1995 Public Interest Design Practice Guidebook: SEED Methodology, Case Studies, and Critical Issues (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2015), a new book co-edited by Lisa Abendroth MFA GD, presents the first stepby-step guide for public interest designers. It indexes 90 critical social, economic and environmental issues, providing case studies from around the world. A professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, Lisa lives in Dumont, CO.
Daphne Minkoff MFA 91 PT 23rd Avenue is among the paintings Daphne combines with imagery photographed during her travels and exhibited in September at the faculty show at North Seattle Community College. Her work will also be on view in two winter shows at Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle (where she lives): the group show Seattle Seen in December and Peripheral Vision in January.
1991 continued On October 1 Philadelphiabased photographer Judy Gelles MFA PH (judygelles.com) gave a public lecture as part of the Visiting Artist Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Known for work
that explores the issues of feminism, motherhood, childhood and family life, Judy spoke about her early Family series and her Fourth Grade Project, which has attracted ongoing attention since she first launched it several years ago.
1992 Although Frank Poor MFA SC is now based in Cranston, RI, the loss of the rural built environment of his childhood home in Georgia during a 1970s building boom influences the 3D architectural forms and prints on view in two solo shows this fall. Incorporating photographic artifacts, his haunting pieces graced the walls of the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery in Fall River, MA and the Van Vessem Gallery in Tiverton, RI. In October Frank’s work was also featured in a two-person show at the Pratt WMP School of Art Gallery in Utica, NY.
Heather Watkins MFA 00 GD only this once is among the new work Heather exhibited in This Is The Only One, a September show at PDX Contemporary Art in Portland, OR (where she lives). The piece is from her series Seeing Things, in which each work begins with a gesture — a meditation on variation using pigment, liquid, fiber and wood in sculptures and works on paper and cloth. 098
// graduate class notes
Anne Morgan Spalter MFA PT (Providence) is one of 25 artists from around the world whose work was selected for inclusion in the 2015 Lumen Prize Exhibition, a major global traveling show presenting the world’s best digital art. Called World of Water, the wonderfully mesmerizing piece she’s showing uses footage shot at Volcano Falls Adventure Park in northern Illinois, a place she describes as “a somewhat tacky but quite fun off-the-highway amusement park.” The 2015/16 Lumen Prize global tour kicks off in Shanghai in November, moves to NYC in December, then to London in January, Wales in March and finally returns to NYC for Creative Tech Week in late April and early May.
1994 Kara Walker MFA PT/PR (see also page 49) has been named Tepper Chair in Visual Arts at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. She began a five-year term this fall, hoping to “foster an environment of openness and willingness to live with contentious images and objectionable ideas, particularly in the space of art.”
During graduate school, Professor Michael Beresford presciently advised Steve Santaniello MFA SC (Milford, NH) that his sculpture was likely to change dramatically during the program. By the end of his first semester, Steve says he “had gravitated away from all my original materials and into film, video and wearable devices.” In 2013 Steve became the Director of Product Development for Corflex, where he creates technical post-operative braces, and brings innovative products and patents to market.
1996 Carrie Zaslow MFA JM has joined the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) board of directors. A Providence resident and program officer at Rhode Island LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation), Carrie is the former vice chair of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
1997 Shahzia Sikander MFA PT/PR (see page 16)
1998 For the past 17 years, Liesel Fenner MLA has worked for nonprofit arts organizations in the realm of public art—first at the New England Foundation for the Arts, then at Americans for the Arts in Washington, DC. Recently hired as the public art program director at the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), Liesel is thrilled to be working close to home in Baltimore. “Much like Providence,” she notes, “Baltimore is a city that reveres its arts community. A lot is happening here.”