Faculty News An art exhibit titled “Breathe In, Breathe Out” by Andrew Stark, Art & Design, ran last February at Ecce Gallery in downtown Fargo.
issues, and timely reviews of books in aesthetics and the arts. Steve Hoffbeck, History, contributed a chapter to a new book on baseball history entitled The National Pastime, 2012: Short But Wondrous Summers: Baseball in the North Star State, a June publication of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Hoffbeck co-wrote a chapter, “On the Wrong Side of the Color Line in Minnesota: Pitcher John Donaldson,” with Peter Gorton, a baseball writer from Minneapolis.
> Wall sculpture by Brad Bachmeier
Brad Bachmeier, Art & Design, won an Employee Excellence Award in May. MSUM employees are nominated by their peers for recognition in five categories. Bachmeier won for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity. He was also elected Chair of The Arts Partnership (TAP) last summer, and selected as Artist in Residence by the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
> Kenyon Williams
Tom Brandau, Cinema Arts and Digital Technology, received the Margie Bailly Volunteer Spirit Award at the 2013 Fargo Film Festival. The award is named for former Fargo Theatre Executive Director Margie Bailly. Brandau has been a member of the Fargo Film Festival committee since 2004 and a festival co-chair since 2011.
Kenyon Williams, Music, spent three weeks of his sabbatical in Ghana where he studied drumming and dance with Ewe people of the Volta region of Ghana. During this time, he lived in the small rural village of Kopeiya at the Dagbe Art and Culture Center which was created by a family of master drummers from the area.
A new novel by John Early, English, is available from Amazon for the Kindle reader. The Little Lame Balloon Men illustrates how sanity depends on speech, and without it chaos, violence and stupidity reign. The novel can be read on iPads by downloading the free Kindle app.
Williams also had an article published in Percussive Notes, the official journal of the Percussive Arts Society, and recently released his first solo album for percussion, entitled “Homage.” The CD features a composition and performance by fellow MSUM faculty member Henry Gwiazda.
Theodore Gracyk, Philosophy, has been appointed to a five-year term as co-editor of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Established in 1942 by the American Society for Aesthetics, the journal publishes current research articles, symposia, special
The Journal of American History recently published a review by Paul Harris, History. Harris covered “An Unpredictable Gospel: American Evangelicals and World Christianity, 1812-1920” by Jay Riley Case. Harris also spoke on Martin Luther King Day at the Plains Art
12
Arts and Humanities News
Museum’s celebration on King’s Life and Legacy and appeared as a guest on the KXJB show “Point of View.” Konrad Czynski, Philosophy, with conductor Stephen Simon and the London Philharmonic Orcherstra, published their 10th CD in the Maestro Classics “Stories in Music” series. Czynski narrates the poems as Yadu, his stage persona. Czynski/Yadu has worked with Simon, one of the most prominent symphony conductors in the United States, on numerous educational CDs over the years. He now has seven award-winning CDs to his credit. A number of MSUM Art & Design faculty participated in and received awards in the 54th Midwestern Invitational Exhibition: Signed, Sealed and Delivered. Sherry Lee Short received First Award for “Small Gifts.” Other MSUM Art & Design faculty in the exhibition are Kelli Sinner (“Tethered Clouds”), Zhimin Guan (“Alley to Home”), Trygve Olson (“The Midwestern: Homage”), and Carl Oltvedt (“Hues of Spring”). Their work was exhibited at the The Rourke Art Museum in Moorhead.
> “Small Gifts” by Sherry Lee Short
writing at the North Dakota Professional Communicators spring conference held in Minot, N.Dak. She also won third place and honorable mention in feature writing. Holtan is president of North Dakota Professional Communicators. Michael McCord, English, was selected by the North Dakota Secretary of State to serve as Senior Editor for the 2013-2015 North Dakota Blue Book. A 650-pluspage compendium of historical and cultural information, the Blue Book also provides a wealth of information about the state’s social, economic, environmental and political environment. A short documentary by Raymond Rea, Cinema Arts and Digital Technologies, was accepted to screen at the British Film Institute’s London LGBT Film Festival. A Difference examines the intersection of racial difference and gender transition. The film also screened at the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival last November.
Cecilia Mafla-Bustamante, Languages and Cultures, published the following article: “Efraín Jara Idrovo.” Literatura de la República: 1960-2000 (segunda parte) Vol. 8. de Historia de las literaturas del Ecuador. She also published the following literary translation from Spanish into English: “It’s not Love that Dies” by Lucrecia Maldonado. K1N The Four Americas Rewritten. Issue 3. 2013.04. U of Ottawa. > Sculpture by Naomi Schliesman
Daniel Mahraun, Music, recorded the title track of a new CD by St. Paulbased early music group The Rose Ensemble. Mahraun sang “A Toast To Prohibition” by Irving Berlin. The CD will be released in January with a series of concerts at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.
Work by sculpture artist Naomi Schliesman, Art & Design, was featured in an exhibition at the Kaddatz Galleries in Fergus Falls last year. Schliesman’s exhibit caught the attention of Minnesota Public Radio’s “Art Hounds.”
Merrie Sue Holtan, Communication Studies, won first place awards in Travel, Sports, Home and Personality Profile
Sherry Lee Short, Art & Design, and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, had her essay, “Arriving,”