PURSUITS/Faculty news & notes SCHOOL OF THE ARTS Matt Bollinger, Art+Design, had a solo exhibition on view in March and April 2013 at Galerie Zürcher in New York City. Noah Breuer, Art+Design, had an article written about his work in conjunction with the Gowanus Studios Printshop; it was posted on Printeresting on April 1, 2013. Lenora Champagne, Theatre and Performance, was in residence at the Bogliasco Foundation’s Liguria Study Center for a month in March and April 2013, developing a project that responds to Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. On Dec. 1, 2012, Champagne gave a talk, “Into the Lenora Light,” on the work of playwright Maria Irene Fornes to Champagne the Images of Women in American Literature study group in Tokyo, Japan. Sponsored by the Institute for Research in Language and Culture at Tsuda College, the talk was part of Champagne’s 2012–13 Fulbright activities. She also performed in The Record by 600 Highwaymen at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn in February 2013. Donna Dennis, Art+Design, had a show, Donna Dennis: Coney Night Maze, on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art from June 7 to Sept. 15, 2013. Johannes DeYoung, Art+Design, had a show at the Jeff Bailey Gallery in New York City, alongside Joshua Marsh’s work AS IF, on view from March 29 to May 5, 2013. Suzanne Farrin, Music (conservatory director), was one of the composers chosen as an ICElab collaborator for 2014. From 500 applications, six projects were selected; Farrin’s project is an opera based on the love poetry of Michelangelo. Connected, the debut novel written by Joseph Ferry, Music, won second place in the General Fiction category at the San Francisco Book Festival. Ferry released Connected, the first CD on his new label, Ferry LLC, as a companion piece for the book. The CD features reggae legend Rita Marley. Ferry toured as a bassist with Purchase College studio production alum Joey Ray’s band locally in Peekskill at the Beanrunner Café and at the National Hotel in Montgomery, NY, as well as at a special benefit for the Parkinson’s Foundation hosted by Michael J. Fox. They performed in Los Angeles in July 2013 as well. Suzanne Farrin
Welcome to New Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Barry Pearson After an extensive national search and screening process, Purchase College selected Barry Pearson to serve as the new provost and vice president for academic affairs. In July, Pearson joined Purchase from Millikin University in Decatur, IL, where he had served as the univerBarry Pearson sity’s vice president for academic affairs for the past three years. Pearson began his career at Millikin in 1989, holding the positions of artistic director and then associate professor and chair of its Department of Theatre and Dance, director of the university’s Kirkland Fine Arts Center, and dean of the College of Fine Arts. Pearson has a comprehensive background in administration and management of academic programs, curriculum development, and budget planning. In addition to his academic and administrative achievements, Pearson’s professional directing work includes premieres of new plays in Chicago and of American classics in Texas and Michigan, including a re-edited version for the stage of Eugene O’Neill’s play A Touch of the Poet. Pearson also collaborated on original music scores for Sam Shepard’s play The Tooth of Crime and an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. “Purchase College will benefit from the range and scope of Barry’s knowledge and experience and his respect for and understanding of what we do here,” says President Schwarz. “I have no doubt that he will be collaborative and receptive to all of the college’s programs and interests.”
Jon Gordon, Music, has self-published a memoir, For Sue. Prior to its 2012 publication, Gordon had taken Theresa Benaquist’s memoir-writing class at Purchase. The publication has received extensive praise and has been picked up by Chimbarazu Press. Karen Guancione, Art+Design, participated in the production of Cuatro Corridos, a chamber opera, which had its premiere in May 2013 at the Conrad Prebys Music Center/Experimental Theater at the University of California, San Diego.
Jean Freebury, Dance, staged Merce Cunningham’s August Pace MinEvent for the 92nd Street Y/Harkness Dance Center’s “Fridays at Noon” on April 5, 2013, at the 92nd Street Y. The three duets were performed by Conservatory of Dance students Oliver Greene-Cramer, Ariel Dorsey, Zachary Enquist, Lieneke Matte, Jessica Miller, Matthew Perez, and Kenna Tuski.
Maria Guralnik, Arts Management, gave a presentation on a panel devoted to teaching community engagement at the annual Association of Arts Administration Educators conference in March 2013 in New Orleans. Her presentation focused on the intersection of arts advocacy and community engagement. Guralnik also recently team-taught a distance-learning seminar on arts finance and funding as part of the recently launched certified performing arts executive program offered by the graduate program in arts administration at the University of New Orleans in association with Arts Northwest and the National Association of Performing Arts Managers and Agents.
Kate Gilmore, Art+Design, had a solo exhibition, Kate Gilmore: Body of Work, on view at MOCA Cleveland from March 16 to June 9, 2013. Gilmore’s work was also included in the show Only a Signal Shown at Southern Exposure in San Francisco from Feb. 1 to March 9, 2013, and No Sun without Shadow at the Lu Magnus Gallery in New York City from Feb. 27 to March 2, 2013.
Gerard Hecht, Music, was invited by renowned opera star Cynthia Haymon to give a master class in opera arias and art song literature at the School of Music, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Haymon is a faculty member. Hecht worked with nine students during a three-hour class, emphasizing foreign-language diction and role interpretation. He has been invited to return next semester. P U R C HA S E | 1