SPRING 2025
ALUMNI
Director’s Message
Dear Friends,
I’m excited to reach out to you as I approach my five-month mark as director of the School of Art and Design. First, let me say a warm hello and express just how meaningful it is to have alumni like you as a part of our community. The role you’ve played in shaping this school is truly invaluable, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to connect with you.
In my brief time here, I’ve been deeply inspired by the energy, curiosity, and dedication of everyone in our community. The fall semester was a whirlwind of firsts for me—from participating in Convocation and learning the significance of orange and blue to welcoming our new freshman cohort into the world of art and design. I also had the privilege of attending the FAA Legacy Awards ceremony, where I met Art and Design alumni Kenneth Carls (BFA 1972), Taekyeom Lee (MFA 2014), and Omar Lamar (BFA 1994); and attended the Distinguished Alumna Lecture by Mary Coffey (PhD 1999). Each of the award recipients spoke about how their experiences at the school shaped their careers. These stories are essential to my understanding of the history and spirit of our school, and they play a key role in strengthening the connections our alumni have to this incredible institution.
There were so many memorable moments from the fall semester, it’s hard to choose just one. However, one that stood out to me was the inaugural “Waffles on Reading Day” event. With the help of my wonderful colleagues, we celebrated our students’ hard work by serving them waffles in the Link Gallery to fuel them up for final critiques and exams. This new tradition was a fun way to bring everyone together through food and conversation in a space that encourages exchange daily, and I’m excited to see it continue to strengthen our sense of community. Events like this, along with the many exhibitions, lectures, collaborations, and friendships that flourished, remind me of how vibrant and dynamic this place truly is. And this is just the beginning—I’m looking forward to all that we have planned for 2025!
Thank you for being a part of this journey, and the next time you are in town please stop by and say hello! If you time it right, we might even make you a waffle!
Warmly, Director, School of Art and Design
Art & Design Picnic 2024
Photo credit: William Hohe
education. His dedication to diversity and inclusion, rooted in his experiences as a first-generation college student and a foreign-born designer, serves as an inspiration. He is determined to create opportunities that appreciate and embrace diverse cultural, social, and economic backgrounds. His current research project, “Graphic Design for Accessibility,” is a testament to his commitment to inclusion, diversity, and education. It aims to craft better experiences for people with low vision and vision impairments, and it has been developed as a regular course to embed his research into his teaching, helping students enhance their creative practice, advance their competence, and promote responsible innovation for accessibility.
Professor Taekyeom Lee’s visionary research, personal resilience, and dedication to expanding the boundaries of graphic design make him a leading figure in the field. His work, which continues to inspire and influence the next generation of designers and educators, is a beacon of hope for the future of inclusive, creative, and technologyenhanced design practices.
Illinois Art Legacy Award
Recognizes volunteers, staff, loyal performers, affiliated artists, etc., who are not necessarily graduates of FAA but whose contributions have made a significant impact in the arts at Illinois.
Kenneth Carls BFA 1972 Graphic Design Illinois Arts Legacy Award 2024
Ken Carls earned a BFA in Graphic Design at UIUC and an MA in Graphic Design from Kent State University. He began his career as a packaging designer in Chicago, before taking a teaching position in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During his tenure at UIUC, he headed the Graphic Design program, and before ending his academic career in 2005, he served three years as the school’s interim director and one year as associate director.
As a resident in the arts community of Saugatuck-Douglas, Michigan, Carls has been deeply committed to the advancement of that area’s arts and cultural not-for-profits. He has served on the boards of Saugatuck Center for the Arts, the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society, and Ox-Bow, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s century-old summer art school on the shore of Lake Michigan at Saugatuck. He has served as grants reviewer for the Ohio Arts Council and has juried exhibitions for the Holland Area Arts Council and the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at Michigan State University.
Although Carls’s professional focus throughout his career was graphic design, since leaving academia, he has concentrated on art making. Several extended periods of living in Europe, and the continuing urban/rural contrasts created by his Illinois farm upbringing and maintaining residences in both Southern California and West Michigan, have shaped his unique perspective and vision—and his varied artistic expression. Ken’s work has been shown in exhibitions in Illinois, Michigan, and California, and he has received numerous awards.
Upon his retirement, he established the Kenneth R. Carls Endowment which will in perpetuity provide support for international travel for undergraduate students in the School of Art and Design.
Omar Lamar Francis BFA 1994 Photography Illinois Arts Legacy Award 2024
Omar Francis, 2nd degree instructor in the Urasenke Tradition of Chadō (Japanese Way of Tea), started his formal art training at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1990. During his time earning his BFA in Photography, he was exposed and introduced to the other arts featured on campus. His fiery adventures in glass blowing still hold a special place in his stories of the art program. Halfway through his time on campus, Francis enrolled in Prof. Kimiko Gunji’s (MS ’71, MA ’79) class on chanoyu (the Japanese tea ceremony). When asked, he would describe that time as a “homecoming” because Japan House was “a place where I could open my heart wide and share it with others.”
“For me, studying the art and culture of tea [chanoyu] has never been about amusing myself with something exotic. What really drew me in was discovering that what I believed to be my own personal ideas about life, art, and relationships, already existed outside of myself in the Way of Tea.”
After graduating with his BFA, Francis moved to Chicago to continue work in the commercial photography industry, building on experience gained from internships under Douglas Busch (BFA ’74) and Big Deal studios. While working in this field, he continued his weekly studies of the Urasenke Tradition of Chadō under Joyce Kubose in Chicago. This led up to his taking a year-long break from work to enroll in the Midorikai program in Kyoto, Japan. Midorikai is the intensive full-time program of the Urasenke Tea Tradition for nonJapanese students. Days were filled with lectures, kimono wearing, Japanese traditional culture, and a most serious study of the Way of Tea.
Since returning, Francis has been a longtime member of the Urasenke Chicago Association, including 16 years as Vice President of the organization. Some of the many places he has taught and/or presented chanoyu over the past 30 plus years include Loyola University, Notre Dame University, Chicago Botanic Garden, Anderson Japanese Garden, and Japanese Information Center (Consulate of Japan). Through his work at the Japanese Culture Center, he has worked to expose the Way of Tea and culture to high school aged students and younger. In 2008, Francis was granted the prestigious level of instructor and given the name Sōbin by the Urasenke Grandmaster Sen Sōshitsu XVI. Simultaneously, during this time he was diagnosed with a slowly progressing form of ALS but his commitment to chanoyu did not slow down. Due to his many activities spreading tea culture, Omar Francis was awarded the Cultural Achievement Award by The Japanese America Society of Chicago in 2017.
In addition to the achievements above, Francis would say that he has been greatly fortunate to be able to contribute to the programs of Japan House on the Urbana campus. “Even when asked to teach or present chanoyu at Japan House, I find that I am the one who is learning and growing each and every time that I am there.” Most recently, Francis has also been teaching a course for the U of I, ARTJ 397 Zen, Tea, and Power. This course uncovers how the mutually beneficial relationships of religion, war, politics, and the arts gave rise to the tea ceremony in Japan.
“The influential people of pre-modern Japan didn’t study tea as a hobby only after they became powerful. I believe that the study of tea helped make them powerful. It has also been my goal to present this subject in a way that encourages the students to see how their own hobbies and private pursuits are not side notes to their lives but powerful forces that shape who they are and who they will become.”
Currently Omar Francis is one of only three instructors of the Urasenke Tradition of Chadō in the Chicagoland area. Going on ten years, he continues to teach regular classes at the Japanese Culture Center.
Program Recognition
Art Education Art History
Laura Hetrick (professor of Art Education), Stephanie Ceman (professor of Cell & Developmental Biology), and Tracey Wszalek (director of Biomedical Imaging Center) were recently interviewed in Smile Politely: “An unlikely team with a new approach to autism research,” by Laura Cravens.
Current Faculty and Graduate Students
Tim Abel (Art Education PhD candidate) had a oneperson exhibition in the Illini Union Gallery in the summer of 2024.
Grace Bae (Art Education PhD student) is an Interseminars 2024-25 fellow at the Humanities Research Institute, UIUC. She presented the paper “Multicultural Art Education for Improving Mental Health of Immigrant Children” at the 2023 Illinois Art Education Association (IAEA) conference.
Natalia Espinel (Art Education PhD candidate) has been curated into the 15th Havana Biennial (2024).
Rachel Gu (Art Education PhD student) curated an exhibition and presented a paper for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference in Richmond, VA (2024). She also presented papers at the Illinois Art Education Association (IAEA), United States Society for Education through Art (USSEA), and the National Art Education Association (NAEA) conferences.
Umar Hameed (Art Education PhD student) had a paper presentation on October 14, 2024, for Uniting Human-Computer Interaction for a Hyperlocal and Global Experience at NordiCHI 24 in Uppsala, Sweden.
He is also conducting a workshop in October 2024 at the Illinois Art Education Association (IAEA) conference. Laura Hetrick (associate professor of Art Education), Natalie Smith (Art Education PhD student), and Jean Carlos Valentin Velila (Art Education PhD candidate), presented on “Neurodivergent Narratives of Navigating Graduate School: Recognizing and Accommodating Different Neurotypes” at the 2024 National Art Education Association in Minneapolis, MN.
Laura Hetrick (associate professor of Art Education) initiated, moderated, and presented at the UIUC Autism Research Panel with Commentator Temple Grandin, with Temple Grandin, Nien-Pei Tsai, Marie Channell, Amy Cohen, Tracey Wszalek, and Stephanie Ceman at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology on April 17, 2024.
Somi Lee (teaching assistant professor of Art Education) published the article “Asian Diaspora: Understanding Toronto Public Spaces Through Art and Performances” in the journal Studies in Art Education (2024).
Alumni
Shivani Bhalla (PhD 2024 Art Education) published the article “Through the Looking Glass: Locating My Disability Experience Through Artworks” in the journal Art Education (2024).
Albert Stabler (PhD 2018 Art Education) published the article “Stoic Indulgence, Gratuitous Restraint: White Feelings and Campus Art” in the journal Studies in Art Education (2023).
Emily Edwards (MA 2014 Art History) was appointed Registrar for Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Christina Michelon (BFA 2007 Art History) was appointed the Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Xuxa Rodríguez (PhD 2020 Art History) was appointed Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum at Duke University.
Tammie Rubin (BFA 1999 Art History and Crafts) was named a United States Artists Fellow for 2024.
Alumni
Faculty
Jennifer Chuong joined the Art History faculty at UIUC! Her essay, “Love and Chance in the Plantationocene,” will be published by the Henry Art Gallery this fall in conjunction with the exhibition Lucy Kim: Mutant Optics.
Kristin Romberg published a Russian translation of her book Gan’s Constructivism: Aesthetic Theory for an Embedded Modernism (University of California Press, 2018) as Konstruktivizm Gana: Esteticheskaia teoriia vovlechennogo modernizma (Academic Studies Press, 2024).
James Pilgrim was guest faculty at the Johns Hopkins University/University of Warwick/Ca’ Foscari graduate summer school in Renaissance Studies in Venice, Italy.
Cassandra Smith is Guest Curator for the exhibition Txem-sym: A Tribute to Northwest Coast Carvers at the Spurlock Museum.
Hermann von Hesse was awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies for his project “Love of Stone Houses”: Urban Merchants, Ancestral Spaces and Sacred Objects on Africa’s Gold Coast, 1700-1890.”
Industrial Design
Current Students
Jori Bassett (BFA in Art & Art History student) is Project Assistant on the exhibition Txem-sym: A Tribute to Northwest Coast Carvers at the Spurlock Museum.
Ivan Cherniakov (PhD student) received the Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant to conduct research in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia this summer.
Sharayah Cochran (PhD candidate) received a Humanities Research Institute fellowship for her dissertation project, “Dangerous Photographs: What’s the Harm in Documentary?”
Maria Grimaldo (BA in Art History student) was selected to participate in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Summer Intensive.
Lilah Leopold (PhD candidate) published the article “Crop Seed Movements as Feminist Infrastructure” in FKW//Zeitschrift fur Geschlechterforschung und Visuelle Kultur.
Evan Price (BA in Art History student) received the Jo Ann McNaughton-Cade Undergraduate Art History Research Award and a FLAS fellowship to study Yiddish and do thesis research at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City this summer.
Associate Director of Design Lynne Dearborn received a 2024 Architectural Education Award. Dr. Dearborn received a Distinguished Professor Award, which recognizes individuals that have had a positive, stimulating, and nurturing influence upon students.
Cliff Shin was quoted in the February 19, 2024, article, “Apple’s freshest design might just be this puffy space-age carrying case” by Aaron Mok of Business Insider
Graphic Design
Eric Benson, Fresh Press co-founder and associate professor of Graphic Design/DRI; e. ainsley (MFA 2021 Sculpture), co-studio manager and program coordinator; and Meredith Hislope (Art Education major), co-studio manager were featured on WILL’s Mid-American Gardner. Fresh Press was also featured on PBS’s Prairie Fire on Thursday, September 19, 2024, and may be viewed on demand on YouTube or PBS Online.
Nekita Thomas, Eric Benson, Joshua Pridemore, Holly Strickland, Noelyn Stephens, and Yiqi Xiao had their article, “How to Explain Design Research To Your Friends” in the Design Research Society Digital Library published.
Jena Marble is presenting with Isabel Bo-Linn (Portland State University) at AIGA Design Conference 2024 on the Design Educators Track. Our panel is titled Sticky Icky AI: Preserving Creativity in the AI Tar Pits. Her visual essay Reimagining Tenure: Bringing Clinical Professors in from the Margins will also be on display at the conference.
Studio Art
Art & Design Studio
an
BFA 2016 in Studio Art: Sculpture Alumna Jade Williams
Art Forms) is also a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship.
Student Recognition
Congratulations to Ali Ibanez (BFA 2024 Graphic Design) for competing in the Paris Paralympics on the women’s basketball team. Also to be congratulated are Phillip Croft (BFA 2025 Industrial Design) and Isaiah Rigo (BFA 2024 Industrial Design) for making it to the paralympic trials for Track and Field.
Kuangming Qin (MFA 2024 Industrial Design) received a 2024 merit award from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
National Portfolio Days
The School of Art and Design faculty again participated in undergraduate National Portfolio Days in San Francisco, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Washington, DC.
Art Faculty Ben Grosser (Digital Arts), Patrick Hammie (Visual Arts), and Laurie Hogin (Visual Arts) recently received
Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award
(New
Charlene Teters Distinguished Alumni
Presentation and Lecture
Art & Design Distinguished Alumni Lecture: The Painted Line
Thursday, March 21, 2024 / 5:30 p.m.
Plym Auditorium, Temple Buell Hall, 611 E Lorado Taft Dr, Champaign
A member of the Spokane Nation and an artist, writer, educator, and activist, she rose to national prominence as a graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she led protests against the degrading depictions of American Indian caricatures used as sport team’s mascots and was the subject of the award-winning documentary In Whose Honor? by Jay Rosenstein. She has been honored as “Person of the Week” by ABC News and received a New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. She is the recipient of two honorary doctorates from Mitchell College in Connecticut in 2000 and from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2021.
CHARLENE
CHARLENE TETERS
Fall 2024 Distinguished Alumna
Wednesday, October 16, 2024 / 5:30 p.m.
Plym Auditorium, Temple Buell Hall, 611 E Lorado Taft Dr, Champaign
Mary K. Coffey is Professor of Art History and Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. She received her MA and PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1999. She is a scholar of the modern art of the Americas, with a particular focus on Mexican muralism. Her first book How a Revolutionary Art Became Official Culture: Murals, Museum and the Mexican State (Duke 2012) won the College Art Association’s Charles Rufus Morey Prize in 2012. She published her second monograph Orozco’s America: Myth, History, and the Melancholy of Race (Duke) in 2020. In addition to these books, she has also published articles and essays on the politics of transnational exhibition, folk art, and more recently, the printmaking of Jose Clemente Orozco. Her most recent research concerns the relationship between visual culture, discarded populations, extraction, and the creation of zones of sacrifice through the modernization and development projects of the postrevolutionary state.
MARY K. COFFEY
Takeover VI
TAKEOVER is an annual extravaganza/ experimental showcase of art and design where all 180+ first year students take over the bathrooms, hallways, stairwells, ceilings, galleries, classrooms, Link Gallery, Bloc Gallery, and Gallery 003, across the School of Art and Design for one night only.
TAKEOVER VI was held on Friday, March 22, 2024, and TAKEOVER VII is scheduled for Friday, April 4, 2025.
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Art Award
A new Vice Provost for Undergraduate Research Art Award was established last year. Awards in the amount of $1000 per work will be provided by the vice provost for up to three awards each year. Any continuing student in the School of Art and Design is eligible to submit work. Work will be installed for one year in the offices of the vice provost and will be returned to the student at the end of the year.
The 2023-2024 recipients are Sarah Atmore, Graphic Design; Alexander Brown, Studio Art; and Rosie Martinez, Graphic Design.
