VCUarts Studio Spring 2023

YOU ARE THE ONES WHO SEE THE PATTERNS AND HIDDEN STRUCTURES OF OUR COMPLICATED AND UNCERTAIN WORLD.

Chad Mundie (MFA ’22), Kinetic Imaging

Contents From the Dean

03 VCUarts News

10

Undergraduate Work

14 At Home on Governors Island Graduate students from the Department of Kinetic Imaging took their work up the road to New York City. Revisit their experience of Governors Island in their own words and images.

20 Devising Change

Supported by a generous gift, the VCUarts Department of Theatre is taking on the big questions and leading change in the community. The show has already started.

26 Emerging Light

Under new leadership, the VCUarts Cinema Program is expanding its reach and vision. Discover how our youngest program is devising incredible hands-on learning experiences for the next generation of American filmmakers.

30

Beyond White Walls

With the help of a unique, immersive course, VCUarts students experience the world of professional curatorial practice in real time.

36 MFA Work

40 Faculty News

46 Student News

48 Alumni News

52 Last Look

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts is a public nonprofit art and design school in Richmond, Va. Founded in 1928, VCUarts offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees across 16 areas of study, as well as two doctoral degrees through affiliated programs. Our campus in Doha, Qatar offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five areas.

Welcome to the spring issue of Studio magazine. Featured in this issue are the research, education and practices at VCUarts that reflect our enthusiasm and pride.

Whether in our classrooms and theaters, or our studios and online environs, VCUarts explores myriad intersections of creativity, culture, innovation and expression. The faculty and students bring forward-thinking energy to the many spaces of VCUarts, with programs and curriculum that offer rich, generative intellectual and creative experiences.

As part of an urban research institution, VCUarts embraces unique collaborative engagements between and with colleagues at the university and those around the world. And we will continue to realize and expand our vision of the arts as essential to research when we break ground on the Arts and Innovation

Academic Building this fall—a project slated to be the largest and most vital arts education and performance center in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Studio magazine offers a glimpse at our continued evolution as a top-ranked public school of the arts, and also serves as a guide for your sustained involvement as enthusiastic supporters and friends. Evidence of our curiosity, rigor and pursuit of excellence is apparent in the work presented here.

The Cinema Program, now progressing into its second decade, puts students in the classroom with seasoned industry professionals and the tools of their trade.

An experiential course in curatorial practice offers intensive research and practical experiences, as students develop and maintain professional connections— all before they receive their degrees.

Our Kinetic Imaging program is ranked fifth in the country because of its embrace of motion-based media and environmental presence. Its latest project shows that arts practice and research wear many faces at VCUarts.

The Theatre program is a pioneer in social justice action and our faculty is building on that tradition with the generous support of the community. Inside, you will find more about the future of the performing arts at VCU and how we are continuing to change everything—on stage and off.

We think the value of arts research is manifest in every moment of the human experience. The skills and experiences obtained propel our graduates to excel beyond the classroom. We celebrate the insights that all of our students and graduates bring to the works that clothe us, reveal sources of joy, shelter our families and help us to understand the stories of others.

That is the work that art does. This is the story Studio magazine hopes to share.

Thank you for reading,

Carmenita Higginbotham, Ph.D.

VCUarts Dean, Special Assistant to the Provost for VCUarts Qatar

Studio Magazine Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts

325 N. Harrison St. Box 842519 Richmond, VA 23284-2519

Micah Jayne Director of Brand Strategy

Ryan Sprowl

Art Director

Kelly Kerr Interim Executive Director of Communications

Jayla McNeill

Associate Director of Content

Diana Caramat

Jessica Casey

Kim Catley

Sarah Moore

Melanie Wynne

Xan Vessels

Kat Wilson

Contributors

VCUarts News

Arts and Innovation Building Project Approved by Virginia General Assembly

VCUarts is proud to share that the Arts and Innovation Academic Building project has been approved by the Virginia General Assembly and will break ground later this year. The AIAB, slated to be the most extensive publicly funded arts education building in the state, will provide collaborative opportunities for many of our growing departments, including Theatre, Music, Dance + Choreography, Communication Arts and the Cinema program. Positioned opposite the iconic Institute for Contemporary Art at the

bustling intersection of West Broad and Belvidere streets, the building will serve as a new gateway to campus, reshaping and breathing new life into the Broad Street arts corridor. More than 120,000 square feet of muchneeded studios, workshops, theaters and performing arts venues as well as classrooms, public spaces and offices await—all dedicated to providing students with a state-of-the-art venue for collaborative, creative work. Classes in the new building are slated to begin in fall 2027.

Artist Paul Rucker Awarded $2 Million in Funding for Richmond Arts and Research Space

The Mellon Foundation and Art for Justice Fund have awarded multimedia visual artist, composer and musician Paul Rucker $2 million to realize his Richmond-based Cary Forward project. It will be a multidisciplinary arts space, interpretive center, banned book library, artist/researcher residency and archival lending library that aims to address false narratives and preserve and promote invisible histories of race and gender.

Rucker serves as curator for creative collaboration at VCUarts and is an

iCubed Fellow in the Racial Equity, Arts and Culture Core, as well as a faculty mentor for the Black Arts Student Empowerment group. He envisions the Cary Forward project as a natural and crucial outgrowth of his role at VCUarts.

Dedicated to connecting the school and surrounding communities through creative activity, Rucker sees Cary Forward as a site for developing these relationships through deep listening practices. “Cary Forward will deliver its programming and initiatives from

a place of ‘show and tell’ in how we approach programming and public engagement,” he says.

The space will house more than 20,000 objects and will offer visitors opportunities to engage visiting artists, scholars and a corps of traveling docents who will lead dynamic, communitycentered programs. Regular offerings will include exhibitions, public programs, publications and onsite print and podcast studios.

The collection itself contains one of the largest photo archives of early incarceration in the United States. This includes images of chain gangs leased through the convict leasing program being forced to build roads, work in fields and even construct other prisons. Diverse artifacts such as an autographed photo of Frederick Douglass taken just

before his passing, images of Jesse Owens breaking records at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics and the full output of American civil rights activist Pauli Murray will also form the basis of a study center and impressive lending library.

Rucker hopes that the space can be a resource for local residents as well as VCU students, staff and alumni to engage in research. “I think it’s really going to be about cultivating community connections on the ground,” Rucker adds.

Cary Forward is expected to open in 2025 on Richmond’s West Cary Street. The center derives its name from enslaver Archibald Cary, for whom the popular thoroughfare is named, and Constance Cary Harrison, an American playwright and novelist who, along with two of her cousins, were known as the “Cary Invincibles’’ and sewed the first examples of the Confederate battle flag. The name further speaks to the necessity of bringing this history and additional facts to new audiences and generations.

Rucker says, “If we don’t bring knowledge and information forward, we can’t have a fully informed debate, we can’t have productive discourse.

“With African American studies being banned, and LGBTQ+ books also being banned from institutions, having access to this information is more important than ever. We need to take a very close and uncomfortable look at history, by leaning into truth and reconciliation. Then and only then can we have repair. I want Cary Forward to be the catalyst for repair.”

Agnes Gund, art collector and Art for Justice Fund founder, stresses, “Only by acknowledging our country’s history of racism and exploitation can we imagine a more just and safe world, free from mass incarceration and systemic harm. We’re inspired by artists like Paul who are illuminating the past to secure a better future.”

Kate Sicchio, assistant professor in the departments of Dance + Choreography and Kinetic Imaging, speaking about her collaboration with colleagues in the College of Enginieering on human-robot choreography. To read more about Sicchio’s work, visit: arts.vcu.edu/news/man-and-machine

Examples from the more than 20,000 artifacts in the Cary Forward collection.

“When we’re working on making new movement algorithms on the engineering side, that comes from making a new choreography and vice versa—when we make a new advancement on the engineering side, that feeds into the dance and the choreography in a meaningful way. We’re really lucky that we have that synergy.”

ANTHONY JOHNSON

Pollak Building Mural Celebrates Diversity, Education and Community

Sudanese street artist Assil Diab’s latest project—a mural on the Pollak Building at VCUarts—brought volunteers and students together to shine a light on education and community.

Diab graduated with a B.F.A. in graphic design from VCUarts in 2011. Soon after, she interned with FrenchTunisian street artist El Seed, which inspired Diab to pursue a career as a full-time graffiti artist. In 2021, she received VCU’s 10 Under 10 award for her activism work in Sudan and is credited with being the country’s first street artist.

After she was commissioned for this project by Holly Alford, director of inclusion and equity at VCUarts, Diab

began considering ways she could represent students through her work.

“I came up with the idea of doing a collage of typography—choosing different fonts for graphic design and lettering—but in different languages to represent the diversity of students that are at VCU.”

The typography is set against a large, eye-catching background that utilizes CMYK colors—cyan, magenta, yellow and black—to match the graphic design theme of the mural.

“I wanted to add a lot of color there,” said Diab. “With the background, I really just did what I felt I wanted to do with it, it wasn’t something that was really planned.”

Students and faculty joined 2011 VCUarts graduate Assil Diab to assist with the Pollak Building mural. Scan to watch a timelapse video of the installation.

ADMINISTRATION

Nancy Scott Retires After More Than 30 Years of Service to VCUarts

After decades of service, Executive Associate Dean Nancy Scott retired at the end of January. Her legacy coalesces in 30 years of impactful leadership and tireless commitment to the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Scott began her career at VCU in 1993 as an assistant professor in the Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising. She quickly moved into administrative roles as assistant department chair and assistant dean for academic affairs for the school. She was instrumental in the development of VCU’s campus in Doha, Qatar, and in 1999 became the associate director of the Shaqab College of Design Arts, now VCUarts Qatar.

Scott earned her B.F.A. at VCUarts and later went on to receive an M.Ed. in Adult Education through VCU. She continued to fuel her pedagogical passion as a graduate of the Institute for Management and Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education,

and she holds an International Business Certificate from VCU.

In 2001 she was promoted to associate dean for academic administration, a position she held through July 2019 when she was promoted to executive associate dean. Scott went on to serve as the interim dean for VCUarts from August 2019 to September 2020, prior to the appointment of Carmenita Higginbotham, Ph.D., as dean.

“For the last 30-plus years, Nancy has been an undoubtedly committed advocate for the School of the Arts whether in Richmond or in Doha,” said Higginbotham. “We are indebted to her vision and commitment to excellence in research, teaching and service that propelled the school to prominence, and her work ensured our success over the last decades.”

Scott looks forward to attending school and university events and continuing her engagement as a member of the VCUarts community.

VCUARTS QATAR

Dean Amir Berbić featured in Vogue Arabia

Dean of VCUarts Qatar Amir Berbić was included in the November 2022 Vogue Arabia feature “HE Sheikha

Al Mayassa Al Thani Handpicks the Movers and Shakers Taking Qatar to the Heights of Diverse Industries.” The article formed part of the highprofile magazine’s focus on Qatar during the FIFA World Cup, which was held in Qatar at the end of 2022.

According to the editor, those included in the feature represent people who are: “Influential, visionary, decisive, and empowered to serve. Handpicked by Her Excellency

Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, these are the movers and shakers taking Qatar to the heights of diverse industries.” The ‘list’ highlights cultural and academic leaders like Berbić, in addition to business and government leaders and members of the artistic and creative community who are moving Qatar’s burgeoning and diversifying economy forward.

Bringing the Vision to Life: A Note from Sarah Hendricks

Gifts to VCUarts drive forward the ambitious goals and vision of the entire school, directly impacting students and faculty on campus and reverberating into the community and beyond. Donors, including those highlighted in these pages, join a legacy of supporters who have helped define the School of the Arts for decades. Beginning in the 1930s, a $10,000 gift from Colonel Archibald Anderson purchased the building which now houses the Anderson. Today, hundreds of alumni, supporters, and friends invest in VCUarts each year, directly supporting the next generation of artists and innovative thinkers. The generosity of this community propels our collective creative efforts and we are grateful.

Looking ahead, continued and increased support from our alumni and friends is a high need and vital priority. Charitable

gifts—large and small, now and in the future—will allow us to reach even greater heights. Investments in our facilities will provide parity between the quality of work produced by faculty and students and the space in which it is produced. The establishment of new endowments will safeguard the permanence and vitality of our departments. And new scholarships will reward the efforts of our country’s most creative minds and ensure that students from all backgrounds have the resources they need to thrive.

Please consider reaching out to explore the different ways that you can contribute to our mission of providing world-class arts education to talented and deserving students.

Sarah Hendricks Executive Director of Development, VCUarts

Kenan Foundation Gift

In early 2022, The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust awarded VCUarts with a $500,000 grant devoted to scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students. The foundation inaugurated its formal grantmaking program in 1965 and provides special support to educational institutions in Florida, North Carolina, New York and Virginia. As a result of one of its latest efforts, VCUarts was immediately able to offer 43 need-based scholarships to enrolling students for the 2022-23 academic year. Daniel Drake, executive director of the trust, was particularly impressed with how the university’s programming achieves its mission of improving lives through education. Thanks to the generosity of the Kenan foundation, VCUarts

is better equipped to ensure retention by offsetting financial obstacles that could otherwise affect the college journey of its arts students.

James McConnell Gift to the Theatre Department

In June 2022, the VCUarts Theatre Department was awarded a stunning $5 million grant from James H.T. McConnell Jr., a resident of Charlottesville and lifelong theatre lover. McConnell has an impressive record of educational philanthropy, having supported the National Jewish Theater Foundation for nearly twenty years. VCUarts and VCU at large have a longstanding commitment to diversity, inclusion and social justice. It was for this dedication that McConnell felt the university fit to receive the grant. Nearly a third of the funds will be dedicated to the nascent

James H.T. McConnell Jr. Theatre Fellowship in Social Justice, an initiative that supports graduate students and social justice advocacy through performing arts. The remainder will establish the James H.T. McConnell Jr. Theatre Chair in Social Justice and the James H.T. McConnell Jr. Theatre Faculty Fund in Social Justice, two positions that will support faculty members whose work embody the spirit of social justice.

Pollak Society

VCUarts was born of the work of Theresa Pollak who, in 1928, taught the Richmond Professional Institute’s first-ever class. This painting course would plant the seed of what would grow into a marvel of arts excellence and innovation. The Pollak Society was established in 2005 to honor

that legacy: hers, that dared to support the arts, and the students’, who took the ambitious first leap into her class. The society is a philanthropic membershipbased organization, and its relationship with VCUarts students is similarly symbiotic. Membership gives profound financial support to VCUarts students and in-kind offers members premiere access to the brilliant Richmond arts scene. The philanthropy of Pollak Society members provides more than $100,000 each year to support all departments at VCUarts and countless students through scholarships, travel and research. Members have seen wonderful performances, viewed exclusive exhibitions, traveled across the world, and, most importantly, fostered close relationships with VCU artists and faculty.

Undergraduate Juried Exhibition

The following works are selected from the fall 2022 exhibition, which featured the work of 36 undergraduate students across multiple disciplines. The exhibition was juried by Lauren Haynes, director of curatorial affairs and programs at the Queens Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y.

4

& Izzy Rosenberg, Fabricated Rock and Documentation, cardboard, chicken wire, celluclay, tape, textured spray paint, 35mm film series of 5" x 7" photographs

5

, Postage Patterns, 2022, woven cotton, found stamps, 54" x 36"

1 Justin Cockrell, Friendship Bracelet for My Ancestors, weaving shuttle, handspun yarn, linen, soy, hair from the artist, indigo, 8" x 1¼"

2 Samisha Warrick, Self Portrait, 2022, oil on canvas, 9" x 12"

3 Eric Couture, Worlds IRL (Banners), (Why do people come together? What stories are you telling yourself?), one of two 15' x 8' cloth banners

Mishari Alduwaisan

Eileen Morley

6 Nadia Msalek, La Grande Odalisque, 28" x 58"

7 Lillian Parker, Her House, 2022, 120 400TX black and white film, Mamiya Rb67, fiber paper, 52" x 24"

8 Brianna Capelli, Solace: Chandeliers, 4' L x 2' W x 3' H (hanging)

9 Iyana Graham, Red, 18" x 20"

10 Kate Ogden, Soles, 15" x 10.5"

11 Mia Donalson, Untitled, two different ceramic bodies, blue glaze, maple wood, cables, green pillow, 2022, 4' x 2' x floor to ceiling

Just 800 yards from Lower Manhattan sits Governors Island, a 172-acre destination for arts and culture. In its earlier days in the late 18th century, the island housed a U.S. military fort. Troops lived and operated from the island during the War of 1812, and Confederate prisoners were held there during the American Civil War. Governors Island later housed a Coast Guard base until the mid-1990s, when the facilities were decommissioned and the area was designated a historic district.

Today, the two-story officer homes that line the grounds have been converted to galleries and studio spaces for arts organizations. Multidisciplinary artists from around the world come to show and perform their work.

The island’s storied past served as the inspiration for new work by Kinetic Imaging graduate student Kaitlyn Paston. In considering the rows of homes, she wondered about the high-ranking officers and their families who had previously occupied them. She thought about their wives who were tasked with creating value and making homes out of an empty space—just as the artists on Governors Island do today.

Paston had the opportunity to present that work on Governors Island this spring as part of a special exhibition featuring students in the Kinetic Imaging Grad Studio course, taught by Stephen Vitiello, department chair of Kinetic Imaging, and visiting artist Melody Loveless.

The exhibition grew out of an effort to introduce graduate students to curators and gallerists.

“We had $7,000 from VCUarts’ Office of Graduate Studies to go to New York or D.C.,” says Vitiello. “I thought we could never rent a gallery space for the money, but I reached out to Meredith Johnson, [vice president of arts and culture at the Trust for Governors Island], and asked, ‘Is there any chance we could do a short-term exhibition?’”

Johnson suggested Harvestworks, an experimental arts organization with whom Vitiello and Loveless have partnered on several projects. Harvestworks, which has a residency house on the island, happened to have a brief opening between exhibitions and offered the six-room house to the students.

First-year graduate students, like Paston, presented work specifically developed for the group exhibition, which also served as the department’s

candidacy show. The second-year students presented their thesis on campus at the Anderson (VCUarts’ student-run exhibition space) and either re-created the work or developed something completely new for Governors Island.

Preparing for the show from a distance presented a few challenges. Students began planning at the first class meeting in January and had several subsequent class sessions with Carol Parkinson, the long-time executive

Previous spread: K-Pods by Lindsey Arturo. Below: Installations by Kaitlyn Paston (left) and Chad Mundie (right).

director of Harvestworks, who sent images and diagrams. Using those images, the students had to determine the best use of their space, sometimes avoiding and sometimes encouraging interplays of light and sound between rooms. Along the way, Parkinson also had to report their plans and progress to the Governors Island Trust.

“It was a massive learning experience to work through the logistics of a shared space,” Vitiello says.

After arriving, each student had two days to set up their work. Again, careful planning and preparation were critical.

“Despite being in New York City, Governors Island is only accessible

by ferry, which makes the experience comparable to being in a remote place,” says co-instructor Loveless. “If they forgot something on the mainland, it could easily be a three-hour round trip to retrieve it. Forgetting a cable could deter your whole plans for a day.”

The three-day exhibition, titled A Nice Place to Live, opened on May 6. Each of the home’s six rooms featured a student installation, with work from Paston, Samson Stilwell, Chad Mundie, Bella Kubo (known as KUBO), Lindsey Arturo, and muthi reed in collaboration with Luce Capco Lincoln/QTPOC Visions. In addition, some of the students held related performances throughout the weekend.

Arturo’s piece, K-Pods, featured 30 flat images of actor Kristen Stewart’s head mounted to tripods and set in an eerie green light-filled room. She also produced a video installation, called “City Crickets,” in which she released 50 crickets and filmed them hopping around the city.

Arturo primarily creates work for online spaces, and the exhibition was her first set in a physical environment.

“It was a great experience to explore and think about my work in an offline context,” she says.

That experience of mounting a group exhibition in a major arts city, along with the opportunity to network with artists and arts organizations, was exactly what Vitiello hoped the graduate students would take away from the show.

“They had to exhibit work, to face the public, to talk about their work, to meet with Meredith Johnson, who just curated this incredible installation that got a mention in The New York Times, or Carol Parkinson who’s run Harvestworks since the ’80s,” Vitiello says. “That’s unlike anything that can be learned in a classroom.

“It’s an understanding of not just making artwork, but presenting that artwork to the public.”

Installations by KUBO (opposite page) and Samson Stilwell (left).

Below: Lindsey Arturo's hand stamped with the name and dates of the exhibition.

THEATRE AT VCUARTS PUTS SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

BY KIM CATLEY

DEVISING CHANGE

DEVISING CHANGE

2022, the Department of Theatre held its first presentation of Whitesplaining, under the creative development and direction of professor Tawnya PettifordWates, Ph.D., affectionately known by her students as Dr. T. Emphasizing social justice themes, Whitesplaining is an example of devised theater, identified by the way the performed work is developed using an interactive process. People from all arts disciplines come together for a dialogue, and for Whitesplaining, the dialogue is about whiteness, its origins and how it became a supremacist way of thinking. The process itself is transformative for both the audience and the participants and uses a series of vignettes, songs and commentary in an attempt to embody whiteness, engage with cultural “norms” and unpack white-skinned privilege.

Whitesplaining is also social justice theater. While social justice encompasses the view that everyone deserves equal rights and access to opportunities, social justice theater aims to inspire empathy for characters suffering from various injustices.

For Pettiford-Wates, “The process is designed not only to share with an audience; it’s intended to transform the artists and the collaborators as well. It increases our knowledge base of history, of times and people that we didn’t know about. It increases our own introspection, about the role that we

INplay in maintaining a white supremacist culture, or the part that we play in allowing ourselves to be victimized by that culture. Or it calls us into advocacy and activism, rather than sitting on the sidelines and complaining about something.”

One example of a Whitesplaining vignette is a Simon Says-inspired game in which contestants portray how white people respond on Twitter to police violence against people of color. Another features a white teacher angrily insisting that she cannot be racist because her husband is Black. It is important to note that the next Whitesplaining production will have an entirely different set of vignettes, given it will be developed by a different group of participants.

Creating Devised Theater

Rather than being handed a script for a well-known play, performers, designers, choreographers, musicians and photographers come together and engage in a yearlong collaborative process that results in the final scenes, songs and commentary for that group’s Whitesplaining presentation.

Beginning with some basic discussions around whiteness, the group works collaboratively to generate a series of additional questions designed to explore the range of attitudes attached to whiteness. Topics for the Whitesplaining team included educational priorities, institutional bias and behavioral coding.

All participants are then tasked with approaching friends and strangers to discuss their exploratory work. These interviews are shared with the larger group and serve as the basis for developing a script inspired by real stories about home life, family, relationships, allies and more. The

development process for the latest iteration of Whitesplaining lasted about a year, leading to the play’s premiere in September 2022.

For more than 20 years, PettifordWates’ objective has been to use theater to facilitate new and robust conversations about race and racism. One of her many key insights arrived in 2001 when teaching interdisciplinary theater at Seattle Central Community College. There, she explored a

deconstruction of the archetype Uncle Tom from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. While her class was diverse, none of the students were African-American or of African descent. She wondered how a story so connected to the Black experience in America could be staged without a single Black actor.

In response, Pettiford-Wates proposed that the play be performed as a minstrel show, including using blackface to imitate Black people—as well

as whiteface to represent white people. The play inspired a dialogue around uncomfortable or difficult subject matter and illuminated a desire to go beyond a single production or class. Afterward, she founded the theater company, The Conciliation Project, which she brought with her to Richmond and VCUarts in 2005. Since then, Pettiford-Wates and members of The Conciliation Project have interrogated subjects ranging from gun violence, the prison industrial

A collaboration between VCUarts Theatre and The Conciliation Project, the fall 2022 production Whitesplaining was created through a process called devised theater.

complex, and global patriarchy to immigration, Japanese internment camps and the dehumanization of Native Americans.

Pettiford-Wates and The Conciliation Project recently caught the eye of James H.T. McConnell Jr. of Charlottesville, who has been a lifelong supporter of both public and children’s education. In college, his initial explorations of simple lighting grew to include sound and stagecraft construction while he performed tech work for a dinner theater.

This summer, McConnell donated $5 million to the VCUarts Department of Theatre, allowing it to expand on the work of Pettiford-Wates and infuse social justice and empathy throughout the curriculum. “I saw that Dr. T [Pettiford-Wates] believed in the work and that VCU believed in her,” he says. “But one great tree in the forest isn’t [the same as] a bunch of people that can talk to each other and share ideas and work together. That makes it a department.”

Of the funds, $3.5 million will establish the James H.T. McConnell Jr. Theatre Chair in Social Justice and the James H.T. McConnell Jr. Theatre Faculty Fund in Social Justice,

which will support a chair and faculty whose work, teaching curriculum and community focus demonstrate a commitment to social justice.

“What’s wonderful about this opportunity is that it creates a platform for us to build upon Dr. T’s work that she’s already doing,” says James Wiznerowicz, associate dean for academic affairs for VCUarts. “Not only does it ensure that the department will have a footing in social justice issues, combining with the theater, but it gives us an opportunity to build upon and branch out to broader areas.”

The department is also revamping its graduate program to focus on pedagogy with a link to community and social engagement. Through community partnerships and internships, students can pair their theoretical training with collaborative pedagogical experiences. The new program is slated to launch in fall 2023.

As part of the relaunch, the remaining $1.5 million of McConnell’s gift will be used to establish the James H.T. McConnell Jr. Theatre Fellowship in Social Justice, which will support theatre graduate students in theatre with a focus on social justice. When

“ I felt that my whiteness was on full display. It felt like a personal attack. I had to gradually become comfortable feeling uncomfortable.“

combined with the curricular changes, the fellowship will establish VCUarts as a destination for social justice theater as a complement to its renowned programs in design, stage management and pedagogy.

“[McConnell’s gift] has placed a spotlight on a particular aspect of the department that has always been present with the faculty,” says Wiznerowicz. “It also gives us an opportunity to position the curriculum into themes. It gives a sense of direction that we can fine-tune by planning productions and outreach projects that have a two- to three-year development window that will then attract students who want to collaborate.”

The impact will be significant, not only for faculty but also for students. Several students say their participation in the play helped them better understand their own life experiences. Chadwick Davilsaint, a fourth-year performance major, says he became more aware of the system of racism and what it means to live inside it as a Black man. Meanwhile, junior performance major Lily Gray says she realized she wasn’t always conscious of her own whiteness or that of many of her friends,

neighbors and teachers. But as she examined her relationships more closely, she recognized her own place within “white normalcy” in the U.S.

The process of reckoning with race wasn’t always easy. Erik DeMario—a senior performance major who played a veteran, a Republican, a neo-Nazi and himself in Whitesplaining—says the rehearsals and subsequent hard conversations about race often kept him up at night.

“When we talked about ‘white people,’ I felt that my whiteness was on full display. It felt like a personal attack,” he says. “I had to gradually become comfortable feeling uncomfortable. I had to get used to that feeling and embrace it because that’s what we were hoping the audience would feel as well.”

While this fall’s production of Whitesplaining preceded the re-launch of the graduate program and McConnell’s gift, it offers a glimpse of what’s to come for Theatre at VCUarts. Both McConnell and VCUarts faculty and administrators hope the strengthened emphasis on social justice will produce graduates who bring a lens of empathy and connection to their work as actors, directors, producers and designers.

Take Davilsaint, who appeared in Whitesplaining. The play was his first mainstage production at VCU, and, he says, it was “mind-blowing.” “This experience has taught me that the theater is not only a place of entertainment but a place of truth and life,” he says. The impact of such challenging work doesn’t end backstage. As graduates write, act and direct new productions, they’ll find new ways to influence and engage the audience members in attendance. That ripple effect can inspire lasting change far beyond the stage—but PettifordWates says it’s possible precisely because of theater’s communal nature and its ability to instill empathy.

“Theater is a living organism that we’re experiencing together—and that can’t happen without both artists and audience,” says Dr. T. “If there’s no audience, it’s a rehearsal. If it’s just an audience and a bare stage, that’s nothing. It’s got to be the communicative exchange between an audience and the performer. “That’s why I think it is such a wonderful medium to impact the human condition and the psyche of humanity. We show you society itself, and that society is then impelled, or provoked or inspired to change.”

EMERGING LIGHT

REFOCUSING ON VCUARTS’ CINEMA PROGRAM

BY MELANIE WYNNE

The flourishing VCUarts Cinema Program is expanding its reach and providing incredible opportunities for the next generation of American filmmakers to gain hands-on, real world experience of the craft. Amidst the challenges of COVID-19, the Cinema Program continued producing films and has now become one of the fastest growing tracks in the School of the Arts.

The Cinema Program debuted in 2008, with original program director and independent filmmaker Rob Tregenza emphasizing artistic expression and film theory. In late 2019, TyRuben Ellingson, chair of VCUarts Department of Communication Arts, took over as program director, tasking a cohort of energetic young professors with developing a new vision for the program and how it serves the student experience. Building upon Tregenza’s creative foundation—and retaining his contributions as a professor— the scope of the program has widened to include a greater focus on experiential learning, screenwriting and production skills, with deep dives into cinema history, visual narrative and cutting-edge craft.

Ellingson, a conceptual artist whose work appears in many films, including Pacific Rim and Avatar, is excited by the potential of these changes. “We want to challenge students to be effective and thrive in the film industry rather than simply learning to survive.”

Specifically for undergraduates and designed to be completed in just over three years, the bachelor of arts in cinema is strongly weighted on two summer intensive semesters, each of which puts students behind the camera. In 2022, firstyear students participated in their own summer intensive semester for the first time, taking advantage of a unique opportunity to contrast the rigors of working on a professional set with a sense of play and experimentation, and becoming comfortable with making mistakes. >

The remainder of the Cinema Program’s first year focuses on imparting the fundamentals of storytelling, motion picture history and the technical aspects of production. In the second year, students are encouraged to bend (and even break) the rules, and their artistic voices are nurtured. The third year is individualized for each student, focusing on preparing them for post-graduation employment. While this third year used to end after a Summer Intensive semester, it now ends as summer begins, enabling graduates to enjoy commencement and immediately start an internship or job.

Recent Cinema Program grad Adam Stynchula, a set decoration coordinator on the Apple TV+ series Swagger, feels the Summer Intensive semesters prepared him for an industry career by demonstrating how to be efficient on sets and in teams. “Instead of being given a small camera and told to go shoot something on our own, we were shown what it’s like to work on a real film set, with real film cameras and a crew of about 50 people. This level of teamwork fostered lasting relationships that paved my way into the industry, and created a great network for me to lean on in stressful and tough environments.”

Throughout last year’s Summer Intensive, a cinema student blog was produced and published on the Cinema Program’s website to capture the excitement and challenge of experiences such as producing sketches; film, sound, and color editing; and for the first time, using the Cinema Program’s new soundstage.

In the spring 2022 semester, this soundstage was built by students from VCU’s Cinema Program and Department of Theatre—working together for the first time—under the instruction and direction of Christopher “Dinkus” Deane, director of operations for VCUarts’ Dean’s Office and a scenic dresser who holds two VCUarts degrees. Designed like a professional production set, it features smart-wired lighting, industrial power and a pro-level dolly. In the

Spring, the Cinema Program hopes to test a VFX component to enable the creation of composite footage.

Marking another first last summer, theatre students participated as actors in Cinema Program films, going through an audition process and receiving compensation for their work. Casting director Anne Chapman, who has been with the Cinema Program since its inception and has taught casting courses for both cinema and theatre, is thrilled about this new development. “Having these two programs finally working together expands students’ potential for their own projects and collaborations.”

A handful of new assistant professors have joined the faculty to support the growth. Ellingson sees their vision as “vital to the program’s future, providing a better learning experience by creating a diverse internal network of backgrounds and ideas.” Indian-American indie filmmaker Prashanth Kamalakanthan has been instrumental in contextualizing the program’s transition from 35mm film to digital formats, while Brazilian-American music producer and sound designer Filipe Leitão is currently developing a new course focusing on composition for cinema, games, and motion media.

Assistant Professor Yossera Bouchtia, a Cinema Program alumna with an M.F.A. in directing from Columbia, has been teaching screenwriting and directing at VCUarts since 2017. Since arriving, she has helped usher in a key change to the curriculum. “Screenwriting and producing were cinema electives when I was a student, but I’m happy that both are now required courses,” Bouchtia says. “This acknowledges that respect for story is a vital foundation for any good film, and that it’s absolutely necessary for students to learn how to get their films made.” Committed to introducing her students to “the possibilities surrounding cinema and storytelling, and helping them to find and connect with their voices,” Bouchtia has in the last few years seen her enrollments

climb from 25 students per cohort to now more than 60. In addition to their classroom and curriculum work, the Cinema faculty are active in their professional work and research. Bouchtia is currently adapting her short film AFRI into a feature film with the support of the Doha Film Institute. Distinguished Visiting Professor J. M. Tyree, who serves as contributing editor of Film Quarterly and teaches a wide variety of film history courses, has completed an upcoming survey for Sight & Sound’s “Top 100 Films of All Time.” With his partner Artemis Shaw, Kamalakanthan recently co-edited, -produced, -wrote, -directed and -starred in New Strains, a satirical narrative feature set during the onset of the COVID epidemic; the couple and their film were profiled in the Fall 2022 issue of Filmmaker magazine.

Faculty members routinely invite their professional colleagues to speak to Cinema students. Anne Chapman—a member of the CSA, BAFTA, BIFA, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and past President of the Virginia Production Alliance—hosts casting directors like Erica Arvold (Emmy-nominated in 2022 for Dopesick) and Claire Simon (whose ongoing projects include Chicago Med and Chicago P.D.), as well as commercial and theater directors and producers. “I find it especially rewarding to have cinema alumni return after five years or more to talk to students about their real-world experiences, from having an internship to landing a project, and even how to find an apartment in New York or L.A.”

With coordination and support from Assistant Professor

Kevin Gallagher, a Photography + Film graduate and pro lighting and camera technician, the program connects students with working professionals via Zoom sessions on Friday afternoons. One future Zoom guest will be Stefan Dechant, production designer on films that include 2021’s The Tragedy of Macbeth

Supporting the program’s full time faculty, adjunct professors provide students with the benefits of professional experience across a variety of disciplines. Sound designer and composer Dean Hurley operated David Lynch’s Assymetrical Studios for more than a decade, while freelance location scout Emily Wyman got her start at the Virginia Film Office. Gaffer Taylor Roesch is also a local rental house owner, and Sushma Khadepaun—who premiered her short film, Anita, at the 2020 Venice Film Festival—is now working on her first full-length feature.

Cinema students are being encouraged to enter their work in more film festivals, and the program anticipates adding a point person experienced in the promotion and packaging of festival entries to the faculty. Ellingson also points to the potential of streaming services designed to showcase independent films, such as Vidiverse, a submission-based platform curated by director Alex Proyas.

As the program continues to grow its footprint, connections between students in interior design and sculpture interested in set construction, fashion students looking to explore costuming, and communication arts students studying the elements of storyboarding and highend visual effects are all on the agenda.

“Filmmaking is one of those perfect confluences of creativity, both innovative and interdisciplinary,” Ellingson says. “In rebooting the Cinema Program and increasing its connectivity with other departments, we intend to both reinvigorate it and make it more nationally and internationally visible.”

Students on set in the custom-built soundstage at the VCUarts Depot during last summer’s cinema intensive.

VCUARTS STUDENTS EXPERIENCE THE WORLD OF PROFESSIONAL CURATORIAL PRACTICE.

BY MICAH JAYNE

BEYOND WHITE WALLS

ccess to the world of business and critical discourse that constitutes the art world above and beyond the classroom is an integral part of the VCUarts experience. Julia Park is one of the group of students who are building real-world experience with a unique, hybrid Art History course designed to do just that. “As someone interested in pursuing curation as a part of my Southern Exigency in the Applied Curatorial class was an invaluable experience with a curation project on a large scale while still having the support and process of a class learning environment,” said Park, who

From their ground floor office at the Anderson, VCUarts’ student-run exhibition space, Chase Westfall and Monica Kinsey have a surprisingly broad view. On a good day, it spans from Pittsburgh to Atlanta. “Applied Curatorial Practices,” as conceived by Westfall, is a unique, experiential two-semester art history course that puts VCUarts students in the driver’s seat of curatorial theory and practice. Kinsey has helped to facilitate the program and grow its footprint over the five

Westfall envisions it as a capstone experience for undergraduate students, one which serves to whet their appetites for the possibilities of professional practice beyond exhibiting and selling their own work. “Students do it all: They produce curator-led tours, learn about art handling, logistics and planning—all while immersing themselves in the cultural context of another city with its own, unique history

Westfall, who also serves as curator at the Anderson, describes the course as a boutique environment based on a full year of intense research into the vibrant arts community of a distant city and the applied practice of curation and critical discourse in general. The experience culminates in a student-led exhibition that brings art discovered in their chosen location back home to the Anderson.

Keeping the focus on close, collaborative work is key to the program’s success, and the pair have found that smaller groups work best. “Each cohort consists of a small group of students, recommended by faculty, who have demonstrated the social and critical maturity necessary to bring a project like this together in a generative, positive way,” Westfall says, noting that the experience leans heavily on students’ experience with multiple critique sessions and mature, critical discourse.

“We pick a city to be the focus of research and the students dive into the cultural history, local artists and institutions,” Westfall explains. Students in the cohort, accompanied by Westfall and Kinsey, meet with artists and select work which represents the areas of exploration they’ve identified. They

Above: Eileen Morley and India Mawn explore the Pittsburgh studio of artist Barbara Weissberger. Right: Students meet with artist Mary Martin in her 2022 exhibition A Constant Struggle for Reciprocity at the Mattress Factory.

Previous Spread: Students cross a pedestrian bridge in Pittsburgh’s Polish Hill neighborhood

Installation images of Everything Once Arranged Has Become Scattered—the culmination of this year’s Applied Curatorial Practice course—features 13 Pittsburgh-based artists.

Clockwise from top left: Kim Beck, Road Weaving #1 (Yellow Stripe), 2019; Barbara Weissberger, We Are So Nervous We Almost Look Calm, 2022; Works by Alisha Wormsley, Rebecca Shapass, Ross Mantle, N. E. Brown, Laura Hudspith and Isla Hansen.

then work with the artists themselves to arrange for the show.

The impact on students has been formative. “I have so much gratitude for the fantastic artists who all lend their works to us as undergraduates curating what for many of us was our first proper show. It was the connection with them and their work that felt the most impactful. Their trust and enthusiastic willingness gave us the room and confidence to create the best show we could,” says Park.

This year, the cohort chose to focus on Pittsburgh, with the help of local Scott Andrew, a community organizer and art scene fixture. The class has made two weekend visits to Pittsburgh to meet with local artists and explore the rich cultural environment, with a warm welcome extended by faculty and students of the arts at Carnegie Mellon University.

The exploratory weekend trips expand the student experience beyond the classroom and into the real world of curation, networking and professional practice, which is the goal for Kinsey and Westfall. “It’s become a wonderful opportunity for our students to become ambassadors for VCUarts as well,” Westfall says.

The course involves far more than the exploratory trips, however. “A lot of supplemental learning happens as part of the research portion of this course,” Kinsey explains. “Students are exposed to critical readings from ArtForum magazine and additional input from VCU’s Cabell Library staff. “This gives them context for the critical space they are working in as curators,” she says.

Previous courses have chosen Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. Last year’s show, Southern Exigency, focused on artists from Atlanta. The cohort included Cate Duckwall, Julia Park, Kayleigh Macdonald and Sakina Ahmad. The group quickly identify their own areas of expertise. “Working on it together, there were moments when it was really clear who gravitated toward and had a talent for which tasks,” Park shared, “This insight is important to me for future career goals or even graduate school opportunities.”

This year’s exhibition, Everything Once Arranged Has Become Scattered, was organized and curated by Sanija Dowden, India Mawn, Eileen Morley, Sophia Saucer and Zachary Thomas-Kucerak. It was featured at the Anderson through March 3, 2023.

In their group curatorial statement students explain that the exhibition, “explores Pittsburgh as a site of repeats, rifts, and joints. The exhibition weaves together the work of thirteen artists of various backgrounds interacting with their shared city. Much of the work involves an investigation of a deeply familiar place, as the artists interrogate the constructed thresholds on which they stand, confronting the truisms of the city. The artists connect with the city by digging through physical and metaphorical archives, reworking what they have discovered, or inserting their personal narrative into the city.”

MANAVI SINGH

M.F.A. Thesis Work

The M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, held in two rounds at the Anderson in April and May 2022, featured the work of 27 outstanding emerging artists and designers, a selection of which is shown here. Representing seven departments, these students’ ambitious and challenging research pushes beyond traditional disciplines to shape what is new and next in visual and material culture.

1 Dylan Ahern Sculpture + Extended Media

2 William P. Glaser

Photography + Film

3 Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo

Painting + Printmaking

4 HH Hiaasen

Graphic Design

5 juliana bustillo

Painting + Printmaking

6 Dellil Mohammed

Graphic Design

7 Ekaterina Muromtseva Painting + Printmaking

8 KUBO

Kinetic Imaging

9 Caroline A. Minchew Photography + Film

16

10 Eleanor Thorp

Painting + Printmaking

11 Saar Shemesh

Sculpture + Extended Media

12 Sarah Parker

Craft/Material Studies

13 muthi reed

Kinetic Imaging

14 Chad Mundie

Kinetic Imaging

15 Juan-Manuel Pinzon

Craft/Material Studies

16 Mark Tan

Craft/Material Studies

17 M. Albertson

Photography + Film

18 Manal F. Shoukair

Sculpture + Extended Media

19 Gabrielle McHugh

Craft/Material Studies

20 Sarah K. Reagan

Craft/Material Studies

Faculty News

Museum of Art at William & Mary and several private collections throughout North America, the Philippines and the United Kingdom.

CINEMA

OFFICE OF THE DEAN

VCUarts Dean Carmenita Higginbotham is featured in a new documentary on the history of one of the world’s most cherished and iconic cartoon characters, Mickey Mouse. In the 2022 documentary, Mickey: The Story of a Mouse—currently streaming on Disney+—Higginbotham offers her insights as a scholar to help deepen the audience’s understanding of Mickey Mouse’s evolution and cultural significance. Higginbotham’s research examines 20th-century American art and how urban culture impacts representation. As an art historian, she has lectured extensively on American art, popular visual culture and film.

ART FOUNDATION

For over 20 years, Lily Cox-Richard has participated in numerous residencies, and her work has been the subject of exhibitions across the U.S. Her exhibition Weep Holes was on display at MASS MoCA, a converted mill factory in North Adams, Mass. that is now one of the largest contemporary art museums in the U.S. In addition, Cox-Richard recently participated

in a competitive summer residency at the Kohler Co. Factory, a company well known for manufacturing home fixtures and furnishings. Cox-Richard is a faculty member in the Art Foundation Program and Department of Sculpture + Extended Media at VCUarts and earned an M.F.A. with a concentration in sculpture from VCUarts as well as a B.F.A. in jewelry/ metal arts from California College of the Arts. • Roberto Jamora is a faculty member in the Art Foundation program and a painter. He was invited to Wyoming last summer to take part in the Jentel Artist Residency program. The mission of the residency is to “offer dedicated individuals a supportive environment in which to further their creative development. Here artists and writers experience unfettered time to allow for thoughtful reflection and meditation on the creative process in a setting that preserves the agricultural and historical integrity of the land.”

Jamora is represented by Page Bond Gallery (Richmond) and FLXST Contemporary (Chicago, Ill.). His artwork is in collections including the Atlanta Hawks NBA team, Capital One, Harvard Kennedy School, Muscarelle

Yossera Bouchtia screened her short “AFRI” in competition at the International Women’s Film Festival of Salé held in Salé, Morocco. The festival featured a selection of films by women directors whose work engages with the cultures of North Africa, bringing those stories to a global audience. Bouchtia’s short forms the core of a feature project, currently in development with the assistance of the Doha Film Institute’s 2022 Hezayah Screenwriting Lab. She also received a development grant from the Doha Film Institute for her TV series YASMINE/JASMINE Bouchtia teaches directing and screenwriting in the VCUarts Cinema Program, which we explore beginning on Page 26 of this issue of Studio • Joshua Tyree had a ballot in the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time Critics Poll. The highly influential poll is undertaken once every ten years and gathers notable critics from around the world to compile the list. This installment has already created a stir in critical circles as the traditional poll-toppers were displaced in favor of Chantal Ackermann’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and a host of other work by directors whose work had previously occupied lower spots on the ranking. Tyree also published a review of Alfred Hitchcok’s classic Vertigo in the eleventh issue of The Bennington Review. Read his review at benningtonreview.org/eleven-tyree.

COMMUNICATION ARTS

Miguel Carter-Fisher was selected for a residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris. He will be hosted for the summer months by the Virginia atelier in Montmartre. His work is Inspired by Manet and Degas and the turn to contemporary life as a legitimate subject for narrative painting, and he envisions creating a series of portraits of contemporary Parisiennes in the context of their daily lives as part of his residency. Carter-Fisher is represented by the Eric Schindler Gallery in Richmond and participated in a group show on

Roberto Jamora

Lily Cox-Richard

premises in spring 2023. Please, Don’t Wake Me featured his work as well as pieces by Walter Schrank, Luis Colan and Skylar Hughs exploring magical realism, interiority and intimacy. He is also curating a show at Artspace in Richmond exploring the theme of “family in the 21st century.” Find more about the national open call for work in all mediums on the artspace website: artspacegallery. org • Sterling Hundley served as illustrator in residence at the Burn Center at VCUHealth Department of Surgery. The residency was organized by the Arts + Humanities in Healthcare program under the leadership of Aaron Anderson. Hundley was invited to take part in the 75th Anniversary celebration of the Burn Center held at the VMFA in December, which featured his intimate, immersive studies of the important work doctors in the center perform.

CRAFT/ MATERIAL STUDIES

Susie Ganch was featured in The New York Times, which highlighted her work as co-founder of Radical Jewelry Makeover (R.J.M.), an international mining and recycling project. The article highlighted several organizations and industry leaders working together as a cooperative to

introduce more sustainable practices to the world of jewelry making. Ganch co-founded R.J.M. with Kathleen Kennedy who is a faculty member and metals area coordinator. Ganch and Kennedy also participated in the exhibition organized around the documentary Fault Lines: Art and the Environment at the North Carolina Museum of Art. They hosted the R.J.M. Artist Project Pop-Up at the opening event where visitors could commission a unique makeover piece from the artists on-site. • Hillary Waters Fayle recently joined the VCUarts faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Craft/Material Studies. She shows her work extensively and most recently presented State of Bliss at Quirk Gallery in Charlottesville, Va. The show took the garden as a point of inspiration, according to Fayle, who wrote: “Gardens have long been used as a way to describe ideas of paradise, and our deep and complex relationship to the land. Gardens must begin with intimacy—our hands touching the earth. Gardens can stand as symbols for community and interconnectivity, they can be considered sacred spaces that nourish our bodies as well as our souls. In some spiritual traditions, being in a garden is used as a metaphor for being in a state of bliss. In addition to the tenderly cared for and cultivated patches, I also consider all that grows, the unplanned and un-planted meadows and forests as a wild garden.” Her work can be found online at: hillarywfayle.com

DANCE

MK Abadoo has been awarded a 2022 National Dance Production Project grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts for their work Hoptown. The National Dance Project is one of the country’s major sources of funding and field building for dance, supporting the creation and touring/sharing of new works. The $56,500 grant will be used for artist fees, residency costs and community engagement. Hoptown immerses audiences in Sistering methodologies of Black girls and women, thriving together over generations. It is inspired by the near parallel lives of two women from MK’s ancestral hometown, Hopkinsville “Hoptown,” Kentucky: her mother, Regina

Bowden, and Black feminist writer, bell hooks. • Kate Sicchio, whose work explores the interface between choreography and technology, teamed up with Noah Gelber (formerly a dancer with William Forsythe and the American Ballet Company) to develop work as part of a robotics and dance research project. Sicchio teaches dance and media technologies in the Department of Dance + Choreography and also teaches in the Department of Kinetic Imaging. • Elgie Gaynell Sherrod published The Dance Griots— Reading the Invisible Script, which examines how Black dance pioneers in the 1930s and ’40s combined the modern with the traditional to create a dance movement which has become foundational to contemporary teaching. The work focuses on 13 prominent dancers from the era, including Katherine Dunham, Asadata Dafora, Edna Guy and Hemsley Winfield, and traces how their work has gone from being marginalized to forming the core of contemporary dance pedagogy and practice. According to Sherrod, “They were using [Black dancers] to understand how to move to certain pieces of music, understanding how to interpret pieces of music, and aspects and aesthetics of African American culture that they wove into their work.”

FASHION DESIGN + MERCHANDISING

Deidra Arrington interviewed Michael-Birch Pierce for the journal Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, published in March 2022. Titled “Beyond Pretty: The evocative and respective work of Michael-Birch Pierce seen through a collaboration with Levi Strauss,” the interview covers the inspiration and process behind the embroidered jackets Pierce released with Levi’s in late 2020. An image of Pierce in the studio was selected for the cover of the journal. • Julia E. Pfaff’s project “Artifact 3.7” was selected for inclusion in the Virginia Artists Exhibition at the Charles Taylor Art Center in Hampton, Va. Pfaff’s work has been exhibited at venues around the world, including the American Craft Museum in New York, the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Carnegie Center for Art and History in Indiana. Her academic interests go beyond

Miguel Carter-Fisher

Faculty News

textiles and fine art, having worked as an archaeological illustrator for more than 25 years. She was head illustrator for the Wadi Tumilat Project in Egypt (University of Toronto), the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project in Greece (Bryn Mawr College) and the Kommos Excavations in Crete (University of Toronto). • Rudy Lopez and Jarvis Jefferson presented ‘Technology in the Ever-Changing Fashion Retail Landscape’ in July, for the Virginia Association of Marketing Educators (VAME) held in Short Pump. Lopez’s research is based on observations of the current zeitgeist and how it influences fashion. Further exploration of streetwear, subcultures, history, military uniforms, forecasting and technology and its relationships to society and fashion are also themes throughout his work. Jefferson has served as director of corporate recruitment at Macy’s, along with a variety of buying, merchandising and human resources roles. In addition to staffing the company’s brand, media and omni-channel strategy teams, he identified, acquired and assembled a talented team of artists and creatives who developed and produced the company’s myriad of marketing collateral and materials, as well as Macy’s world renown Thanksgiving Day Parade. • Hawa Stwodah’s “Design Theory and Illustration” course invited critics from Los Angeles-based Novawear’s Global Citizens to collaborate on a final project for the course. Global Citizens is a design think tank, platform and brand dedicated to creating progressive change via design and social activism that champions inclusivity and diversity. They offered a platform for selected students’ 3D-rendered apparel designs to be exhibited online and to be sold as NFTs on OpenSea. Participating students included: Ziann Clemons, Kameron Gaston, Miguel George, Alexis Jones and Ariana Monterrosa.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Herdimas Anggara and Ayham Ghraowi joined the VCUarts faculty as designers-in-residence and presented

their work in an Objects + Methods lecture at the ICA in September 2022. Anggara’s work appropriates the affordances of technology to emulate religious ecstasy and altered states of consciousness through contemporary takes on Indonesian ritual performances in digital and/or physical spaces. He breaks the sense of familiarity of platforms that he occupies in order to give them a sense of agency over their preconceived ideologies. He received his M.F.A. from Yale School of Art in 2021. Ghraowi is a designer working in video alongside computer-generated animations. His work examines modeling, simulation and reenactment techniques used in methods of identifying accountability. He has taught studios, seminars and workshops at the Department of Architecture at Cornell AAP, the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University and Yale School of Art where he was most recently critic in graphic design. While at Yale School of Art, he also served as the assistant dean for research and public projects from 2017-19. • Laura Chessin is completing an original variable-weight serif type design and has recently gained access to a vast archive of more than 1,000 original drawings from the Smithsonian’s American Type Founders collection, previously tucked away in warehouse flat files. She is exploring how efforts at modern revivals of early designs that may not have been widely circulated at the time of original issue may be vastly different from the original drawings. She is considering how aesthetics current with the time of a revival’s design can influence the interpretations of historic designs as she contemplates approaching her next design as a revival. • Nicole Killian’s essay “The Precarious Body (Text): Kissing Doesn’t Kill” was recently published in After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet: A History of Graphic Design Pedagogy edited by Geoff Kaplan and distributed by MIT Press. From MIT Press: “A history of design teaching from the mid1950s to the mid-1990s told through essays, interviews, remembrances and primary materials. With contributions by more than forty of the most influential voices in art, architecture and design, After the Bauhaus, Before

the Internet traces a history of design teaching from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s through essays, interviews and primary materials. Geoff Kaplan has gathered a multigenerational group of theorists and practitioners to explore how the evolution of graphic design pedagogy can be placed within a conceptual and historical context. At a time when all choices and behaviors are putatively curated, and when ‘design thinking’ is recruited to solve problems from climate change to social media optimization, the volume’s contributors examine how design’s self-understandings as a discipline have changed and how such changes affect the ways in which graphic design is being historicized and theorized today.”

• David Shields wrote and designed the 400-page monograph The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection: A History and Catalog published by University of Texas Press in June 2022. In this book, Shields rigorously updates and expands upon Kelly’s historical information about the types, clarifying the collection’s exact composition and providing a better understanding of the stylistic development of wood type forms

during the 19th century. Using rich materials from the period, Shields provides a stunning visual context that complements the textual history of each typeface. He also highlights the non-typographic material in the collection—such as borders, rules, ornaments and image cuts—that have not been previously examined. Featuring more than 300 color illustrations, this written history and catalog is bound to spark renewed interest in the collection and its broader typographic period. • Wesley Taylor’s organization Design Justice Network collaborated with partners at MIT on the Design Justice Pedagogy Summit, which engages the practices around calls for considering several areas of design. This year’s summit contended with questions of who we design for and with, how we scope and frame design problems, how values are embedded into designed artifacts and practices and how design perpetuates or alters socio-political frameworks.

KINETIC IMAGING

Steve Ashby’s performance of “Only Transition,” an original composition of sound material collected in Glenshee, Scotland, was broadcast on

Radiophrenia Glasgow in February 2022. His work was also featured at the International Computer Music Conference 2022 in Limerick, Ireland. There, he performed his piece “translucent connection” and his composition “Country Crossing” was included in the Irish Science, Sound, and Technology Association (ISSTA) River Shannon Soundwalk. Ashby also served as an artist-in-residence at the University of Virginia ArtLab @ Mountain Lake Biological Station in July 2022. He additionally had his work featured in the annual sound art festival Soundpedro 2022 in San Pedro, Calif. • Shawn Brixey is continuing to develop the ‘Magnaforma’ project. Combining elements of industrial robotics, computer science, data visualization, curiosity AI, performance art and monumental sculpture, ‘Magnaforma’ harnesses the power and precision of a massive industrial robotic arm to physically create the entire surface topography of Mars (144 million km²), here on Earth.

450,000 gigabytes of orbiter data from NASA’s 18 planetary missions are used to meticulously assemble a threedimensional map of Martian terrain that the robotic arm will reference as

it autonomously explores the planet’s surface. Moving with the playful abandon of a child’s hand gently riding the wind outside the window of a moving car, the robotic arm effortlessly guides a massive luminous frame carrying an array of 800,000 color LEDs through a dramatic five-year-long discovery performance as the robot wanders the storied surface of our sister planet. Color photogrammetry data from both Martian surface and sky, emitted by Magnaforma’s moving LED array, creates an immersive, hypnotic, constantly changing horizon for project visitors. • Semi Ryu was awarded a VCU Breakthrough grant for her project VR GURU. The project will be realized in collaboration with VCU colleagues Dayanjan “Shanaka” Wijesinghe, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Sciences; Nathaniel Kinsey, Ph.D., M.S., associate professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; James Thomas, PT, Ph.D., director, Motor Control Lab and professor, College of Health Professions. The embodied perception study, along with analysis of physical movements and motor behaviors is designed to contribute to our understanding of the virtual self. VR GURU investigates the relationship between an avatar representation and embodied perception in the realm of sensation, emotion, memory and motor behavior in a full-body motion tracking virtual environment. • Kate Sicchio, whose work bridges the departments of Dance + Choreography and Kinetic Imaging was awarded a VCU Breakthrough Grant totaling $189,000. Working with Patrick Martin in VCU Engineering, she explores how dance improvisation can inform human-robot teams. She also took part in the International Conference on Live Interfaces, hosted from Lisbon in June 2022. Her contribution was a livestreamed performance in collaboration with her UK-based collaborator Alex McLean.

• Stephen Vitiello recently released a recording with Brendan Canty, multiinstrumentalist and former drummer of the seminal post-hardcore band Fugazi. Recorded in Richmond and Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2019, the album was released in January 2023. Vitiello is also featured on a recording with Between, a collective of musicians

Shawn Brixey

Faculty News

who call the influential 12k label home. The work was released as digital EP and CD. His sound work was featured on Governors Island in New York City over the summer, where he also facilitated an installation by a group of graduate students from Kinetic Imaging (featured in this issue of Studio). Stephen performed live at the ICA in October 2022 as part of the Live Love and Radio event.

MUSIC

Taylor Barnett presented work developed as part of his Code Beats Summer Program at the ICA. Code Beats is a National Science Foundationfunded project devised and led by David Shepherd (Computer Science, VCU Engineering) and Barnett. The project aims to broaden youth participation in computing by teaching students to create authentic-sounding hip-hop beats using fundamental computer programming concepts. The summer camp will be held again in 2023, and you can enjoy the work produced by participants in last summer’s program by downloading the digital album from Bandcamp: codebeats.bandcamp.com/album/getwith-the-program • Chris Hansen

conducted Ola Gjeilo’s “Dark Night of the Soul” and “Luminous Night of the Soul” at Carnegie Hall on June 25, 2022. This historic opportunity was made possible through MidAmerica Productions (MAP) who booked the performance venue, selected members from the New England Symphonic Ensemble, selected professional soloists and invited Hansen to serve as guest conductor. Hansen recently joined the VCUarts faculty and serves as the assistant director of choral activities. • Rex Richardson was one of many VCUarts faculty who put the pandemic lockdown days to good use. His 100 Days of Trumpet Practice, is described by publisher EditionsBIM as “a solid practice ritual. A true recipe book covering all aspects of trumpet playing. Rex Richardson establishes the structure of a disciplined routine. A concept that reveals the meticulous and efficient daily work of one of the great trumpet virtuosos.” Richardson has been called “One of the finest virtuosos of our time” (Brass Herald) and has taught at VCUarts since 2002.

PAINTING + PRINTMAKING

Recent graduate Ekaterina Muromtseva (MFA ’22) has joined the VCUarts faculty as the recipient of a post-graduate teaching fellowship, a new program instituted at VCUarts which allows recent grads to continue teaching. She recently co-curated

a group exhibition at New York’s Fragment Gallery called A room full of mirrors. Muromtseva wrote of the exhibition: “for many centuries, portraiture has been perceived as an act of vanity and at the same time preservation of individual or family legacy, and thus—an archive of social history. Often related to colonial history and its repercussions, museums and private mansions filled with portraits from floor to ceiling are at the same time monuments to oppression and the dominance of the patriarchal system. A room full of mirrors rethinks above-mentioned dusty spaces full of silent witnesses of bygone eras in postcolonial optics and suggests alternative versions of them, showing a diversity of artistic voices, practices and visions.” • Noah Simblist appeared at Berkeley’s BAMPFA in conversation with Chief Curator Christina Yang to discuss his recent publication The Francis Effect. The book explores Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera’s project of the same name, in which she requests that the pope grant Vatican City citizenship to all immigrants and refugees. Simblist also discussed his other projects, such as Commonwealth (2020), an exhibition and book that investigates the history, utopian potential and limitations of a term that we often take for granted; and Conjunctions and Disjunctions (2022), a group exhibition at Black Ground—a cultural space dedicated to the African diaspora in Cali, Colombia. • Sandy “Monsieur”

Zohore was featured by Artnet as

Michael Jones McKean

Sandy Zohore

a rising artist to watch at Art Basel Miami 2022. In 2021, Zohore’s work was the focus of a NADA solo show in Miami at de Boer. He has also put up solo and two-person exhibitions at Springsteen in Baltimore and Jack Barret Gallery, New York, as well as group shows at New York’s New Release Gallery, One Trick Pony in Los Angeles and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Zohore’s practice is invested in the consumption and digestion of culture through the conflation of domestic quotidian labor with art production. Through performance, sculpture, installation and theater, his practices explore queer histories alongside his Ivorian-American heritage through a multifaceted lens of humor, economics, art history and labor.

SCULPTURE + EXTENDED MEDIA

Corin Hewitt’s work was featured in the group exhibition Time Management Techniques which opened September 24 at the Whitney. Time Management Techniques showcases photography by artists who examined the medium’s relationship to time between 1968 and 2019. Drawn from the Whitney’s permanent

collection, the exhibition features many recent acquisitions alongside works that have never before been exhibited. • Michael Jones McKean and alum Peat Szilagyi (MFA ’20) have work featured in the group exhibition Augurhythms at Hesse Flatow. The exhibition was organized by the The Fragile Institute for the purpose of studying forms of material and visual divinations through rhythms of the body, nature and nascent explorations of ritual practices. McKean was also the inaugural Vera C. Rubin Observatory Artist-in-Residence during the summer of 2022.

THEATRE

Elizabeth Byland continues to expand the impact of her “Applied Improv to Impact Homelessness” project. The project implements improv techniques both to strengthen self-advocacy and problem-solving skills among people experiencing homelessness and to reduce the stigma of homelessness among health care practitioners.

The classes at Liberation Veteran Services—which provides transitional housing for veterans, many of whom are transitioning back into civilian life and facing challenges such as

post-traumatic stress disorder—have grown into a weekly meeting for veterans and health care students. Byland presented her work in Spain at the 2022 Applied Improvisation Network Conference, where she led a workshop devised to teach other educators from across the globe how to lead improv sessions for those moving forward through homelessness. She was also invited to the Association of American Medical Colleges FRAHME (Fundamental Role of Arts and Humanities in Medical Education) annual conference in Nashville, Tenn., where she presented work focusing on how improv can impact homelessness. • Keith Byron Kirk was selected to serve as the editor of the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s 32nd annual Theatre Symposium, a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal. Participants presented their research at an inperson conference, and selected papers were chosen for inclusion in the journal. According to SETC, “The 32nd edition seeks to explore our collective reemergence into a post-COVID landscape of material performance.” Articles were solicited on the topic of Material Performance and Performing Objects.

Corin Hewitt

Student News

ART HISTORY

Double major Kyle Maurer had a paper accepted to the SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium scheduled to take place in April 2023. He will be presenting a paper on Eva Hesse.

CRAFT/MATERIAL STUDIES

Eileen Morley, an undergraduate student in the Department of Craft/ Material Studies, was awarded “Best in Show” at the Undergraduate Juried Exhibition hosted by the Anderson. View her award-winning piece and other outstanding student work presented at the exhibition on Page 10.

DANCE + CHOREOGRAPHY

Énouement is a collection of the seniors’ undergraduate projects that includes 10 original works created by the cohort. The program depicts the bittersweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turned out while simultaneously knowing your

past self is somewhere, still eagerly awaiting the news. Énouement was performed throughout the academic year and will be featured at the American College Dance Association conference in the spring of 2023. In the students’ own words: “The journey this class has taken together has been turbulent, yet we have stuck together and celebrated one another through unimaginable spirals. The word ‘énouement’ was carefully chosen to encapsulate our experiences as we reflect on our journey and appreciate the growth, realizations and knowledge we have amassed both collectively and individually.”

FASHION DESIGN + MERCHANDISING

VCUarts Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising has been a member institution of the Fashion Scholarship Fund since 2015. This year, 63% of VCUarts student applicants were awarded scholarships by the prestigious, nationally competitive fund. Of

the 127 scholarship winners nationally, 53% are BIPOC students, 26% have a financial need and 13% are first generation college students. Representing VCUarts amid stiff competition from institutions including Harvard, Parsons, SCAD and FIT are merchandising track students Sadie Kinzer (who has won the scholarship twice), Bria Roberts, Ela Singleton and Bryanna Strickland Alex Britto, who is pursuing the design track, has won the scholarship three times. See their work in person at the annual VCUarts fashion event on May 9, 2023.

INTERIOR DESIGN

This past August and September, Nadia Pazekian participated in FAMILIAR FACES, an exhibition created by GALA BY GALERIE. The group exhibition displayed portraiture works through the medium of photography. The collective was formed to push independent artists into the market as entrepreneurs by offering education, experience and exposure in order to build a community for a better tomorrow. FACES, a film by Murph, founder of GALERIE, and Nadia premiered on September 17 and is a study of emotion, authenticity and being seen. • Nina Gregory presented “A Case of Creative Limitations: How the Hyperinflation Crisis in the Weimar Republic Shaped the Haus am Horn” at 2022 SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History

Énouement Fashion scholarship recipients

Symposium in April. You can watch her presentation via YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=xHTAH_

KINETIC IMAGING

Kendall Kelly, Gezelin Cantuba, Elliot Kim (along with Computer Science students Darriel McLaurin, Cassidy Coates) presented their “SentimentVoice” VR project at the National Organization of Arts and Health (NOAH) conference, hosted by the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Advised by Professor Semi Ryu, this project was presented via VR and poster art and was funded by the VCU Arts and Health Innovation grant. • Graduate students from the department of Kinetic Imaging, led by Professor Stephen Vitiello, participated in an installation on New York’s Governors Island in cooperation with Harvestworks. Kaitlyn Paston, Samson Stilwell, Chad Mundie, Bella Kubo (KUBO), Lindsey Arturo and muthi reed devised installations for the space. Read more about their experience on Page 14.

PHOTOGRAPHY + FILM

Lifelong Ember, a collection of photo work from Jack Fox and Grade Solomon (MFA ’22) showed at the Material Room Art Space in Richmond over the summer. Jack Fox is a current

B.F.A. student in the Department of Photography + Film. Grade Solomon is a Korean-American fine art photographer currently based in Richmond. With a careful eye for color and light, Solomon photographs throughout suburban and industrial America at night, creating a surreal and dreamlike alternative reality within his images. He describes his inspirations as “recurring dreams, distant memories and emotional experiences such as love, loss and discomfort.” • Armed with a VCUarts Dean’s International Research Grant, Barrett Reynolds and Jack Fox set to work capturing the landscapes, people and shipwrecks off Nova Scotia for a week in June. The pair worked with 120mm analog film and shot eight hours a day. “We looked for unusual places with mysterious characteristics, so that we could create a photographic narrative based off of that, because we really enjoy exploring strange, weird things through photography,” said Fox. “The excessive fog that led to a lot of shipwrecks also leads to a lot of folklore in Nova Scotia and a lot of speculation as to why there’s so many shipwrecks.” • Elise Wojtowicz shared her exhibition Bog Pilgrim at the Anderson as part of the Open Call programming. Her work

and research in Ireland was supported in part by a Dean’s International Research Grant. “Weaving together the threads of performance, sculpture, photography and fiber arts, Bog Pilgrim challenges the notion of duality: between that of disparate mediums, of past and present, of life and death. Instead, the work quietly reveals nature’s strange inhuman truth: all things exist in tandem as a singular, coevolving system.”

THEATRE

Theater major Angela Mae Vivaldi had the opportunity to work as a stage manager this summer at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting in Washington. The work was arranged by Sharon Ott, associate professor in the VCUarts Department of Theatre, who directed one of the plays there. Vivaldi was enthusiastic about the opportunity. “I have a sound design minor and so I have the ability to talk with the sound designers for these shows and understand what they’re saying and collaborate even better because we are talking the same language,” said Vivaldi. “I was really lucky that VCU offered me that opportunity to begin with.”

Jack Fox

Elise Wojtowicz

Alumni News

ART EDUCATION

Jazmine Beatty (MAE ’22) was awarded the Persist: Expect & Accept Nonclosure Award at the Adding Voices Conference. Beatty worked with Mending Walls RVA, a public art project that brings together public artists from different cultures and backgrounds to create murals that address where we are now in society and how we can move forward through understanding and collaboration. Through her thesis study, Beatty explored how utilizing collaborative community artmaking platforms like Mending Walls can transform the education experiences of Richmond Public Schools students by building relationships between teachers, students, and the local community. • Karly Basham (formerly Hartline) (BFA ’18) works as an art educator with Richmond Public Schools. Basham (or KB to their students) graduated magna cum laude from VCU in fall of 2018 with a B.F.A. in art education and minors in psychology and art history. In addition to teaching pre-K through fifth graders, they also support current VCUarts Art Education students in the classroom as a cooperating teacher for their teacher practicum experience.

CRAFT/MATERIAL STUDIES

Mattie Hinkley (BFA ’20), currently living in Chico, Calif., had their work featured in the Winter 2023 issue of American Craft. Hinkley works mainly in clay, fiber and wood to create domestic objects. They were also interviewed by the American Craft Council for the website The Queue. Asked about their inspiration, Hinkley replied, “I’m always thinking about the body. It’s such a beautiful thing, but it’s also so ridiculous and dumb looking. Similarly, I look equally to the austerity of Shaker furniture and the wonkiness of comics, like work by Matt Groening

or R. Crumb, and try to combine those influences.” Check out the entire interview here: craftcouncil.org/post/ queue-mattie-hinkley

DANCE + CHOREOGRAPHY

Johnnie Cruise Mercer (BFA ’14) was a recipient of this year’s Harkness Promise Award, in association with Dance Magazine. The award offers a $5,000 grant and 40 hours of rehearsal space to innovative choreographers in their first decade of professional work. Mercer, a Richmond native who now calls New York City home, founded and directs TheREDprojectNYC. His processes/works have been shared at 92Y Harkness Dance Center, Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, Dixon Place, Danspace Project Inc, the Fusebox Festival, Mana Contemporary, the NADA Conference and Abrons Arts Center.

FASHION DESIGN + MERCHANDISING

Ja’Baris Baskerville (BA ’13), a fashion merchandising and design student who went on to SCAD to complete an

M.F.A. in fashion design, was recently featured in Women’s Wear Daily and Vogue magazine, and was offered a position as a menswear designer for Michael Kors in NYC. • Kylie Rose Carroll (BFA ’21) presented her work for critique to Donatella Versace. “Presenting to Donatella was by far the most significant honor and surreal experience of my career as a fashion designer thus far. A year ago, I never thought I would have the opportunity to collaborate with a brand like Versace, never mind actually meeting Donatella. And even at the beginning of the project, I could have never anticipated having the unparalleled opportunity to present my work to her and receive personalized feedback.” • Isabel Crosby (BFA ’08) founded her own 3D fashion design studio called IDES Studio in 2022. IDES is a digital fashion studio incorporating technical pattern making into the 3D fashion space. They serve individuals and brands using 3D, with the highest standard of quality.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Bouthayna Al Muftah (BFA ’10) is a Qatari artist and VCUarts Qatar graduate who blends printmaking, typography, documentation and performance. She was recently tipped to design the official poster series for the FIFA World Cup, held last year in Qatar. Al Muftah describes the inspiration leading to the achievement: “I wanted to know what football meant to the local community, and I wanted to translate this concept into something that was

Kylie Rose Carroll Isabel Crosby

authentic. So at the beginning, I was doing a lot of research and looking at football in the past and how it had evolved to what it is today. I looked at football culture and how people celebrate a win. How children used to play football in the old neighborhoods. There’s also a typographic layer in the posters, and that comes from this concept that I had built about the voices of people within the stadiums and the chanting and how that can build a sense of belonging.”

INTERIOR DESIGN

Britta Bielak (MFA ’14) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Interior Design at Kent State University. Her research investigates mycelium-based building materials, which she also explores as co-founder of okom wrks labs. • Matt Cheadle (BFA ’17) is creative director at Mantra Inspired Furniture and was part of the team that won Gold for the 2021 Best of NeoCon.

Mantra’s Ellis Benching System was honored with this distinction. Cheadle is also the creative director behind Mantra’s new Lowe Loop Benching System. • Laura Colagrande (BFA ’13) was recognized as one of the 2022 VCU 10 Under 10 Award winners. After graduating, Colagrande engaged many exciting and non-traditional pathways for interior design graduates, from prototyping Starbucks franchises globally, to a startup pet food company, to a new venture providing infrastructure for other new, innovative brands. She was in the first-ever mOb cohort and received her master of architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania. mOb, or “middle Of broad” is an experimental design lab uniting the departments of Graphic Design, Fashion Design + Merchandising and Interior Design to create a hotspot for the school’s up-and-coming designers. • Miriam Gibson (BFA ’22) had her Patchwork

Seating set prototype accepted into the ISFD Design & Innovation 2022 competition as a finalist. Her work was on display in High Point, N. C. through October 2022. • An Liu (MA ’17) conceptualized and installed a community installation called ‘Community Wish’ on Brown’s Island for the Richmond Folk Festival. He also will be honored with this year’s Richard L Ford Junior Award from AIA Richmond. • The IDES 601 studio has been working with Michael Rosenberg (BFA ’77) on a residential project for their construction documents studio. Rosenberg, who has led his New York City-based practice, Michael Rosenberg & Associates for over 25 years, is serving as a visiting critic and speaker in the department this fall. He also hosted the 601s as they visited him in NYC, meeting with and touring many of the trades, craftspeople and merchants with whom he works intimately on a daily basis.

PAINTING + PRINTMAKING

Luis Vasquez La Roche (MFA ’20) is an artist and educator residing between Trinidad and Tobago and Virginia. They hold an M.F.A. from VCUarts Department of Painting + Printmaking and recently accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design at George Mason University in Northern Virginia. In their own words, “their practice is interested in aspects of the transatlantic slave trade that repeat themselves in varying ways in the present. Even though the slave trade dehumanised millions of Black people,

Bouthayna Al Muftah

Bouthayna Al Muftah

Alumni News

with the consequence of continuing to do so in the present, we can find hope, resistance, and resilience. An essential part of the research is an inquiry regarding material. they employ these materials to articulate aspects of race, identity, culture, politics, and spirituality. These works usually take shape as performances, sculptures or videos.” • Malcolm Peacock (BFA ’16) was awarded the Fine Prize for his work selected by the 58th Carnegie International, the longest running North American exhibition of international art. His work explores “what we can cultivate, what we feel challenged by in a physical way, and what we can envision beyond what is physically perceived.” For The insistent desire for and impossibility of being, Peacock assembled Black Pittsburghbased individuals for a work intended to be experienced by visitors one at a time to mark significant dates in Black American history. • Alexander Sausen, who recently graduated from the VCUarts Department of Painting + Printmaking (BFA ’22), presented Where The Pollen Flies, an exhibition examining the thoughts, processes,

questions, problems, and realizations he experienced since returning to school. The exhibition was hosted at the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Perry Glass Studio in late 2022 and Sausen gave a live artist talk at that space in November. The artist’s talk was accompanied by a live glass demo.

PHOTOGRAPHY + FILM

Hannah Altman (MFA ’20) was named the 2022-23 Blanksteen Artist in Residence at the Slifka Center at Yale. She has been commissioned by the program to create an original work that explores Jewish

narrative. Hannah was also featured in Artforum’s “STATES OF MIND Toward an alternative future for Jewish art,” and her work was recently on display at the Barcelona Foto Biennale. • Jasmine Elmore (BFA ’21) has secured an internship working with Apple TV+. As a multiracial Black person adopted into a white family, Elmore says she has long contemplated questions of identity. She has also had to overcome a sense that she might not be welcome in her chosen field. After working at Oakwood Arts, a Richmond nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to careers in creative

Grade Solomon

Hannah Altman

Malcolm Peacock

industries—and landing a paid internship at Apple TV+, where she worked on the forthcoming film Raymond and Ray, Elmore’s perspective has shifted. “Growing up, I never really saw myself [working in film],” she says. “I didn’t really see a lot of Black female filmmakers, or female filmmakers of color in general.” • Nadiya Nacorda (BFA ’14) celebrated her first solo show at Richmond’s Candela Gallery in September 2022. all the orchids are fine explores the intimacy and isolation of childbirth and family connections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nacorda’s work explores the nuances and entanglements of inheritance(s) while considering themes of magic, affection, identity and mothering; along with Blasian feminine interiority and subjectivity. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, The Guardian, AINTBAD, Oxford American Magazine, Huck Mag, Blind Magazine, Ignant, PDNphoto district news, InStyle, Essence magazine, Upworthy, Shot Kit, ATTN and more. • Grade Solomon (MFA ’22) had work selected by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Of the 2,700 submissions to this year’s competition, Solomon was selected as one of 42 finalists whose work was chosen for display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in

Washington, D.C. Seeking “work that challenges traditional definitions of portraiture,” the competition’s scope appealed to Soloman. The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today exhibition ran at the National Portrait Gallery through February 2023.

SCULPTURE + EXTENDED MEDIA

Oscar Santillán (MFA ’11) has been selected as a 2022-23 senior fellow at the Colby College Museum of Art’s Lunder Institute for American Art, in collaboration with the Holt/Smithson

Foundation and the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Colby College.

THEATRE

Joshua Boone (BFA ’10) has enjoyed a successful acting career since graduating from VCU. Credits include his Broadway debut in 2014’s Holler if Ya Hear Me, based on the music and lyrics of Tupac Shakur; starring alongside Bryan Cranston in Network in 2018 and with Phylicia Rashad in Skeleton Crew, and the lead in the film Premature, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. He recently scored a starring role in Tyler Perry’s A Jazzman’s Blues, a Netflix production. Boone plays Bayou, a singer in the 1940s, who is kept apart from the woman he loves. • Adam Karavatakis (BFA ’10) is the art director for the new season of American Horror Story and is one of the two art directors on The Watcher, now streaming on Netflix. • Tyler Fauntleroy (BFA ’17) received a Drama League award nomination for his starring role in the world premiere of Tambo & Bones (OffBroadway, Playwright Horizons). The play, written by Dave Harris, used the trope of the minstrel show to create a satire around the intersection of race and performance. Tambo & Bones was also featured in The New York Times • Curtis Miller (BFA ’16) just opened his first Broadway production as head of sound for &Juliet • Sophia Choi (BFA ’15) was chosen to be the costume designer for the premiere of KPOP on Broadway.

Joshua Boone

Nadiya Nacorda

Last Look: From the VCUarts Archives

Jill

appear in a publicity photo for the 1987 VCU Theatre production of Aristophanes’ Greek comedy Lysistrata, directed by James Parker. Lysistrata is a comedic account of a woman’s extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War by asking the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands in order to persuade the men to make peace. We want to hear from you! Share photos from your time at VCUarts or your recent news at arts.vcu.edu/alumni/where-are-you-now.

Bloede (MFA ’87), left, and Gretchen Sellers Trasorras (BFA ’87), right,

UPCOMING EVENTS SPRING 2023

M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition at the Anderson

ROUND 1: APRIL 7-21 | OPENING RECEPTION APRIL 7, 5-8 PM | THE ANDERSON

ROUND 2: APRIL 28- MAY 13 | OPENING RECEPTION APRIL 28, 5-8 PM | THE ANDERSON

The 2023 VCUarts M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition will showcase ambitious and challenging works by some of the most talented emerging artists and design professionals in the world. Participating departments include Craft/Material Studies, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Kinetic Imaging, Painting + Printmaking, Photography + Film and Sculpture + Extended Media.

VCU Theatre Presents: Rent

APRIL 21-30, 7:30 PM (3 PM SUNDAY MATINEE PERFORMANCES) | SINGLETON CENTER

Book, Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson

Directed by Desirée Dabney | Choreographed by Wes Seals

Set in the East Village of New York City, Rent is about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Rent has become a pop culture phenomenon.

VCU Opera Presents: The Magic Flute

FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 7 PM | SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 4 PM | SINGLETON CENTER

One of the greatest operas ever written, Mozart’s timeless classic The Magic Flute concerns the search for truth and reason, love and enlightenment. With an intriguing mixture of ancient Egypt combined with symbolism from Freemasonry, Mozart’s masterpiece thrills with childlike simplicity, emotional complexity, dark foreboding and hilarious comedy!

VCU Dance Presents: First-Year Repertory Concert

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 7:30 PM | GRACE STREET THEATER

First-Year Repertory is a celebration of the first-year experience in VCUarts Dance + Choreography. The performance highlights the achievements in both the technical and performative investigations students have explored and researched throughout the coursework during their first year. Dance majors will perform new works by VCUarts Dance faculty.

VCUarts Annual Fashion Event

TUESDAY, MAY 9, 6 PM | VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ART

One of Richmond’s most anticipated evenings! Witness the impassioned, collaborative efforts of VCUarts merchandisers and designers at a lively runway show and expo.

For more details and and to learn about other upcoming VCUarts events, visit arts.vcu.edu/events or scan the QR code.

Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts

325 North Harrison Street, Suite 201 Box 842519 Richmond, VA 23284-2519

ON THE COVER

”POWERPUFF #2” by Sarah K. Reagan (MFA ’22), Craft/Material Studies. Reagan’s 2022 thesis exhibition, POWERPUFF, included a series of digitally fabricated and hand-carved wooden mannequins wearing inflatable PVC vinyl garments. See more M.F.A. student work on Page 36.

PHOTO BY TERRY BROWN