Faculty + Staff News
Works on view in Philadelphia earlier this year by late faculty member Emma Amos included: “Targets,” 1989. Acrylic on canvas with hand-woven fabric and African fabric borders, 57 inches × 6 feet 1 1/2 inches. Amos Family, courtesy Ryan Lee Gallery; “Godzilla,” 1966. Oil on canvas, 50 × 46 inches; framed: 51 1/4 x 47 1/4 inches. Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Utica, NY; “Seated Figure and Nude,” 1966. Oil on canvas, 56 × 50 inches (no frame). Emanuel Family Collection.
“E
ight of Swords,” a composition by Music’s Melissa Dunphy had its world premiere April 9 at Carnegie Hall. The piece was commissioned in celebration of the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. Film’s Shawn Snyder is co-writer and director of The Futurist, which received the 2022 Sundance Institute/Sloan Commissioning Grant. Scott Ordway’s new full-length album, The Clearing and the Forest, was recorded by SOLI Chamber Ensemble and released April 14 by Acis Productions. Ordway describes the recording as “a large-scale work exploring the relationship between landscape, migration, and refuge. It’s a statement of belief about the difficulty, but not the impossibility, of creating a sense of home and safety in the world.” Theater faculty Don Holder, head of lighting design, was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Paradise Square. This is Holder’s 14th Tony nomination; he's won twice. Pam Tanowitz’s “Four Quartets” had its New York City debut earlier this year at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In addition, in February the New York City Ballet performed Tanowitz’s “Bartók Ballet” as part of the Visionary Voices program, and in April, the New York City Ballet performed her work set to Ted Hearne’s “Law of Mosaics.” This piece was named a “NYT Critic’s Pick” by The New York Times, which described Tanowitz in the review as “an artist always pushing herself in new directions.” From May 1 to 5, she
08
MASON GROSS
presented Dancing the Studies at the Venice Biennale, part of a series of new performances created by internationally renowned choreographers invited to develop a project in dialogue with the exhibit Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies, on view in Venice. Bill O’Connell’s arrangement of Richard Baratta’s “Chopsticks” was nominated for a Grammy Award in the instrumental arranging category. O’Connell also played piano on the piece. Chien-Ying Wang of the Dance Department was awarded the Mixtures Artistic Creation Grant 2022 from the Consulate General of Spain in New York City. As part of the grant, she collaborated on a project with Spanish fashion designer and photographer Icia Vázquez, which was presented on May 3 in New York City. Barbara Madsen, director of the Rutgers Print Collaborative, received a $15,000 Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in Printmaking/Works on Paper/ Book Arts. Hyperallergic named the Emma Amos show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art among the Top 10 in the United States. Amos, who died in 2020, was a longtime Art & Design faculty member and “joins the pantheon of octogenarian and nonagenarian women finally getting retrospectives in major museums,” says writer Ilene Dube. Emma Amos: Color Odyssey ran from October 11 through January 17. Amanda Harberg’s Piccolo Concerto had its official premiere in December with The Philadelphia
Orchestra, soloist Erica Peel, and Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In November, three faculty members received a Universitywide Faculty Award for the academic year 2020–2021. Nancy Rao of the Music Department received The Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research; Julia M. Ritter of the Dance Department received The Presidential Outstanding Faculty Scholar Award; and Steffani Jemison of the Department of Art & Design received The Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence Award. Art & Design faculty and MFA alum Jeanine Oleson has been awarded a summer residency at MacDowell in New Hampshire. The group of fellows includes architects, composers, playwrights, and poets. Notable MacDowell alumni include Willa Cather, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and James Lapine. Dance’s Frederick Curry and Jeff Friedman, as well as Art & Design’s Jacqueline Thaw, were each awarded $10,000 MGSA-SPH Collaborative Seed Grants through funding provided by Mason Gross and the School of Public Health. In May, Friedman received the 2021–2022 Chancellor-Provost Award for Excellence in Service. Gerry Beegan co-curated the Zimmerli Art Museum's exhibit Angela Davis—Seize the Time, which viewed the activist through the lens of archival materials and contemporary art; Beegan also co-authored the exhibition catalog. Steffani Jemison’s work is among those featured in the exhibition, along with that of former longtime faculty Melvin Edwards. Atif Akin’s design practicum class contributed
to the exhibit's branding, producing, among other materials, an educational guide for high school students. The show was on view from September 8 through June 12. Didier William’s solo presentation in the highly competitive FOCUS section of the Armory Show at the Jacob Javits Center was featured in The New York Times. Steffani Jemison received The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts and attended a residency at California Institute of the Arts. Brandon Williams of the Music Department received the inaugural Inclusive Community Award at the MGSA convocation ceremony. Williams was nominated by students who say they are grateful that he celebrates women and other historically excluded composers. Williams also was awarded the university's Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. John Yau of Art & Design was awarded a Rabkin Prize from The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation. The foundation uses the awards to distribute $50,000 each to eight visual arts journalists. Kevin T. Allen of the Filmmaking Center collaborated with artist Sara Cwynar in October to sound-design her six-channel video installation Glass Life in New York City. The piece was re-installed in the city later that month at the Performa Biennial. Heather Hart of Art & Design was named a 2021–2022 fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Past fellows include Zadie Smith and Michael Pollan.
