Research Center and other organizations. If you look at those age 40 and under, one in three has a tattoo. However, not all those tattoos are visible. According to Etz, in the tattoo community, there is a difference between someone who “has a tattoo” and a “tattooed person.” “A tattooed person has lots of visible tattoos,” she explained. “If you’re hiding your tattoo, it’s not really part of your identity yet.” Etz got her first tattoo—on her back—at age 18, with her parents’ blessing. They both have tattoos and simply requested she get something “tasteful.” She went to the same tattoo shop her parents had used, and chose a black rose with a single petal falling off. She recently got her first visible tattoo, designed by New York City tattoo artist Amanda Wachob, whose painterly designs reflect her fine arts background (see photo). Etz is focusing much of her research on Wachob, who is one of a growing body of tattoo artists who are showing their work in museums and galleries, via paintings of their designs, or in Wachob’s case, photos on canvas of tattooed bodies. “Tattoo designs are now diverse in style and some even attempt photorealism. That shift has made it easier for a tattoo artist to be considered a contemporary artist, and makes them more likely to be invited to a museum to show their work,” said Etz. “Tattoo artists ARE artists.” Etz noted she is also interested in the performance art aspect of Wachob’s work. In 2014–15, Wachob completed a project called “Skin Data” at the New Museum, teaming up with neuroscientist Maxwell Bertolero to analyze the often-overlooked technology behind body art. While tattooing the project’s twelve participants, she and Bertolero recorded the time spent on each tattoo and the voltage required to create it. She then translated the numbers into visual representations, based on the voltage and tattoo machine’s pulse.

According to Etz, it’s hard for some people to grasp HOW she studies body art. “When they think of art history, they think of paintings and sculptures. But if you put tattooing in the same category as performance art, it’s easier to grasp.” Etz chose to stay at Penn State for her doctoral work because she knew the Art History faculty was supportive of her unconventional research topic. While there are no classes specifically on body art, she is able to study it within the context of other courses. “I do have to find a way to talk about what I’m interested in within my classes,” she explained. “When I’m choosing my courses, I find a time period that is relevant. For example, I chose Nancy Locke’s course on early twentieth-century Parisian art because that was a time period when people in France claimed tattoos were a sign of criminality.” Sarah Rich, who specializes in American and contemporary art, is Etz’s advisor. She said that in today’s digital world, where people interact with others without necessarily having to deal with them in person, artists have rebelled by producing work that demands acknowledgement of bodies. “They may tattoo an image on skin—as with many of the artists Karly studies—or they may use the body as a tool of artistic production, maybe painting a canvas with a body part, or even generate performance situations in which they physically confront viewers in conversation or another kind of interaction.” According to Etz, tattoos—like other forms of art— provide insight into a culture and time period. “But it’s more powerful, because it’s permanent,” she said, noting that most tattoo artists believe those who paint temporary tattoos, or use ink that can be easily removed with lasers, are not creating true “tattoos.” “They think temporary ink goes against the essence of what tattoos are,” she explained. “They believe tattoos are art objects, and question why someone would create an artwork—or tattoo—knowing it would be destroyed.” Etz plans to delve into the concept of tattoo as art object for her dissertation. “I want to address how a tattoo can be thought of as an object, even though it’s not a separate thing—it’s on a body,” she said. “I’m lucky to have people at Penn State, like Dr. Rich, who believe in what I’m doing.” — AMY MILGRUB MARSHALL

JENNIFER OWENS

ALUMNI AWARD

WINNERS

2016 COLLEGE OF ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE

APPLEBY

“My junior and senior years in the Graphic Design program at Penn State taught me a lot about hard work, determination, and perseverance, but most importantly, they gave me a passion for thoughtful and conceptual design that is still with me today,” said Jennifer Owens Appleby (’85 B.A. Graphic Design). That passion continues to drive Appleby, president and chief creative officer of Wray Ward, an independently owned marketing and communications firm in Charlotte, N.C. She explained that her work plays a significant role in a global economy. “It’s really exciting that the business world finally values and understands the importance of creativity and innovation…and that the creative class now has an important seat at the table.” While she acknowledges that creativity isn’t specific to her field, she said she loves being “part of an industry that helps make the world a more beautiful, user-friendly, and intuitively functioning place.” Appleby comes from a Penn State family—her parents, siblings, uncle, and cousins all attended the University, and her grandfather grew up in the area. However, as a creative, independent teenager, she wanted to carve her own path, and didn’t plan on attending Penn State. The death of her grandfather changed her perspective, and she “wanted to continue the family’s legacy while

1985 B.A. Graphic Design

beginning my own. State College was the place where I could do both.” After graduating, Appleby went on to make Wray Ward the largest marketing communications firm in Charlotte, and one of the largest woman-owned businesses in the region. In 2008, she was named Charlotte Businesswoman of the Year. Appleby said that her great instructors, including Lanny Sommese, had a profound impact on her career, but the most influential and supportive people during her time at Penn State were her classmates. “There was no way I could have made it through all those sleepless nights at the studio and intimidating project reviews without my core group of friends,” she explained. Her time in the Graphic Design program also taught her “the value of getting involved and giving back, the importance of working as a team, and, thanks to Joe Paterno, I developed a real passion for winning.” Appleby advises graphic design students on the verge of beginning their own careers to stay true to themselves. “Follow your passion and heart and be open to where it might take you. Work really hard and find great mentors. Be willing to take risks, and don’t fear failure; learn from it. Lastly, use your talent for good and leave the door open for those following behind you.”

From left, Scott Owens (uncle), Danette Owens (aunt), Jennifer Owens Appleby, and Roger Owens (father). Photo: Alex Bush

NINA

BISBEE

1981 B.S. Landscape Architecture

“I think landscape architecture really does shape the world…it’s visible everywhere,” shared Nina Bisbee (’81 B.S. Landscape Architecture). Bisbee is vice president for facilities planning at the Philadelphia Zoo and said her training at Penn State continues to surprise her in the ways it influences her work. “The diversity of my education at Penn State exposed me to so much. I got good at analyzing a problem and coming up with solutions. Even as a planner, I often lean on what I learned as a landscape architect.”

Photo: Cody Goddard

After graduating from the Landscape Architecture program in 1981, Bisbee went on to earn a master’s degree in urban planning at the University of Michigan. She has spent the majority of her career at the Philadelphia Zoo, where she is instrumental in the implementation of the zoo’s long-range development and facilities master plans, particularly those related to sustainability initiatives. “Landscape architects have always been trained to have a positive impact on the environment,” she said. “Now, sustainable development has become mainstream.”

Some of her award-winning projects at the zoo include the Hamilton Family Children’s Zoo and Faris Family Education Center/KidZooU (a LEED Gold project), the McNeil Avian Center, the Bird Lake Wetland Project, and the Big Cat Falls Exhibit, all of which advanced the zoo’s sustainability efforts. Bisbee remembers Penn State Landscape Architecture faculty like Dan Jones and Mark Taylor as encouraging mentors, sharing, “I distinctly recall working on a land analysis project that felt like magic at work; it solidified my passion.” Although her current work is very different from what she prepared for as an undergraduate student, it leads her to encourage current students to follow their instincts. “You never know where they might lead you…While I’ve never been a landscape designer, I’ve had great opportunities to influence design, and everything relates back to land planning.”

DAVID

BURTON For David Burton (’73 Ph.D. Art Education), art education is, simply, all about art. “Art contributes so much to personal growth and character, to the fabric of society and culture…it is vitally important that every child grow up in a climate and community of art,” he said. “In this respect, my students who have gone on to become art teachers are my best contribution to the world in which we live. They shape the world everyday by teaching art.” A professor of art education at Virginia Commonwealth University for thirty-nine years, Burton came to Penn State after finishing his master’s work at New York University. “Coming

1973 Ph.D. Art Education

to Penn State was the great catalyst,” he shared. “The faculty and my peers inspired and challenged me. They showed me a world that I never perceived and made it real and possible for me.” Burton credits faculty mentor Bill Stewart’s perseverance and patience with getting him through his doctoral work, and noted John Withall in the College of Education was a major influence on his teaching. Burton is a Distinguished Fellow of both the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and the Virginia Art Education Association, and he has received major awards from the NAEA, including

Higher Education Art Educator of the Year in 2001. In 2006, he published Exhibiting Student Art, a book that filled a void in art education literature by encouraging teachers to help students develop ideas and skills associated with curating and presenting their own work to a large audience. His advice for future art educators? “Get as much practical experience teaching kids as you possibly can. The ideas one studies in class only go so far. They become real and alive when you mix in real kids. Sign up to substitute teach. Engage in service learning in schools. Volunteer for youth programs. It’s all good!”

Photo: Cody Goddard

MICHAEL

TOMOR

ANTHONY 1983 B.A., 1990 M.A., 1993 Ph.D. Art History

In his first year as director of the Tampa Museum of Art, Michael Tomor (’83 B.A., ’90 M.A., ’93 Ph.D. Art History) has already implemented exciting programs to attract a wider audience to the institution, including free general admission for students and an in-gallery discussion program in partnership with the University of South Florida Honors College for people experiencing depression, dementia, and trauma.

Photo: Alex Bush

According to Tomor, art museums are uniquely positioned to “learn more about human nature, how people want to interact with art, and how we can better provide arts learning experiences…We are quickly moving the museum away from the sanctuary of contemplation, self-reflection, and research, and rapidly becoming the new sanctuary for public engagement.” Tomor previously served as director of the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art immediately following graduation from Penn State, and then as executive director of the El Paso Museum of Art.

A Penn State alumnus three times over, Tomor said his graduate work “provided the fundamentals of methodology to conduct research on any topic.” He also credits the opportunities he had to teach undergraduate courses and to work in almost all divisions at the Palmer Museum of Art with giving him valuable work experience. “The museum experience laid the groundwork for my present-day career, and the undergraduate teaching experience gave me the ability to share information with the general public,” he explained. Tomor looks back on his time at Penn State with gratitude, though he considers it something of a miracle that he was able to graduate from his master’s and doctoral programs with zero debt. “The moral support I received from the Art History department’s faculty and staff allowed me to persevere and build a solid future for me and my family,” he said. While technology makes it easier for people to view images and objects, Tomor noted that the in-person experience in a museum remains important. “Museums provide a unique interactive human experience of getting up close and personal to objects we may normally only experience in projections, books, periodicals, media outlets, or the Internet. While universal access to these images has never been easier, it is an entirely different experience to see these objects in person in the absence of technology.”

SUBSCRIBE! youtube.com/ArtsandArch for videos of Alumni Award winners and more

LEACH

1982 M.Music, 1996 Ph.D. Music Education

When Anthony Leach (’82 M.Music, ’96 Ph.D. Music Education), professor of music and music education at Penn State, came to the University as a graduate student, he was hungry—for experiences. “I was really hungry for things in academia that would inform my perspective as a teacher and as a musician,” he said. “Music has always been a big deal for me.” As a child, he repeatedly asked his mother for piano lessons, until she finally decided he was old enough at age 7. By the time he was 12, Leach was already conducting his first choirs. He went on to teach for nearly fourteen years in public schools in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York City—four before his master’s degree, and another ten before returning to Penn State to complete the Ph.D. in music education. Teaching and choral conducting have given Leach the opportunity to make positive connections with others. “When I came for the master’s degree,” he said, “it was a breakthrough moment. I began as a piano performance major, but it didn’t take long to realize that it was just me

LLOYD

SIGAL

1987 B.S. Architecture, 1988 B.Arch.

According to Lloyd Sigal (’87 B.S. Architecture, ’88 B.Arch.), architects’ work is always changing—from year to year, he finds himself on a constant journey of self-education. When he entered the workforce, architects were still working with pencil on mylar, compared to the standard digital design processes employed today. Adaptation is “the life of an architect,” he explained. After graduating from Penn State’s Architecture program in 1988, Sigal joined Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) in New York. Now a managing principal for the firm, he serves as partner-in-charge for numerous projects around the world, and also plays an active role in the management of daily operations at the firm’s headquarters. He served as project manager for the new facility for Samsung Electronics in Seoul, South Korea; the national AIA award-winning Newman Vertical Campus for the City University of New York’s Baruch College; and the 5.5 million-square-foot Mohegan Sun Resort in Connecticut. Over the last decade, Sigal has played a key role in overseeing KPF’s growth in South America, with projects in São Paulo and Rio de Janiero, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile. Sigal’s father was an architect, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue it as a career. “The first year of study was pretty

MIA

Leach credits mentors like Doug Miller, Raymond Brown, Keith Thompson, and Lynn Drafall with “recognizing my potential for what I could bring to choral conducting and music education.” As he neared the end of the Ph.D. program, the School of Music offered Leach a faculty position. “Penn State made room for my gifts, and it’s been wonderful allowing all of that to come together in an embrace of myself as a person while I helped others find their passion and voice.”

DILLON

1975 B.A. Theatre

According to Mia Dillon (’75 B.A. Theatre), theatre training is not just for aspiring actors.

Photo: Cody Goddard

While he was still a graduate student, Leach was approached by Penn State’s Forum on Black Affairs about providing music for the Martin Luther King Jr. Banquet. Although he did not have a choir of his own, he was able to assemble twentythree students from Penn State choirs to perform, and they became the first edition of Essence of Joy. Essence of Joy is now one of the School of Music’s ten choirs, performing sacred and secular music from African and African-American choral traditions. Leach went on to found a community choir, Essence 2, as well as the Essence of Joy Alumni Singers. “I’m glad I accepted that invitation, because the rest of my career has been shaped around events with Essence of Joy. The choir has become my calling card to the choral profession,” he said.

Photo: Alex Bush

Photo: Cody Goddard

and the piano, and after teaching for four years, I missed the kids!”

“Face-to-face communication, especially theatre training, would be great for everybody, because it teaches you to communicate. It teaches you to listen,” she said, adding theatre—and the arts in general—make us more civilized. “I think the arts really teach us how to be human; they teach us how to relate to other people. You can study all you want, but we’re living in an evermore-crowded world, and we all need to get along.” Dillon made her Broadway debut in 1978 in Hugh Leonard’s Da and, two years later, earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance in Once a Catholic. She has since had a successful career on and off Broadway, including a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Babe in Crimes of the Heart. She most recently appeared in a rare New York revival of Orpheus Descending. Her film and television credits include Gods and Generals, The Money Pit, All Good Things, and all three series in the Law & Order franchise. Her award-winning 35mm short film Quiet, written, directed, and edited by Dillon herself, was seen on the Sundance Channel. Dillon managed to graduate from Penn State in barely three years, because she was so anxious to start her career in New York. Her time at the University proved to be both rewarding and challenging. “The best thing Penn State did for me was teach me about rejection,” she said. “I always joked that it was easier to get cast in New York than at Penn State.”

rigorous,” he admitted. Despite the struggle, he said the faculty at Penn State helped students “break down expectations and define our own view of architecture. They encouraged us to think differently.”

The curriculum’s flexibility fostered independent growth and exploration, which helped Sigal transition into work at the firm. He also credits the opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy, with helping him to develop a global perspective, which has been critical in his collaborative work with people around the world. Sigal said he believes architects are uniquely educated and positioned to lead the transformation of the built environment, and he has maintained a strong mentoring relationship with Penn State’s Architecture program to contribute to that education. He partners with professor Dan Willis to have current students visit KPF in New York City so they might gain insight into the realities of working in an architecture firm, and he also visits campus to sit on jury panels and offer feedback to students on their work.

Though the competition could be frustrating, Dillon credits the experience with teaching her perseverance. By the time she arrived in New York, she wasn’t afraid of rejection, and was filled with determination to pursue her passion. One of Dillon’s mentors at Penn State was Helen Manfull, professor emerita of theatre. “When I first got here, I thought, ‘I should do something sensible, where I could make a good living!’ But about halfway through my first semester, I realized I had to be an actress…I thought I might transfer to a conservatory, but I auditioned for one of Helen’s shows, and decided if I was cast, I would stay at Penn State. And I was cast, and I stayed.” Dillon has some words of wisdom for students considering a career in acting: “If you can do anything else—if you love doing anything else—do it. Because it is a very difficult path, being an actor. But it’s so rewarding, that if this is your passion, you should pursue it. The highs don’t get any higher, and you can control the lows. If you love doing it, persistence pays off.” — ALUMNI PROFILES BY ALEX BUSH

“Designers must understand people, perceive the cultural roots of their tasks, and study pressing issues in-depth to maximize the satisfaction of needs and minimize the use of resources. The mission of the SCDC is to foster relationships and support research efforts that uncover how new technologies can assist in achieving these specific goals.” — JO SÉ P I NTO DU A RT E

Almost ten years ago, the award-winning Stuckeman Family Building opened its doors as the new home for some of Penn State’s longstanding design disciplines. In fall 2006, the departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture relocated to the stunning copper-clad building—recently named one of the top fifteen copper-clad buildings in the world—nestled in the heart of Penn State’s Arts District adjacent to historic Hort Woods on the north side of campus. Beyond providing a world-class facility, benefactors H. Campbell (“Cal”) and Eleanor R. Stuckeman coupled their substantial generosity with a keen vision for the future, and established the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing (SCDC) to support advanced research and learning in computational design. The center was conceived as a ‘lab of labs’ to promote innovation and collaboration, as well as economic and social development. The SCDC is one of the school’s principal research engines, and serves as a stage for advanced inquiries into emerging technologies and computational design strategies that can empower the school’s disciplines. Since its inception, the center has hosted a multidisciplinary community of researchers exploring computation as a subject of creative and scholarly inquiry in design across scales and modes of engagement: from the territorial to the micro, from the theoretical to the material, and from the applied to the speculative and critical. The center’s projects have variously engaged architectural robotics, simulation and visualization, game development, Geographic Information Systems, sustainable development, and digital fabrication, as well as historical and theoretical aspects of computation in design.

Parametric design/fabrication project studies. Photo: Scott Tucker

SCDC: 24

Today, the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing is carefully and purposefully taking new steps to build on its foundation, and position itself to address emerging issues in the built and natural environments. In a key step towards realizing this potential, this spring, the Stuckeman School welcomed José Pinto Duarte to its faculty as chair in design innovation and director of the SCDC. An accomplished scholar and innovative leader, Duarte already has positively impacted the ongoing research and direction of the center.

Bridging Disciplines and Technologies to Design Human Solutions

Wire mesh models are part of Architecture Ph.D. candidate Vernelle Noel’s work with shape grammars and Caribbean carnival costumes. Photo: Scott Tucker

Duarte has an impressive record of uniting academic research and industry, as well as fostering multi-national partnerships. He helped to launch groundbreaking, technology-oriented architecture degrees and programs in two different universities, as well as a digital prototyping and fabrication lab. Duarte served as president of eCAADe, a European association devoted to education and research in computer-aided architectural design. He also helped establish the MIT–Portugal program, and created the Design and Computation research group, which boasts a strong record of interdisciplinary and collaborative research efforts funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and private companies. Duarte has a multi-pronged plan that involves assembling a team of existing

and new talent to move the SCDC forward. He places great “emphasis on cooperation, not on competition,” and said, “it is by collaborating that we can find appropriate solutions to the problems that affect us.” He stresses ethics in all endeavors and underscores interdisciplinary action in creative, unbound context. “I see design research as a way of tackling the problems that affect humanity today,” said Duarte. “In this regard, technology is a means to improve people’s lives without depleting natural resources. The Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, the Stuckeman School, and Penn State have the human and technological resources to contribute to finding meaningful solutions and I will do my best to foster interdisciplinary research and contribute to this rich environment.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT

stuckeman.psu.edu/SCDC In April, the SCDC celebrated its second annual open house, including a flash symposium with guest speakers and an exhibition of ongoing and developing projects. Skylar Tibbits, from MIT, a pioneer on self-assembling architectural structures, gave the main lecture, followed by presentations by Justine Holzman and Zachary Kaiser, two renowned figures in the fields of landscape architecture and graphic design who fostered discussion on the role and affordances of design computing. —KENDALL MAINZER AND SCOTT TUCKER

THE

We Are S C U L P T U R E

Inspired By a Long-Ago Story of Courage “We Are … Penn State.” The famous Penn State cheer that rallies alumni and fans around the world can be traced back to the Nittany Lion football team of 1946–47, who, in the era before the civil rights movement, stood up to opposing teams who wanted the Nittany Lions to leave their black players at home.

The We Are sculpture stands at the corner of Curtin Road and University Drive, across from Beaver Stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center. Photo of the 1946 Nittany Lion football team courtesy of the University Archives.

Jonathan Cramer talks to Barbara Palmer and Penn State President Eric Barron and his wife, Molly, at the Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art’s annual gala on May 13. Photo: Alex Bush

In 1946, the team voted not to go to the still-segregated University of Miami. A year later, when Penn State was set to play Southern Methodist University in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day 1948, the Nittany Lions refused to entertain discussions about leaving Wally Triplett, their only black player, in State College. “We are Penn State,” said teammate Steve Suhey, “we play all or none.” Triplett ended up scoring the decisive tying touchdown and the game ended 13-13. The new We Are sculpture, located at the corner of Curtin Road and University Drive, is a tribute not only to the legions of fans who chant the simple cheer—which became popular thanks to the efforts of Penn State cheerleaders in the late 1970s—but to the strength and courage of the Nittany Lion teammates who stood up for equality in an era when segregation was still common. It’s that strength that inspired Jonathan Cramer (’94 B.F.A Visual Arts), who won the commission to design the piece after a nationwide competition. “On a fundamental level, I was inspired by Wally Triplett and his teammates, who made a tremendous decision to stand up for equality in 1947. I wanted to make the sculpture strong like that, to celebrate what happens when we come together to do good things, to do bold things in good faith,” said Cramer. “I was also inspired to try and do a great job for my school, and

to use my skills to make something that could work now and for a very long time in our minds and in the elements.” The 12-foot-high sculpture, which has quickly become a favorite photo spot, is 8,000 pounds of mirror-polished, solid stainless steel (the steel was donated by Allegheny Technologies). Dedicated in October 2015, the sculpture was the gift of Penn State’s Class of 2013. Accompanying the sculpture is an interpretive sign inscribed with the words of Penn State’s Alma Mater. Cramer said his goal for the sculpture was to create possibilities through art, enabling a place for thought and action. “I wanted the sculpture to be present, solid, and yet moving with action at the same time. Physically the reflective surfaces cause it to almost disappear sometimes and then catch reflections of the environment, including people moving.” A short documentary film, We Are, chronicling Penn State’s journey from the 2011 Sandusky scandal to Cramer’s creation of the sculpture, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2016 and was shown at the Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art’s annual gala on May 13. It will ultimately be part of ESPN’s documentary series, 30 for 30. — AMY MILGRUB MARSHALL

NEWS

“She brings people together and bridges communities for the greater good of exploring the ways in which the arts and humanities offer timely answers to timeless questions, thereby enriching our lives.”

BRIEFS

Tacconi Receives President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

That statement—from Barbara Korner, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture— sums up Marica Tacconi’s many accomplishments as an educator, scholar, administrator, and engaged member of the Penn State community. She was honored for her work with the 2016 Penn State President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration, which recognizes a full-time faculty member who has exhibited extraordinary achievement in the integration of teaching, research or creative accomplishment, and service. Tacconi, professor of musicology and associate director of the School of Music, said the integration of teaching, research, and service is at the root of her work in academia, guiding her as she strives “to inspire and to have a lasting impact on my students and colleagues, on the profession, and on the community.” Tacconi’s interdisciplinary research interests focus on the music, art, and culture of late medieval and early modern Italy. From 2005 to 2010, she served as director of the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities. During her term, she brought together many institutional and community partners, organizing and presenting a wide range of public interdisciplinary events. In October 2015 she concluded a six-year term as an elected member (and vice chair) of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. She currently serves as the School of Music

faculty liaison for the Penn State Center for the Performing Arts’ Classical Music Project. According to Sue Haug, director of the School of Music, Tacconi is passionate about her subject matter and helps her students make connections between medieval and Renaissance music and the music of today. “Her infectious manner, thorough understanding of the field, and desire to help students learn create enthusiasm in her students for a type of music that is often outside their experience,” Haug said. Tacconi is also the recipient of the 2001 Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching from the College of Arts and Architecture and the 2013 Achieving Woman Award (faculty category) from the Penn State Commission for Women.

BRIEFS

NEWS

Moses Davis (right), director of Penn State’s Multicultural Resource Center, and Genevieve Logerie, president of the Black Caucus, address art’s role in social justice movements in an event at the Palmer Museum of Art.

Student Engagement in the College of Arts and Architecture In fall 2015, the College of Arts and Architecture launched “Salon Conversations,” a series intended to give students a platform to voice their opinions and connect with others, through facilitated discussions with faculty members and other experts. The series is part of a larger effort in the college to encourage student engagement. In October 2015, students participated in discussions about sex crimes in connection with the Penn State Centre Stage production of Good Kids, a play based on the 2012 Steubenville (Ohio) High School rape case. In March 2016, the Salon Conversations events included exhibits and discussion on art’s role in social justice movements, focusing on post-Ferguson race issues. “The salon is designed to encourage students to be active participants in crafting the conversations and to get involved with projects or events taking place on campus to enrich their college experiences,” said Wilna Taylor, assistant to the dean for student engagement in the College of Arts and Architecture. —PHOTOS BY ALEX BUSH

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT

arts.psu.edu/students/student-engagement

Award Established in Memory of Promising Ceramicist Thanks to the support of family and friends—and the generosity of Taylor Watkins’ professor and mentor, Chris Staley—a scholarship has been created in memory of Watkins, a 2012 Penn State School of Visual Arts alumnus who died of cancer in 2013. Fundraising began in fall 2014, and in October 2015, Staley, Distinguished Professor of Art, held a sale of his pottery that raised the remaining funds needed to endow the Taylor Watkins Ceramic Award. The first award was given in spring 2016 to Abigail Grix. Watkins was a promising ceramicist who was planning to pursue graduate studies in his field before his life was abruptly cut short. The award provides financial support to undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Arts and Architecture who have demonstrated outstanding talent in ceramics. Watkins discovered the medium when he came to Penn State, and he found great joy in creating and sharing his handcrafted

pieces with others. His goal was to become a teacher so he could pass on his love for his craft. Watkins was known as a passionate young man who was never too busy to lend a helping hand to someone in need. Soon before Watkins’ death, Staley told him that he wanted to create an award in his name. “I will never forget the smile of gratitude on Taylor’s face,” said Staley.

To make a gift to the Taylor Watkins Ceramic Award, please visit

GiveNow.psu.edu/ taylorwatkins

A student speaks up during a Salon Conversations event in October 2015.

Donald W. Leslie, emeritus Penn State administrator and former associate dean and faculty member in the College of Arts and Architecture, died on March 16, 2016, at age 73, after a long illness. Leslie, a nationally known landscape architect and educator committed to advocating for undergraduate students, retired from Penn State in 2009 after a thirty-eight-year career with the University. For four years he served as associate vice provost for undergraduate education. He previously served as associate dean for undergraduate studies and outreach in the College of Arts and Architecture and faculty member in the Department of Landscape Architecture. “Don’s steadfast commitment to enhancing the educational experience for Penn State undergraduate students laid a foundation for many initiatives that are ongoing today, including the summer Leading Edge Academic Program (LEAP) and state-of-theart eTesting Center at University Park,” said Robert Pangborn, vice president and dean for undergraduate education at Penn State. “He was truly an advocate for undergraduate education and a collegial collaborator with all who shared that work.” Leslie graduated from Penn State in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture and later received a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Michigan. He joined the Penn State Landscape Architecture faculty in 1971, where he was known for his courses in grading and construction. He taught in the department for twenty-three years before becoming associate dean in the College of Arts and Architecture.

“Don Leslie was a consummate professional, both practical and visionary,” said Eliza Pennypacker, professor and head of the Department of Landscape Architecture. “As a faculty member in our department, Don’s grading and construction courses were legendary—students truly learned to ‘do useful stuff.’ And his leadership in the American Society of Landscape Architects was both longstanding and inspiring.” Leslie recalled that his first boss in private practice reminded him to “always give back something to the community in which you reside or work.” That reminder guided his commitment to volunteer activities in his local community, at Penn State, and in the professional community of landscape architects. He was a leader in the American Society of Landscape Architects at both the regional and national level. He served as president of the national society, as well as the Photo courtesy of the American Society of Landscape Architects

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College Mourns Passing of Don Leslie Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter. Also at the national level, he served as chair of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee and parliamentarian of the ASLA Board of Trustees. He was named a Fellow of the society in 1988 and received ASLA’s President’s Medal in 1994. “Don’s dedication and his love for his profession, his colleagues, and his students are rarely seen,” said Nancy C. Somerville, executive vice president/CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects. “He was a major shape changer for the society when serving on the board and as its president. He was a teacher, a statesman, a role model, a generous colleague and mentor, and a good friend.” Leslie received many honors over the years, most notably the College of Arts and Architecture Alumni Award and Penn State’s Shirley Hendricks Award for Leadership in Outreach.

Current and former Penn State band directors share a light moment during the O. Richard Bundy Blue Band Building Dedication in October 2015. From left: Eric Bush, assistant director of athletic bands; Dennis Glocke, director of concert bands; O. Richard Bundy; Greg Drane, director of athletic bands; and Carter Biggers and Darrin Thornton, both assistant directors of athletic bands. Photo: Alex Bush

In the 2014–15 academic year, the College of Arts and Architecture had 274 endowments and named annual accounts with total earnings/ contributions of $3,005,281. Approximately half of those endowments and named annual accounts provide undergraduate student aid, with the remainder distributed among programs, faculty positions, graduate student aid, and combined undergraduate/ graduate student aid. For more information or to make a gift, visit arts.psu.edu/ philanthropy.

Family, Friends, and Blue Banders Contribute to Endow Bundy Scholarship When Dick Bundy joined family, friends, and current and former Blue Band members at the Blue Band Building the morning of October 11, 2015, he thought they were celebrating the official naming of the facility in his honor. And that would have been enough for the nowretired Blue Band director, who made an immeasurable impact on thousands of students during his long career. But there was another surprise in store—when Dick’s son, Rich Bundy, took over the podium, he announced that

To make a gift to the Bundy Scholarship, please visit

GiveNow.psu.edu/ carpetheheckoutofthediem

the Dr. O. Richard Bundy Jr. Blue Band Scholarship, funded since the 2011–12 academic year with annual gifts, was now the Dr. O. Richard Bundy Jr. Endowed Scholarship, thanks to friends, family, current Blue Band members, and alumni who contributed or pledged more than $84,000 over the past six months to create an endowed award. Rich, a Penn State alumnus, and his three siblings, Jennifer Bundy Bortz, Heather Bundy Kikel, and Jeffrey Bundy—also Penn State alumni—established the scholarship in their father’s honor in 2011. At the time, Rich said he liked the idea of establishing the scholarship before his dad retired, so he could know the first recipients.

“My family established this scholarship because it seemed like the perfect way to celebrate dad’s commitment to higher education and support his lifelong love for the Blue Band. All of us are incredibly grateful to the many Blue Band friends whose gifts have helped to expand this scholarship in his honor,” said Rich Bundy. With a scholarship and building named for Dick Bundy, generations of students to come will know the name that, for so many years, was practically synonymous with the Blue Band. “My dad considers the band’s role as representatives of Penn State to be a solemn responsibility. ‘May no act of ours bring shame’ was an operating principal,” said Rich Bundy. “Dad’s legacy is best captured in the many ways the band has demonstrated their commitment to that ideal over the years, and will continue to do so well into the future.”

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Tarantino’s Fulbright Award Will Support Her Art and Design Work in Brazil Water flows in rivers, lakes, streams— and underground. Ann Tarantino will reveal the previously unseen trajectory of water through soil and vegetation growth at a Brazilian nature preserve, thanks to a Fulbright grant that will allow her to spend three months in Brumadinho in spring 2017. “Water stands at the forefront of global conversations on natural resource and usage vulnerability,” said Tarantino. “In Brazil, the question of water—where it comes from, where it flows, how much there is, and who has access to it—is at the fore of public policy decisions.” Tarantino, who holds a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Landscape Architecture and the School of Visual Arts, will track and visualize the flow of water through the 360-acre Private Reserve of Natural Heritage (PRNH) on the grounds of the Instituto Inhotim, a sprawling 5,000-acre complex of gardens and contemporary art galleries in southeastern Brazil. Her project will culminate with the production of a site-specific installation crafted from materials found locally at the site as well as LED lights and electroluminescent wire embedded directly within the landscape.

Tarantino previously completed a large-scale, three-dimensional light “drawing,” using electroluminescent wire, at Millbrook Marsh in State College. Other recent, related projects include a site-specific installation at The Contemporary Austin (Austin, Texas), featuring digitally traced and laser-cut drawings of native flora and fauna, and an outdoor video installation, visualizing the trees of Pittsburgh’s prehistoric past, commissioned by the city’s zoo. “My work sits at the intersection of art and design. In all of my work, I interpret, analyze, and make visible the hidden workings of the natural world and the multiple histories of the landscape,” said Tarantino.

Photo: Alex Bush

“Part hard data, part experiential record, the work will function as a map of both the site’s geography and how it is experienced,” Tarantino said. “From the water’s movement through the mountainous cerrado to its eventual, inevitable arrival in the lower areas of the PRNH, its path will be written in the landscape by a rich and luminous glow.”

Her installation at Inhotim will be among the first works of art there to be created not only on site, but about and embedded within the site. “Thus far there have been no significant initiatives to explore the ecological or visual relationships between the PRNH and the Instituto,” said Tarantino. “This project will fill a gap in the institution’s programming and translate hard data into a visual language that joins modes of inquiry from the design fields, natural sciences, and the visual arts.”

In February 2016, students, faculty, and volunteers joined Borland Project Space residents for “The Great Book Move,” during which nearly 2,000 books containing the word “plastic” in their title were transported from Penn State libraries to BPS to be used in a sculpture.

Elisha Clark Halpin, director of the School of Theatre’s Dance program, performed at a Borland Project Space reception showcasing her research on “The Feminine Eternal” in September 2015.

Associate Professor of Art Jean Sanders led a series of demonstrations on printmaking during her residency in the Borland Project Space in March 2016.

Focus on Arts and Design Research The Arts and Design Research Incubator (ADRI) and the Borland Project Space (BPS), established in 2014, are helping to meet the College of Arts and Architecture’s strategic goal of raising the visibility of faculty research and creative activity. Both are initiatives of the Arts and Architecture Research Office, led by Andrew Schulz, associate dean for research. ADRI, under the direction of Andrew Belser, professor of theatre, provides funding, technical support, and workspace for projects in the arts and design fields that are collaborative and interdisciplinary in nature, push methodological boundaries, link research and teaching, make innovative use of technology, engage with University-wide initiatives, and have the potential for national and international recognition.

BPS, curated by Ann Tarantino, assistant professor of art and landscape architecture, hosts several residencies each semester for faculty to reveal their research processes. Residents occupy the gallery space for five-week periods during which they present works-in-progress, in order to fulfill the program’s mission of expanding the definition of research to encompass a wide range of creative practices. —PHOTOS BY ALEX BUSH

ADRI Research Fellow and Program Manager Sandi Carroll was joined by an audience member in her interactive comedy performance “Mission: Implausible!” at the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT

ADRI Director Andrew Belser introduces neurophysiologist Dr. Stephen Porges for “The Vagus Nerve, Performance, and Human Behavior.”

sites.psu.edu/adri AND sites.psu.edu/borlandprojectspace 33

Passionate, dedicated, committed, enthusiastic, brilliant—those are just a few of the terms former students have used to describe Art History department head Craig Zabel and his teaching style. So it is really no surprise that he has been awarded the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence’s 2016 Alumni/Student Award for Excellence in Teaching (previously called the Teaching Fellow Award), recognizing him as a “spokesperson” for outstanding teaching at Penn State. Photo: Stephanie Swindle

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Zabel Honored for Outstanding Teaching

Zabel, associate professor of art history, joined the Penn State faculty in 1985. Since being named department head in 1998, he has continued to teach every semester. “No matter what else I might achieve in scholarship and service, it is teaching that is at the core of my professional existence,” he wrote in his teaching philosophy statement for the award. “I strive through my actions to communicate to my fellow faculty members the essential importance of teaching, which is sometimes not always the top priority at a research university.”

Zabel teaches courses in architectural history, including Art H 202, “Renaissance to Modern Architecture,” and Art H 415, “The Skyscraper.” When he joined the Department of Art History, nearly half of the faculty was concentrated in Renaissance/Baroque. His courses in American and contemporary art and architectural history built new bridges with students in the visual arts, architecture, and architectural engineering. Zabel regularly sits in on Art History classes in order to mentor the teaching by faculty at all levels. In his own 400-level courses, he meets individually with each student to discuss the student’s term paper topic. He is also very active in Art History’s graduate program, and has been the advisor for fourteen completed Ph.D. dissertations at Penn State. Thomas J. Morton, a visiting assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College and one of Zabel’s former students, summed up what many other students have said of Zabel, and why he is deserving of this teaching award: “From that day forward [after hearing Zabel’s first lecture of the semester], I not only wanted to be an architectural historian; I wanted to be Dr. Zabel. He did not simply inspire me; he truly changed my life.”

Cook Receives Faculty Scholar Medal in the Arts and Humanities Kim Cook, professor of music, is the 2016 recipient of Penn State’s Faculty Scholar Medal in the Arts and Humanities, in recognition of her critically acclaimed recordings, international performing career, and successful efforts to grow the School of Music’s cello studio. Cook has released six CDs, including solo concertos recorded with orchestras in Russia, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria. She said her ultimate goal as an academic performer “is to create original, dynamic interpretations of important solo pieces based on historical research and pedagogical techniques.”

According to Marylène Dosse, Penn State Distinguished Professor Emerita of Music, Cook has raised the School of Music’s reputation at the University and beyond. “As a performer, Kim Cook’s publication and creative work has been of the highest

order in the Penn State School of Music and highly surpasses what other professors have done in other music schools in the country,” she wrote in her letter of support for Cook’s nomination. During the past fifteen years, Cook has focused much of her energy on performing and recording works of Eastern European composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She said she is committed to commissioning new works for cello because it ensures the modern continuance of the art of classical cello music. She has premiered six solo concertos as well as more than thirty other works for solo and chamber ensembles. Cook was the inaugural Penn State Laureate in 2008–09. Since joining the School of Music faculty in 1991, she has grown the cello studio from one undergraduate cello major to, as of fall 2015, fifteen students, including five graduate performance majors. Her students come from across the United States and the globe, including China, Ukraine, Argentina, Croatia, and Taiwan. Cook established the Penn State Cello Choir, a thirty-member ensemble that performs throughout the academic year. Her former students occupy positions in orchestras and music schools in the United States, Croatia, Brazil, and Argentina. Later this year, Cook will record a CD of premieres for NAXOS.

SoVA Graduate Student Wins National Grant for Native American Photography Project Jeremy Dennis, M.F.A. candidate in the Penn State School of Visual Arts, is one of ten recipients of a 2016–17 $10,000 Dreamstarter grant for his art-based photography project, “On This Site,” which aims to preserve and create awareness of culturally significant Native American locations on Long Island, N.Y. The Dreamstarter program is an initiative of Running Strong for American Indian Youth, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the lives of American Indian people throughout the United States. The grant program, whose theme for 2016–17 is “arts and culture,” was created to help American Indian youth implement projects that will make their communities stronger. All grant recipients are American Indians under age 30. Dennis, an artist and member of the Shinnecock and HassanamiscoNipmuc community, said he has always been curious about how the Shinnecock people and their reservation were able to remain on

Long Island, so close to a major area of colonization. “Receiving this award grants the opportunity to represent the Shinnecock Tribe in a new way, while also recognizing the importance of its past history,” he said, noting the project will allow him to reflect upon archaeological and oral histories to answer essential, culturally defining questions. “My work is influenced by my experience as a Native American, and what that means in regards to history, identity, and community. I hope that it will evoke empathy for indigenous people while also being educational about things that matter to us.” Dennis grew up on a reservation and his photography reflects that experience. Primarily, he creates images that depict traditionally audible stories and mythologies of First Nation people. Although each tribe has distinct traditions, Dennis focuses on sharing knowledge and reflecting on it, rather than reinforcing divisions between tribes. His depictions may change

elements of the story, typically the environment and iconography, to represent his ancestral region and tradition. Through this method, the images become a mix of research, interpretation, and life experience. He recently shot a photograph (see below) to reflect the story of a man who falls in love with a woman but, upon rejection, he inflicts a curse that will transform her into a monster. Before she is transformed, the woman tells her family, who end her life to save the village. “After reading this story, along with Eduardo Duran’s Native American Post-Colonial Psychology, I saw a connection between the resilience of women in both myth and non-fiction writing,” Dennis explained. “In Duran’s analysis, he finds that in reservation communities, women can become the victims of domestic violence due to repressed male rage—not being able to maintain their warrior archetype. I wanted this photograph to enable both readings, so I chose this scene of her sacrifice and resilience out of the rest of the story.” Dennis said he has been able to work with many professors and artists in the School of Visual Arts who have helped shape and develop his artistic practice. “It’s a great environment to continuously see new art,” he noted. “My mentor, Professor Lonnie Graham, believes that this project is important, because not only does it establish and re-examine sites that may have been lost or overlooked by a dominant culture, but it establishes a point for social and cultural dialogue that is imperative as we begin to acknowledge our heritage.”

FOR MORE EXAMPLES OF DENNIS’ WORK, VISIT

jeremynative.com

The Pennsylvania State University 107 Borland Building University Park, PA 16802

Alumni Society Scholarship Winner Makes the Most of Her Penn State Experience Photo: Alex Bush

When Jerrie Johnson left her home in Philadelphia for Penn State four years ago—the first in her immediate family to go to college—she knew she was going to squeeze every last bit from the experience. “College is really what you make it. Nobody here is going to force you to do anything; you have free range to do anything, so the decisions you make can really take you in any direction.”

“What’s essential to meeting our full potential is the mental capacity to think far beyond what we know to be possible. ‘A dollar and a dream’ is a metaphor for the possibilities life has and the internal resources needed to explore those possibilities.” — Jerrie Johnson, speaking at the College of Arts and Architecture’s 2016 Endowment and Awards Luncheon

Johnson, one of seven recipients of the Arts and Architecture Alumni Society Scholarship in 2015–16, graduated in May with a B.A. in Theatre Performance and minor in AfricanAmerican Studies. A leader on campus, she was a member of Project Cahir, which works to fight poverty at Penn State, and performance team director for WORDS (Writers Organized to Represent Diverse Stories). She was also a resident assistant in the Arts and Architecture Interest House in North Halls, and an Engaged Scholarship Ambassador. As an artist, Johnson strives to use performance art as a mode for activism, to create healthy spaces for people of color to view a true reflection of their lives, and to challenge privilege and systems of power. “I call myself an activist. I perform a lot—spoken word all over campus. Most of it is about black empowerment, and a lot

of times, empowerment of black women,” she shared. “The Black Leadership Union contacted me after the Michael Brown decision and asked me to perform at a demonstration…so we did a die-in at the HUB-Robeson Center, and people went crazy. It was a defining moment for me, because I realized that the way racism and discrimination looks is more dangerous now, because it’s hidden and internalized.” Johnson is heading to San Francisco this fall to pursue her M.F.A. in acting at the American Conservatory of Theatre. She identifies art as critical to her work as an activist because it has the power to tell a true story and to create complete images, something she finds lacking in mainstream media. “Art frees you,” said Johnson. “It takes you to a different place.” — ALEX BUSH

In the 2014–15 academic year, the College of Arts and Architecture had 930 financial aid recipients, including 560 recipients with unmet need. For more information or to make a gift, visit

arts.psu.edu/philanthropy