in residence // 2015 VCFA Alumni Magazine by Vermont College of Fine Arts

VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS / ALUMNI MAGAZINE / 2015

in residence First MFA in Film graduates

4 Vermont Book Award & Gala

20 Music in three dimensions

30 Class news

OUR FIRST CLASS OF MFA FILM STUDENTS GRADUATED IN OCTOBER and shared their accomplishments with family members. Rafael Attias, pictured here hugging his family, even shared the joy with the family dog!

Film Graduation

:: FALL 2015

vermont college of fine arts IN RESIDENCE 2015 3 Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s letter 4 Reports from the programs

Thoughts on post-mfa life

Road Less Traveled

Creativity/

Vermont Book Award and Gala

editor

Tim Simard Publications Manager

Music in Three Dimensions

managing editor

Cathy Donohue design

The Campaign for VCFA 34 Class news 48 Juxtaposition

Sian Foulkes Foulkes Design contributing writers

Sky Barsch Miciah Bay Gault contributing photographers

Jay Ericson Stefan Hard Igor Kraguljac Cori McCarthy Anthony Pagani

In Residence

Volume 3, Number 1 ÂŠ 2015

VER MONT COL L EG E OF FI NE ARTS 36 College Street Montpelier, VT 05602 E-mail: tim.simard@vcfa.edu www.vcfa.edu

dear friends, I will remember the cool, early fall evening of September 26 for a long time. The late afternoon sun pierced through the trees and between the buildings, illuminating our newly renovated Alumni Hall. More than 175 people gathered there for the Vermont Book Award Gala to celebrate our local authors, our talented alumni, and our joy in the continued growth of Vermont College of Fine Arts. I spoke with a number of alumni at the Gala that had returned to campus for our Hi-Res weekend, and I was struck by the variety of directions our alumni’s careers have taken. They were surprised their MFA degrees had taken them down unexpected paths, some roads less traveled. For me, it was gratifying to hear this. Some MFA paths are conventional, some are not. We have numerous successful authors and artists among our alumni. But the unconventional paths are just as interesting. For instance, Brian Bednarski (Graphic Design ’13) designs mobile apps for Major League Baseball, including one that follows every pitch and every at-bat during a ball game. Jeanette Hart-Mann (Visual Art ’12) helped create SeedBroadcast.org, which collects stories from farmers and agriculturalists about their efforts to preserve seeds and expand food sources. You can read more about these roads less traveled in this issue of In Residence. An MFA is not only one of the best paths to becoming a better artist, but it’s a way for others to see you and your craft in a different light. My point?

An MFA degree allows you to become a better version of yourself. And we continue to become better versions of ourselves at VCFA. In 2015, we had our first MAT in Art & Design Education students on campus for a rigorous, four-week residency. We graduated our first Film class in October following an exciting week of screenings and creative energy. Finally, we welcomed our first residential Writing & Publishing class in September. Having year-round students on campus for what’s traditionally been a low-residency school is truly a road less traveled for VCFA. Alumni Hall’s renovation represents the first part of our capital campaign. The Louise Harwood Crowley Center for Faculty and Alumni is currently under construction and will be completed next year. Our vision to become one of the country’s premier art institutions continues to grow. I thought about all of this during the festive evening of the Vermont Book Award. In a way, VCFA has taken a road less traveled in order to grow into something more. I’m excited to see what’s around the next corner.

With all good wishes— Thomas Christopher Greene President

film

faculty :: notes :: residency

Our program remains the only story-based, low-residency MFA in Film in the world, attracting interest by students not only from almost every major US urban area, but also from the Middle East, Africa, UK, Canada, and South America. Since its inaugural residency in October 2013, the MFA in Film program has grown to 40 students, with its first Commencement in October 2015. It is truly an international program with an international focus for emerging filmmakers, transmedia artists, and screenwriters, whose students and faculty work at the heart of the transformation going on in filmmaking worldwide.

Congratulations to our first program graduates! Our first film program graduates passed this milestone in October 2015, and their commencement was the culmination of two years of intensive creativity. All worked hard to earn their MFA in Film.

Rafael Attias Lea Brandenburg Maria Clinton Rafael Cruz Rachelle Dermer Gary Hawkins Cami Kidder

Robert Maffia John Otterbacher Allison Otto David Pinkston Ken Raimondi Ian Rand Emilie Upczak

Faculty news CHERIEN DABIS won a 2015 Creative Capital Award in the category of Moving Image for her immersive cinematic experience, No End in Sight. Her 2014 film, May in the Summer, continued to receive positive reviews at film festivals.

Special guests and screenings, topical lectures, and on-campus events in 2015:

Above Malika Zouhali-Worrall DJ Spooky (aka Paul D. Miller)

We held a number screenings at The Savoy from a diverse field of filmmakers who also spoke with the audience of MFA Film students, faculty, and local viewers about the creation of their films. The filmmakers and editors included: MATÍAS PIÑEIRO (La Princesa de Francia), SO YONG KIM (For Ellen), DOUGLAS BUSH (The Hunting Ground), MALIKA ZOUHALI-WORRALL (Call Me Kuchu), JULIA SOLOMONOFF (The Last Summer of La Boyita), LISA LEEMAN (One Lucky Elephant), JOHN TURTURRO (Romance and Cigarettes), YAEL MELAMEDE (Inocente), ANDREW BUJALSKI (Computer Chess), DEBRA GRANIK (Winter’s Bone), DENIS MALONEY (The Contender), ELAINE MCMILLION SHELDON (Hollow), and faculty member CHERIEN DABIS (Amreeka). Composer, producer, editor, author, and multimedia artist DJ SPOOKY (aka Paul D. Miller) discussed his new book, Imaginary App, and how technology has shaped creativity throughout history and continues to guide how we actualize the future. DAVID BLACK, an award-winning journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and producer, spoke at a lecture titled Editing in Your Head: Structuring Your Screenplay. Editor SABINE HOFFMANN visited campus, discussing clips from a variety of documentary and narrative films from an editorial perspective. DAN SCHRECKER, a visual effects supervisor and animator at Look Effects, shared and discussed sequences from some of the films he has worked on over the years, including those directed by Darren Aronofsky, Wes Anderson, and Julie Taymor. ALIA QUART KAHN led a workshop to help demystify public relations to help filmmakers strategically market and promote their film early on in the creative process.

film

In addition to screening the work of the faculty, during the past five residencies the MFA in Film program has brought important talent to campus to present and discuss emerging trends in filmmaking while remaining committed to screening work with directors, producers, and editors on-hand. All screenings have been free and open to the public at the local Montpelier art house, The Savoy.

Visiting talent

LISA LEEMAN and Paola di Florio’s 2014 film, Awake, continued to receive positive accolades. The film is a documentary about Paramahansa Yogananda, the Hindu Swami who brought yoga and meditation to the West in the 1920s.

faculty :: notes :: residency

graphic design

The MFA in Graphic Design October 2015 Residency was an exhilarating and creative time for our amazing design students—each of whom come to the VCFA campus from all over North America in April and October. We proudly graduated six of our MFA in Graphic Design students at the end of this vibrant residency. We also mounted two exhibitions of their design work: the returning students’ radical anti-exhibition, The Pin-Up, and the October 2015 graduating class’ thesis exhibition, aptly entitled Blend.

What the graduating students have to say about themselves: We are a blend of disparate elements of curiosity, righteousness, mirth, wanderlust, sincerity, and warmth. We are a dynamic collection of talents and skills, both raw and refined. We are from many different places and times. We are an odd assortment of artists and designers navigating a graphic design program as one.

Visiting talent Four visiting designers/critics attended this residency to give public lectures, conduct critiques, and host hands-on workshops with our students:

Right Kelly Ehrheart ’15 during her critique

Previous Faculty Co-Chair SILAS MUNRO is now a tenured design faculty member at Ohio University in Oxford, Ohio and is still on faculty with VCFA. He also had the privilege of designing the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit catalog for the exhibit Jacob Lawrence: Migration Series. Silas will be speaking at the Face Forward conference in Ireland. Hot on the heels of finishing a number of commercial projects for Adobe, Faculty Chair IAN LYNAM raised a successful Kickstarter campaign to self-publish his new book Parting it Out, which also came to backers with a fantastic poster and other awesome graphic design ephemera. Ian also spoke at the Now Japan Design Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania in October 2015. Faculty Member BETHANY KOBY has been increasingly successful as the CEO of her company —Technology Will Save Us. She recently launched the design of a programmable pocket-sized electronic device that every 11-year-old child in the United Kingdom will receive to help them express their creativity through technology. Faculty member TASHEKA ARCENEAUX-SUTTON was part of a two-person exhibit at the Collins C. Diboll Gallery at Loyola University in New Orleans entitled Leftovers.

Perpetual Beta launched! The Program celebrated its fifth year with the launch of Perpetual Beta, a program-wide blog featuring interviews with students, faculty, critics, and thinkers who are helping to mold design as we know it today, as well as current design work and collaborative projects. Please check out this exciting initiative—there’s a lot to read and look at! From an interview with the creator of Photoshop to mind-numbing designers in Korea and Japan to features with contemporary pop stars like the band YACHT, Perpetual Beta packs a punch! Of particular note: Check out the compilation of accomplished visiting designers who have been a part of the graphic design residencies during the first five years! http://perpetualbeta.vcfa.edu

graphic design

ANNE WEST, author of Mapping the Intelligence of Artistic Work, has joined our faculty as our thesis consultant, conducting thesis-writing workshops with our third- and fourth-semester students during each residency.

Faculty news

Above Work by Kate Gray ‘15

GAIL SWANLUND, a veteran design writer, designer with an active studio practice, as well as design educator from CalArts in Los Angeles, California. The eclectic and energetic designers and design educators SEREINA ROTHENBERGER and DAVID SCHATZ of Hammer Studios based in Zurich, Switzerland. IAN ALBINSON, from the celebrated motion graphics website Art of the Title, located here in Vermont.

faculty :: notes :: residency

music composition The February and August 2015 MFA in Music Composition residencies were jam-packed with music! Six different ensembles were in residence to perform music written by students during the preceding semesters, with a total of 10 concerts presented. We welcomed three ensembles to campus in February. A Saxophone Quartet, featuring Ken Thomson, Alex Hamlin, Ed Rosenberg, and Peter Hess from Bang On A Can and the Asphalt Orchestra, as well as myriad other groups; a Flute, Viola & Harp Trio, featuring Beth Meyers and Nuiko Wadden from the renowned Janus Trio, joined by flautist Kelli Kathman; and a Vocal Quartet, featuring Aliana de la Guardia, founder of Bostonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s avant-garde Guerilla Opera; singersongwriter Carrie Cheron; tenor Alex Nishibun; and contemporary baritone Jonathan Nussman. Three different ensembles joined us in August: a string quartet, featuring Mary Rowell, Jennifer Choi, Katie Kresek, and Wendy Law; Talujon, a percussion quartet featuring Matthew Ward, Michael Lipsey, Matthew Gold, and Ian Antonio; and The Crossover, featuring Ken Thomson on saxophone, Fung Chern Hwei on violin, Rick Bassett on piano, Gregg August on bass, and David Cossin on percussion.

Our residencies also featured other opportunities to experience student and faculty music: The Electronic Music Showcase provided an evening of electronic sound and multimedia, with VCFA students and faculty performing new work for instruments with live electronic sound and video. The Film Music Festival presented a variety of approaches to the marriage of music to picture, from ethnic and folkloric forms to non-tonal chamber textures to jazz-influenced underscore, as well as the chance to hear briefly from each composer about the work. The Songwriting Showcase highlighted the songwriting and performing talents across the MFA in Music Composition community. While concerts are a primary event of the residency, many other activities support studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; creative and technical growth, including master classes, faculty presentations and workshops, visiting composer presentations, and open rehearsals, not to mention late-night jam sessions in Dewey Lounge!

JO-HANNAH REYNOLDS’ (‘14) debut album Change of Plans was released in late 2014 and is available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, Spotify, and more. Change of Plans is a collection of songs that offers an intimate view into the songwriter’s head. From love and heartache, to beauty and hope, and faith and longing, each song is part of the tapestry of a larger story recorded in an organic live setting.

Faculty member DON DINICOLA, along with alumni Jessica Muñiz-Collado (’14) and Matt Hodge (’14), composed music to the television production of Los Golden Boys, produced by Mario Lopez and Oscar de la Hoya.

RENÉE BAKER (’15) was featured prominently at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago’s Creative Music Summit. Baker presented her new film score to the 1925 silent film Body and Soul (directed by Oscar Micheaux). Faculty member Don DiNicola produced a restored print of the film during the summit. Baker’s new music accompanied the film during follow-up showings in the Chicago area throughout 2015. Baker also premiered her chamber opera, Sunyata: Towards Absolute Emptiness at MCA Chicago in May. Turn to page 30 to read an interview with Baker.

Concert at St. Peter’s Church in NYC The MFA in Music Composition program is committed to creating opportunities to present student, alumni, and faculty music outside of residencies as well. In June, the program presented a concert in New York City at St. Peter’s Church, Chelsea. The performance ranged from saxophone quartet to piano trio to art song to jazz, celebrating VCFA’s open approach to genre and style. The concert featured a stellar saxophone quartet, with Ken Thomson, Ed RosenBerg, Alex Hamlin, and Peter Hess performing music written for their on-campus residency last February. The concert also included performances from cellist Yves Dharamraj, pianists Claudine Hickman and Diane Moser, violist Nathan Schramm, violinist Mary Rowell, bassist Max Johnson, percussionists Jessica Muñiz-Collado and Chris Geller, soprano Kamala Sankaram, and pianist/singer Stephanie Meyers. They played music by alumni William Stevens, Jessica Muñiz-Collado and Evan Beigel, by students Craig Pallett, Damon Honeycutt, Daniel Godsil, Steven Ford, Max Johnson, Nikki Capra-McCaffrey, Chris Breault, Stephanie Meyers and Robert Hart, and by faculty member Diane Moser.

JONATHAN BAILEY HOLLAND was among a number of composers who received a 2015 Fromm Foundation Commission. The commission is for Holland to write a piece for Renée Baker’s Chicago Modern Orchestra Project. Since the 1950s, the Fromm Foundation has commissioned well over 300 new compositions and their performances, and has sponsored hundreds of new music concerts and concert series. ANDY JAFFE’S sextet (featuring John Clark, French horn; Kris Allen and Tom Olin, saxophones; Marty Jaffe, bass; and Jonathan Barber, drums) headlined the Taipei Jazz Festival in July. RAVI KRISHNASWAMI’S company COPILOT won Most Effective Use of Music in a Non-Broadcast Medium at the AMP (Association of Music Producers) Awards with Samba of the World.

music composition

MARJORIE HALLORAN (‘15) released her debut singer-songwriter album, Ready For Anything, in September. The album features 13 tracks and is available through iTunes and other music sites. While at VCFA Halloran initiated the Choral Workshop, which has become a regular part of each residency.

A Rabbit’s Life in Three Parts by DON DINICOLA premiered at the Big Apple Film Festival and received Best Experimental at the 2015 Humboldt International Film Festival. RICK BAITZ’S Hall of Mirrors, for percussion quartet, premiered at Juilliard in New York City in March 2015.

Faculty news

Alumni news

visual art 10

faculty :: notes :: residency

The MFA in Visual Art residencies continue to unveil themselves as both unique and stimulating, responding as always to our student and faculty priorities. We hosted painter Mike Cloud as our Artist-inResidence during the Winter 2015 residency. Numerous galleries and museums have featured Cloud’s work in solo exhibitions, which include the MoMA PS1 and the Gallery at Lincoln Center in New York City, as well as the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery in Lincoln, NE. His work is also featured in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation in Santa Monica, CA, and the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. He returned as visiting faculty for the Summer 2015 residency along with Viêt Lê, an artist, writer, and curator. Lê is an assistant professor in the Visual Studies Program and the Visual & Critical Studies Graduate Program at California College of the Arts.

Artwork on display during our residencies: Above Patricia Miranda ’14 Left Tara Sasiadek ‘15

Alumni news

Faculty news LUIS JACOB organized a symposium in Toronto entitled This is Paradise: Art and Artists in Toronto. The conference explored the relationship between the urban context and local artistic cultures in Canada’s largest city. More than 75 presenters— including artists, critics, curators, and scholars— spoke about themes related to Toronto and other cities. The event took place at the end of May at the University of Toronto. CAULEEN SMITH was one of four recipients of this year’s Chicago Artadia Awards. Smith, an artist and filmmaker, runs a studio in Chicago. Artadia judges chose her from a pool of more than 450 Chicagobased artists. Along with her award, Smith received $12,000 and will also have access to Artadia’s upcoming New York residency. FAITH WILDING’S retrospective exhibition Fearful Symmetries, which previously debuted in Chicago in 2014, was featured this fall at the Armory Center of the Arts in Pasadena, CA. The exhibition follows Wilding’s more than 40 years of art, from drawings to paintings.

visual art

In addition to her work at MAPSpace, DAMALI ABRAMS is currently an artist-in-residence at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Process Space on Governors Island. She is also a participant in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program. Abrams recently won an award from the Guyana Cultural Association.

Along with alums JOAN GRUBIN (‘03) and SUSAN NEWBOLD (‘00), Miranda is organizing alumni exhibitions, readings, screenings, performances, etc. across the entire VCFA geographic network starting in 2016. Contact her at mirarts@gmail.com to join the project.

PATRICIA MIRANDA (‘14), founder and director of the project space MAPSpace in Port Chester, NY, has implemented a Collaborative Workspace Residency Program. The Residency just completed its sixth cycle with VCFA alumni ANDREA TAYLOR (‘14) and MARGERY THEROUX (‘14). It featured a drawing collaboration/exhibition and a discussion with Andrea Kantrowitz, Ed.D., on drawing’s connection to recent research in neuroscience. In November, VCFA alum DAMALI ABRAMS (‘08) and VCFA film faculty TERENCE NANCE curated an exhibition at MAPSpace, #BLACK, focusing on race and gender through art.

Summer symposium This summer’s symposium theme centered on struggles surrounding healthcare and access to care. We invited three artists—Salome Chasnoff, Christa Donner, and Stephen Andrews—to engage this topic through their art and research. Each of our guests explored the relationship between art-making and health-making through a range of media, including video, drawings, murals, social practice, and painting. The Symposium took place on July 29, 2015. Artist-in-Residence SALOME CHASNOFF is a Chicago-based filmmaker, installation artist, and educator dedicated to expanding the understanding and practice of social justice. Her work has been seen across the US and internationally in film festivals, galleries, and museums from Prague to Tokyo, from Washington, DC to San Francisco. Her films are also widely distributed in educational institutions. CHRISTA DONNER’S work reimagines the architecture of the human body through her ink and collage works on paper, small-press publications, and large-scale wall drawings. Her process often incorporates social engagement and collaborative exchanges. In 2012, Donner founded Cultural ReProducers, a creative platform supporting cultural workers raising children. Donner has exhibited her work internationally, including projects in Germany, Japan, Cyrprus, Switzerland, and Colombia, and throughout the United States. STEPHEN ANDREWS is a Toronto-based artist. Over the past 25 years, he has exhibited his work in Canada, the US, Brazil, Scotland, France, and Japan. He is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Belkin Art Gallery, the Schwartz Collection, and Harvard, as well as many private collections. His work deals with memory, identity, technology, and their representations in various media including drawing, animation and, recently, painting.

Above Damali Abrams displays her work-in-progress, That Old Black Magic, at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Process Space studios for artists-inresidence at the arts center at Governors Island.

faculty :: notes :: residency

writing 2015 proved to be a busy and fruitful year for the MFA in Writing program! We hired three talented visiting faculty as part of our winter term: BRIAN LEUNG in fiction, TOMAS MORIN in poetry, and BARBARA HURD in creative nonfiction. Each brings something unique to the program that our students value. During our winter residency, writers STEPHEN DUNN, IZTOK OSOJNIK (all the way from Slovenia!), and SIGRID NUNEZ visited our campus, while the summer residency hosted visiting writers MARK DOTY and alumnus WALLY LAMB.. We’re proud to announce that BARBARA HURD, faculty member MATTHEW DICKMAN, and alumna ALISON HAWTHORNE DEMING each received a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship. MFA in Writing & Publishing faculty member DAVID ULIN also earned this honor.

MFA in Writing celebrates 35 years in 2016! We will be celebrating this notable occasion with different events throughout the year, including a special reading at the annual AWP conference in Los Angeles in late March/early April. We’ll keep you posted as the year unfolds.

Overseas residencies

The Western Literature Association selected LEANNE HOWE to receive its 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award. The award honors transformative contributions to the field of Western American literary studies. Along with her 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship, BARBARA HURD was also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. PATRICK MADDEN’S new book, After Montaigne: Contemporary Essayists Cover the Essays (Georgia), edited with David Lazar, was published in 2015. Patrick’s essay “Aborted Essay on Nostalgia” from The Tusculum Review was listed as a “Notable Essay” in The Best American Essays. NATASHA SAJE’S latest book of poems, Vivarium (Tupelo, 2015), won the 15Bytes Award. She also continues to give talks from Windows and Doors: A Poet Reads Literary Theory (Michigan, 2014). BETSY SHOLL is the recipient of the 2015 Maine Literary Award in poetry for her book Otherwise Unseeable.

SUE WILLIAM SILVERMAN’S memoir, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew, was a finalist in Foreword Reviews’ 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Award (essay category). Her essay, “Until My Number Is Up,” was the runner-up in Creative Nonfiction’s themed issue on “Waiting” (Summer, 2015). Sue is also the 2015 Pearl S. Buck Writer-in-Residence at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia. DOMENIC STANSBERRY’S Ancient Rain was named by Booklist as one of Best 100 Crime Novels of the last decade (2006-2015). His 2005 Edgar Award-Winning Novel The Confession is being reprinted by Hard Case Crime in its original cover for its tenth anniversary, and Domenic’s new novel, The White Devil, is forthcoming from Molotov Editions in 2016. LARRY SUTIN, along with his spouse Mab Nulty, launched See Double Press, devoted to text/image interfusions. Their first book, released in June, was Mary Ruefle’s erasure book, An Incarnation of the Now. Larry’s own altered/erasure book, The Seeming Unreality of Entomology, will be released this fall. An essay by ROBERT VIVIAN, ”Mother Forever” from Upstreet, was listed as a “Notable Essay” in The Best American Essays.

writing

Your Moon, RALPH ANGEL’S latest collection, received the Green Rose Poetry Prize and was published by New Issues Poetry & Prose (2014).

Faculty news

Our annual overseas residencies always provide amazingly transformative experiences for our students and faculty. Winter residency in Puerto Rico was a wonderfully rich and inspiring experience for the 16 students who attended. This summer, 12 writers along with two faculty members traveled to the incredible literary hub of Slovenia to immerse themselves in its amazing beauty and culture.

writing for children & young adults

faculty :: notes :: residency

It was another wonderful year for the MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults program, including two exciting on-campus residencies. Throughout the 10-day January residency, faculty and graduating students presented dynamic lectures and readings on a range of core writing topics, including voice, writing process, character development, plot/structure, setting, and more! At the end of the residency, we celebrated with the graduation of 19 students. Our July residency welcomed a new faculty chair, ALAN CUMYN, and included highlights such as visiting writer KAREN HESSE, new faculty member DAVID GILL, and outstanding presentations by our 23 graduates. A handful of students and faculty who took part in our first summer residency in Bath, England even returned to Vermont for graduation. We also said a fond farewell to Assistant Director SUMMAR WEST, who moved to upstate New York to pursue new ventures dear to her heart.

Bath Spa Residency Our inaugural residency abroad in Bath, England, which took place in summer 2015, was everything we dreamed of and so much more. Our collaborative days with Bath Spa University’s MA in Writing for Young People program included events with DAVID ALMOND, LUCY CHRISTOPHER, and other faculty. The program also featured an engaging discussion of the differences between American and British publications; faculty and staff read three books each from the US and UK. The Oxford day with PHILIP PULLMAN at High Table exceeded expectations, and we’re already finetuning our 2016 schedule.

Honorary degree We were delighted to honor the truly inspirational KATHERINE PATERSON with an honorary doctorate from VCFA. Katherine read from Come Sing, Jimmy Jo and The Great Gilly Hopkins, as well as the ending of Bridge to Terabithia. She also gave a talk, titled Sounds From the Heart, about her journey as a writer coming to terms with the changing industry and staying true to the stories she felt driven to tell.

Visiting writers In January, JULIE PASCHKIS, illustrator of more than 15 books for children, including Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love, Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi, and Night of the Moon, gave a talk and presentation of her work and also co-led two sessions in the Picture Book Intensive workshop. ROGER SUTTON, editorin-chief of the Horn Book, Inc. since 1996 and previous editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, talked about book reviewing and wrote about his visit on his blog.

Faculty news 15

The Society of Ethiopians Established in the Diaspora (SEED) honored faculty member JANE KURTZ for helping to establish Ethiopia Reads. Along with Dr. Yohannes Gebregeosis, Kurtz formed the organization to help plant libraries and spread the power of children’s books in Ethiopia, where she spent most of her childhood and where many of her books take place.

writing for children & young adults

Alumna and new faculty member KEKLA MAGOON (’05) had a very busy year. Her novel How It Went Down received a Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor. Her book with Ilyasah Shabazz, X: A Novel, made the National Book Award Longlist. And finally, Rick Riordan reviewed her new book, Shadows of Sherwood, in The New York Times. WILLIAM ALEXANDER released his book Nomad, the sequel to Ambassador, in September. A.S. KING’S most recent novel, I Crawl Through It, was also released in September. Both have garnered rave reviews in many national publications.

Alumni news KATIE BAYERL (’10) has started the VCFA Young Writers Network—a collaborative of MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults writers that will help youth with limited access to the arts and literary resources realize their writing potential. The Network’s goal is to help introduce more diversity into children’s literature and find the potential in the best young writers in the country. In 2015, alumni hosted workshops and events in Boston, Brooklyn, Vermont, and Alaska. In the future, the Network hopes to host “Camp VCFA,” a writing camp for diverse teens to hone their writing craft through a Vermont-style residency. The Network is just getting started; to get involved, contact Katie at ktbayerl@gmail.com. JANDY NELSON’S (’08) new novel I’ll Give You the Sun! won numerous awards this year, including: the 2015 Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature; named a 2015 Stonewall Honor Book; won Bank Street’s 2015 Josette Frank Book Award; listed on YALSA’s 2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults; made the Rainbow List top 10; and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. It also made the best books of the year list from Time Magazine, NPR, Apple iBooks, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist Editor’s Choice, Amazon.com, The Boston Globe, and many more publications and organizations. Warner Bros. has also optioned the film rights for I’ll Give You the Sun!

Latino Book Award finalists We’re thrilled to share that the finalists for the International Latino Book Awards include VCFA faculty member WILLIAM ALEXANDER, alumnus RENÉ COLATO LAÍNEZ (‘05), and alumna SKILA BROWN (‘12). Laínez’s ¡Jugemos al Fútbol y al Football! was a finalist for Best Latino Focused Children’s Picture Book—Spanish or Bilingual. Alexander’s Ambassador and Brown’s Caminar were both finalists for Best Youth Chapter Fiction Book.

faculty :: notes :: residency

writing & publishing September was a momentous month for VCFA’s newest program—the MFA in Writing & Publishing, our first residential graduate program. Students arrived on campus September 1, ready to launch into their first semester’s course load. Many have relocated to the area from across the country, and a few will even be witnessing snow for the first time. The Writing & Publishing program is a two-year residency designed to give pioneering writing students the tools to write books and to survive in their cultural scene long after graduation. With a curriculum that honors cross-genre writing, students can study poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, stage and screen, or new media, as well as explore the publishing industry and other arts-related careers.

and new faculty member ALLISON ADELLE HEDGE COKE partnered with Bear Pond Books to read in downtown Montpelier. Visiting television writer ANDREW NICHOLLS gave a talk on writing comedy for talk shows, sit-coms, and comedians. Visiting poet RYAN WALSH talked about his role as director of Writing at the Vermont Studio Center. Visiting Graphic Designer RICK MYERS met with the students of the cornerstone Publishing & Fieldwork course to talk design and function for the student-run publication Synezoma.

With students living on and near the campus throughout the year, VCFA has already hosted a number of presentations with writers from diverse backgrounds with these students in mind. Founding faculty members MARTHA SOUTHGATE and JANET FITCH read from recent novels. Faculty chair TRINIE DALTON

The Writing & Publishing prog residency designed to give pionee the tools to write books and to su scene long after graduation.

Faculty news ALLISON ADELLE HEDGE COKE was a finalist for the second Write A House competition, a unique new writers’ residency in which the recipient is given (for keeps!) a renovated house in Detroit. 17

TIM KIRKMAN recently wrapped production on his film Lazy Eye, which he wrote and directed. Lazy Eye is “about roads not taken, unfinished business, and the struggle to adjust to progressive lenses.” TRINIE DALTON collaborated with Dutch artist Leonard Kok for a short story called The Witch Has a System, published by Draw Down. Trinie’s essay work also appeared in a monograph about painter Laura Owens.

ram is a two-year ring writing students rvive in their cultural

writing & publishing

DAVID ULIN’S book Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles was published in October 2015, and is described as “a discussion of Los Angeles as urban space, a history of the city’s built environment, a meditation on the author’s relationship to the city, and a rumination on the art of urban walking.”

Founding faculty members DAVID ULIN and MATTHEW DICKMAN each received a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship. Matthew was one of only 10 poets to receive the fellowship this year.

art & design education

faculty :: notes :: residency

This year was an exciting one, as we welcomed our inaugural class of students and our faculty worked together for the first time on campus. Our intensive, month-long residency was packed with coursework, workshops, and collaborative integrated projects. Our students remained enthusiastic and engaged during this exciting summer, and the immersive environment and rigorous coursework was “wonderfully overwhelming,” said student Amber Graves. Founding faculty member KIM COSIER summed it up best: “I feel really lucky to have been in on the groundbreaking and construction of this collaborative learning community. We began with Maxine Greene’s call to ‘imagine the world as if it were otherwise.’ Students and faculty members have approached this collective project with generous spirits, curious minds, and active bodies. It has been incredibly rewarding to take part in this newly formed community of scholars and educational activists!”

At the end of the residency, students left Montpelier with a sense of accomplishment and excitement heading into their fall/spring semester. Students are currently in their communities engaged in their Fieldwork/ Observation cycle. Students are observing art and design education classrooms—in public, charter, and private schools, in community arts and afterschool settings, at museums and galleries. They meet online with their student cohort and faculty every six weeks to talk about what they’ve seen, reflected upon, and how it relates to what they have learned and will learn. These online seminar meetings also act as a bridge to keep the relationships intact until they meet again in person next summer.

New faculty members

Faculty news Faculty Chair KIM SHERIDAN, Ph.D., along with colleague Erica Halverson, published a comparative study of three makerspaces in the Harvard Educational Review based on their observations of sites in Pittsburgh, PA, Madison, WI, and Detroit, MI—each quite distinctive in its character and focus. Despite the differences they found, there are three unifying themes that they believe are common to makerspaces broadly: makerspaces fuel engagement and innovation; makerspaces have a marked diversity of learning arrangements; and learning is in and for the making. Their work was featured in The Huffington Post. ANDRES HERNANDEZ exhibited Vacancy: Urban Interruption and (Re)generation, the first part of his Cabrini-Green and Other Urban Legends series, at Columbia College Chicago’s Glass Curtain Gallery this fall. His ongoing work interprets, critiques, and reimagines the physical, social, and cultural environments we inhabit. He was also a featured artist during Chicago Artists Month. KIM COSIER, Ph.D., and colleagues from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee received large-scale renewable grant funding for a region-wide arts education initiative called ArtsECO. This new initiative will help teachers become change-makers backed by a strong and sustainable community of nonprofit arts organizations and K-6 school partnerships.

In October, LYNNE HOROSCHAK received the 2015 ArtWell award. Along with filmmaker Spike Lee and student Jarron Corley, Horoschak is being recognized as a visionary leader for her extraordinary work in the field of art education for special populations. DAIN OLSEN completed the pilot phase of the Teacher’s Guide for California Alliance for Arts Education, which promotes media arts, video production, and civic engagement across California school districts. He has also been busy developing the Multimedia Academy at Belmont Senior High School in downtown Los Angeles, home to some of the highest poverty rates in the country. The academy is a four-year interdisciplinary program across a breadth of disciplines—imaging, graphics, animation, video and sound production, and more. WILL CONTINO will take part in a group exhibition at The Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, China in December 2015. In spring 2016 he will be on sabbatical from his position as associate professor of printmaking at Alfred University, and has a twomonth residency at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for March and April. He will return to the Luxus Academy in China as a visiting professor for the third time in the summer of 2016.

art & design education

CHRISTOPHER SCHULTE focuses his research on the relations between historical and contemporary theories of children’s art and play, early childhood art curriculum and pedagogy, post-structural theory, and the use of qualitative research methodologies.

LOIS HETLAND is associate professor of art education at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and research associate at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

JUAN CARLOS CASTRO is also Undergraduate Program Advisor and Associate Professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. His research focuses on the dynamics and qualities of knowing, learning, and teaching art through social and mobile media as understood through complexity thinking, network theory, and mobility studies.

vermont book award & gala

Vermont Book Award & Gala

In order to be nominated, a book must first be a work of outstanding literary merit. The book must also share a strong connection with the state of Vermont—it must be set in Vermont, published by a Vermont press, or penned by a Vermont writer. Seven judges with varied backgrounds in Vermont’s literary world—MAJOR JACKSON, SYDNEY LEA, KEKLA MAGOON, HOWARD FRANK MOSHER, SEAN PRENTISS, LINDA URBAN, and LINDA WOOSTER—chose six authors whose work spanned poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature categories as finalists. The judges noted the high quality of writing they reviewed during the selection process. Poet KERRIN MCCADDEN of Plainfield, Vermont was chosen as the 2015 winner! She won the award for her collection of poetry titled Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes. VCFA President Tom Greene presented the inaugural award to McCadden—an inkwell with a feather pen sculpted in glass by Vermont artist TYRIE BROWN and $5,000. McCadden has earned numerous awards and several fellowships for her poetry. Finalists included five other authors and poets, two of whom are VCFA alumni: GARY LEE MILLER of Montpelier and DANA WALRATH of Underhill, Vermont. Other nominees included LELAND KINSEY from Barton, Vermont, JESSICA HENDRY NELSON of Winooski, Vermont, and MEG WOLITZER from New York, New York. We’re already looking forward to next year’s collection of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for the Vermont Book Award nominations!

THE VERMONT BOOK AWARD GALA GAVE VCFA a chance to show off the newly renovated Alumni Hall and gave old friends a chance to reconnect, including Gary Lee Miller (center), a Vermont Book Award nominee, and Howard Frank Mosher (right), a Vermont Book Award judge.

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Vermont’s long literary tradition. The award is a wonderful way to honor artists with deep connections to Vermont and to draw attention to a state so uniquely suited for creative enterprise. We presented the first Vermont Book Award and celebrated our renovation of Alumni Hall during the Vermont Book Award Gala on September 26.

VCFA introduced the Vermont Book Award in 2015 to celebrate

OUR 2015 VERMONT BOOK AWARD JUDGES, clockwise: Sydney Lea, Linda Urban, Major Jackson, Sean Prentiss, Kekla Magoon, Howard Frank Mosher. Missing: Linda Wooster.

the campaign for vermont college of fine arts campaign.vcfa.edu

CREATING A SINGULAR PLACE WHERE THE ARTS CAN THRIVE

the campaign for vermont college of fine arts

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Architectural rendering: Alumni Hall

the campaign for vermont college of fine arts

ALUMNI HALL On September 26, 2015, VCFA welcomed 175 guests to the newly renovated Alumni Hall to celebrate and acknowledge the finalists and winner of the first-ever Vermont Book Award. It was a wonderful evening that truly exemplified the community spirit and was a fantastic way to show off the new Alumni Hall, which has already hosted several other community and college events since then. We look forward to exhibiting student and community artwork, hosting events such as lectures, readings, and concerts, and turning the space into a true resource for the VCFA, Montpelier, and Vermont communities.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED THE CAMPAIGN FOR VCFA!

campaign.vcfa.edu

LOUISE HARWOOD CROWLEY CENTER FOR FACULTY AND ALUMNI The renovation of Alumni Hall was made possible by the incredible generosity of our VCFA community of alumni, students, faculty, and friends. Contractors are currently hard at work framing and completing the exterior of the Louise Harwood Crowley Center for Faculty and Alumni. The new center—on track to be finished in spring 2016—will host faculty during residencies, as well as serve as a retreat for all alumni. We can’t wait to share more updates as construction progresses.

Right: Jeannette Hart-Mann researching in the field for Land Arts of the American West at the North Rim of Grand Canyon, 2012. There Jenn found an intact buffalo skeleton and brought the skull back to camp to show her students; she later returned the bones to the skeleton’s resting place.

Thoughts on post-mfa life

Road Less Traveled Many VCFA students pursuing their MFA have goals of teaching their craft or furthering their skills to continue along an existing career path. Sometimes, however, the VCFA experience is an unexpected turning point and students find themselves on a very new path. The creative space of an MFA program allows students to think differently, dream bigger than they do when enmeshed in the daily grind. Sometimes the chance meeting of another student or a connection with an instructor leads to a fruitful collaboration that inspires the student’s work in a new direction. Sometimes the skills honed at VCFA open up opportunities never even considered before. The three alumni you’ll meet here have each taken a ‘road less traveled.’ Their experiences at VCFA helped to prepare them for unexpected, but professionally and artistically satisfying new ventures—Major League Baseball, a traveling agriculture education program, and work as a book translator. Their work at VCFA helped set the stage for their futures.

Sometimes the VCFA experience is an unexpected turning point and students find themselves on a very new path.

MVP: Brian Bednarski ’13 GD Workplace perks usually come in the form of free snacks, health club memberships, or reimbursement for continuing education. 27

At the New York City office where Brian Bednarski works there are many, but it’s the free ticket to any Major League Baseball game and office visits from players like Carlos Correa and Joc Pederson that take the cake. A mobile product designer for MLB. com, Bednarski has to work hard and smart but reaps jealousy-inducing benefits along the way.

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An obvious place for a VCFA graphic design grad to land? Not quite. But when you look at what’s required of Bednarski—visual design, being a self-starter, being creative, meeting deadlines and expectations—it makes total sense. With a team, Bednarski designs the look, feel, navigation, and features for some of MLB.com’s mobile products, including the official app of Major League Baseball, At Bat. He works with product managers who think big and with staff developers who do the behind-the-scenes coding to create and keep baseball’s most popular apps up-to-date. “It’s an incredible company to work for,” Bednarski says, “they let me continue to learn on the job.” So how did a graphic design grad without formal mobile design training end up working on one of the most downloaded apps on the marketplace? In short: thanks to a curious mind and a varied resume. After undergrad, Bednarski worked for a high-end real estate agency doing marketing—postcards and sell sheets, which he found “completely uncreative.” He moved to Boston and got a job at a design firm doing three-dimensional renderings of proposed buildings— extremely realistic images to help market new properties. But then the recession hit and those types of properties weren’t selling. Bednarski got laid off.

mascots, souvenirs, and the like. Also around that time, knowing he wanted to someday teach, he applied to and was accepted at VCFA, where he’d embark on his graphic design MFA. “I decided to go to VCFA and I loved it,” Bednarski says. “All of my advisors—I loved working with every one of them. I got to do things that weren’t for clients. I got to do my ideas. It expanded my thought process on how to create and what to create.” While pursuing his MFA, he got an interview with MLB.com.

“Right after that I decided I had some time to have fun. I knew I’d get a job again,” he says. He enjoyed 3-D imaging and wanted to learn more, so when he discovered Turtle Transit, a company that designs decked-out mobile units (mobile as in a car, not mobile phone—like if Budweiser wanted a car that looked like a giant beer can or a paint company wanted a car that looked like a big paint brush), he asked if he could stop in and check out the studio. A few weeks later the company offered him a job. He accepted, and conceptualized these mobile creations by creating computer-aided design, or CAD, drawings, architectural renderings, and graphics.

“As far as design goes,” Bednarski says, “VCFA taught me to slowly approach it and think about the user rather than what it is. I used to attack; I wouldn’t even think about it, I would get at it and just start drawing. The VCFA way is take a step back, think about who it’s for and what it’s for.”

While he was there, he started his own company, Kettle Corn Studios, in which he married his passion for design with his passion for team sports. He focused on branding and marketing materials for collegiate and independent sports teams, designing uniforms,

He says his coworkers have desks full of bobble heads and wear baseball hats to work, but “it is a fun work environment and these are some of the best people in the mobile technology world. My director, for one, is one of the reasons that I wanted to work here.”

Bednarski said VCFA helped prepared him for his job at MLB because the MFA program is largely selfdirected—a position he finds himself in at work. He says MLB will give him an idea of what they want, and then it’s up to him; he’s trusted to self-direct enough to get the job done.

“VCFA helped prepare him for his job at MLB because the MFA program is largely selfdirected—a position he finds himself in at work.”

Road Less Traveled

Thoughts on post-mfa life

Planting the Seed: Jeannette Hart-Mann ’12 VA Like many people seeking an MFA, Jeannette HartMann saw an MFA in Visual Art at VCFA largely as a tool for teaching; a degree would be strong credentials for the longtime interdisciplinary artist to continue to teach at the university level. She also desired a safe place to explore her creative process. During her time at VCFA, she found the “safe space” environment truly allowed her to flourish and to flesh out an idea that would become her thesis: SeedBroadcast, a multi-dimensional undertaking focusing on sustainable agriculture and our connection to growing food. SeedBroadcast is based out of a rehabbed bread truck, and fulfills its mission of “investigating food culture in action” with a range of activities including seed swaps, a mobile seed story broadcasting station, an agricultural journal with poetry, essays, photographs, drawings and recipes, a DIY booklet of seed stories and how-to’s, interviews with farmers, potlucks and discussion, and more. Her SeedBroadcast thesis was collaborative, an approach Hart-Mann appreciates and is not sure other colleges would allow. “When I actually started working [on my degree] at VCFA, I was blown away by the potential it had to allow me to stretch the boundaries of not only my

“Her SeedBroadcast thesis was collaborative, an approach Hart-Mann appreciates and is not sure other colleges would allow.”

creative process,” Hart-Mann says, “but my thinking about art and what its significance was in the world, and how I wanted to play a part in that … on an ecologic scale, not just with people.” Just prior to starting at VCFA Hart-Mann had built a site-specific sculpture in a public space, and as she was creating it many people stopped to ask her questions. She realized the interactivity was actually part of the art, and embraced the process. “I think that I was at a point in my practice where I was making a major shift from making traditional objects for a traditional art audience, into thinking really heavily about process and engaging with different kinds of community,” she says. “Not about the thing itself, but what happens around it.” In addition to SeedBroadcast, Hart-Mann runs a polyculture farm in New Mexico with her family, where they raise dairy goats and poultry, grow a variety of vegetables, and save seeds. Located on a New Mexico acequia (a community-based waterway for irrigation), there’s the added intrigue of this historic component to the farm. Hart-Mann also teaches at the University of New Mexico and is the field director for the university’s Land Arts of the American West, a semester-long transdisciplinary field program expanding the definition of land art through direct experience. This includes the full range of human interventions on the landscape, from the inscriptions of pictographs and petrogylphs to the construction of roads, dwellings, and monuments, as well as traces of those actions. All the while, SeedBroadcast continues to “blossom,” she says. “My colleagues and I have done several national tours with it. It’s done incredibly well. And it’s sort of a lifetime project. There’s almost no end to it in sight!”

Found in Translation: Lyn Miller-Lachmann ’10 WCYA 29

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Over the course of 22 years, Lyn Miller-Lachmann wrote her first book, Gringolandia, a compelling work of historical fiction about a Chilean boy and his family who fled to the United States after his father is jailed by the Pinochet regime. She spent years interviewing political prisoners and activists under the regime—and while she never viewed her work as translational, she conducted her interviews in Spanish, a language in which Miller-Lachmann is fluent. She also worked as the editor of the journal MultiCultural Review, which published articles and reviews on aspects of diversity in the United States. The magazine, however, was a casualty of the 2008 recession, at which time Miller-Lachmann found herself with an opportunity to explore getting an MFA—something she had long considered but, with writing and editing credits to her name, wasn’t sure she needed. Her book publisher, Alexander Taylor, was a strong mentor and advised against an MFA, but when he passed away suddenly she felt unsteady about trying to produce another novel, especially in light of her first novel taking so long to write. “I didn’t have an editorial mentor, a publisher, or a job. I decided at that point to get my MFA,” MillerLachmann says. “I was hoping to be able to recognize problems in my writing before I finished an entire project and spent a lot of time trying to get it out there to collect nothing but rejections.” For instance, she points out, with an MFA, she might have seen much earlier that her third-person approach to Gringolandia wasn’t working, and a first-person approach was the way to go. “It might have made the difference between a publishable novel and an unpublishable one.” She also hoped that an MFA might lead to teaching opportunities down the road. She began the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at VCFA, and shortly after graduating joined her husband in Portugal where he was on a Fulbright scholarship. She fell in love with the Portuguese language and took classes and learned by immersion. When she returned to the United States, she went to the PEN American Center where she met Claudia Bedrick of Enchanted Lion Books, who mentioned that she had just bought the rights to a book published in Portuguese and that she needed a translator to bring it to English speakers in the United States. She’s since translated two picture books and is working on translating her first young adult novel in Portuguese. Translating books—especially children’s books—goes far beyond plugging words into Google Translate. There’s nuance, cultural differences, historical

references, and even names that have to be carefully considered. A difficult to pronounce native-language name might deter a child from continuing on with a book, but the American English translation to a name like “John” might be too sterile or take away from the story’s authenticity. Miller-Lachmann has found a calling of sorts in combining her love of languages with her writing of children’s and young adult fiction. “I was hoping the MFA would give me credentials to teach at a writing center—where my husband teaches they were starting a new writing center. But I ended up not getting the job,” she says. “So I’ve never actually taught writing since graduating. That opportunity didn’t really happen for me but the translation did happen for me, and in many ways being a translator is something that I find more compatible with my interests and skills. Because I love languages and I love writing. With translating, you’re really taking this work and interpreting it for a new audience.”

“Miller-Lachmann has found a calling of sorts in combining her love of languages with her writing of children’s and young adult fiction.”

Creativity

I create for me, but we all want to share our creations, don’t we?

On your website you say that you create music, you compose it, play it, and paint it. How has music become a visual art for you? Music is sound and visual art is just one of its vehicles. Rather, the notating of music is an art itself, whether you’re using standardized Western notation, or pictures, or symbols (which notes are also, by the way). I think at this stage in my career, I’m learning to access music with both the eyes and ears. So in creating music scores that are designed to provoke responses, inspired by the instructions or keys that I provide the performers with, there is also the intent of the specific language used to develop the work, using many disciplines. I’m using all the systems available to me, whether developed by Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Leon Schidlowsky, or Cornelius Cardew, as well as my system of organizing large ensemble improvisation called CCL (Cipher Conduit Linguistics). Can you talk more about CCL? I developed CCL because I’m a firm believer in large ensemble improvisation. CCL is a music medium like Western notation is a medium. CCL has gestural components, linguistic components, figurative components. It’s important in the use of intelligences, going back to Howard Gardiner’s theory that we have multiple intelligences. CCL touches upon all of these intelligences. It’s visual, it’s tactile, it’s a lot of things. For me, CCL became necessary for my “comprovisation” techniques— combining composing and improvisation. I often use CCL to make a bridge between musicians who read music and don’t improvise, and those that improvise but don’t read music. It’s a method I can teach to anyone. What is the Graphic Score Exploratorium? I have works that are complete shows that feature graphic scores and a separate presentation that features painted scores. The idea of the Exploratorium came about because, as these shows are mounted and performers are engaged to bring them to life during the exhibit like performance art installations that take on sonic lives, I was comfortable with the idea of musicians exploring their inner reactions as well as using

Music in Three Dimensions an interview with

Renée Baker ’15 MC

about inspiration, creativity, and “using all the systems available”

don’t work to embody other, but I embrace it and it informs everything that I create. It is who I am and it also sets a course of empathy toward other creators so we can share, if they’re open. For some I embody everything they can’t stand; I won’t waste time on that. Can you talk about the effect your VCFA experience had on your creativity? Who did you work with while in the program? Were there any key moments of realization or metamorphosis for you as an artist? My first-year mentor was Jonathan Bailey Holland, and my second-year mentor was Don DiNicola. I really am self-motivated so there was no need to push me, but my mentors addressed areas that I wanted to develop. Both mentors were extremely passionate about their own works as artists, so I believe it was this fervor for creating in their own practices that led them to “get” me. In many school settings, the professors only “profess” yet no longer engage in soul-searching, genre-breaking, boundaries-crossing explorations that keep them vital to the artistic community and doubly effective as mentors to developing creators. As a creative myself, I needed and received mentoring from world-class faculty who are complete artists and actively engaged regularly in the act of creating. That’s what I wanted and that’s what I received. We worked as colleague mentors and continue to do so. My masterwork that came out of Jonathan’s mentoring was Miro London bluSpace, a piece that’s been premiered numerous times since creation and under Don’s tutelage was Body and Soul, a masterwork of filmmaker Oscar Micheaux which I rescored. It’s been premiered in Chicago and is headed for New York and Berlin. That’s the level of work that can be done at VCFA. Anything else you’d like to add about creativity, art, and the creative process? I think I’ve said plenty. VCFA can help make your dreams happen.

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boundaries that were set by me. I’m also very interested in the intersection of the performer and composer. There are actually three types of show presentations: Graphic Score Exploratorium, Painted Score Exploratorium, and Sculptural Tactile Score Exploratorium. You also talk about music as an avenue for capturing the synchronicities of everyday life. Will you talk a little more about what inspires you to create? I don’t wait for inspiration. I do regular score studies of the masters and the new masters. Then I set out to create my daily journaling experience, which is composing primarily and painting secondarily. Every day—confront either the manuscript paper or the canvas. Inspiration comes during the process of creating for me. Where do you compose? Do you have an office or a studio? Can you describe that space to us? For years I couldn’t write or paint at home—too many distractions. So my office first was a Caribou Coffee, then Starbucks, then Dunkin’ Donuts; that took care of the first six or seven years. Now I am able to work at home, disregarding the whispering obstacles, just creating. I paint in my garage studio, but most of the brainwork is done in my tea hut in my backyard. I fashioned this tiny space on Basho’s hut. It’s sparse—just a chair and tiny table with four triangular windows on the door to look out of and two large skylights, which are lovely for the rain. What happens when you get stuck? How do you jumpstart your creativity? I don’t get stuck, but if something is not moving along as quickly as I’d like, I put it to the side and start another idea—ALWAYS. I don’t stop because I don’t have the perfect bridge or development. I just go on to something else and wait for the next step to come to me—kind of like using an alternate route around traffic. You’re also the founder/leader of several chamber music festivals and thirteen contemporary music performance entities including the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project. So it seems that being creative for you is as much about getting music out there into the world as it is about creating music or art. Can you talk about creativity as private act versus public offering? They are equal. I create for me, but we all want to share our creations, don’t we? Part of the mission of the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project is “WE embody ‘Otherness.’ ” I was really struck by this. I’m wondering how you, a woman, a person of color, an artist, see the intersection of creativity and culture, how your own creative aspirations interact with larger cultural and even political ideas. For instance, is working to embody otherness at the heart of your creative process as well as part of the mission of the Orchestra project? I’m a creative first. There are people who see gender or race first and use it to discourage. I

Renée Baker is a February 2015 graduate of the MFA in Music Composition program. reneebakercomposer. com

DURING THE ANNUAL POETS V. PROSE SOFTBALL GAME, which takes place during every summer Writing residency, poets (left to right) Domenic Scopa and Jacob Hammer try to stop a line drive from getting through the gap. Alas, the Poets were dealt a crushing loss to the Prose this year. Better luck in 2016!

Poets v. Prose Softball Game

:: SUMMER 2015

class news 34

class news

1983

1989

1991

Elinor Benedict W Her poem “To a Great-Grandmother Who Loves Fire” was published in North American Review. Written in a restaurant in a time of grief, the poem explores fire and paper and the survival of a loved person.

Joan Seliger Sidney W, WCYA Her new book of poems, Bereft and Blessed (Antrim House Press), received an Eric Hoffer Finalist Award in 2015, and her poem “On Approaching Seventy” from that same book was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Her poems have appeared in The Louisville Review, Jewish Currents, Momentum, the magazine of the National MS Society, and Alimentum this year, and she reads in the ongoing TV series, “Speaking of Poetry.” One of Joan’s ekphrastic poems, “Early March,” was published in Lay Bare the Canvas: New England Poets On Art. She also read one of her children’s picture book manuscripts at two venues.

Glenn Cheney W announces the publication of Quilombo dos Palmares: Brazil’s Lost Nation of Fugitive Slaves, the most comprehensive and authoritative book on this topic in the world in any language. Glenn also edited Ex Cathedra: Stories by Machado de Assis, and translated three of the stories from the original text.

1985 Thomas E. Kennedy W published the fourth novel of his Copenhagen Quartet—Beneath the Neon Egg (Bloomsbury Publishing). Each of the four stand-alone novels is set in a different season of the Danish capital. The earlier three books are In the Company of Angels, Falling Sideways, and Kerrigan in Copenhagen—a NY Times Editors’ Choice. Thomas also won a Pushcart Prize in 2014 for the essay “My White House Days,” which appeared in New Letters.

Dick Bentley MC, W announces the publication of his book All Rise, and his story “Not There They’re Not” in Amarillo Bay.

Parker Towle W has a new book of poems, World Spread Out, published with Antrim House Books.

1993

Michele Moore W Her novel, The Cigar Factory: A Novel of Charleston, is forthcoming by the University of South Carolina Press under the imprint Story River Books. Michele also drafted a short script for the stage with excerpts from Part One of the novel, and Art Gilliard (Art Forms and Theatre Concepts) directed its debut performance in October 2015 as the centerpiece for the Eastside Day Celebration in Charleston. Sara Kay Rupnik W announces the publication of her book Women Longing to Fly, a collection of ten stories published by Mayapple Press.

1993 Scarlett Decker VA has been featured in several exhibitions. Her installation Checking was part of ArtelPHX; she participated in the 33-1/3 group show at R. Pela Contemporary Gallery; her piece Stroke of Midnight was featured in the SMoCA Mix Auction; and she took part in 6 Sides at the Firehouse Gallery.

1992 Susan Aizenberg W won the 2014 Mari Sandoz Award from the Nebraska Library Association (NLA). Susan’s new collection of poems, Quiet City, was just released from BkMk Press, and her poems “Wind” and Dust” were published in Connotation Press, Hoppenthaler’s Congeries.

Nicole Chen W announces the publication of her novel, Tiger Tail Soup: A Novel of China at War. Set in southern China in the early days of WWII, it tells the story of a young Chinese wife and mother struggling to survive as her homeland is invaded by the Japanese military.

1994 Ellen Cassedy W Ellen’s book, We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (Univ. of Nebraska Press), was shortlisted for the 2014 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.

1995 Allison Adelle Hedge Coke F, W was appointed Distinguished Writer in Residence 2014 at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. She’s also the author of Blood Run, Streaming (as both a book of poems and an album), Effigies II: an Anthology of New Indigenous Writing, Pacific Rim, and Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer: A Story of Survival, and has been chosen to judge the Ian MacMillan Writing Awards and the Everette Southwest Literary Award.

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1995 Gary Lee Miller W The title story of Gary’s collection Museum of the Americas (Fomite Press) is set in a small roadside museum. To celebrate publication, Gary is doing readings on a Tiny Museum Tour. Stops include the Madsonian Museum of Industrial Design, The Museum of Every Day Life, The Museum of Bad Art, and The Main Street Museum. If you know of a tiny museum where he could read, he’d love to hear from you. Museum of the Americas was a finalist for the 2015 Vermont Book Award.

Janet St. John W Three of her poems were published recently: “Laguna Grande” in Canary: A Literary Journal of the Environmental Crisis; “Healing,” a poem from her in-progress first novel, in Snapdragon: A Journal of Art & Healing; and “Meditation on a Train: An Exercise for the Chakras” in After Hours Magazine. Her poem “The Scene” as well as a new poem in process will be part of the Art & Words collaborative show in Dallas.

Leatha Kendrick W was a featured reader during the Kentucky Women Writers Conference, the oldest continuously running conference on women’s writing. “And Luckier,” the title poem of her fifth book of poems (still seeking a publisher) received honorable mention in the Pat Schneider poetry contest and will appear in the forthcoming issue of Peregrine.

class news 1997

Daniel M. Jaffe W Daniel’s novel-in-stories, The Geneology of Understanding, was published by Lethe Press.

class news

S Stephanie W announces the publication of a chapbook, So This Is What It Has Come To, by Finishing Line, and the publication of poetry in Squalorly; Southern Indiana Review; Cease, Cows; One, The Journal of Literature, Art and Ideas; and Ayris Magazine. S Stephanie also exhibited Poetry Masks as part of the Teti Library’s Eye Gallery Summer Staff Exhibition at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. Adela Najarro W announces the publication of both her first and second poetry collections: Split Geography (Mouthfeel Press) and Twice Told Over (Unsolicited Press).

1996 Lee Ann Dalton W won first place in the Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize awarded by Hunger Mountain for her first short story, “The Hierophant.” Her poems have also been published in Faultline (UC Irvine) and New Ohio Review. Marsha de la O W won the 2014 Morton Marcus Memorial Poetry Contest for her poem “The Beautiful World.” She received a $1,000 prize and an invitation to read at the Fifth Annual Morton Marcus Memorial Reading at the Univ. of California, Santa Cruz.

Susan Spencer Crowe VA presented a solo exhibition of encaustic-painted wall pieces and sculptures at the Gallery at R&F Handmade Paints in Kingston, NY.

Vincent Zandri W Vincent’s literary thriller Everything Burns was published by Thomas & Mercer, and his novel The Shroud Key was selected by Suspense Magazine as one of the Best Books of 2014. He has also been featured in a NY Times article and has appeared on Fox News and Bloomberg News.

1998 Janet Kawada VA showed new work as part of The Place Between exhibit and gallery talk with Merrill Commeau at the Hess Gallery at Pine Manor College (MA).

Bruce Black WCYA Bruce’s story, “A Nurse Named Mary,” was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Nurses. He writes: “It’s a story about the hospice nurse who cared for my mother in the final days of her life.” His latest story, “What A Dog Can Teach Us,” appeared in DogsNaturally magazine.

TRIBUTARY

Angela Patten W announces the publication of her third collection of poetry, In Praise of Usefulness (Wind Ridge Books, VT). Angela’s prose memoir High Tea at a Low Table: Stories from an Irish Childhood was also published by Wind Ridge, and she was invited to discuss her memoir and read from it at the “Stonecoast in Ireland” conference.

1999 Emily Bilman W published two collections of poetry—A Woman by a Well and Resilience.

Lynn Imperatore VA passed her ‘viva voce’ (thesis defence) for her practice-led doctoral research project titled “Out of the Corner of the Eye/the ‘I’: Drawing as Disposition of Perception” with The University of West England, Bristol, UK. She presented a paper with the same title at the 10th Global Conference on Creativity and Visual Literacy: “Supporting, Sensing, and Seeing” in Lisbon, Portugal. Lynn was also invited to create and exhibit drawings and maps for the Royal Geographical Society conference “There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea: Ash Wednesday 1962.” Joan Leegant W has been named the 2014-2015 prose writer-inresidence at Hugo House in Seattle, WA. Joan will mentor writers in the community while also working on her own projects. Patricia Lee Lewis W led a fourday creative writing and yoga retreat in the Berkshires. Kevin McLellan W announces the publication of Tributary, his first fulllength collection of poetry (Barrow Street). His poem “Thereafter” was selected as the winner of this year’s Third Coast Poetry Contest.

Kevin McLellan

Neela Vaswani W won the Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album category for I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education And Changed The World (Malala Yousafzai). In the album, she narrated the audio version of the book of the same name.

Amy Belding Brown W Her new historical fiction novel, Flight of the Sparrow: A Novel of Early America, was released by NAL/Penguin. Alexandra Chasin W Governors Island in New York Harbor was the site of the latest Writing On It All public participatory writing project directed by Alexandra. Professional writers and artists facilitated sessions in which the public was prompted to write on the interior surfaces of an out-of-use house.

2003 Meredith Davies Hadaway W Her third poetry collection, At the Narrows, was published by Word Poetry. Laurette Folk W announces the publication of her first novel, A Portal to Vibrancy. Nils Karsten VA took part in the group show RE(a)D at Nathalie Karg Gallery in NY. Shelagh Connor Shapiro W Her novel Shape of the Sky has been published by Wind Ridge Books, VT.

2001

2001 xtine burrough VA presented Mediations on Digital Labor, an exhibition in collaboration with Mechanical Turk workers and gallery participants in Santa Ana, CA. Maggie Kast W announces the publication of her novel A Free, Unsullied Land with Fomite Press. “The Hate that Chills,” a story excerpted and adapted from this novel, won 3rd place in the Hackney Literary Series story contest. Ada Jill Schneider W has a new book of poems, This Once-Only World, out with PearTree Press. Craig Snyder VA Craig’s short film PIC was included in an installation for MIX NYC Film Festival. Jennifer K. Sweeney W announces the publication of her third book of poetry, Little Spells, by New Issues Press.

Sabrina Fadial VA Her sculpture Columbine (48” x 42” x 42” steel, aluminum mesh, copper tape) has appeared in Endangered Beauty at the Second Story Art Gallery in Atlantic Highlands, NJ, Mythologies at Landmark College in Putney, VT, and Force of Nature sponsored by the Women’s Caucus for the Arts in Plymouth, NH.

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Erik Kraft WCYA responded to the MBTA commuter rail challenges during Boston’s very snowy winter by tweeting in haiku, and earned some print and radio press for his creative response!

Monica Berlin W announces No Shape Bends the River So Long, a collection of poems in collaboration with Beth Marzoni, won the 2013 New Measure Poetry Prize and has been published by Free Verse Editions at Parlor Press.

Nancy Hewitt W announces three of her poems were published online: “Combination Lock” in Off the Coast, “Completing the Arc” in Phoebe, and “At the Tow Pound” in Blast Furnace.

2000 Muriel Angelil VA exhibited her abstract work in acrylics and encaustic at the Lane Library in Hampton, NH and the Newburyport Art Association, MA. Muriel also held a reading and reception for her new book of poetry, In Close Embrace.

2002

John O’Rourke WCYA published Leaving Major Tela and is in his eighth year of producing a fiction writer’s blog—www.gaelwriter. blogspot.com.

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Luba Shapiro Grenader VA produced Narrating Remembrance at the Marblehead Arts Association, a one-woman show of mixed media drawings reflecting on her memories of growing up in a Jewish Dissident family during the years of Soviet Russia.

Susan McCarty W announces the publication of her short story collection, Anatomies, with Aforementioned Productions. Trina St. Jean WCYA Blank, the contemporary young adult novel Trina started while a student at VCFA, was published by Orca Book Publishers. Tony Van Witsen W His literary essay, “Ira Levin’s Creepy Valentine: ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ And The Power Of Place” was published in Identity Theory.

2005 Bethany Hegedus WCYA was hosted on the popular podcast “Let’s Get Busy” with the Busy Librarian Matthew Winner. Grandfather Gandi, the book she co-authored with Aru Gandhi, received a starred Kirkus Review, making it eligible for the Kirkus Prize, a $50,000 grant being awarded for the first time in 2015. Owner and creative director of The Writing Barn in Austin, Bethany offers workshops with authors and agents in picture book development, the art of the sale, and more, attracting some VCFA alums to the events. Terry S. Johnson W won honorable mention in the 2014 New England Book Festival for her poetry book, Coalescence.

2005 Bridget Birdsall WCYA Her YA novel Double Exposure won the Wisconsin Council of Writers: Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award and the International Independent Publishers Book of the Year Award.

2006

2004 Kelly Bingham WCYA announces her picture book, Circle, Square, Moose, received a starred review from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly and was named “One of the Best Books of 2014” by Kirkus and a Bank Street Best Book of the Year. Her novel Formerly Shark Girl was included in Bank Street’s Best Books of 2014.

Sarah Aronson WCYA announces she has sold her first picture book biography, Just Like Ruth Goldberg (Beach Lane Books), and a brand new chapter book series, The Worst Fairy Godmother Ever (Scholastic). Julie Barton W Her new memoir, Dog Medicine, debuted from Minneapolis-based Think Piece Publishing. The book tells the story of Barton’s Golden Retriever puppy, Bunker, relieving the anguish of her depression more than 20 years ago.

New Website and Other Benefits Just for Alumni Announcing our website just for alumni: www.alumni.vcfa.edu. Staying in touch is even easier, and the site offers a simple way to share your news, see what other VCFA alumni are up to, and receive information about alumni events in your area. Your VCFA email address is the gateway to a host of benefits, including full access to VCFA website features such as program commons pages, archive lectures, discussion threads, and more. You can also access unlimited Google Drive space, download Microsoft Office Suite for Mac and PC, and receive discounts at FedX, Amazon, and Adobe Creative Cloud. Don’t have one? You can sign up at www.vcfa.edu/request-email Questions? Email Sabrina Fadial, Director of Alumni Relations Sabrina.Fadial@vcfa.edu

2006

Annie Lighthart W published her first poetry collection, Iron String (Airlie Press). Robin Oliveira W Her novel My Name is Mary Sutter was chosen as the 2015 All Iowa Reads selection, and Robin visited the state to discuss the story, research, and characters with librarians and readers. Martha (Patty) Oliver-Smith W announces the publication of Martha’s Mandala: Figures in a Family Circle, in which she remembers, imagines, and reflects on the life and art of her grandmother and her grandfather, a poet, as she examines the voices and expectations in her own life grown out of this unusual spiritual and artistic heritage.

Kelly Bennett WCYA announces her book, Not Norman, A Goldfish Story, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones, has been selected as Jumpstart’s Read for the Record book for 2015. A special Jumpstart edition of Not Norman will be printed in Spanish and English. Sephanie Cassatly W read her essay “Tapestry of Grace” as part of the book launch for the anthology Blended: Writers on the Stepfamily Experience in Portland, OR. Valerie Hird VA Her exhibit Origination at the Nohra Haime Gallery was the second in her New Mythologies series, and follows the characters of the four elements - air, fire, water, and land - as they integrate to form a seductive and complex new world. She also presented a paper on Visual Language: A Key To Cross-Cultural Communication at “Crossing the Line 2: Drawing in the Middle East,” a conference hosted by the American University in Dubai. Jennifer Kam WCYA Her debut novel, Devin Rhodes Is Dead, received the 2013 National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) Children’s Book Award.

Diane Lawson (Martinez) W published her novel A Tightly Raveled Mind, a psychological murder mystery, with Cinco Puntos Press. Lynn Pedersen W announces the publication of her second chapbook, Tiktaalik, Adieu, with Finishing Line Press as part of the 2014 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition. Sherry Shahan WCYA Her YA novel Skin and Bones is now available in paperback.

2008 Jewel Beth Davis W announces her short story, “The Last Tree,” is included in the anthology, This Guild Itself, edited and published by The Writers’ Guild of Iowa State University. Vanessa Blakeslee W Her collection of short stories, Train Shots, won the 2014 IPPY Gold Medal and was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor Award. New York-based filmmaker Hannah Beth King also optioned the book for screen. Her newest novel, Juventud, was released this fall by Curbside Splendor

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Kitty Forbes W announces the publication of her poetry collection Wrong Bus with Finishing Line Press.

2007

Daniel Falatko W announces the publication of his first novel, Condominium, by CCLaP Publishing. His second novel, One Thin Dime, has also been signed by CCLaP Publishing, publication forthcoming in 2016.

Janet Filomeno VA participated in two exhibitions in Japan: Paintings - Ongoing Practice at the Kanazawa Citizen’s Art Center and JapanUS Art Exchange Exhibition, Works on Paper 2015 at the Print Studio, Kanazawa Yuwaku Sousaku no Mori Center for Crafts and Culture.

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Lisa Doan WCYA announces Jack the Castaway, the first book in The Berenson Schemes series, has won the 2015 IPPY Gold Medal for juvenile fiction. Lisa also published Jack at the Helm, the third book in The Berenson Schemes series.

Jill Santopolo WCYA edited and published It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going! by Chelsea Clinton, a book for readers 10-14. Jill is an executive editor at Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group.

Zack Kopp W His book The Denver Beat Scene: The MileHigh Legacy of Kerouac, Cassady and Ginsberg, which traces the multiple Beat Generation connections to Denver culture through today’s spoken word scene, was published by The History Press.

2010 Q Lindsey Barrett W Her essay “The Real World of the Writing Life,” her response to the ‘you have it or you don’t’ mentality about being a writer, is up at The Missouri Review blog.

2009

Jandy Nelson WCYA Her new novel I’ll Give You the Sun! won the 2015 Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, was named a 2015 Stonewall Honor Book, won Bank Street’s 2015 Josette Frank Book Award, and was listed on YALSA’s 2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. Trent Reedy WCYA announces the publication of Burning Nation, the second book in his Divided We Fall trilogy.

Two members of the VCFA community made the 2015 National Book Award Longlist for Young People’s Literature. Tobin (M.T.) Anderson, current VCFA trustee and a former WCYA faculty member, was honored for his book Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad. Alumnus and current WCYA faculty member Kekkla Magoon (‘05 WCYA) earned honors for her book, X: A Novel, written with Ilyasah Shabazz.

Shaw Osha VA exhibited Arabesque in Remembrance of Kajieme Powell on the online venue Violet Strays.

Angela Small W Her short story “The Interior Designer” was chosen as Runner Up for the So To Speak Journal Fall Fiction Contest and was shortlisted at Paris Lit Up Press.

Ashley Seitz Kramer W won the 2014 Zone 3 Press First Book Award in Poetry, and her full-length collection, Museum of Distance, is forthcoming by Zone 3 Press. She is Assistant Dean of Arts and Sciences at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT.

National Book Award Longlist Includes Two from VCFA

Rebecca Cook W announces the publication of her debut novel, Click, and her collection of poems, I Will Not Give Over. Her lyric essay, “Flame,” was a notable essay in the 2013 Best American Essays, and her short fiction, “Always,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her prose was also published in The Rumpus, the NewerYork, Gone Lawn, Atticus Review, Sequestrum, and BlazeVOX, and her poems were published in The Georgia Review, Antioch Review, Mass Review, and The Nervous Breakdown. Deb Fleischman W announces the publication of her essay “Pummeled” in NeutronsProtons Magazine and her essay “Past-Life Lessons” in Vermoxie. Kate Linton W read at the Bryant Park “Word for Word Poetry” event in New York City.

Laurie Cannady W announces the publication of Crave: Sojourn of a Hungry Soul, a coming-of-age memoir that chronicles a young girl’s journey through abuse and impoverishment. David Elzey WCYA announces the publication of his first short story, “The Self-Improvement Plan,” in the online journal Launch Ticket.

Jeanne Lyet Gassman W announces her debut historical novel released by Tuscany Press, Blood of a Stone, won an Independent Book Publisher Award (bronze) in the national category of religious fiction. Other published work includes her creative nonfiction essay “Mapping the Body” in Hippocampus Magazine, short story “The Importance of Color” in Red Savina Review, and flash fiction “Nearer, My God, to Thee” in Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal. Susan Holt VA accepted the position of Gallery Director in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She is responsible for all of the exhibitions and will also teach two classes per semester.

2010 Todd Baldwin VA exhibited at the (e) merge art fair, a curated international selection of emerging art in DC. He also held a solo exhibition, Dismantle, Combine, at Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Philadelphia.

Michelle Knudsen WCYA announces the publication of her first YA novel Evil Librarian.

Linden McNeilly WCYA just released her first book, Map Art Lab: 52 Exciting Art Explorations in Mapmaking, Imagination, and Travel, co-authored with her sister, Jill K. Berry.

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Tony Luebbermann W His chapbook, A Short Anatomy of Doorknobs: An Unsequenced Elaboration, was published by Finishing Line Press.

Lindsey Lane WCYA announces the release of her YA debut Evidence of Things Not Seen with BookPeople.

Emily Lanctot VA has joined the staff of the DeVos Art Museum as Curator of Collections and Outreach. Her performance “Receptioning” was also included in North of the 45th Parallel, an annual juried exhibition of artists living in the geographical area north of the 45th parallel in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Rachel Mullis W published “Stories We Tell Ourselves” in Pithead Chapel. Natalia Sarkissian W Her short story, “Lily on the Bus,” won second prize in the Tuscany Press Prize and was published in the collection, What World is This? And Other Stories. Dana Walrath WCYA Her young adult novel-in-verse Like Water On Stone was a finalist for the 2015 Vermont Book Award.

Barry Wightman W announces his first novel Pepperland was named a Winner of the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Silver “IPPY” for fiction - Best Fiction, Great Lakes Region.

2011 Lee Busby W published his first full-length collection of poetry, 5th Generation Immigrant, with ELJ Publications. Lee is also co-founder and poetry faculty at the River Pretty Writers Retreat held twice a year in Missouri.

2010 Renee Couture VA exhibited When They Fall, They Always Make Noise, works exploring the theatrics of political debate surrounding land use management, at Chemeketa Community College. This series marries Spaghetti Westerns and live theater with logging to articulate the complexity and range of the public’s relationship with their nearby landscape.

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Leah Grimaldi VA exhibited work as part of the Worms Under My Skin installation and two-person exhibition at the CONcourse Gallery in North Adams, MA.

Winifred Conkling WCYA Her first nonfiction title for children, Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson’s Flight From Slavery, was published with Algonquin Young Readers.

Kate Hosford WCYA announces the publication of her newest picture book, Feeding the Flying Fanellis, (Lerner/Carolrhoda), a collection of poems narrated by a circus chef.

Caroline Carlson WCYA announces the publication of The Terror of the Southlands, the second book in the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates trilogy.

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Melanie Crowder WCYA Her YA debut Audacity received starred reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal, and the Center for Children’s Books, and is an Editor’s Choice from BookBrowse and a Top Pick from BookPage. Melanie’s middle-grade novels include Parched and the forthcoming A Nearer Moon. Diana Gonsalves VA Co-creator of the Earth Healing Scroll project, Diana announces an open call for submissions through Earth Day 2016 at earthhealingscroll.com.

Jenna McGuiggan W presented “One-Moment Memoirs,” a generation workshop focused on writing flash nonfiction, at HippoCamp 2015, a conference for creative nonfiction writers presented by Hippocampus Magazine. Ross McMeekin W was awarded a fellowship as one of the 2015 Jack Straw writers. His short story “Tonight We Are Kings” appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, and short story “Fit to Scale” was published in Redivider. Ross is also a weekly columnist for the Ploughshares blog. D. M. Spitzer W announces the forthcoming publication of A Heaven Wrought of Iron, the creative manuscript he submitted to VCFA, with Etruscan Press. Mary Stein W received a Loft Mentor Series Award and a Minnesota Emerging Writers’ Grant from the Loft Literary Center. Sumru Tekin VA Her sound installation One Day at Burlington City Arts called attention to the ways connectedness with other people is a necessary component for establishing memory.

2011 Molly Heron VA presented talks and techniques about her art practice with repurposing plastic packaging as part of her two-month Artistin-Residence distinction at the Cavello Center in NY. She also exhibited work at the TABLEau show at Pierro Gallery and the Compiled and Composed: Sculptural Formations exhibition at Therese A. Maloney Art Gallery, both in NJ.

Melinda Thomsen W Her poem “Tossing the Bouquet” was published in the anthology Hearts of the Order: Baseball Poems. Meg Wiviott WCYA Her novelin-verse Paper Hearts, based on a true story of friendship and survival in Auschwitz, is forthcoming with Margaret McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster).

2012 Lauren Bartone VA presented “A City in Maps” exhibition while Artistin-Residence at de Young Museum in San Francisco for one month. The interpretive mapping project which invited visitor participation used found material to produce an experimental map of the museum’s surroundings that revealed some of the diverse and layered social experience of its users. Elizabeth Coleman W read from her poetry collection Proof at the KGB Bar in NYC. Lindsay Eyre WCYA announces the publication of her debut novel, The Best Friend Battle, as well as The Mean Girl Meltdown, forthcoming.

2012 Charlie Geoghegan-Clements W announces the publication of Superhero Questions with ELJ Publications.

Erin Hagar WCYA published Julia Child: An Extraordinary Life in Words and Pictures, a middlegrade biography of America’s beloved television cook, with duopress. Mildred Kennedy-Stirling VA explained her practice of using photography and narrative inquiry in her work as part of the “Interview/ Inner-view” section in the Union of Maine Visual Artist Quarterly Journal: Winter 2015 in which artists were asked to ask themselves questions otherwise not asked. Linda King Ferguson VA announces the publication of her work in New American Paintings, Volume 113, published by The Open Studio Press. She also took part in a group exhibition North of the 45th Parallel at DeVos Art Museum at Northern Michigan University, and her work appeared as part of the two-person show The Living Room Project with Molly Heron at Cathouse FUNeral in NY. Maggie Lehrman WCYA announces her first novel for young adults, The Cost of All Things, begun while at VCFA, was published by HarperCollins. Stefanie Lyons WCYA Her YA novel-in-verse Dating Down, which she worked on while at VCFA, was published by Flux.

Rebecca Maizel WCYA announces Between Us And The Moon, her new coming of age novel written while at VCFA, was published by HarperCollins. A second novel, as yet untitled, is forthcoming with HarperCollins. Andrew Marshall W His story “The Lover,” published in the Vestal Review, was also nominated for a Pushcart. Other work was published in theNewerYork, Fiction Attic, Austin Review, and Appalachian Heritage. Thais Mather VA Her solo show, Wonder Bitch, appeared at The UNIT Store in Houston.

Kali VanBaale W Her second novel, The Good Divide, is forthcoming from Midwestern Gothic Press. Elisa Wiedeman VA Recipient of the Arizona Art Education 2014 Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator award, Elisa teaches art foundations and supervises art education students at Northern Arizona University. Mary Ann Fuller Young W read from her new book, Plainly and Simply: A Memoir of Alzheimer’s, and is training to co-facilitate support groups for those with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

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Whitney Groves W Her short story “Coda,” written while at VCFA, was published in One Story.

Douglas Goetsch W His poetry collection Nameless Boy was published with Orchises Press. Poems from this book have appeared in The New Yorker, The Southern Review, Gettysburg Review, and the Pushcart Prize anthology.

Mahtem Shiferraw W won the Africa Poetry Book Fund’s 2015 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for her manuscript, Fuchsia. She received a cash award and publication of her manuscript (forthcoming) as part of the African Poetry Book Series by the University of Nebraska Press and Amalion Press in Senegal. Mahtem also announces the publication of Atlas & Alice: A magazine of intersections, a new literary magazine created and maintained by VCFA alumni.

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Lisa Alexander Baron W announces her poem “The Cellar Boy by Chardin,” published in The Milo Review, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. While She Poses, her book of ekphrastic poetry, was also published by Aldrich Press. Mathieu Cailler W His short story collection, Loss Angeles, was published with Short Story America Press.

Rachael Hatley GD was one of the winners of the 2015 So(cial) Good Design Award—presented by the Association of Registered Graphic Designers—for her 3-D messaging system of letters constructed from chicken wire and rebar, and filled with litter collected from roads and highways. Rachael also accepted a tenture-track faculty position as Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama.

Pablo Cartaya WCYA announces the forthcoming publication of two middle-grade novels, The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora and Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak English, with Viking Publishers. Melanie Fishbane WCYA Melanie’s essay, “My Pen Shall Heal, Not Hurt: Writing as Therapy in Rilla of Ingleside & The Blythes Are Quoted” is featured in L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valleys: The Ontario Years, 1911-1942, a new collection of academic essays.

VCFA Partners with New Residency Centers In 2015, VCFA began partnerships with two arts centers in Vermont—the Marble House Project in Dorset and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson. Both locations offer opportunities for sponsored residencies for faculty and alumni. The Marble House Project, a writing center based out of a marble mansion in southern Vermont, offers one or two VCFA faculty or alumni the opportunity to experience a sponsored residency each spring or summer. MFA in Writing graduates Karen Jahn (‘13) and Emily Vizzo (‘13) attended and immensely enjoyed their time there this year. Details on how to apply for 2016 residencies at the Marble House Project are forthcoming. The Vermont Studio Center, which is quickly becoming a preeminent arts center in northern Vermont, also offers opportunities for VCFA faculty and alumni writers and visual artists. VCFA’s MFA in Visual Art program and the center will award one of the program’s 2015 graduates a full, four-week fellowship. For more information: Marble House Project: www.marblehouseproject.org The Vermont Studio Center: vermontstudiocenter.org

Ken Horne VA exhibited five paintings in a group show titled Virginia Curated at Rawls Museum Arts (a partner of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts). Working primarily in abstraction, Ken uses color, shape, and design to explore notions of self, integration, and relating. Karen Jahn W Awarded a residency at the Marble House Project for the 2015 season, she worked on an essay that braids memoir with evocation of the blues aesthetic. Her memoir piece “My Heart Is In My Hands” was published in The Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and her piece “Darkness is Human” was published in Crossroads, the weekly blog on The Intima website.

Kelley Rossier W received a Fulbright Award for Creative Writing to work on a collection of essays in Slovenia for eight months. Her love of Slovenia began during a VCFA residency in summer 2012. Andrea Rothman W Her sciencebased flash story “Convergence” is on the cover of Litro Magazine (NY), the US branch of Litro Magazine UK. William Robert Stevens Jr. MC performed his Rondo for String Quartet in November 2014 with Decoda musicians at the Augsburg Lutheran Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Leah Kaminsky W announces the publication of Cracking the Code, a non-fiction memoir written with “an extraordinary couple who have changed the face of personalized medicine.” Mary Rickert W announces her novella, The Mothers of Voorhisville, has been nominated for a Nebula Award. Patrick Ross W reports that his historical/biographical essay “An Indefatigable Agenda” was published by The Montreal Review, and his literary travel memoir Committed: A Memoir of the Artist’s Road, written in its entirety during his MFA program, was published with Black Rose Writing.

2013 Patrick Downes W, WCYA His first novel, Fell of Dark (Philomel/Penguin), received two early starred reviews in Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly.

Cynthia Surrisi WCYA announces her debut middle-grade mystery, The Maypop Kidnapping, was published by Carolrhoda Labs.

Emily Vizzo W Her essay Safe is Not a Place, about the murder of a 14-year-old girl in her neighborhood in the 1980s, was published in The Fanzine. Elizabeth White WCYA founded a writing center called Writespace, which offers online and in-person poetry, fiction, picture book, and young adult writing workshops in Houston.

2 0 14 Jennifer Barnes WCYA Her debut, The Distance to Home, is forthcoming with Knopf/Random House under the pen name Jenn Bishop. Gretchen Frances Bennett VA received a Special Recognition prize at the 2014 Betty Bowen Award administered by the Seattle Art Museum. Dave Celone W announces three of his poems were published in The Tower Journal. Heather Demetrios WCYA announces the publication of Exquisite Captive, a YA fantasy and the first book in the Dark Caravan Cycle trilogy.

Sunisa Manning W Her essay “Here Be Dragons,” adapted from her graduating lecture, was published in The Rumpus magazine. Mike Minchin W His story “Neighbors” won the 2015 Vermont Writers’ Prize and was published in Vermont Magazine. Other published stories include “Our Son the Dragon” in”GreenZine,” “In the Bodies of Beautiful Fish” in Mud Season Review, and “Tools” in Gargoyle Magazine. Mike was also interviewed by Mud Season Review and the interview, Visceral, Vicarious Experience, was published on their website. Jessica Muñiz-Collado M composed music for the pilot episode of the TV mini series, Saudade. The episode, titled Collide, debuted in November 2015.

2014 Cai Xi Silver VA exhibited Sweeping Under The Rug, the 2014 installation of The Pink Slip Project, an outdoor mixed media project featuring a rug, a handmade mop, sewn pink slips, and a school chair at CX Silver Gallery, Brattleboro. Cai also curated a 50-year retrospective exhibition and designed the accompanying publication on Fluxus artist Nye Ffarrabas.

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2015 Kate Gray GD exhibited her solo work, DualTies, at Lela Raney Wood Hall at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.

Bonita Tanaka GD accepted a tenure-track faculty position as Professor of Graphic Design at Arkansas State University in the Art and Design Department.

Sophfronia Scott W Her essay “Why I Must Dance Like Tony Manero” was named a finalist in Ruminate Magazine’s 2014 VanderMey Nonfiction Prize and was published in the magazine. Other published pieces include “Honoring Autumn” in Barnstorm, “Calling Me By My Name” in Killens Review of Arts & Letters, “Batty’s Wig Bears Witness” in Sleet Magazine, “Murder Will Not Be Tolerated” in the Saranac Review, and “Sometimes God Wears Orange Cowboy Boots” in Paddle Shots: A River Pretty Anthology. She was also a featured guest on the show “Voices from the Garden on the Writer’s Voice” on WIOX Community Radio.

Kathryn Kamin MC presented at the National Association of Music Education’s 2015 National In-Service Conference in October. Her presentation was called Incorporating Composition into the Classroom: Tips and Tricks to Get Your Students Creating Their Own Masterpieces!

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Lori Grinker VA led “The Freelancer’s Life (but is it a living?)” session at the Boston University “Power of Narrative” symposium.

Anu Kumar W published essays and short pieces in Scroll.in, an Indian web news magazine.

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J. Wren Supak VA was an Artist in Residence at the Hungarian Cultural Center in Budapest, Hungary along with two other international artists for the month of June 2015. The residency entailed a final show, studio visits, artist talks, a symposium on artistic collaboration, and research for her studio work titled Underpinnings, a biographical exploration of personal and genetic memory.

Marjorie Halloran MC won the 2015-16 Youth Inspiring Youth – Commissioning Emerging Composers competition. She will be working with world-renowned choral composers to write a new work for WomenSing, an all female choral ensemble based out of the San Francisco Bay area, to be premiered in June 2016. Tyler Oswald WCYA has accepted a one-year position as visiting faculty at Brigham Young University – Idaho to teach freshman composition and children’s/YA literature, and “couldn’t be more excited to share what I’ve learned as a member of the VCFA community.” Wendy Powell GD The Crane Paper website recently featured Wendy’s work, which involves abstract form-making using color pigments suspended in water and a unique process to apply the color to paper— most notably Crane & Co. Lettra paper, a favorite of printmakers.

Dana Rau WCYA announces the publication of her latest book, Who Was Marie Anoinette?, in Grosset & Dulap’s “Who Was?” Series.

2016 Erin Beckloff GD successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign of more than $70,000 to fund her documentary film project Pressing On. This is a documentary about the survival of letterpress and the remarkable printers who preserve the history and knowledge of the craft. The film is currently in production as part of Erin’s thesis work in the Graphic Design program.

In Memorium Pamela Perkins-Frederick 03 W passed away in February 2014 and Leslie Williams 84 W died in March 2015. Each was a fine writer and wonderful member of our program community. They will both be greatly missed by their VCFA friends and faculty.

2016 Veronica Cross VA exhibited Rich Inner Life, a solo project within With Love, With Light – a Prospect 3 Biennial P3+ Exhibition, at the Tigermen Den Gallery, New Orleans.

VCFA welcomed two new members to its Board of Trustees this fall— Rafael Attias and Michael Goldstein. Attias graduated from VCFA’s Master of Fine Arts in Film program in October 2015. Attias’s background is in graphic design and art direction. His work continues to evolve each year, from traditional abstract paintings to experiments in audio/ visual narratives, film, musical instrument building, soundtrack scores, sculptural installations, and performances. His work has been shown in New York City, Miami, Providence, Cambridge, and Dublin, Ireland. A native of Venezuela, Attias lives in North Kingstown, R.I. where he teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Goldstein, based in Washington, DC, is co-leader of the higher education practice at Cooley LLP, a law firm with offices across the US. Goldstein is a leading expert in online learning and is a key member of the UNESCOCHEA Task Force on Degree Mills. He has long served as General Counsel to the American Association of Community Colleges. He has worked with several arts programs and education organizations across the country.

Thank you for supporting VCFA and our belief that art matters, that it is essential, and that it makes the world a better place. Thank you for your support of Vermont College of Fine Arts. So much has happened this past year and we truly could not have accomplished any of it without the support of our vast community. As VCFA continues to grow, so does the scope of the VCFA Fund—the only avenue for unrestricted giving at the college. The VCFA Fund supports nearly half of all scholarships offered to students as well as: • Residency events, such as lectures, readings, exhibitions, film screenings, and performances • Bringing esteemed faculty, visiting writers, artists, and designers to campus • Hunger Mountain, The VCFA Journal for the Arts • The Vermont Book Award events, and so much more. This year we are happy to reintroduce the Arts Leadership Circle, a special giving program for donors who make gifts of $1,000 and above. Members of the Arts Leadership Circle will receive discounts to college-hosted programs and events such as Hi-Res (our cross-program reunion) and the Vermont Book Award Gala, recognition on our website and in VCFA publications, invitations to special events, access to more content via the Alumni Commons, and more. To join the Arts Leadership Circle or to receive more information about this special giving program, please contact Director of Development Alissa Auerbach at: alissa.auerbach@vcfa.edu or (802) 828-8555.

Being part of the VCFA community has forced my hand—either rise to its level or find a new line of work. It’s impossible to quantify how much I’ve learned from both my faculty mates and our wonderful students, and I see them all as an integral part of any success I’ve had. So, it makes me happy to contribute in any small way that I can. I feel like I’ve received so much more than I’ve given, and it’s important to me to make sure that this wonderful place is still here in the years to come.

Kathi Appelt, WCYA faculty

vcfa.edu/support-vcfa

juxtaposition T.W. Wood Gallery – Café Anna: 48

the classic and the contemporary

The celebration of art remains at the heart of this College Hall space The T.W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center, a wonderful part of Vermont’s artistic heritage as well as Montpelier’s cultural scene since the late 1800s, was based in College Hall from 1985 until 2012 and witnessed the evolution of this campus from Vermont College/Norwich University to Union Institute and then VCFA. The Gallery, with its permanent collection that dates back to its founding, also hosted contemporary art exhibitions and served as a venue for concerts, lectures, and even a children’s summer art camp. The Gallery also hosted the MFA in Visual Art exhibition twice each year. Today that same space is home to VCFA’s Café Anna, a pop-up café that opened in 2013. Café Anna offers a wonderful gathering place during residencies as well as a comfortable on-campus spot for readings, a place to grab a bite to eat, and an exhibition space for VCFA student work.

By Michelle Singer, Writing Program Assistant

Excerpted from a longer piece published in the Oct. 15-Nov. 4, 2015 issue of The Montpelier Bridge.

Stories of doors closing suddenly, items mysteriously relocating, pictures falling off walls at the same time, and glass breaking are common among VCFA staff. One story even involves furniture moving to block the door of an empty and locked office. But everyone knows it’s just Anna. Anna, VCFA’s resident ghost, met an untimely end in the late 1800s. On the early morning of May 29, 1897, Mildred Brewster, 22, knocked on the door of the home on East Liberty Street where Anna Wheeler, 17, lived. Rivals for the same man’s hand, Mildred and Anna spoke and then were seen walking down College Street past what was then the Montpelier Seminary and is now College Hall at VCFA. Shortly after, in view of the home of the man they both loved, Mildred shot Anna and then herself in the head with a .32-caliber revolver. Anna died that day; Mildred lived. And for as long as anyone can remember, Anna’s ghost has haunted College Hall. “There have always been stories about Anna, says Louise Crowley, program director for the MFA in Writing program for 35 years. The stories go way back, but the way people describe Anna is always the same—she’s not malicious. She is a presence, maybe mischievous, but not threatening.” Anna is such an acknowledged presence at VCFA that it only seemed fitting to name the new pop-up café in the building in her honor—Café Anna. We hope she likes it!

vermont college of fine arts

Anna Lives On at VCFA

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36 College Street Montpelier, v t 05602

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Thank you for being part of this vibrant and exciting VCFA community! YOU’RE ALWAYS WELCOME TO COME BACK HOME TO CAMPUS, AND OUR NEW HI-RES ALUMNI WEEKEND OFFERS THE PERFECT TIME TO DO SO. STAY TUNED FOR THE 2016 DATES.

Our first Hi-Res in late September was a fantastic opportunity to reconnect, enjoy readings, music and visual presentations, and be part of the excitement of our first Vermont Book Award Gala, as well as meet prospective students at our program-wide Open House. It was an incredible time on campus and we certainly missed you if you couldn’t attend.

We hope you’ll join us for Hi-Res 2016!