Studio 2011
The fourth biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art will be held October 29 – 31, 2011 in Doha, Qatar at the Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I.M. Pei, where twelve speakers will discuss specific objects in the Museum’s collection. The title of this year’s Symposium is God Is Beautiful; He Loves Beauty: The Object in Islamic Art and Culture, and the keynote address will be given by Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author for The New Yorker, who will discuss the Museum building as a work of Islamic art. The Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, organized by Drs. Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, is a leading international conference on Islamic art and culture. It is co-sponsored by VCUarts, VCUQatar and the Qatar Foundation. The first symposium was held in Richmond in 2004. The second, Rivers of Paradise: Water in Islamic Art and Culture, was held in Doha, Qatar in 2007. And Diverse Are Their Hues: Color in Islamic Art and Culture was the third biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art and was held in Córdoba, Spain in November, 2009. www.islamicartdoha.org
Donovan Continues to Shine Tara Donovan, a 1999 Sculpture + Extended Media MFA alumna, has received a much deserved VCU Star Award. The VCU Alumni Stars program, a biennial event sponsored by the VCU Alumni Association and the MCV Alumni Association, honors one graduate from each School who has achieved distinction at the national or international level that has reflected positively on the University and/or achieved distinction in his or her profession.
Sandra Wilkins, VCUQatar’s Fashion chair, has been tapped Best Professor in Fashion Designing from The World Education Congress Asia Awards. The awards are presented by Asian Confederation of Businesses and are presented to individuals and institutions who have surpassed several levels of excellence and set an example of exemplary leadership. The award ceremony took place September 25 at the Taj Palace Hotel, Dubai.
Donovan uses materials such as tape, pins, and straws en masse to create large scale sculptures that often have a biomorphic quality. Her many accomplishments include a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and winning a 2008 MacArthur Fellowship. Above, and on cover: Untitled (Mylar), 2011, installed in Tara Donovan: Untitled (Mylar), 2011, March 4 through April 9, 2011. The Pace Gallery, 545 West 22nd Street, NYC © Tara Donovan, courtesy The Pace Gallery. Photo by: G. R. Christmas/Courtesy The Pace Gallery. Top: Portrait of Tara Donovan, 2005. Photo by: Ellen Labenski /Courtesy The Pace Gallery.
VCU Institute for Contemporary Art on the Horizon arts.vcu.edu/ica Renowned architect Steven Holl will design VCU’s forthcoming Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), that will serve as a new gateway to the university and bring the most important, cutting-edge contemporary art exhibitions in the world to campus and the city of Richmond. Located at the corner of Broad and Belvidere, the ICA will be a signature building for the School of the Arts and VCU, representing the best in international contemporary architecture and art, and a valuable community resource for Richmond. The ICA, which is expected to be about 32,000-squarefeet, will feature approximately 9,000-square-feet of gallery space, an outdoor installation space, a 240-seat auditorium with tiered seating, classrooms, a gift shop, café, and more. It will provide a practical and dramatic space for VCUarts. “The ICA will provide a strong cultural connection between the university and the community, offering an innovative, welcoming space and exhibition venue for a broad and diverse audience,” said VCU President Michael Rao. Steven Holl Architects was selected from 64 competing architecture firms from around the world. “The enterprise is elevated with our choice of architect,” said Joseph Seipel, dean of the VCU School of the Arts. “We are excited to have Steven Holl, internationally recognized as one of the most-inspired and significant architects of our time. With Holl leading this endeavor, I am confident the ICA is destined to become an iconic building for VCU and the city of Richmond.” The ICA will be privately funded. Fundraising efforts are under way with leadership from Steve and Kathie Markel and Bill and Pam Royall. The ICA is expected to open in the spring of 2015. If you are interested in supporting this effort, please contact Joseph Seipel at 804.828.2787. Architect Steven Holl, photo courtesy Mark Heitoff
Shelter Restaged Last fall, VCU Dance engaged members of the New York dance company Urban Bush Women to restage the classic work Shelter, from the company’s repertory. As part of this endeavor, VCU alumna Samantha Speis was one of the two company members who was brought in to set and rehearse the dance for VCU Dance majors and to teach master classes in dance technique. This project was funded in part by a Masterpieces grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and it was performed in February, 2011. Shelter was choreographed by Urban Bush Women’s award winning Artistic Director, Jawole Zollar.
Unprecedented Exhibition for Richmond at VCUarts Anderson Gallery Environment and Object • Recent African Art On view at the Anderson Gallery through December 11 This exhibition presents work by contemporary African artists living in Africa and elsewhere. In sculpture, photography, painting, video and installations, these sixteen artists engage the environment in varied ways. Some create conceptually resonant images and objects that register the impact of urbanization or critique the human and ecological costs of resource extraction. Others employ strategies of accumulation and “recuperation,” fashioning dense, lyrical works that combine a love of abstraction with a commitment to the use of found materials. VCUarts Anderson Gallery, 907 ½ West Franklin Street. El Anatsui Lara Baladi Sammy Baloji Jerry Buhari Sokari Douglas Camp Viyé Diba Bright Ugochukwu Eke Romuald Hazoumé Garth Meyer Zwelethu Mthethwa Nnenna Okore George Osodi Georgia Papageorge Chéri Samba Yinka Shonibare Barthélémy Toguo Organized by The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, and co-curated by Lisa Aronson, Associate Professor of Art History at Skidmore, and John S. Weber, Dayton Director of the Tang Museum. arts.vcu.edu/andersongallery El Anatsui, Bukpa Old Town, 2009; aluminum and copper wire, 120 x 84 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Congratulations to the 2011 VCUarts Faculty Award Recipients Award of Excellence Charles West – Professor, Music Award for Distinguished Achievement in Teaching Susan Ganch – Assistant Professor, Craft/Material Studies Award for Distinguished Achievement in Service John Demao – Interim Chair, Graphic Design Award for Distinguished Achievement in Research Michael Jones McKean – Assistant Professor, Sculpture + Extended Media Photography and Film Associate Professor Sonali Gulati’s poignant film, I Am, has been accepted at 56 film festivals (so far) and has 20 screenings this fall. sonalifilm.com/I-AM.html I Am chronicles the journey of an Indian lesbian filmmaker who returns to Delhi, eleven years later, to re-open what was once home, and finally confronts the loss of her mother to whom she never came out. As she meets and speaks to parents of other gay and lesbian Indians, she pieces together the fabric of what family truly means, in a landscape where being gay was, until recently, a criminal and punishable offense. Her packed-house showing at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was extraordinarily well received.
Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Contemporary Arabian Gulf Poetry Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Contemporary Arabian Gulf Poetry will be released this fall, thanks to Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar students who first identified the need for a comprehensive collection of Arabian Gulf poetry. Assistant professor Patricia Paine Gibbons and adjunct professor Samia Touati Dietz of VCUQ, with assistant professor Jeff Lodge, formerly of VCUQatar and now of VCU Richmond, edited the anthology. The project was supported in part by a Qatar Foundation Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) grant. UREP seeks to promote “learning by doing” and “hands-on” mentorship activities as effective methods for undergraduate education. It is the first English language collection that presents the poets of the Gulf region. The anthology invites readers into the rich and vibrant world of the Arabian Gulf, while making available important literary works being undertaken by poets of this region. The cover was designed by 4 VCUQatar students: Nawar Al-Mutlaq, Aisha Al-Naama, Al Hussein Wanas, and Ameera Makki.
Professors Honored with Guggenheim Fellowship Congratulations to Corin Hewitt and Stephen Vitiello, recipients of the Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the top honors available for artists in the US. Both received the award in the category of Fine Arts – there were only 19 in total. This makes the 9th Guggenheim Fellowship for VCU faculty and alumni since 2002. Hewitt, an assistant professor in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, has also recently received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, another one of the art world’s top awards. He is a sculptor whose work centers on setting up cultural questions in arranged spaces and then examining those questions in a variety of ways. Hewitt’s work has appeared in such venues as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Seattle Art Museum, the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Norway, the Wanas Foundation in Sweden and through the Public Art Fund in a public installation in Brooklyn.
Corin Hewitt, photo by Amanda Sanfilippo
Stephen Vitiello, photo by Naoko Wowsugi
Vitiello, an associate professor in the Department of Kinetic Imaging, is an electronic musician and sound artist whose work has been showcased at outdoor installations, galleries and other venues around the world. His work has been featured in recent solo exhibitions at the Kaldor Public Art Projects in Sydney, Australia; the High Line in New York City; Museum 52 in London; the Project in New York City; and Galerie Almine Rech in Paris. Among the group exhibitions that have included his work are the Biennale of Sydney, the Whitney Biennial, and through January 9, 2012 he will be part of MoMA PS1’s major exhibition reflecting upon the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Interior Design in Top Ten arts.vcu.edu/interiordesign DesignIntelligence 2011 has named the Department of Interior Design one of the top ten interior design programs in the country, recognizing the excellent work of faculty and students. Both the BFA and professional entry level MFA programs are accredited by the Council of Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA). In other Interior Design news, MFA student Emily Smith was named 2011 Volunteer of the Year for the James River Green Building Council. Emily has volunteered with the JRGBC since 2007. Last year, she chaired the committee for the Green Spaces Design Competition, which “focuses on a regional issue related to responsible land-use and/or sustainable building practices.”
Fashion Administrative Changes arts.vcu.edu/fashion She’s been a full time Fashion faculty member for 10 years, and now Donna Reamy has taken the reins as the interim chair of the Department of Fashion Design and Merchandising. Assistant Professor Kim Guthrie and Associate Professor Kristin Caskey will take on the duties of interim assistant chairs of the department. Former Chair Karen Videtic will be moving to a faculty position and will once again share her expertise and incredible knowledge with Fashion students.
2011 Sculpture MFA Grads Bring in the Grants Congratulations to these recent alumnae. Ashley Lyon: won the Elizabeth Greenshields $15,000 fellowship. Ana Esteve Llorens: received a $10,000 DKV Grand Tour 2011 grant. Jennifer Lauren Smith: won the $10,000 Toby Devon Lewis Fellowship
VCU Takes Note of Art Students in a Big Way Each summer, the VCU Office of Research awards 15 undergraduate students $3000 to conduct research over a span of 10 weeks with a faculty mentor of their choice. The award is offered through the VCU Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program to those whose research proposals show the greatest potential for learning and discovery. This year, three VCUarts students received research funding: Ilijana Soldan, an Interior Design major will partner with Roberto Ventura on her project, “Historic Socialist Architecture in Modern Interpretation: Nazi Architecture in 21st Century Germany." Theresa Aileen Painter, in Painting and Printmaking, will work with Ron Johnson on a project that will combine art and engineering to provide a means to represent sound and music in a physical artistic display. Tobias Wilbur, a Graphic Design major, will work with two mentors, Meaghan Dee and Jamie Mahoney, on a project entitled, “Mark and Pattern: A visual reference of Maori Art and Technique."
Siemon Allen Represents South Africa in Venice Biennale
Cinema Students and Alumni Work with Spielberg
www.siemonallen.org
Eight recent Cinema Program graduates have been hired and have begun working on Steven Spielberg's film, Lincoln, currently being filmed in the Richmond/Petersburg area. Several current Cinema students have also been hired or given internships on the film.
Siemon Allen, who teaches in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, was one of three artists chosen to represent South Africa in the 54th Venice Biennale. For the exhibition, Allen presented five large scale digital prints and a site specific installation made with 2500 digital prints of record labels from the artist’s large and ongoing South African audio collection. The exhibition runs through November 27, 2011. Siemon Allen, Labels. 2500 digital prints, panel made with CD sleeves, 50’ long X 12’ wide. Photo by Kendall Buster.
Art Education Student Links Schools in Richmond and Guatemala arts.vcu.edu/arteducation Under the guidance of Jan Johnston, Art Education student Virginia Driggers (pictured left) conducted a summer research project in which she used an art exchange model to build a connection between an art center in Richmond and an elementary school in the rural highlands of Guatemala. Virginia received the Creative Summer Research Fellowship offered in 2010, and the Deans International Study Grant in 2011 to lead the first high school Mayan Art Program trip to Guatemala. And the accolades continue to pour into Art Education. Dr. Pamela Taylor was named a National Art Education Association Distinguished Fellow, in acknowledgement of her distinguished contributions to the field. The Department of Art Education now boasts two NAEA Distinguished Fellows as Dr. David Burton was honored in 2005. Dr. Melanie Buffington was selected as Southeastern Region Higher Educator of the Year and Dr. Sara Wilson McKay was selected as Virginia Higher Educator of the Year. Photo Credit: Tim Chumley
New Team of Support Seekers
Pollock-Krasner Grant for Chan Amy Chan, Art Foundation adjunct faculty and Painting & Printmaking MFA alumna, is a recipient of a prestigious Pollock-Krasner grant. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation’s dual criteria for grants are recognizable artistic merit and demonstrable financial need, whether professional, personal or both. Above: Desert 1, 15” x 18” gouache and acrylic on paper, 2010.
VCUarts has formed a team to build the research capacity of the School to seek federal and foundation support for the numerous high quality creative investigations already conducted by faculty. The team also defines partnerships and collaborations with university, alumni, community, industry, and government sponsors on translational research projects. Working in this capacity are Susan K. Roth, senior associate dean; Matthew Woolman, director of design entrepreneurship; and Sarah B. Cunningham, executive director of research. Dr. Cunningham, the newest addition to the deans office, was recently named one of the country’s up and coming “Most Powerful and Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts”. Above, left to right: Susan K. Roth, Matthew Woolman, Sarah B. Cunningham
VCUQatar Fashion Student Already Selling Her Designs Many Fashion students only dream of having their creations in luxury boutiques like Cugini in The Pearl, Qatar, but it’s happening now for one very talented and passionate student. Described by her Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar professors as a natural born talent, Selina Farooqui’s designs are impeccably detailed and transcend trends. “I discovered my love for fashion in high school. I had always loved art, sketching and painting. It was my last year of high school when I started designing accessories. I filled up entire sketchbooks with drawings of shoes and jewelry. My interest in fashion started to grow from small accessories to dresses for myself and now to designing all kinds of ready-to-wear and luxury garments. When it came time for me to choose which university to go to, the choice was clear to me. I wanted to study fashion design, and I was accepted to VCU Qatar, and haven’t looked back since.” Cugini boutique owner, Heba Al-Okar, said of Selina’s work, “Just in the first day, we sold several of her designs. Our customers don’t even notice that these designs were made by a student because the quality is so good.”
Faculty Receive $30,000 Presidential Research Initiative Program Award
Graphic Design Alumni Ride 3,000 Miles in the Name of Sustainability
In the spring, Robert Meganck, professor, Communication Arts; Matt Wallin, associate professor, Communication Arts; and Peter Martin, adjunct instructor, Physics, were recognized for their work in the project “Dimensional Color.” Their work revolved around research and development of a color identification and relationship system and 3D interactive tools including web based software and mobile applications for use by artists, engineers, scientists, and educators. The model would support the mapping of specific colors, color space and complements in various formats.
ridealabamboo.com On July 30th, Graphic Design alumni Marc O’Brien (BFA 2008), Jason Vernal Dilworth (MFA 2009) and two other cyclists ended a 3,000 mile, 9 state, 56 day bike ride from Greensboro, Alabama to San Francisco on bikes made from Alabama-grown bamboo. They’ve been sharing the Alabamboo story to anyone willing to listen, eager to learn, and interested in knowing more. The Alabamboo initiative is a growing movement to bring sustainable bamboo production to Alabama, thus strengthening the economic and social fabric of the rural south. The US is the largest importer of bamboo in the world, with no domestic, commercially available supply of its own. Alabamboo hopes to one day represent the largest domestically available resource.
Heard the One About the Artist Who Got His Brain Scanned? Matt King’s interest in neuroscience is an extension of a more general questioning of subjectivity that permeates his work. King, assistant professor in Art Foundation and Sculpture, was curious to see how fMRI technology, with its aura of technological precision, might be used to reveal something intangible about himself, so he worked with Dr. Kettenmann, an assistant professor in Radiology, to design an experiment in which King’s brain was scanned while he listened to his brother tell him a series of jokes. The fMRI data was filtered to isolate his brain activity at the moment of hearing the punch line, in an attempt to visually document emotional response. He thought that by pushing to the limits of what could scientifically be known about his own consciousness, he could get closer to understanding what is unknowable about a particularly complex relationship. King likes to think that the resulting images have as much to do with love, misunderstanding, family, laughter, and embarrassment as they do with anything we might call objective truth.
Don’t Try to Keep Up with Sterling Hundley www.sterlinghundley.com Communication Arts Assistant Professor Sterling Hundley has had a very busy year. He’s shown four pieces at the Society of Illustrators Museum of American Illustration in New York for the Book and Editorial Exhibition. The show will be presented in full color in Illustrators 53, America’s Original Annual of Illustration. A selection of 40 works will tour US colleges through June 2012. Hundley is one of a select group of artists chosen to illustrate the US Postal Service collectable “Forever” stamps for 2012. His stamp portrays Edgar Rice Burroughs with his famous literary creation, Tarzan. Hundley has also created stamp art that depicts Oveta Culp Hobby, journalist, business leader and founder of the Women’s Army Corps. A printed retrospective isn’t something you normally associate with someone in his midthirties. However, with so much impressive illustration work, Hundley has also had a beautiful retrospective monograph, Blue Collar/ White Collar (shown left), published by famed Adhouse Books this fall, with an exhibition at Ghostprint Gallery on November 4th. He will sign books at Velocity Comics on November 16th. He says the book “puts an exclamation point on his illustration career, as he embarks on painting.”
Stephen Alcorn Illustrated Award Winning Book about Odetta Holmes www.alcorngallery.com Stephen Alcorn, Communication Arts assistant professor, has written and illustrated Odetta: The Queen of Folk, the Fall 2010 Non-Fiction Parents Choice Gold Award winner and recipient of this year’s Carla Cohen Free Speech Award. Odetta Holmes, (1930–2008) was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement.” The story introduces young readers to Odetta, through lyrical text and striking paintings, which tell the story of the incredible singer whose life and works inspired such icons as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Tracy Chapman.
Remembering Two Who Left Their Mark Jerry W. Bates passed away on September 9, 2011, after a brief struggle with lung cancer. He had recently retired from VCU after 30 years as manager of the VCUarts Graphics Lab. Jerry touched a lot of people here, none more than Matt Charboneau. Matt writes, “Jerry Bates was our walking, talking archivist. He shaped us by how he captured us in frame, he captured us completely. We’re so lucky that we could capture some of his spirit, he spent his life behind the camera that remembered our happiest and most fruitful times and put in the labor that made our colors vivid and true. I’m so fortunate to have been bold enough to tell him I loved him the many times I talked to him.” Benjamin “Ben” Day, former professor of Communication Arts and Design and co-author of Typographic Design: Form and Communication, died July 14, 2011 at the age of 68. One of Day’s former students, Christopher Hibben wrote, “One of my most memorable encounters was at the grocery store on a summer afternoon, about 15 years ago. I saw Ben in the dairy section, and greeted him as he was lifting a dozen eggs out of the cooler. He turned to me, opened the carton and said, ‘Isn’t this remarkable. Look at the shape of these eggs. Look at the design, the perfection of their shapes.’ I had never stopped to seriously consider the structural beauty of an egg, or the visual harmony of twelve in two rows, but ever since that exchange at the grocery store, I think of his observation when I open a carton, and I do see the perfection in their design.” In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a scholarship established at VCU so that he may continue in spirit his passion for teaching. The Ben Day Memorial Scholarship for Graphic Design, PO Box 842519 at 325 N. Harrison St., Richmond, VA, 23284. Jerry Bates and Ben Day
Photography + Film MFA Student Honored with CAA Fellowship Alma Leiva, Photography and Film MFA student, has received one of the five College Art Association 2010–11 Professional Development Fellowships in the Visual Arts. These awards go to visual artists enrolled in MFA programs across the US. CAA initiated its fellowship program in 1993 to help student artists and art historians bridge the gap between their graduate studies and professional careers.
Obama Taps ‘92 Alumna for Arts Commission Teresita Fernández, 1992 Sculpture + Extended Media MFA, has been selected by President Obama to serve on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. This panel advises the government on national matters of design and aesthetics such as the design and site of national memorials and museums. Fernández (pictured above) is best known for her prominent public sculptures and unconventional use of materials, which are characterized by an interest in perception and the psychology of looking. Fernández is the youngest artist commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum for the recently opened Olympic Sculpture Park where her permanently installed work, Seattle Cloud Cover, allows visitors to walk under a covered skyway while viewing the city’s skyline through optically shifting multicolored glass. Her exceptional work has earned her a 2005 MacArthur Fellowship in addition to other prestigious awards.
Born in Honduras, Leiva works in photography, film, and installation. In her latest series, Celdas (Prison Cells), she builds sets in her studio that she then photographs. These absurd constructions allude to the way in which citizens in Central America, where she often returns to reseach and work, have learned to subsist within violent societies.
Photo credit: BFA/BillyFarrelAgency, courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York.
Students and an alumna from Fashion Design and Merchandising recently shared their textile and design innovations, featuring custom-made women’s nurses scrub tops for VCU Medical Center nurses. The VCU Health System Nursing Recruitment and Retention Council’s Image of Nursing subcommittee contacted the School for help in creating the new women’s nursing uniform. Hawa Stwodah, the project supervisor, and Kim Guthrie, assistant professor, assembled the team: Deanna Demonch, senior fashion design major; Susan Hricik, fashion merchandising alumna; and Ameya Chumble, senior English major. Hawa and Kim are alumnae of the department. This is just one of many interdisciplinary initiatives that the School has with the University and community at large. A group of prototypes will be evaluated by the nurses and a small team from the School of the Arts in the spring.
Generous Costume Donation to VCU Opera William Welty of Charlottesville donated an elegant costume collection valued at $200,000 to VCU Opera, part of the Department of Music, infusing the program with a professional opera company-quality collection featuring more than 1,000 articles. The pieces span generations and continents, representing a diversity of cultures and productions. “We feel very privileged and honored beyond utterance at this gift,” said Melanie Day, who is co-director, along with Kenneth Wood, of VCU Opera. Welty and his late wife, Louisa Panou, assembled the collection while operating Operafestival di Roma, a summer opera program they founded for young North American opera singers in Italy. Panou, a talented singer who was performing in some of Italy’s finest opera houses by the age of 16, served as the program’s artistic director for 10 years until her death six years ago. Day succeeded Panou as artistic director.
Our Time. Right Now. That was Rams Coach Shaka Smart’s mantra last year. I’m not a fan of sports analogies but his words transcend the court. This was a leader who had the audacity to believe that his team would go all the way. He had the guts to tell his team that it was their time and his team of players, who few had faith in, believed in themselves and did amazing things – well beyond anyone’s expectations. I often think the same way of our School of the Arts and, just a few decades ago, this was surely the case… a regional art school with talented players, but not ready for prime time. Not the right location. No pedigree halo from the young institution, Virginia Commonwealth University, just established in 1968. Why, here in Richmond, Virginia, has VCUarts attained the level of success and garnered the respect that it has? We don’t have a sprawling pastoral campus (but are extremely proud of our multifaceted urban setting). For a research university, our dedicated faculty members teach a great deal, both inside and outside of the classroom. We have a wonderful and committed support staff, but not in the numbers of other institutions. What is it that has made us who we are? We’re who we are because of Audacious Ambition. This is the belief that we can do it, and that our problems are only opportunities to push us further. Also, we are unique within the context of our peer arts institutions as we have the advantage of being an art school inside of a research university. VCU is designated a “Very High Research Activity” university by the Carnegie Foundation, which also has designated the university as a “Community Engaged” organization. Other top ranked programs cannot make that claim and their students cannot reap the benefits available to our students. Our position as a respected and integral part of this research university provides us with numerous cross-disciplinary connections. Not only do we reside in the midst of this university, we are also greatly respected by our colleagues across the campus.
Joe Seipel returned to VCUarts this spring to become dean. Seipel was a distinguished member of the VCU School of
My re-arrival on campus followed fortuitously and closely on the heels to that of VCU’s new president, Dr. Michael Rao, and almost in lock step with the hiring of the new provost, Dr. Beverly Warren.
served the school as senior associate dean and director of
In my now 35+ years as a member of VCUarts, we have never had better friends in high places. We have a university-wide roadmap for the future that is in tune with what, I believe, are many shared goals. This roadmap lays out a framework for the future and the plan acknowledges how important the School of Arts is to the value of the greater university.
graduate studies from 2002–2009. Before returning, he
From my point of view we could not be in a better position for success.
served as vice president of academic services at Savannah
The nature of our inquiry with critique and discussion has always focused on the new and imaginative and has established us as leaders in the kind of personalized education all universities strive for. From the studios to the stage to the lecture hall, our students’ education is a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week experience with personal connections to the faculty. Exhibitions, performances, lectures, late night practices and preparations and a community of cohorts focused on the deliberate and unflinching quest for perfection – that is VCUarts.
the Arts faculty for more than 30 years and most recently
College of Art and Design.
Our sister campus in Doha, Qatar provides students from the Middle East with the expertise of our art and design programs and gives our students in Richmond the opportunity to have a truly exceptional international experience. Most other institutions can only dream of such a global reach. We are deliberately working to expand the potential of our VCUQatar connection for our students, faculty and the programs across the School. We will work in unison to make those and our other
“Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.” -John Updike
important international connections available to all of our students. We live in a small world that is getting smaller, and if we do not move in this direction of international education, it will be to our detriment. Innovation, continually striving to increase our potential for national leadership in all of our disciplines, and providing international opportunities for our students is a goal of the University and one that mirrors our ambitions for the future of the School of the Arts. This is a time in history when our populations need more opportunities to reflect upon our condition. Our work as creative contributors to society is complicated and essential. We are charged with the task of providing a mirror for our society to see itself and the world we live in through our eyes. This at times can give our audience pleasure, sometimes we might offend, lots of times we confuse, but most always we contribute to the quality of life and vital sensory experiences that can otherwise be missed in the hustle of the day. We are the University’s caffeine. The city of Richmond gives us some amazing opportunities for engagement with the community. There is no fence around VCU, we are the city and the city is us. We have done much as a School to interact with the community from our efforts with the City schools, to the hundreds of musical and theatrical performances every year, to the arts exhibitions and design interventions, and the historical insights of our local architecture. The city and our connection to it are ripe with potential. Speaking of potential, the first major steps have been taken toward building a VCU Institute of Contemporary Art. The idea to build an Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) was initiated by our former dean, Richard Toscan. Because of unforeseen circumstances and the unfortunate passing of our previous architect, the plans had been in a state of limbo until recently. Initiated again by Interim Dean Susan Roth, and with the assistance of a truly amazing group of committed friends from the community, we are pursuing this dream with renewed enthusiasm and determination. Not long after I moved into my new position, we held an open call for proposals to choose the architect for the ICA. Sixty-three architecture firms from around the world submitted proposals- a VCU record. The unanimous choice was Steven Holl Architects, one of the most respected and sought-after architectural firms in the world. With Holl as architect, the ICA will receive worldwide attention. We are in the midst of fundraising to secure the $30 million needed to make this a reality. The ICA, slated to open in 2015, is planned to be 32,000 square feet, which will include 9,000 square feet of gallery space and a 240 seat auditorium and performance space. That space will have a performance area with a floating floor for dance, proper acoustic considerations for music and performance, capabilities for a Cinematheque, a lecture hall and more. The site is at the corner of Belvidere and Broad, the most traveled intersection in the city of Richmond with 60,000 cars passing by every day. This will be an iconic building for the city and its international exhibitions and performances and will bring national and international attention to the School of the Arts. Our children and children’s children will be reading about this piece of architecture by Steven Holl in their architectural history books. With the remodeled VMFA, the new Performing Arts Center downtown, the University of Richmond’s Modlin Center, the Visual Arts Center, the multitude of artist-run and exceptional private galleries, Richmond will be a destination city for the arts. My two years away from VCUarts, or two years of amnesia as I jokingly refer to it, were in fact instructional and gave me a chance to reflect upon VCUarts and the University and the Community in a way that, without that separation, I would not have been able to.
What I saw looking north from my desk as vice president in Savannah through a mixture of my memories and observations, was a School of the Arts that had chutzpah and confidence and a bit of braggadocios… a School that believed in itself. It had enough of the gritty underbelly to stay exciting – a little rough around the edges, but solid at the core. I saw our truly diverse students: from 98 foreign countries, sons and daughters of high powered executives, and students on the 6 and 7-year plan working 40 hours a week to make it to graduation. These young, ambitious and unique students come from coal country, the farms of rural America, the central cities of the Mid-Atlantic, to the suburbs of northern Virginia and the urban centers of the Northeast. That is the melting pot of VCUarts. This year, 40% of our applications and 27% of our entering freshmen come from outside of Virginia. Internationally, we have for thirteen years been able to share in the unique and beautiful culture of the Middle East with our sister campus in Doha. That is the rich mix that keeps the excitement flowing. I was at a teaching institution with a different focus than a major research university. I saw from afar the excitement for research at VCUarts. I never knew how much I would miss the conversations about the studio, or the new book or the last choreographed piece. I warmly remembered the intense arguments over the philosophical underpinning of our disciplines and the common bond that made those arguments so damn important. I remembered faculty’s intensity and commitment to their discipline. I remembered how that shaped them in their professional lives outside the classroom and how that love and energy for their discipline followed them back into the classroom. Ours is the most professional and dedicated faculty I have ever encountered. I saw this amazing School with an academic core and a group of professional musicians, actors, dancers, artists, designers, and academics, ALL intertwined. That is why I came back to VCU and for all who have given me this opportunity to lead the School, you have my heartfelt gratitude. I will do my absolute best to meet your expectations and to make sure this School is recognized for the special place that it deserves among the finest our international community has to offer. This is truly our time. Right now.
Students’ Designs Help Families Across the Globe Earlier this year, faculty from Fashion Design and Merchandising spearheaded a wearable art fashion show and auction as a benefit for ChildFund International, which helps more than 15 million children and their family members in 31 countries. The successful, well-attended event was held at the Reynolds Gallery. Students researched the globe to find inspiration for their designs. Marylin Li, a junior in Craft/Material Studies chose Vietnam. “My definition of simplicity used to be multiple colors and a simple design, but now I’ve realized that no color, and an organized and detailed design, can be just as intriguing.” Erin Bailey, a Fashion Merchandising junior, focused on Thailand. “Thailand is now on my top list of places to travel. It’s truly a place that is one of a kind.” Jennifer Robbe, a Graphic Design senior, selected Ecuador. "I wanted the bracelet to serve as a sign of remembrance to the owner on a daily basis of their child sponsored through ChildFund in Ecuador.” Sarah Robbe, a senior in Fashion Merchandising, chose Belarus. “This country has seemed forgotten for quite some time. This scarf celebrates helping Belarus by not forgetting them.” Photo credit: Elizabeth Gottwald/Wanderlust Photography
Theatre and Medicine Collaborate Theatre Department Chair David Leong (above, left) and Associate Chair Dr. Aaron Anderson created a VCU Standardized Patient Program in conjunction with the School of Medicine and the new Center for Human Simulation and Patient Safety. The project is the first such humanitiesmedicine collaboration in the U.S. and as such is designed as a model for other programs across the country. The purpose is to recruit, train, and supervise a pool of experienced role-players, or “Standardized Patients” who will supplement rather than replace, real patients. They are specifically trained to present the medical history, simulate the physical symptoms, and portray the emotions of the original patient upon whom their case was based. SPs are also trained to give students immediate, one-to-one rating and feedback on their performance. Additionally, Dr. Anderson and VCU Assistant Dean of Medical Education Dr. Alan Dow were awarded a Presidential Research Initiative Program (PRIP) grant to “Assess the Effects of a Communication Curriculum of Theatre-based Skills on Medical Students’ Communication Skills and Patient Perceptions of these Students.” The PRIP grant was only one of two non-science-engineering grants awarded by the VCU Office of the President. As a result of his outstanding service to the School of Medicine, Dr. Aaron Anderson received a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine.
Kinetic Imaging Students Win Big for Gaming & Animation brassringawards.org/winners Congratulations to the many Kinetic Imaging students who won 2011 Brass Ring Awards in the Gaming and Animation category, which includes video and 2D animation. The competition is designed to motivate and reward students for excellence in art and design. This marks the 25th year for the Brass Ring Awards, which attracted 1,239 entries in 2010, from 60 universities and 18 high schools. Video category: Silver: Michele Seippel – TCHEFUNCTE Bronze: Eileen Halpin – A Marionette’s Rhapsody Merit: Evelyn Fisher – The Wanderer Merit: Anthony Castillo – What Is Another Sky? 2D animation category: Gold: Janice Singley – Popoki Silver: Rachael Glasgow – The Lost Sheep Bronze: Eileen Halpin – Get Happy Merit: Adam Rosenberg – A Very Large Number of Microphones (pictured above) Merit: James Chan – Kroger Story
VCUarts Faculty Recognized by Art Matters Art Matters is a foundation created to assist artists who make work intending to break ground aesthetically and socially. Support is provided to encourage exploration of issues and ideas; experimentation in visual arts, media, and performance; and presentation of new art. Two of our own have been tapped. Craft/Material Studies chair and professor Sonya Clark’s grant supports travel and research in Jamaica, Ghana and the UK towards the project Black Hair and Tilled Land: Combing through Canerows, (pictured left) exploring the history of sugarcane and Afro-Caribbean hairstyles named for the Triangle Trade cash crop. Hope Ginsburg, assistant professor in Art Foundation, has received support for travel to the reef atolls off the coast of Belize to study the sea-sponges that grow there as part of the artist’s ongoing social artwork project Sponge.
Fulbright Funds Art History Research Kerry Lucinda Brown (pictured), a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History, spent the 2010 – 2011 academic year in Nepal on a Fulbright student scholarship conducting research for her doctoral dissertation, a study of art and ritual among the Newar Buddhist community of the Kathmandu Valley. Kerry was also the recipient of a 2011–2012 PEO Scholar Award of $15,000 to support her dissertation work.
Independent Art Films at New Cinematheque arts.vcu.edu/cinema/cinematheque Cinephiles are rejoicing with the introduction of VCUarts Cinematheque, a series of 10 world and independent art films to be screened at the Grace Street Theater – and it’s free. “This series will provide a new opportunity for the VCU and Richmond community to experience great films in a setting and format that honors the work” said Rob Tregenza, VCUarts Cinema director and professor, and Cinematheque programmer. Upcoming screenings at time of printing: 10/18 Nostalgia for the Light by Patricio Guzmán Area: The Masters/Documentary 10/25 Hukkle (Hiccup) by Gyorgy Palfi Area: Open Vault/Art Cinema 11/8 Certified Copy by Abbas Kiarostami Area: The Masters/World Cinema 11/22 Le Quattro Volte by Michelangelo Frammartino Area: World Cinema 11/29 Mother and Son by Aleksandr Sokurov Area: Open Vault/Art Cinema 12/6 A Screaming Man by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun Area: World Cinema
Glenna Barlow, a recent Art History graduate, was awarded a Fulbright student fellowship to spend the 2011–12 academic year conducting research on decorative motifs in Indian folk art. Barlow’s article “Hybrid Text: Re-Evaluating Calligraphic Modernism in Pakistan," was accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed online journal, Modern Art Asia. In other Art History news, Babatunde Lawal, professor of Art History, spent the Spring 2011 semester at the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. on a Senior Smithsonian Fellowship completing a book tentatively titled “Signifying the Thunderstorm Deity: Sango in Yoruba Art.” The book explores the interplay of word and image in Sàngó iconography as well as the changing transnational reinterpretation of Sàngó forms by artists of African descent in the Americas.
VCUarts Congratulates the 2010–11 Undergraduate Research Grant Winners Each year, students submit their collaborative proposals and the most innovative are awarded with a grant to get their project off the ground.
Selected proposals are featured here. For the full list of recipients as well as previous years’ projects, please visit arts.vcu.edu/ugrg
Photos by Photography & Film alumnus Harrison Möenich.
Artistry & Athleticism through Capoeira
Nonesuch
Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, will serve as artistic inspiration for students who will combine the skills of each of their artistic trades to explore how artistry can meet athleticism through Capoeira. The students will learn the foundations of each discipline, incorporate their own skills and perspectives, and explore the ways in which art forms interact to create one cohesive gallery exhibition revealing the relationship between artistry and athleticism.
Students in Photography and Film, Kinetic Imaging, Communication Arts and History will explore something that we can’t tell you about right now or it could ruin their project.
NICA Initiative: Nicaraguan International Collaborative Arts
Christine Billard, Fashion Design Cory Holm, Cinema Corey Martin, Art History Allison Simes, Graphic Design Seth Ylitalo-Ward, Communication Arts
Anonymous, Photography & Film Anonymous, Kinetic Imaging Anonymous, Communication Arts Anonymous, Photography & Film and Creative Advertising Anonymous, History Award: $2,950
Award: $2,550
Students will travel to Nicaragua for a two week art education program, aimed at discovering the benefits of teaching art across international borders and socioeconomic levels. In partnership with Orphanetwork, a program that does mission work and educates orphans, the students will promote the implementation of art education programs in Nicaragua, incorporating elements and principles of conceptual art-making to initiate exploration of selfexpression through different disciplines and mediums. Amanda Hitchcock, Sculpture + Extended Media Aissatou Barry, Kinetic Imaging Rachel Schneider, Art Education Award: $5,000
Breathing in the Performing Arts
Glass Eye Prosthetics This student will travel to Luascha, Germany to learn the art of glass eye blowing, an art used to make medical prosthetics and realistic eyes for taxidermy animals in museums. A video will be made documenting the teachings of a 3rd generation glass blower to share with students in the glass program. Sean Donlon, Craft/Material Studies Award: $3000
Students will coordinate a series of presentations by breathing specialists in each of the performing arts areas, and by a medical specialist in respiratory therapy. The presentations will educate students on the mechanics of breathing, the development of breathing, and different perspectives on breathing from other performing arts. Greyson Goodenow, Theatre Performance Pace Short, Dance and Choreography Joshua Wright, Music Education Award: $3,000
Revelations of Feminism in the VMFA Twenty-five paintings of nude women created by male artists from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will be studied, focusing on the shifting visual presentation of women in different periods to better understand the evolution of representations of the female body in art. Allison Jones, Painting + Printmaking Award: $743
Theatre Faculty and Students Promote Healing at Festival theconciliationproject.org Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, associate professor in Theatre, has returned from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest arts festival, with students who performed there to 5-star reviews. Theatre VCU partnered with The Conciliation Project – a non-profit social justice arts company, and the Global Education Department to produce “uncle tom:deconstructed.” The show confronts racism with a directness that can be unsettling. Nick Webster, a Theatre student who participated, said, “I’d never seen art used in such a productive way to create healing.” On an unrelated, but also exciting note, Professor Pettiford-Wates is now the voice for Duke’s Mayonnaise in TV, radio and online ads in the Southeast and Central markets.
VCU Music Forms Turkish Connection The Turkish Coalition of America says, “Jazz, music and the arts are a wonderful way to highlight how the enduring bond between these two nations is only getting stronger.” VCU Jazz Saxophone Professor Skip Gailes was named a Fulbright Specialist for 2010–11 and his project focused on jazz education in Turkey, where he had performed and taught jazz last March. Joining Gailes on piano and saxophone were VCU alumni Emre Kartari (founder of the first state-approved jazz program, and the new Jazz Department at Hacettepe University’s State Conservatory of Ankara) on drums and Matt Hall on bass. On the heels of the experience in Turkey, Gailes and VCU Jazz Studies Director Antonio Garcia proposed to the Department of Music and VCUarts an expanded relationship between VCU and Turkey’s Hacettepe University. Gailes returned to Turkey as a Fulbright Specialist from October
into December. (The September 2010 DownBeat Magazine even included a feature on the relationship.) VCUarts granted funds to VCU Jazz Studies founder and Jazz Arranging Professor Doug Richards to compose a new work that would join Turkish and American influences. Last November, VCU Jazz shared in a cyberconference with Gailes, Kartari, and Turkish students, bringing them together with VCU Jazz Professors Adam Larrabee and Garcia, as well as a number of Jazz students. Students on both continents performed for the others, followed by a question-and-answer session. Later that month, Richards’ work premiered in Turkey with Gailes, Larrabee (guitar), Rex Richardson (trumpet) performing among the The Hacettepe Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. Above: A wide look from Professor Gailes (on computer at the right) to Professor Larrabee on the left, as VCU Jazz trumpeter Victor Haskins performs. Photo credit: Antonio Garcia.
Welcome, Fountainhead Fellows The Fountainhead Arts Fellowship is a joint project of the VCUarts departments of Craft/Material Studies, Sculpture + Extended Media, Painting + Printmaking, and Fountainhead Development Services. It includes a residency in a newly renovated complex built to eco-friendly, EarthCraft standards. Craft/Material Studies: Stephanie Voegele received her MFA in May, 2010 from the University of Georgia. She taught in the Jewelry and Small Metals Department at Humboldt State University this spring. Stephanie’s work aims to unify what lives beneath with what is worn on the surface (pictured right.) In 2002, Ariel Brice graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He then earned a post-baccalaureate certificate in ceramics from Oregon College of Art and Craft, followed by an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has held artist residencies at the European Ceramics Work Centre in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and the Sculpture Factory, in Jingdezhen, China. Sculpture + Extended Media: Nancy Lupo received her BFA from The Cooper Union where she was the recipient of the Sarah Cooper Hewitt award, at l’École National Supérior des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France and at Yale University (MFA 2011) where she was the recipient of the Susan Whedon Award for excellence in Sculpture. Her sculptural installations unfold slowly and euphorically in the manner of a rebus where materials take the place of pictures, letters and symbols. Painting and Printmaking: Daniela Campins received her MFA in May 2010 from the University of California Santa Barbara, and her BFA in 2008 from the California State University Long Beach. The compelling visual style of Daniela’s work evidences an interest in the visual codes of contemporary culture: an inventive architecture and perception-inspired visual language and formal elements all play out in a spectrum from implied narratives to pure abstraction.
Caskey’s Creation Wins Excellence in Textile Design Fashion’s Kristin Caskey has received the 2010 ATEX Professional Member Award for Excellence in Marketable Textile Design. This monetary award was peer juried at the international design competition of the International Textile and Apparel conference in Montreal, Canada. The winning ensemble, pictured here, is titled A New Suit of Clothes. Assistant Professor Caskey designed, printed, and made all prints, fabrics and garments.
Traveling Exhibition Now in its Sixth Year Eleven Virginia artists, six of whom are affiliated with the Department of Painting + Printmaking, have been part of an ongoing exhibition since 2005. Entitled Constructs, this living, breathing exhibition focuses on abstract painting that highlights singular works of art fabricated through the combination of many elements. Each installation reflects the evolving creative process of the artists by featuring new works at each venue. The latest incarnation took place in Space 301 in Mobile, Alabama. The artists include Sally Bowring, Don Crow, Steven Cushner, Reni Gower, Chris Gregson, Steven Griffin, Ray Kass, Ron Johnson, Paul Ryan, Javier Tapia, and Dan Treado.
Four Months in the Life of Rex Richardson Rex Richardson’s summer began in Europe. The associate professor in the Department of Music performed classical and jazz concerts in L’Olleria, Spain and Aveiro, Portugal, recorded tracks for Thomas Wolf’s Harmonic Obsession project in Essen, Germany before having meetings with Yamaha Europe in Hamburg. But that was just the beginning. In June, he was the guest artist at the Philadelphia Big Brass chamber brass seminar at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He then served on the Music for All Jazz faculty at Ball State University. In July, he performed concerts with Rhythm & Brass at the Arkansas and Oklahoma Bandmasters Association conferences and was a featured artist at the Grand Valley State University International Trumpet Seminar. Time to come home and relax, right? Not quite. In August, he presented the Scottish and brass band version premier of Jim Stephenson’s “Rextreme” Trumpet Concerto with the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland. He then flew to Korea where, after a meeting with the Yamaha Korea staff, he flew to Jeju Island, where he performed as a soloist with a Chinese Wind Ensemble from Guangzhou at the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival. Boy, are his arms tired.
Xu Bing works with VCUarts Students & Faculty on Tobacco Project One of China’s most groundbreaking contemporary artists, and MacArthur genius, Xu Bing, has collaborated with students from VCUarts departments of Craft/Material Studies, Painting & Printmaking, and Sculpture + Extended Media. The month of February brought Xu Bing to Richmond to work with several teams, in studios provided by Painting & Printmaking and Craft on Xu Bing: Tobacco Project. VCUarts students and alumni have continued to work on the labor-intensive project at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Tobacco Project will be on view at the VMFA through November 27, 2011. Photo credit: Jon-Phillip Sheridan
Interior Design Students Travel Internationally
Creative Workforce Fellowship for Craft Alumna
For the sixth year, Interior Design students traveled and studied design with Virginia Tech’s Interdisciplinary Summer Education Abroad Program. Fifteen students, along with VCUarts Interior Design Assistant Professor Roberto Ventura and two Virginia Tech faculty traveled through Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, studying the built environment at scales ranging from urban planning to product design through analytical sketches, critical dialogues, and independently driven research over five and a half weeks. Aside from the students’ individual explorations, they had opportunities to visit significant architectural works with behind the scenes tours (Parco della Musica, Rome), experience world-class design offices (The Renzo Piano Foundation, outside Genoa), and have guided lectures by international faculty (economic geographer Heike Mayer, of the University of Bern).
Roberta Williamson, 1976 Craft/Material Studies MFA alumna, received a one-year, $20,000 fellowship for her outstanding work as a jewelry and metalsmith artist. Out of 310 applicants in craft, design, media and visual artists, Roberta was one of 20 artists to receive a Creative Workforce Fellowship. Additionally, Fellows receive a one-year membership to the COSE Arts Network, and a tuition waiver to CPAC’s Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute.
Alumni, where are you now? esterknows.com/where-are-you-now We want to know about your successes, and so do prospective students and your fellow alumni. Please upload your bio and image to esterknows.com/ where-are-you-now and you may be featured.
It’s a SNAAP Survey snaap.indiana.edu/snaapshot If you graduated from VCUarts, you may receive an invitation from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) to participate in a comprehensive survey about arts grads. Your input is important and we hope you’ll take a few minutes to take part. 13,581 arts alumni participated in the last survey and contributed to findings about earnings, skills, locations, and more. It’s fascinating and informative, and your input is important for future findings.
Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts PO Box 842519 Richmond, Virginia 23284-2519
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