VCUarts Studio Fall 2023 by VCUarts

FALL 2023

A FAMILY AFFAIR Dean Carmenita Higginbotham (right) congratulates Painting + Printmaking graduate Erin Yerby (M.F.A. ’23) and her daughter as they walk across the Altria Theater stage during the VCUarts commencement ceremony on May 12, 2023. PHOTO BY RYAN M. KELLY

Contents

From the Dean

03 VCUarts News 16 M.F.A. Work 20 Loie Hollowell’s Triumphant Return The 2012 Painting + Printmaking M.F.A. graduate plans her homecoming with a solo exhibition at the Anderson 26 A Rising Star The CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation will shape the future of interdisciplinary collaboration at VCU. 32 A Legend Takes Her (Almost) Final Bow A golden age has come to a close for VCU Opera with the retirement of Melanie Kohn Day after 39 years.

70 Alumni News

Thank you for reading,

76 Last Look

Carmenita Higginbotham, Ph.D. VCUarts Dean, Special Assistant to the Provost for VCUarts Qatar

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts is a blic o ro t art a d desig school in Richmond, Va. Founded in 1928, VCUarts offers bac elor s a d aster s degrees across areas of study, as well as two doctoral degrees t ro g a liated rogra s r ca si o a atar offers bac elor s a d aster s degrees i ve areas

Studio Magazine Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts 325 N. Harrison St. Box 842519 Richmond, VA 23284

38 At Play in a Material World An interdisciplinary research project will explore an environmentally conscious approach to artistic experimentation and material usage. 44 Explore/Engage/Evolve Read featured interviews with some of the curious minds inspiring change at VCUarts. 54 Drawing From Experience Emmy-winning VCUarts alumnus Richard Hankins gives back to the department that helped him find his calling. 58 Faculty News

Editor Wes Hester Deputy Editor Micah Jayne Deputy Editor Brian Ivasauskas Art Director & Designer Ryan Sprowl Copy Editor Hew Stith

Contributors Andrew Faught Kimberly Frost Melissa Goodwin Ryan M. Kelly Jayla McNeil Leila Ugincius Israel Vargas Chase Westfall Melanie Wynne

M O N I CA ESCA M IL L A

66 Student News

elcome to a special fall edition of Studio magazine. The start of the academic year is always an exciting time of possibility. For students, it marks the promise of seeking and finding inspiration. For faculty, it is a time to identify and develop potential while building a rich and energizing environment for those students to flourish. For me, it offers the chance to channel that momentum and reflect on both pathways traveled and the numerous opportunities to come for our school. This issue captures some of that energy, enthusiasm and reflection that defines VCUarts—a thriving and growing landscape for integrated learning, bold experimentation and limitless creativity. It also pays tribute to a collection of our gifted educators, students, alumni and supporters who are so integral to the continued elevation and expansion of our role in arts education and research. As always, Studio promises an engaged exploration of past, present and future to reflect holistic and tailored educational journeys for our students. This edition highlights a range of opportunities and accomplishments—from outstanding faculty to renowned alumni to new space dedicated to arts and innovation. VCUarts offers one of the nation’s most immersive experiences in arts research, creative practice and education. We are immensely proud to engage and educate the future visionary leaders that the world needs.

VCUarts News

CAMPUS

DAVI D H UN T E R HA L E

ICA at VCU to Join School of the Arts Family The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University will soon be joining forces with the university’s highly ranked School of the Arts. In an organizational shift that will facilitate increased programming and educational opportunities, the ICA at VCU will begin operating under the umbrella of VCUarts on July 1, 2024. “We are incredibly excited by this addition to the school,” said VCUarts VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Dean Carmenita Higginbotham, Ph.D. “This partnership will enable us to build on the close and collaborative relationship that VCUarts and the ICA have enjoyed for years, allowing new and innovative opportunities for students and faculty to engage in critical creative research while maintaining a deep commitment to community engagement.” Opened in April 2018, the ICA at VCU is housed within the Markel Center and showcases wide-ranging exhibitions, performances, films and special programs featuring renowned artists, designers and performers from across the world. Admission to the ICA is free and open to all. In 2020, the multidisciplinary institute was named a top 10 best new museum by the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. The 43,000-square-foot building

includes a variety of performance and exhibition spaces, a sculpture garden, an auditorium, a café and administrative offices and more. At the intersection of Belvidere and West Broad streets on VCU’s Monroe Park Campus, the ICA at VCU is strategically located next to the soonto-be-built CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation, creating a significant expansion of the VCUarts footprint and a gateway to the university’s campus and Richmond arts district. The ICA’s Advisory Board, which consists of artists, VCU leadership and alumni, art world professionals, business leaders, and a student representative, will continue to support the institute’s mission to present the art of our time and provide an open forum for dialogue and collaboration. 3

VCUarts News

VISITING ARTIST

Creating Community by Creating Collectively BY ANDREW FAUGHT

embroideries in a communal setting. Separately, she visited fashion classes and screened her self-produced 2013 documentary, Women Weaving Our Culture. The screening was followed by a discussion on Mixteca design from Oaxaca, indigenous film, self representation and collective making. The events were sponsored by the Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising, VCU Global Education and mOb Studio. Lita’s visit also aimed to celebrate the heritage of the many Latin students attending VCU and VCUarts, according to event organizer Jeannine Diego, assistant professor in the Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising. The visit showcased the power of collective creation,

that the students’ embroideries were joined to create a likeness of the mOb logo. “We worked on a giant-scale loom, and it was really fantastic.” Collective making was an effective icebreaker for students, Lita said. Initially reserved, they quickly formed a community within the mOb studio, where the event was held. “The collective loom changed everything,” Lita noted, adding that students traded email addresses with her to remain in touch. “The experience changed the dynamic, and lots of students expressed their gratitude. They were very receptive and warm.” It wasn’t just the students who gained from the experience. “It’s always a reciprocal experience, in terms of sharing knowledge and traditions,” Lita said. “I had the opportunity to share, but to also learn from other people. It makes me feel fortunate to have been born into this collective sort of universe.”

PA RI S B OYN ES

The ancestral textile crafts of Oaxaca, Mexico, burst in chromatic expression: Bright pink, red and indigo cotton embroideries illustrate the mountainous region’s natural wonders, indigenous myths and rhythms of life. It’s a tradition that weaver Laura Margarita Quiroz Ruiz, who goes by the mononym “Lita,” is working to preserve as a member of a textile-producing collective in the village of San Pablo Tijaltepec. Lita, alongside 40 other women, creates garments from locally sourced and bartered materials, selling their creations via Facebook and Instagram to buyers around the world. As a featured artist-in-residence at VCUarts last semester, Lita guided students as they created their own

sustainability and social justice. “This year, we decided to do something a little different, which was to invite someone who’s not an artist in the traditional sense,” Diego said. “I believe in the power of art to bring us together and to engage with one another. Putting on the table the idea of ‘making collectively’ is something that’s contrary to what we tend to do in the Western tradition.” Collective creation is imperiled in some parts of the world, including exico, because financial and political pressures have forced people to relocate from their traditional homelands, according to Diego. The embroidery event taught students a form of smocking, a technique that allows fabric to be stretched. It was brought to Mexico hundreds of years ago by Spanish nuns. Individual garments can sometimes take months to complete. “The idea was just to make together, regardless of how far we got,” Diego said, noting

VCUARTS QATAR

CO U RT ESY O F VC UA RT S QATA R

November Set for 10th HBK Symposium on Islamic Art in Doha

The biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, which will take place in Doha, Qatar, Nov. 11–13, will enrich the understanding of Islamic art and culture among international scholars, students, architects, designers, collectors and interested participants. The event was established in 2004, from the vision of His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Father Amir of Qatar, which he shared with Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, for the State of Qatar to be a leader in education in the Gulf and the Arab world. The theme for the 2023 Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, “Islamic Art and the Global Turn: Theory, Method, Practice,” was envisioned as an opportunity to mark the Symposium’s 10th iteration since it was established in 2004. Participating academics will examine how art history’s concerns with the global turn, and associated calls for decolonial, diverse, inclusive, and equitable histories, have been taken up by scholars, educators, curators and related practitioners of Islamic art history. Although scholarship on how Islamic art is studied, collected, and exhibited are on the rise, what is less addressed is how, and to what extent, these methods have related to pedagogical and curating practices. Bridging this gap between theory and practice, the 2023 Symposium will explore how the past two decades of debating methodologies for diverse, inclusive, decolonial, and global Islamic art histories have taken shape in classrooms, galleries, and related settings. The Symposium aims to highlight the VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

challenges—and not just successes—of teaching, curating and researching Islamic art history in a global context. Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair for Islamic Art and VCUarts Associate Professor Hala Auji, shared her anticipation for November’s event. Auji says she and her Symposium Co-Chair, Radha Dalal, felt that the moment called for an assessment of the field in general, as well as the Symposium’s historical engagement with, and challenging of, Islamic art history’s boundaries. This year’s theme also informs the Symposium’s program, which, for the first time in the event’s history, will include a student-led art history colloquium (led by students from both the VCUarts and the VCUarts Qatar campuses) and an equal combination of lectures and roundtables across the three days of the Symposium. These and other programming components will exemplify the Symposium’s commitment to discussion, collaboration, and teaching as an integral part of knowledge production. “I am thrilled to be working with my colleagues and Symposium team members from across both the Richmond and Doha campuses, and am excited to welcome our list of illustrious speakers to Doha in the Fall,” said Dr. Auji. The HBK Islamic Art Symposium is just one example of how the relationship between VCUarts and VCUarts Qatar has grown into a robust, collaborative conversation about art, design, culture, identity and community. For more information, visit the Symposium’s website: islamicart.qatar.vcu.edu

Meet the 2023 HBK Symposium Chairs:

Dr. Hala Auji is an associate professor of art history and the Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair for Islamic Art. Informed by her interdisciplinary in graphic design, criticism and theory, and art history, Auji’s research explores the history of the book, print culture, cultural modernity, museum practices and portraiture in the Islamic world, with a focus on Arabic-speaking communities of the Eastern Mediterranean. Her work evidences intersections between book history, manuscript studies, art history, design history, comparative literature, and Islamic and Middle East studies.

Dr. Radha Dalal is associate professor of Islamic Art and Architecture and director of art history at VCUarts Qatar. She researches visual cultures of mobility and urbanism with a particular emphasis on the Ottoman Empire and its socio-political interactions with other European and Asian polities during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Her research projects have received funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Kress Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Qatar National Research Fund and VCUarts Qatar. 5

VCUarts News

DEVELOPMENT UPDATES

Pollak Society, Fashion, Legacy Scholarships & Endowments

offering members premier access to the living lab of art, design and possibility that is VCUarts. Programs, events and parties are conceived to introduce members to the ideas and initiatives that will define creative expression moving forward. In turn, Pollak Society memberships propel this innovation. Each year, the philanthropy of Pollak Society members provides more than $100,000 to VCUarts, supporting countless faculty and students through scholarships, travel and research grants. Meeting the moment would be impossible without them, and we are grateful.

to meet student needs, realize an ambitious concept and prepare graduates for trajectories of professional success. We are especially thankful for the generous support from The Rock Foundation, Rachel Grove Dalton, and Nita and Jack Enoch. Bonnie Hiner In 2023, Bonnie Hiner, who received a B.F.A. in sculpture in 1968, documented her intention to create four scholarships at VCUarts. These funds, benefiting Graphic esign, Craft/Material Studies, Painting + Printmaking, and Sculpture + Extended Media, will support student creativity and excellence and will be named for her and her late husband, Ken Hiner (B.F.A. ’66). As students at Richmond Professional Institute in the mid-1960s, Bonnie saw Ken’s work before she met him. “His work was bold and

JAY PAU L

Pollak Society VCUarts was born of the work of Theresa Pollak, who taught the Richmond Professional Institute’s first ever class in 1928. The Pollak Society was established in 2005 to honor that legacy: hers, that dared to support the arts, and the students, who took the ambitious first leap into her class. Since then, VCUarts has evolved into the Commonwealth’s cultural vanguard, developing the artists whose craft, creativity and research have gone on to lead and shape the world. The Pollak Society engages and supports this mission,

Fashion Event Each Spring, Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising students display their work in the legendary VCUarts Fashion Event. The 2023 event (pictured above), titled “Access,” attracted an audience of nearly 1,000 people, demonstrating yet again that it is one of the most anticipated arts events in Richmond every year. The fashion event and its success are significantly underwritten by the generosity of sponsors, whose gifts secure the stage, materials and equipment necessary to transform the students’ passion and ideas into meaningful, tangible, communicable expression. The 2023 edition, which was joyous and electric, was no exception. “Access” was supported by nearly 50 donors whose combined contributions gave the department the flexibility of priorities

J U D F RO E L I CH

creative,” she said, “and I wanted to meet whoever had dreamed up those designs.” They did meet, and that meeting led to marriage. For the next 59-plus years, the two pursued careers predicated on creativity. As they grew older, their art practice extended, and together they collaborated on paintings, sculptures and a range of other works. To honor that life and their partnership, Bonnie made provisions in her will to establish a set of scholarships at VCUarts supporting art creation in several disciplines. “Endowing these scholarships through my estate is the right thing to do,” she said. “Our life together was enriched in so many ways by our experience at VCUarts and I want other bright, young artists to have the same opportunity.”

The Wellons Family Endowment for Glass Art The Wellons Family Endowment for Glass Art was established in 2023 to support the research efforts of graduate students enrolled in the Glass Department at VCUarts. Its creation recognizes the achievements, the aesthetics and the research activities of graduate students as they pursue their careers as emerging glass artists. Florence Lee and Bert Wellons have engaged on a journey of collecting glass art for decades. “When enjoying a piece of glass art, the technical skill involved in its creation underlies the aesthetic pleasure,” Florence Lee said. “It demands an understanding of the medium and how it speaks with the creative goal of the artist. This fund will encourage both, and we were delighted to create it.” The Wellons Family Endowment is a resource to fund various academic requests, including travel stipends and the purchase of materials, which in turn will create individual opportunities for VCUarts graduate students, encourage innovation and creative expression using glass, and further the appreciation of glass as an international art medium. VCUarts was the second art school in the United States to establish a glass concentration within its fine arts curriculum. The dedicated faculty promotes an academic environment for the growth and nurturing of young artists, designers and artisans. Glass concentration students initially learn the inherent properties of the material glass, then hone the skills in the hot shop that allows them to explore the limitless opportunities for their own artistic expression.

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

ALUMNI

“My parents and I got in our ’57 Chevrolet, drove to Richmond. And I went to the administration desk and they said, ‘Sir, we don’t have any idea who you are.’ They sent me to John Hilton, he’s head of the art department. He was in his office, smoking his pipe, and my parents were with me and they were confused. And [Hilton] said, ‘Oh, I think I have your package right here.’ He hadn’t opened it. So he opened it right there in front of us, and he said, ‘OK, I think you’ll do fine.’ And that’s how I got in.” David Ashton (B.F.A. ’62) recounts the unorthodox way he was accepted to VCUarts—then Richmond Professional Institute (RPI)—in 1958. Learn more about Ashton’s sixdecade design career (including his celebrated work on Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards) in the spring 2023 issue of VCU Magazine: magazine.vcu.edu/2023-spring

VCUarts News ALUMNI

Tyler Fauntleroy Let Passion Lead Him to Hamilton BY JAYLA MCNEILL

VCUARTS QATAR

Qatar Week Comes to VCU Campus in October

Foundation’s groundbreaking Education City, in 1998, and has effectively grown its influence on the nation’s art and culture scene ever since. Last year’s Qatar Week in Richmond featured a Research Labs Exhibition at the Anderson Gallery at VCU, alumni panels focusing on VCUQ’s contribution to the art, design and storytelling of the FIFA World Cup 2022, as well as opportunities for students from both campuses to come together in dialogue and cross-cultural exchange. This year’s lineup will include an exhibition of exceptional work from VCUarts Qatar’s Foundation Year students, a “mini” alumni exhibition alongside this, a creative research PechaKucha presentation, and several opportunities for student dialogue and panel discussions. Watch for specific dates and times via social media channels. “Qatar Week is an opportunity for us to illustrate to our home campus community the positive impact that VCU is having in Qatar and the exciting research and incredible student and alumni work that is taking place,” Berbi said. Visit arts.vcu.edu/qatarweek for details.

ST E VE N CASAN OVA

VCUarts Dean Carmenita Higginbotham, Ph.D., and VCUarts Qatar Dean Amir Berbi will co host this year’s atar Week, highlighting the 25th anniversary of the overseas branch campus of VCUarts with a series of events planned for the week of Oct. 9–11 in Richmond. Qatar Week is an annual exchange between the VCUarts Richmond and VCUarts Qatar campuses that showcases the success of the overseas branch and its researchers, alumni, students and faculty, and promotes new areas of collaboration between the two campuses. “This year, we will mark 25 years of building, in partnership with Qatar Foundation, a successful footing for art and design education in the region,” Berbi said. “We have made significant contributions to the development of a creative community and arts and culture industry in Qatar in our time. For this year’s Qatar Week, we will be anticipating and exploring where the next 25 years will take us.” Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), a Qatar Foundation partner university, was the first American university to be invited to operate in Qatar

Growing up in Hampton, Va., Tyler Fauntleroy didn’t like attention and did what he could to avoid the spotlight. But when he joined his church choir, something changed. “That was where I cultivated a love for singing,” said Fauntleroy, who graduated from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in 2017. “I was a very shy kid, scared of my shadow, that whole thing. But I found myself at an early age enjoying something.” But even with this passion, he wasn’t moved to perform onstage until a friend convinced him to attend a musical at his middle school. “I was blown away,” Fauntleroy said. “I was like, wow. These kids … I see them in the hallways, I see them all the time, but they’re making me feel things right now.” So he took up theater, appearing in school musicals in seventh and eighth grade and throughout high school—and now on much bigger stages. Today, Fauntleroy plays a lead role in one of the biggest Broadway productions in the world, Hamilton. As a member of the Philip Company, one of the North America tour casts of the smash musical, Fauntleroy stars in the dual role of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton. Describing the job as a “blessing,” Fauntleroy notes that his path has been a challenging yet rewarding journey. Although he loved performing in early theater productions, Fauntleroy still did not know what he wanted to pursue as a career. He considered studying law, but in the summer before his junior year of high school, during a month away from family, an intensive acting program provided him with formal training for the first time. “I was taking acting classes all day. ... We were getting into the nuts and bolts of acting and the craft,” Fauntleroy

KE V IN M O R L E Y

said. “A lot of what acting training is, especially in the beginning, is tearing down the walls that you might have that hinder you from accessing parts of you that you’ll need to play certain characters. So a lot of that meant doing exercises that were very, very emotional.” The training was an exciting and emotional experience, but the relationships he established with other young actors helped solidify his desire to pursue theater. “That component was what made me be like, OK, this has changed my life because I’ve learned so much more about myself and I feel closer to others and the people around me,” Fauntleroy said. “I felt like it unlocked something in me as a person. [I thought] if those are the experiences that also await me in a career in acting, I want to experience that.” With the support of his family, he decided to attend VCU to hone his acting skills. “The theater faculty was very supportive and was very, very, very wonderful,” he said. “At my audition and interview process there, I felt ... like they were VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

really hearing me. I felt like these people were really seeing me.” During his senior year, Fauntleroy landed a final callback for Hamilton. The accomplishment did not go unnoticed, with many in the VCU community invested in the outcome of his audition. “VCUarts did a senior spotlight on me,” he said. “I had just come back from my first in-person audition from Hamilton. The story was all about me doing the thing and auditioning for Hamilton because it was the biggest [show] back then.” But Fauntleroy didn’t land the role at that time. “It was hard because I’ve heard ‘no’ in my life before as an actor, absolutely 1,000 percent. But [the audition] was so much pressure, and then to say, ‘Ugh, I didn’t do it’—that was tough.” After graduating, he moved to New York City to continue acting and began to establish himself, meeting actors, directors and producers and expanding his repertoire and résumé. And he continued to audition for Hamilton. In 2022, he received the call he had been waiting for since 2017: He was offered a lead role.

The opportunities came as a bit of a shock to Fauntleroy, who had not had a callback for the show in nearly two years. “It was a thing where they remembered my work and wanted me,” he said. Being cast in Hamilton triggered complex emotions. Fauntleroy recalled “extreme joy and extreme happiness. And then … extreme imposter syndrome.” In April of this year, the Hamilton tour brought Fauntleroy back to Richmond for nearly two weeks for performances at the Altria Theater. Many of his family, friends and former professors attended to support him. “I was overwhelmed with love—to know that you mean that much to your friends and the people around you,” he said. “Especially when those people—my family and friends and my church family—they’ve all been there since day one, cheering me on, rooting for me in this profession to be an actor. ... I owe them some part of me.” While in Richmond, Fauntleroy and other Hamilton cast members also participated in a panel discussion at VCU. It was moderated by fellow VCUarts graduate and award-winning actress Mikayla Bartholomew, who is a close friend of Fauntleroy. During the panel, the cast spoke with students and community members about the entertainment industry, their careers and what life on the road was like while working on Hamilton. Fauntleroy said that while he was grateful for landing a role in Hamilton, he actually was glad he didn’t join the production in 2017. “If I had booked Hamilton as soon as I had gotten to New York, which could have happened, I would’ve never experienced all the other shows I got to do,” he noted. “All the Shakespeare I got to do, that would’ve never happened. I would’ve never known that I love Shakespeare, would’ve never known that that was a skill I had. I have met some of my best friends at regional theater jobs, friends that I will have for life. … And I cannot imagine my life without those experiences.” Fauntleroy also shared some advice for young performers at VCU. “Let nothing about your ability be a mystery to you,” he said. “Leave no food on the table. See all that you’re capable of and push yourself to just explore.” 9

VCUarts News

FACULTY

Remembering George Nan, Former Head of Photography BY LEILA UGUNCIUS

CA D E MA RT I N

George Daniel Nan’s children were a welcome fixture at the Pollak Building during his time as professor and chair of the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Photography + Film in the School of the Arts. Linnea, Adam, Sarah and Joshua each have fond memories of the countless hours spent at their father’s knee,

learning about photography and color as he processed film. “Sometimes it felt like I grew up at the Pollak Building, running from Dad’s office to the darkroom, searching for my father and abiding by the darkroom rules,” Linnea said. “While he was busy with faculty and students, I loved exploring his office piled high with books, photographs and photo equipment, often in various states of repair. This world felt so big, brilliant and energized to my tiny, wide-open eyes.” Nan passed away March 8. He was 88. Remembered as a soft-spoken, gentle man, Nan lectured, juried, taught and inspired thousands of photographers. “George had such a deep knowledge of photography and loved to share it with his students,” said John Henley, an adjunct photography professor at VCU who

studied under Nan as a graduate student in the 1980s. “My friends and I in the department just loved to be in his company. … He taught me a lot about photography but even more about being a part of something bigger as a faculty member.” Nan joined VCU’s precursor, Richmond Professional Institute, in 1963 as an associate professor. In 1969, he became chair of the Department of Photography and, in 1978, he was promoted to professor and chair of the Department of Photography + Film, a position he held until his retirement in 1991. During his tenure, he was instrumental in launching the university’s M.F.A. program. He encouraged his students—as well as his own children—to be creative and not follow mundane rules of photography. “Now as an adult, I am still applying his teachings and techniques in my photography,” Sarah said. “My dad taught so many students and, even today, I have previous students reach out to me about how my dad changed the direction of their lives at VCU. My dad was such an asset to VCU, and I know he was proud of the photography and arts [programs] and especially the students. He always was supportive of his students and was always there for them.” His teaching philosophy mirrored his parenting philosophy, which was to raise his children as unique individuals, providing each with just the right amount of foundational support and guidance needed to bring out their individuality and talents, according to Linnea. “Also informing his teaching philosophy was his passion for sharing his vast photographic and technical knowledge, being present in the moment and always going the extra mile for all of his students, even long after they completed their education,” she said. He often spent his own money on supplies to support students and the department. “I would sit by his secretary, Joanne, and count along with her as she rolled the bulk film my dad bought at the army surplus for the students, so they didn’t have to suffer the costs of film at Old Dominion Camera,” Linnea recalled. “And if they couldn’t pay, Dad took care of that too.” Nan retired as professor emeritus in 1996, but he never retired his VCU

CO U RT ESY O F T H E N A N FA M ILY

Left: George Nan, photographed by Cade Martin (B.G.S. ’89), a former student of Nan’s. Right: Photographs by Nan (clockwise from top right): Yellow Submarine, 1968; Jeep, 1980; and Flower, 1960.

parking pass, Linnea said. He continued to visit the photography department often to spend time with friends, faculty and students—old and new. Dale Quarterman, who succeeded Nan as photography and film chair in the 1990s, credits Nan with the department’s cohesion. “He just was a very kind, gentle person,” Quarterman said. “You know, we had a good department. Everybody got along and we worked well together. And a large part of that was George. He was just a good person. Everybody liked George. “One of the things about him … students would come in and talk to him about this and that. And he was the guy that taught color photography. That was his thing. … And he just had this knack for looking at a print, this eye for colored photography. He was amazing. What he could see.” It’s impossible to overstate his influence on Richmond photographers, the Richmond arts community and beyond, according to Henley. “Many of his students have moved on to successful careers in the Richmond area and all over the country. Whenever I mention him on social media, I am overwhelmed by praise and love for George.” A first-generation American, Nan VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

was born in 1935 at the family farm on the outskirts of Detroit, to Romanian immigrants Ana and George. He earned his associate degree in applied science in 1956, and his Bachelor of Fine arts degree in photographic illustration in 1958 from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Nan was awarded the Moholy-Nagy Assistantship at the Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago Institute of Design from 1958 through 1960, and subsequently earned his Master of Science in photography degree in 1961. His thesis, “Experimental Uses of Negative Positive Materials for Expressive Purposes,” was an innovative departure from traditional approaches and engaged various experimental methods for producing color photographs. He was awarded numerous medals, honors and certificates of distinction

for his participation in solo and group showings of his photographic works. His photographs can be found in the permanent collections of museums, universities and private collections throughout the globe, including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the International Museum of Photography, Rochester, New York. In addition to his four children, Nan is survived by his wife and life partner of more than 60 years, Nilsa, and grandchildren Rigzin, Jonah and Oliver. While he often remarked that his children were his greatest accomplishment, his greatest professional legacy can be seen in the multigenerational ocean of students and friends who continue to express their gratitude to their inspiring and supportive mentor. 11

VCUarts News ALUMNI

Blending Art, Advocacy and Awards: A Conversation with Actress and VCUarts Alum Mikayla Bartholomew BY JAYLA MCNEILL

As a teacher, artist and advocate, actress Mikayla Bartholomew (B.F.A. ’17) is building a career out of blending art and activism. A decade ago, when she was a freshman in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Theatre, Bartholomew found a mentor in Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Ph.D. Known as “Dr. T” by students and colleagues, the renowned playwright, actor, poet, activist and scholar helped lay the foundation for Bartholomew’s career, which includes projects that have won Oscar, Tony and NAACP Image awards. While pursuing her degree in VCU’s School of the Arts, Bartholomew consistently found ways to challenge boundaries of traditional theater education and increase the visibility, inclusion and equity of her fellow students. Today, Bartholomew is a member of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, where she is

the community engagement and programs associate. She also serves as the group’s lead facilitator, teaching the “Theater of Change Methodology” at Columbia Law School (and most recently at UCLA School of Law’s CALL to Action Festival). In this role, she brings together artists, community organizers, policy experts, students and directly impacted people to utilize storytelling, artistry and advocacy to combat systems of racism and violence. In addition, Bartholomew has enjoyed high-profile film roles: She was cast in the 2021 movie King Richard starring Academy Award winner Will Smith, and she starred in the short film Dear Mama, which received a 2023 NAACP Image Award. Here, Bartholomew reflects on her time at VCUarts and discusses her career accomplishments and current projects.

Can you tell us a bit about your background? Something that’s really important to me is starting with my name. It’s a really huge part of my identity. My name is Mikayla, which is pronounced my-kayla. … My favorite joke is: It’s Mikayla, not your Kayla. My dad was born and raised between Detroit and Pensacola, Florida. … And my mom was born in the South Side of Chicago and grew up in Kankakee, Illinois. Those two people are the reason I am the way I am today. I think I’m a testament to the two different experiences, cultures and communities coming together. My dad served in the military for over 30 years and retired as master chief—an information technician master chief petty officer—which was beautiful. My mama was honorably discharged from the military and was rendered disabled in 1999 when we were in a really tragic car accident together. She has been a noted community mother, advocate and volunteer in Norfolk, Va., for over 20 years. She worked with our local public schools for the longest time and is so well-known and loved in the area that people call her “Mama B” to this day, even my homies from VCU.

A M BE J. W IL L I AM S

When did you begin to blend art and activism as a student? To be honest? In class, I was tired of reading and studying all these pieces of theater that didn’t include me or the communities I knew— unless we were tokenized or stereotyped into the background—and I was really tired of telling those stories on stage. Especially because we were being taught that those were the only aspects of theater that mattered. And simultaneously, we were

in the middle of a social reckoning much of my time at school—2013–2017 was a wild time to be alive. In our classes, in rehearsals and on stage, my Black and Brown classmates and I felt like diversity hires begging for a shot and forced to compete with each other for what felt like an intentionally limited space. In the streets, we were hoping not to get pulled over or shot, being called out of our names and spending our free time at protests. So I figured, why not challenge the status quo in school as well as in our society? I began asking questions about our curriculums, asking for help from my peers and teachers I could trust, challenging traditions and norms that didn’t acknowledge the needs of students coming from marginalized backgrounds, and even showed up to a faculty meeting with the homies. But more importantly, I began building resources and directing shows that could make space for us on my own by using the very art form we were training under. I figured that if I started a little “good trouble” while I was there, then hopefully things would be better for the students to come up after us. How did Dr. T become your mentor? Dr. T is a special person to me because she went from being a teacher, to a mentor, to my family. We met when I was coming into VCU in 2013. … Dr. T told all of the upperclassman Black students, “I want you to get in contact with all of the Black freshmen, and I want you to get them over to my house for dinner so that they can be in community with you guys, be in community with each other VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

and know that there is a Black teacher that works at this school.” She just wanted us to know that she was there and that we had a resource in her. … She gave us a home-cooked meal, we got to play music, she had djembe drums, and she has a house that’s filled with culture and history. … And so that’s how our relationship began, and I just continued going to her as a resource. I saw in her what and who I wanted to be as an artist. So by my senior year, I thought, I want this woman to be my mentor. I would like her to be in my life for the rest of my life. She changed who I was not only as an artist, but she helped me figure out how I could blend advocacy and activism with my artistry. Do you have any particularly memorable experiences working on King Richard? King Richard was chaos yet one of the most beautiful, unexpected experiences of my life. … The biggest thing in that process was that I portrayed Tunde Price, Venus and Serena’s eldest sister who is no longer living. Tragically, she was murdered in the early 2000s and so taking this job, I knew that it was going to be a huge responsibility. In a biopic, the last thing you want to do is present a caricature of the person that everyone is going to be looking at. And while audience members might not be looking at Tunde directly, I know Venus and Serena Williams; Isha, Lyndrea and Oracene Price and Mr. Richard Williams will. I know that Tunde’s children will be. I thought, ‘I have to make sure I honor who this person was and who her family knew her to be.’ My only goal was for the Williams family to sit down in that theater and

actually see their sister on screen, not a girl playing out what she might think their sister was like. That’s what King Richard was for me. It was a big job, a big responsibility, but it was all about paying honor to the people I was working with. … It was a labor of love, that film. What was your reaction to the NAACP Image Award? There is a lot of momentum happening on the heels of Dear Mama winning the NAACP Image Award, which is so strange because it’s so unexpected. The story was about a young woman and her father, grieving the loss of his wife, her mother, being compounded by the fact that this little girl’s favorite artist in the world also just passed. And we know how we feel about those artists that touch our hearts. … The story of a little Black girl trying to make her way through and a Black father trying to make his way through and them trying to do it together, but separately, and having to find a way to come back together at the end—that’s a really universal story. It’s not exclusive to the Black experience. It’s still a Black story, but it’s for everybody. Seeing the Dear Mama nomination, I thought, “Holy shoot, not only is this my second nomination where I’m actually being included in the conversation, but I’m the lead in this film. This is my work.” I actually have a tattoo— it’s a quote from King Richard that says, “For every little Black girl on Earth”—which I think serves as a testament to everything I do. I just want it to make room for people to feel seen, for people’s stories to feel heard or for people to feel like they have

the capacity to tell their own stories as well. That’s what Dear Mama did for me. What are you up to now? I am launching a new podcast called Articulate, which is all about redefining microaggressions and taking control of the mic. It’s going to be a space for Black folks, white folks, Asian folks, Latinx folks, all sexualities, all genders and all identities. Everybody is welcome to the table to be in conversation about the things that impact us the most, be it something that’s rooted in joy or something that’s rooted in pain or something that we need to change. Do you have any advice for current students? The words of advice that I would leave people with is that you have stories to tell, and they are very, very, very important. So it’s beautiful to be able to come to an institution like VCUarts and be held and seen for the work that you want to create. Don’t doubt yourself, there is room for you to grow, and there is room for you to change. You may not know everything—neither do your teachers, if we’re being honest—but that’s alright! Take pride in the opportunity to explore and change and evolve. And don’t be afraid to go back and ask for help if you need it. There’s no shame in doing that. Those are the words of advice that I wish I had then, but I have them now. And if we continue making room for one another, then things are going to be so, so, so much better for the generations to come. NOTE: This interview was edited for brevity. 13

VCUarts News FACULTY

Guitarist John Patykula Reaches His Coda at VCU BY LEILA UGUNCIUS

and former director of the Jazz Studies program at VCU, worked with Patykula for two decades and calls him a class act. “I always found him to be the most even-tempered, calm member of our faculty,” Garcia said. “No matter what the crisis, we could count on John to be level-headed and offer perspective—and a good sense of humor.” As coordinator of the weekly Music Convocation hour for faculty and students, Patykula spent countless hours backstage at the Sonia Vlahcevic Concert Hall with Garcia. “I would be backstage to ensure that the participating jazz students were properly prepared to take the stage,” Garcia said. “He was always present backstage, so I'd say that John has possibly heard more of our students perform—and for a larger cumulative sum of hours—than anyone on the music faculty.” Patykula’s own musicianship is impressive. In the early 1990s, he and former student John Bullard formed a guitar-banjo duo. They played together

for 15 years, performing countless gigs and recording two CDs. Bullard called that time “a continual lesson in musicianship.” “John had seeded and fostered impeccable musicianship in his students, and he has instilled his legacy stemming from a direct [line] from Andrés Segovia to his teacher, Mr. Silva, and on to many VCU guitar students,” said Bullard, the first student to graduate from VCU with a performance degree in banjo. “This is a priceless gift to many of us and something many are not fully aware of.” More than that, Patykula was instrumental in Bullard finishing his degree at VCU in 2005—20 years after starting it. “John Bullard started here as a guitar major and then he [became] fascinated with the banjo—but playing classical music on it,” Patykula said. “We didn’t have a banjo teacher and wouldn’t have let him in as just a banjo player,” so Bullard left school. After starting a successful career as a musician, Bullard wanted to return to

K E V IN M O R L E Y

John Patykula came to Virginia Commonwealth University in 1979 as assistant to its musician artist-in-residence, Jesús Silva. Patykula had previously studied under Silva—himself a protégé of Andrés Segovia, the great Spanish classical guitarist—as an undergrad at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Silva left in 1982, but Patykula stayed. He earned a master’s degree in music, taught as an adjunct and later full-time instructor—and most notably, he established programs that have become synonymous with VCU. After four decades, the classical guitarist retired this past semester as assistant chair of the guitar program in the VCUarts Department of Music, leaving behind a legacy of musicianship and impact. Among his proudest accomplishments is the VCU Community Guitar Ensemble, which Patykula started in 1986 and is open to classical guitarists in the Richmond area, including high school students. And in 1992, he used a faculty grant to start the annual Guitar and Other String Series of summer concerts, which feature internationally and nationally known guitarists and string musicians playing everything from folk and jazz to bossa nova and samba. “We've had some great players, too, that have come through, such as Charlie Byrd, who was a well-known jazz guitarist; Tony Rice, a very famous bluegrass player; and … John Hartford, who wrote ‘Gentle on My Mind,’” Patykula said. His impact on students is significant, too. Patykula established the Jesús Silva Merit Scholarship, which for three decades has been awarded annually to several guitar students based on potential and demonstrated excellence. The recipients perform a recital each year to honor Silva. Antonio J. García, professor emeritus

alumni gift guide

VCU to finish his degree. The music department still had no banjo concentration, but it allowed him back under the guitar track, where Patykula worked with him to complete his degree using the banjo. “I can’t say enough about what a profound influence John has had on my life and my career,” Bullard said. He is one of Patykula’s many former students who went on to find success. Others include Leah Kruszewski, Kevin Harding and Adam Larrabee. After 43 years at VCU, Patykula just feels it’s time to leave, he said. But he won’t be a complete stranger. For one thing, he plans to remain active in the guitar ensemble as well as VCU’s annual Holiday Gala benefiting The Doorways, which provides lodging and support for patients and their loved ones who need to be close to VCU Medical Center. For another, “I live two blocks from here—so, no, I won't be missing VCU,” he said with a laugh. VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Support alumni artists and makers this holiday season and beyond. Open 24/7 at:

arts.vcu.edu/ alumni-gift-guide

M.F.A. Thesis Work The M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, held in two rounds at the Anderson in April and May 2023, featured the work of 30 outstanding emerging artists and designers, a selection of which is shown here. These students’ ambitious and challenging research pushes beyond traditional disciplines to shape what is new and next in visual and material culture.

1 Ilana Dodelson Painting + Printmaking 2 Stacie Sabady Craft/Material Studies 3 Manavi Singh Photography + Film 4 Abi Ogle Craft/Material Studies 5 Kaitlyn Paston Kinetic Imaging

6 Rupeng Zhao Sculpture + Extended Media 7 Erin Yerby Painting + Printmaking

8 Fanxi Sun Photography + Film 9 Aida Lizalde Sculpture + Extended Media

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

2023 M.F.A. Thesis Work

10 Lindsey Arturo Kinetic Imaging 11 Natalia Mejía Murillo Painting + Printmaking 12 Kat Thompson Photography + Film 13 Yameng Wang Graphic Design 14 Paul van den Bijgaart Craft/Material Studies 15 Kate Crankshaw Craft/Material Studies 16

16 Kayla Jones Sculpture + Extended Media 17 Sculpture + Extended Media 18 Tendai Mupita Sculpture + Extended Media 19 Daniel Cab Sculpture + Extended Media

The 2012 Painting + Printmaking M.F.A. graduate exhibits drawing practice

LOIE HOLLOWELL’S TRIUMPHANT RET

TURN

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Q&A BY

Chase Westfall

PHOTOS BY

Melissa Goodwin

It would be hard to overstate the meteoric rise to artistic acclaim that Painting + Printmaking alumna Loie Hollowell (M.F.A. ’12) has experienced in the little more than a decade since she left Richmond. Hollowell’s unmistakable works— which touch on the figurative and abstract, spiritual and sexual, personal and universal—are found in prominent public and private collections. Since joining Pace Gallery in 2017, her works have been exhibited nationally and

CHASE WESTFALL: A “homecoming” can be a time of both excitement and anxiety. To the extent that this exhibition is a homecoming—a return to a formative time, place, and community from your past—what are you feeling excited about? What, if anything, are you feeling anxious about? LOIE HOLLOWELL: I’m not really feeling anxious about anything. What I'm most excited about is walking around the campus and reminiscing on the times that I spent there. I’m looking forward to seeing the painting studios and I hope that I’m able to peek into the studio that I got to use during my two years there.

Focused on the artist’s drawing

CW: In planning for this exhibition, you expressed a particular interest in exhibiting at the Anderson. We like to think that the Anderson is a special place … and we know you have some personal history with the building (thesis exhibition, etc.). Can you say more about your interest in exhibiting at the Anderson? What does the Anderson represent to the VCUarts community and s cificall as a a s alumna?

practice, the exhibit will explore the

LH: If I recall correctly, the Anderson

internationally. This fall, VCUarts is proud to welcome Hollowell back and to display her work to the community for the first time. Hosted by the Anderson, Drawing as Urtext runs from Aug. 22 to Oct. 18.

unique significance of Hollowell’s drawings, which are both “preparatory,” serving as the basis for future works, and fully realized artworks in their own right. Presented free to the public at the Anderson, the exhibition offers a special

was one of the few, if only, spaces at the time that routinely had exhibitions of work by VCU students, alumni and faculty which was impactful to experience while on campus. I think of it fondly as it was the space where our thesis exhibition was held and where family and friends came together in celebration.

inspire students in their own creative

CW: We’re excited that this will be the fi s hi i i n c s ni l n drawing practice. Is there something about VCU, this opportunity or this moment, that made this the right time his fi s

aspirations, as they join us in celebrating

LH: I recently had an exhibition at the

glimpse into Hollowell’s working process; provides a powerful example of VCUarts legacy of excellence; and serves to

this outstanding member of the School of the Arts family. The Anderson’s Chase Westfall, who is curating the exhibition, recently spoke with Hollowell about her drawing practice and returning to VCU. —Wes Hester 22

Manetti Shrem Museum at UC Davis which focused on my drawings, but there were a few paintings shown in conjunction which demonstrated how the drawings function as preparatory work for the paintings. I am excited that this VCU exhibition will only exhibit drawings which I hope will allow them the space to be considered as finished works in their own right.

It does feel fitting to have this new opportunity take place in the setting where I last took courses and was thinking about my practice in such a different light. CW: Are there any elements of your drawing practice or habits that you trace back directly to your time at VCUarts? LH: In graduate school I did make

preparatory drawings for a few of the paintings that were in my thesis exhibition, and I found those to be extremely helpful when executing the final works. I think it took me some time to realize how essential the drawing practice was post-grad but now it is an essential part of my process and body of work as a whole.

CW: Can we infer a meaningful parallel between drawing as foundational to painting and your time at VCUarts as foundational to your professional journey? LH: Yes, my time at VCU was

definitely foundational to my continued exploration of painting after

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Hollowell’s Red After Birth (above) offers a glimpse into how her drawings function as prepartory work for her paintings. The drawings often include Hollowell’s notes on color, compostion and possible titles written in the margins.

IN, COURTESY PACE GALLERY , PHOTOGRAPHED BY MELISSA GOOD CM , NO. . CM , SOFT PASTEL AND GRAPHITE ON PAPER, , OPPOSITE: LOIE HOLLOWELL, RED AFTER BIRTH, OCTOBER

I graduated. The themes of the female body and sexuality that I explored in my thesis exhibition are the themes that I continue to turn to today. The figurative works that I was making in graduate school have expanded into an abstract world of body parts formed out of light, color and texture. CW: Is there something especially instructive in sharing drawings—with their emphasis on process, discovery and vulnerability—with a community of student artists and arts educators? LH: I think what is instructive, if

anything, in this group of drawings is the vulnerability of showing the conception of an idea. The loosely defined form, color and mark making, all allow a behind the scenes view of my painting practice.

CW: This exhibition will be incredibly impactful for our current students. What do you hope that they take away from the work? And what advice would h g n all a h an s cific nc ag ns cautions? LH: I hope this show helps to illustrate the importance of the preparatory work an artist does in service of the quote, unquote “finished piece” or finished product. Holding on to this work is important because over time they function as a journal, telling as much as, if not more than, what is seen at the end, of the mental and physical evolutions of your art practice. I would encourage students to hold on to the work they’ve made in grad school but to not feel beholden to it and to allow themselves to evolve, if not completely pivot 180 degrees, into a new artistic pursuit. CW: Looking back at your time at VCUarts, what were some of the most important lessons you took with you that continue to help inform your work? Were there faculty or peers who had a a ic la l s ng in nc n with whom you developed important relationships? LH: At VCU I learned the importance

of having an artist community. I have kept in touch with many of my classmates and we have helped each

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

“

The themes of the female body and sexuality that I explored in my thesis exhibition are the themes that I continue to turn to today.” other over the years. In terms of faculty, associate professor Christine Gray had a baby during her time teaching in the two years that I was there, and it was really amazing to see her continue to work while being a new mom. During studio visits she would discreetly breast-pump and at the time that was very revolutionary and a truly feminist act that inspired me through my own postpartum experiences.

and inspired me throughout our years after grad school.

CW: When I came to VCU I was struck by the incredible sense of community. s c n i a what makes the VCUarts community special to you?

since leaving grad school, so I am really looking forward to coming down for the exhibition. After what feels like such a short time since graduating, to have the opportunity to show what I've been working on since is very meaningful. I’m happy to be continuing to exhibit work from my drawing practice that for many years I saw as secondary to painting. Revisiting my drawings in recent exhibitions has reconfirmed the importance of this practice and has provided useful feedback from those who’ve seen the work. For me, drawing feels akin to the process of being a student and encourages continuing to always think of yourself as a student of art making, allowing potentially endless space to learn and grow.

LH: In addition to what I mentioned previously about the community I got to meet, three of the classmates from my time at VCU, one from painting (Amanda Baldwin) and two from sculpture (Sacha Ingber and Lior Modane), have ended up also moving to Ridgewood, New York, and, along with me they’ve bought homes and gotten local studios. It is really special to have this community extended into the present and to have created roots with artist friends that I've known for so long, and who have helped me grow

CW: In addition to the questions above, is there a more general statement you can make about your motivations, intentions or hopes for this exhibition? How are you thinking about it within the larger frame of your practice, your professional goals or personal values? LH: I have not been back to Richmond

A RISING ST 26

AR VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

T H E C O S TA R C E N T E R F O R A R T S A N D I N N O VAT I O N W I L L S H A P E T H E F U T U R E O F I N T E R D I S C I P L I N A R Y C O L L A B O R AT I O N . BY W E S H E S T E R | I L L U S T R AT I O N BY I S R A E L VA R G A S

The CoStar Center will include a light filled, multi floor atrium above accessible from a corner plaza at the intersection of Belvidere and West Broad streets.

markets, recently announced it will partner with VCU to support the development of the arts and innovation facility through an $18 million commitment. The building’s name is subject to approval by the university’s Board of Visitors. The project will bring together the School of the Arts and the university’s innovation programs in one complex across Belvidere Street from the iconic Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, creating a VCU campus gateway and link to the Richmond Downtown Arts District. “This is an enormous step toward the realization of a significant and

Combined with the Institute for Contemporary Art at CU, the building seen from West Broad Street above will create a gateway to CU’s campus and the Richmond owntown Arts istrict.

CO URT ESY O F VC U FACI L I T I ES MA N AG E ME N T

his fall, the future of VCUarts will begin coming into focus at the intersection of Belvidere and West Broad streets as construction begins on the CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation. The 213,000-square-foot complex will facilitate an entirely new level of interdisciplinary collaboration across the university and present limitless possibilities for the School of the Arts. CoStar Group, a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in the commercial and residential property

At left, a view of one of the building’s many multi use spaces. Below, a concert hall overlooking Belvidere Street that seats between people.

long-term vision for our school and the university,” said VCUarts Dean Carmenita Higginbotham, Ph.D. “Through this collaboration, we are empowered to create one of the finest arts education facilities in the nation, providing collaborative opportunities for our growing departments and our students, faculty and staff. We are incredibly thankful for the support and partnership VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

of CoStar, and we look forward to seeing this visionary center for arts and innovation develop.” Designed to be a resource not only for VCU but for the wider Richmond community, the planned design features flexible classroom spaces, interdisciplinary performance venues and makerspaces for rapidly growing partnerships across arts, business,

humanities and sciences, medicine, and engineering. Activities in the building are expected to range from opera to quantum computing, integrating the disciplines of engineering, cinema, theater, immersive media technology, gaming and the creation of new knowledge. Specifically, the center will create new collaborative opportunities 29

The innovation studio, below and right, will have a seating capacity of 1 and include reconfigurable seating, flexible room darkening and views of campus and downtown.

for VCU Theatre, Music, Dance + Choreography, Communication Arts, Cinema, the daVinci Center and VCUarts research programs. Among the features of the new building will be a proscenium theater that seats 325 with a full fly tower, adjustable orchestra pit, portable dance floor and full lighting and sound systems. There will also be a concert hall that seats 325500 depending on the stage configuration for individual performances. Another crucial multidisciplinary feature of the building will be the innovation studio. With a capacity of 125 and fully reconfigurable seating, the space will feature a tension grid for lighting and sound and flexible room darkening. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs James Wiznerowicz said the technology 30

and spaces will allow for invaluable collaborative opportunities across arts programs and beyond with industryspecific value. As an example, he noted that students might be able to produce a film using motion capture technology to create an animated version of student dancers, record original music, and do filming and post-production animation all in one location. And then screen it in one of the building’s venues. “We haven’t had the capacity for that type of synergy of production before – to make an entirely interdisciplinary work,” he said. “We would be establishing a business practice in the industry that no other university is doing, and we will have the capacity for that level of production.” Senior Director for the Fine Arts

The proscenium theater right will seat and include a fly tower, adjustable orchestra pit and portable dance floor. There will also be a dance studio below and sound stage bottom .

Kristin Caskey said that the spirit of collaboration will cut across all areas of the arts as a direct result of the building’s design. “You’re going to have more opportunities for synergy amongst these groups by creating really a living laboratory where all of these things are going on in tandem at these high levels,” she said. Housing the VCU da Vinci Center for Innovation alongside VCUarts programs will only help to facilitate the academic, experiential and experimental learning VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

opportunities at the heart of the center’s mission, said Associate Vice Provost for Innovation Garrett Westlake. “The CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation will build on our history of cross-disciplinary collaboration and accelerate VCU’s innovative offerings,” Westlake said. “The co-locating of these exceptional offerings will benefit VCU students and the broader community.” A groundbreaking for the CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation is being scheduled for the fall and the building is expected to open in early 2027. 31

BY MELANIE W YNNE

PORTRAIT BY KIMBERLY FROST

A LEGEND TAKES HER FINAL BOW

A TIME OF TRANSITION FOR VCU OPERA

A golden age has come to a close for VCU Opera with the recent retirement of the program’s Artistic Director Melanie Kohn Day after 39 years. Opera means “work” in Italian, and it is a fitting description of ay’s tenure at CUarts. For decades, she has put in long hours in her basement office on campus, frequently working weekends to learn students’ music that she would have to play the following week. ay, who is proficient in Italian, French, German, Spanish and Latin, also translates as she works. “Seven days a week, I was saturated with their music,” she said. VCUarts Opera emphasizes training the complete singer actor, and once a student has auditioned and been accepted to the Bachelor of usic track, they will learn opera theater, music theory, aural skills, music history, conducting and applied study. ay has made sure the students don’t embark on this journey alone. > VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

uring her time with CU Opera, ay has staged productions of opera scenes like the one from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte pictured above, as well as fully staged operas including Mozart’s The Magic Flute above right and uccini’s Gianni Schicchi right .

necessarily, but by the time we finish with them, so many have become A-level talent, going on to grad schools where they get full rides.” VCU Opera and Music students have received scholarships to the Juilliard School, Peabody School of Music, University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music and more, and others have secured positions with companies like the Metropolitan Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Several students have gone on to positions with Virginia Opera Emerging Artists Program, an ongoing relationship with Virginia Opera that includes field trips, workshops and masterclasses. “The journey of watching these kids grow so incrementally, becoming so much more invested as performers,” Day said, welling up with emotion, “it brings tears to my eyes.” Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, Day began her own music lessons at the age of 6, taught by her piano teacher mother; this practice proved

ST E V EN CASA NOVA , A ARO N S U T T E N , J IAC H EN G XU

“The opera students have perhaps spent more time with me than any other teacher,” she said with a smile. “There’s only one of me as a vocal coach. Plus, I’ve been teaching two classes.” A longtime associate professor with the Department of Music, Day most recently taught “History of the Art Song” and “Voice Masterclass.” “They’d have me nine hours a week in the spring semester for Opera, with two private lessons per week: one coaching session for Opera, and one for their recital repertoire,” Day said. VCU Opera puts on fully staged Opera Scenes productions every fall with Day as accompanist and fully produced complete operas with the VCU Symphony each spring. Both fall and spring productions are put together by undergraduates in less than one semester; past productions include A Little Night Music (2010), Gianni Schicci (2017) and The Pirates of Penzance (2019). The National Opera Association has recognized several recent productions, including two first-place awards. Staged in April 2023, Mozart’s The Magic Flute was Day’s final VCU production as artistic director. Ally Yablonski (B.M. ’23) played the opera’s famously challenging Queen of the Night only because Day detected her voice’s potential for coloratura—the elaborate ornamentation of a vocal melody—patiently encouraging her to explore this new range. “Miss Day is one of the most special people I’ve ever gotten to know,” Yablonski said. “I wouldn’t be as passionate about music or have the confidence I have if it wasn’t for her. She’s so generous with her time and talent and treats you like you’re the only person in the world—despite having the world’s busiest schedule.” Yablonski, who will pursue a master’s in music choral conducting at the University of South Carolina, will miss hearing “Miss Day-isms’’ like, ‘Good singers don’t hit a note, they do something with the note.’ The Magic Flute was Mozart’s final opera, a comic fairy tale about seeking wisdom and enlightenment and growing as you overcome trials along the way. This allegory could just as easily apply to a VCU music education. “I love the demographic of students we have,” said Day. “They’re not always A-level talent when they start out,

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

great training for her future career. “As a vocal coach,” she said, “you have to be a pianist first and foremost.” In high school, she added voice lessons, and in college served as accompanist for voice majors like mezzo-soprano Delores Ziegler. Though passionate about music, she was also a painting and art history major, and to focus her future studies, she knew she’d eventually have to choose between these paths. It wasn’t easy for her to put aside fine art, but she was richly rewarded by Boston University when they tailored a vocal coaching and accompaniment master’s program specifically for her. Before coming to VCU, Day was a member of the faculty at Boston University’s opera department, serving as a coach for both the Boston Concert Opera and the Tanglewood Music Festival. While at VCU, Day also spent six years as artistic director of the Operafestival di Roma, reviewing hundreds of auditioners throughout the school year, then spending five weeks of her summer break overseeing the festival in Italy. When the festival disbanded, its huge collection of costumes and props was donated to VCU. James Wiznerowicz, who joined the VCU Music faculty in 2008, has always been awed by Day’s commitment to her work and her students. “Melanie weaves magic and awe together to create a sum greater than its parts,” said Wiznerowicz, today VCU Music’s interim department chair and the School of the Arts’ associate dean of academic affairs, as well as a teacher of composition, music theory and aural skills. “VCU Opera has never been just about Melanie—for her, it’s always been about the experiences everyone shares. “Melanie has fostered this warm community and bond every year,” added Wiznerowicz, “attracting people to her, ready to be at their very best. Students go beyond what they’re asked to do because it brings them joy, as well as closer to their goals.” Melanie’s students agree with this sentiment. Nate Roper (B.M. ’23), who played Papageno the bird catcher in The Magic Flute, said, “When she gives a compliment, it’s always genuine, but she pushes you to be as good as you can be. Her teaching style can be a lot to get used to—she doesn’t shy away from bluntness—but she always struck a good balance between complimenting and 36

Left: ay’s treasured score for The Magic Flute her personal favorite opera includes many years’ worth of notes and markings within its pages. Below: Day with cast members from the spring production— ay’s last as artistic director of VCU Opera.

instructing you.” “You’ve got to have teachers who are in the trenches, and who love being there,” said Day, who credited much of the program’s longevity and success to her team, including co-director and staging director Kenneth Wood, Ph.D., and maestro Daniel Myssyk. “It’s not about the finished product we might turn out. It’s about the journey, you know?” Day is now looking forward to a booked and busy retirement. “I want to volunteer at my church, St. Thomas Episcopal near VCU, in their food pantry. And I’ll finally be able to sing in the church choir, rather than teaching on nights when they rehearse,” she said. “I’ll also volunteer for the SPCA and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and maybe even get back to painting for the first time since I was 22.” Day managed to keep some of her art skills sharp all these years, serving as the opera program’s wig mistress, re-creating elaborate historic hairstyles as well creating costumes for a number of productions and posters.

SCO R E : KI MB ER LY F RO ST, CAST PHOTO S: CO U RT ESY O F ME L A N IE DAY

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

“I’d also love to take some of the burden of our home off of my husband,” she said with a sheepish smile. Day’s husband, Roland Karnatz, long served as technical director for VCU Opera, designing sets, props and lighting projections in addition to teaching music at Longwood University and running their de facto urban farm. “He and I grow all of our vegetables, we have chickens, beehives, everything, right here in the heart of the city. I hope to take on more of the garden duties, to thank him for being so present with the program all these years.” “VCU has been my heart and soul,” Day said, sighing, “and I’m going to miss it.” Fortunately, though, she won’t have to miss all of her students. “Some of the kids at VCU have asked me, ‘Miss Day, can we come to your house and still take lessons on our recital music?’ So happily, I’ll continue to do some freelance teaching.” Meanwhile, VCU Opera soldiers on. “No other university opera program offers the kinds of undergraduate experiences VCU does, including the opportunity to perform a starring role,” Wiznerowicz said. “At other schools, this is only possible at the graduate level. So, it seems only fitting to involve undergraduates in planning the program’s interdisciplinary direction, moving forward.” Wiznerowicz also will involve alumni and program cheerleaders. “As this new chapter starts, there’s a lot of need to maintain momentum. Fortunately, I’m finding that people want to give more of themselves to see the program thrive.” The opera program (as well as several other arts disciplines) will soon thrive in a new facility: the CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation. Breaking ground this fall and slated for completion in 2027, the state-of-the-art facility will have a proscenium theater, a fly tower and professional-level lighting. With these new tools on the horizon, Wiznerowicz is eager to work with the Theatre Department for the 2025-26 academic year, preparing for the prospect of doing a full opera musical production on one stage, in one semester. But there are still big shoes to fill with Day’s departure. “This woman carried the whole opera department on her shoulders,” Roper said. “There’s definitely still a bright future in store for VCU Opera, but her firsthand experiences and memory of the recent history of the art form is simply invaluable.” The singer can only hope he made a good last impression. 37

Y A L P AT

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PR OJ EC T WI LL EX PL OR E

AN ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS APPROACH TO ARTISTIC EXPERIMENTATION AND MATERIAL USAGE

B Y M I C A H J AY N E 38

P H O T O S B Y R YA N M . K E L LY

Do you know what great art is made of? Aside from the proverbial blood, sweat and tears, it is an inescapable fact that the vast majority of studio work consumes material and energy. As our world confronts the urgent realities of climate change and the increasingly detrimental effects of globalized extractive industries, engaging with creative and respectful modes of reusing and recycling the materials we use to create our work has moved to the fore. VCUarts faculty and students have joined the effort to address our footprint with a multi-faceted project recently funded by the university. Together, these students and educators will pool their energies and resources to envision new ways of living and creating sustainably. From increasingly rare (and costly) woods and metals to the compounds used to formulate paints, plastics, plasters and adhesives, approaching the way we interact with material responsibly has been a long-time preoccupation of Sculpture + Extended Media professor Corin Hewitt. Working with VCUarts professors including Susie Ganch (Craft/Material Studies), Kristin Carleton (Interior Design), Emily Smith (Interior Design), Morgan Herrin (Art Foundation), Jon-Phillip VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Sheridan (Photography + Film), Pamela Turner (Kinetic Imaging), and Hope Ginsberg (Kinetic Imaging), Hewitt has been hard at work building the foundation for a net-zero school of the arts, but many challenges remain. “Material exploration has been central to my practice and teaching for the last 25 years,” Hewitt said. “I believe that the way we engage with materials tells us a lot about who we are.” One way their vision has started to take shape is with the lab Hewitt is directing called “Being Material.” But in order to grow beyond its grassroots beginnings, the project needed support from the university. Enter the VCU Transformative Learning Fund: Vertically Integrated Projects created collaboratively by the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Vice

President for Research and Innovation. As part of the university’s ongoing effort to redefine how students and faculty work together to shape new learning models, the Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) grant program provides undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in team-based projects under the guidance of faculty and graduate students in their areas of expertise. Students who participate in programs operating under the VIP umbrella can earn technical elective or free elective course credits (depending on their major). They can also earn credit for work study on specific research projects with other undergraduates, graduate students and faculty in a variety of cross-disciplinary environments. Hewitt explains that students taking part in the program, “will learn sustainability skill sets through the development of a material index, material recycling, and material salvage and reuse. They will experience how creativity and play can expand material possibilities, build community, and develop teamwork skills.” In many ways, the launch of the lab provided the perfect platform for Hewitt and his collaborating faculty to get “Being Material” off the ground. This summer, a VIP grant was awarded to the lab, which includes collaborators from across university departments such as Ganch, Carleton, Smith, as well as Steven Fong, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, Radhika Barua, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Advanced Materials Processing (AMP) Research Group, Jesse Goldstein, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Aspen Brinton, Ph.D., 39

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associate professor and associate director of the School of World Studies. The grant will support their work to incorporate a responsible and environmentally conscious approach to artistic experimentation and material usage that benefits—and integrates the expertise of—interdisciplinary programs across the entire university. Far from being an intellectual exercise, each of the parts of “Being Material” involves students in a phenomenological exploration of materials and how they are used. The lab is building a three-pronged approach to understanding and interacting responsibly with materiality, all while building upon an important pillar of VCUarts’ vision to create sustainable communities. First, the grant will help the lab expand the physical material index currently housed within the Department 40

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of Sculpture + Extended Media, along with a student-generated video archive of materials usage. The index includes a searchable physical library of material samples employed in everything from structural engineering to interior design, sculpture and craft. Each physical sample in the archive is accompanied by a data card including the material’s carbon impact, its various creative and societal uses, methodology of manufacture, extractive history/ geographic sourcing, labor histories and post-use waste streams. On the bottom of each data card are two QR codes, one of which links to a student-generated video that archives how individual students use the material and their experience working with it. The second QR code links to a written analysis of the social, scientific, geological, extractive, labor, and functional

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history of the material. The “Being Material” team plans to grow this index in partnership with a schoolwide website being developed by the newly funded ISEE / HRC Transdisciplinary Research Incubator, Climate Justice Materials Research Lab: “Materials Index Project.” Senior Director for the Fine Arts Kristin Caskey is enthusiastic about the program’s promise and what it holds for the promise of VCUarts becoming more closely integrated with students and faculty from across the university. “‘Being Material’ has brought together new relationships across disciplines and will provide VCU students with hands-on opportunities to incubate a new model of making/playing and working together,” Caskey said. The second part of the project will provide students with hands-on

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The material index includes a searchable physical library of material samples employed in everything from structural engineering to interior design, sculpture and craft. The materials are grouped into categories such as natural, experimental, synthetic organic and synthetic inorganic.

experience developing materials, structures and play design. The ultimate goal is to create a longer-term contemporary art/reused materials playground that integrates VCUarts students and faculty with the communities served by the City of Richmond Public Schools. The playground/public project/artwork, will VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

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exist simultaneously as a loose parts forest playground as well as a site for contemporary art. Hewitt has been at work for the past year developing support for the experimental contemporary art venue/ playground with faculty from across the University and community partners representing the City of Richmond. He calls the project “The Opening” and it expands the adventure playground concept that sprang from Post-War Europe. Harry Shier, who wrote the book Adventure Playgrounds: An Introduction, describes them as: “an area fenced off and set aside for children. Within its boundaries children can play freely, in their own way, in their own time. But what is special about an Adventure Playground is that here (and increasingly in contemporary urban society, only here) children can build and shape the

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environment according to their own creative vision.” In the aftermath of World War II, children in urban areas demolished by bombing raids were forced to make do with their found environment. Parents discovered that their kids were more active and curious when left to their own devices in a place where they could reassemble and experiment as a mode of play, and many cities across the globe have since adopted and modified this “DIY” model to encourage active, creative group play. Accompanied by playworkers and stripped of dangerous materials, the modern adventure playground has become an expanding model, where children can build with found objects, bricks, wood and mud and even experiment with fire, as in several Japanese iterations. 41

Inspiration for Hewitt’s experimental playspace right includes sites in Tokyo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and New York City—shown here alongside sketches of “The Opening” and photos of the proposed site in Richmond’s Bryan ark. The reuse library and materials index left housed in the e illars Building provide resources for students in fields of study across the university.

Hewitt conceived of “The Opening” as a playspace built on top of a buried, massive-scale sculpture of his which may eventually be partially revealed and changed by the children who play there. He asks, “When children approach artworks, they are expected to look, not touch. What if they were not only allowed to touch, but to play with, and even to transform what they see? What if they didn’t realize the material they saw was intended as “art”? What would they do with it?” As part of this integration of contemporary art into the space of play, Hewitt also plans to commission rotating “provocations” by national and international contemporary artists that children can choose to respond to, ignore, deface, build on, or destroy. Both Hewitt’s long-term underground installation and the above-ground programming will be unannounced and unspecified to the children playing amongst the myriad of other structures and materials. Another aspect of programming will be a series of films, edited by Hewitt, that examine the relationship, or lack thereof, between the children and the work of artists that have been embedded within the site. These films will include footage edited from cameras worn by participating children who choose to record their play. The cycles of play among the participating children will reflect their undirected “processing” of the overall artwork. Using salvaged materials donated from Richmond City and Richmond Parks properties, playworkers and children will build a snaking wall to enclose and define a new kind of playspace. Participating undergraduate students would serve as playworkers VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

and facilitate as visiting children play and construct freely. Neighborhood youth (7–13 years old) as well as third through eighth graders from Richmond Public Schools, will have access to this playspace/installation three days a week under the supervision of these trained playworkers. The third phase of the grant will support the growth and expansion of the budding material Reuse Library, which collects salvaged materials to be reused by art students. This program, which was initiated with students in 2022, houses a collection of commonly used and discarded materials sorted by type and use. The library was born from students’ frustration with the amount of waste generated in the course of completing their projects and currently occupies a modest section of unused studio space in the DePillars Building. In purely practical terms, the Reuse Library also helps students save money. With the rising price of wood, plastic and other building materials, many struggle to find the cash to support their

work. This makes the free, common repository of the Reuse Library a real boon. As just one example of how the program is already functioning to benefit students, much of the wood and plastic sheeting used to stage last Spring’s MFA Candidacy show at Regency Mall found its way back to the Reuse Library. “Being Material” will begin to have an impact this coming semester as the departments focus on building it into their existing curriculum as credited coursework. The team imagines that students could join the course in their sophomore, junior or senior years. It would also be open to graduate students as an elective and summer stipends could be offered. In the true spirit of the VIP program and VCUarts’ vision, “Being Material” promises to illuminate and inspire students, faculty and the greater Richmond community for decades to come. If all goes according to plan, it is positioned to usher in a new understanding of responsible, sustainable action in an increasingly precarious material world. 43

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The Curious Minds Inspiring Change at VCUarts

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

At VCUarts, we celebrate research and work that serves as an evocative medium, transcending boundaries and connecting individuals across cultures and experiences. Arts research, regardless of discipline, births a unique language that speaks directly to our emotions, challenges our perceptions and breathes life into imagination. At the heart of this journey of communication lies the guidance and inspiration of exceptional artist educators who make it their mission to shape the next generation of emerging talent. In partnership with the Arts Research Center at VCUarts, the Studio team is pleased to launch this ongoing interview series with VCUarts faculty. By presenting the excerpts that follow, we aim to open a window of correspondence and understanding through which prospective students and the world for whom art matters can discover and engage with some of the most inspiring artists and educators in their fields. Here, a few of our exceptional faculty share their experiences of community, their unique studio practices and epistemological philosophies in order to illuminate how their creative journeys inspire emerging artists in the classroom and beyond. Throughout this series, we seek to uncover the essence of research and practice at VCUarts. What motivates these professors to dedicate their lives to shaping the artistic minds of the future? How do they navigate the delicate balance between nurturing their students’ individuality, imparting foundational knowledge and maintaining their own practices? What challenges do they contend with in an ever-evolving world, and how do they prepare their students to thrive in that crucible? The following excerpts are drawn from interviews conducted by the Studio team and have been edited for clarity and length. Read the full transcripts online at arts.vcu.edu/curiousminds. 45

similar vein. The full body immersion suit where you’re going to introduce cockroaches through umbilical channels—can you talk about how those two projects are connected?

J. Molina-Garcia Department of Photography + Film

STUDIO: Well, let’s start with the work that you presented as part of your Research Rewind talk. Your current c ss di n in a 46

J. Molina Garcia, Pulse 49 seance, from the Pulse Temple project, 2023

C O U R E T S Y O F J . M O L I N A- G A R C I A

J. Molina-Garcia is a SalvadoranAmerican media artist, writer and educator. Molina-Garcia’s work draws on the politics of immigration, philosophies of madness and nonwestern esoteric traditions to critique the violence of the Global North. They build assemblages of fic i n anal g dia digi al novelties and written/spoken prose to agitate a queer-trans-of-color resistance, en masse. Molina-Garcia holds an M.F.A. in Photography+Extended Media from the California Institute of the Arts and graduated with dual degrees in photography and art history from the University of North Texas. They currently work as assistant professor of Photography and Digital Futures at VCUarts. Molina-Garcia’s work evolves on the emerging edge of human and digital futures by troubling the various points of engagement. They recently completed work focusing on the 2016 terror attack at Pulse, in Orlando, Florida, the target of the deadliest mass shooting perpetrated on American soil at the time. Molina-Garcia is utilizing AI image generation tools to pre-visualize their current project, a body suit designed to serve as a conduit for a colony of cockroaches to circulate around their body as part of a performance piece exploring the nature of community, ag nc and ca ag l h gh highly conceptual, their practice is intimately involved with questions of culture, embodiment and belonging.

MOLINA-GARCIA: They’re completely different projects. They do share the interest in wearables, uniforming and clothing though, right? So, I think there’s a shared interest in certain formal strategies of treating the body in front of the camera. Both projects are really constructing props, wearable props for the camera. So, they’re meant to be worn as specific performance garments in a way. That’s how I’m thinking of them. The main difference would, I think, be just that the cyanotype suits and the camouflage patterns that I’m developing and using are part of the work with Pulse, in Orlando, primarily because I’m thinking about how events like mass shootings conscript or involve a type of militant ideology or make visible militant aggression and terrorism. So, the camouflage is meant to involve the victims in these larger wars around ideological backgrounds— the battlegrounds in the U.S. currently manifesting between the south and the north, between blue states and red states. In that sense, the cyanotype serves this very immediate purpose by addressing the kind of partisanship that is involved in American politics right now. The suits themselves, or the garments that are being worn, are also constructed with different materials.

You know, the cyanotype suits are soft. They’re made using reclaimed materials, jerseys and knits, and so it’s a lot softer. I think there’s also a big difference in mass and weight and texture that is pretty deliberate. With the cockroach project, I’m conceiving of that garment and that object as participating a lot more directly with certain aesthetics, because there’s a level of kinetic system that’s involved there. The roaches are providing a type of movement and a granular kind of activity, right? Because they’re just crawling on me there’s something that’s a lot more engineered than with the cyanotypes project. With the cockroach project I need to grow the colony. So, I’m going to start collecting and growing roach colonies. And then there’s gonna be a type of umbilical cord that connects me in the suit to them, in the terrarium. So, it’s much more of a kind of a DIY amateur engineering project, because I also need to build a kind of a tube system for the roaches to then navigate on my body. In essence, the body wearing the suit becomes the new home for the roaches. I’m sort of rehoming them from the terrarium onto the body. It’s a lot more ecological, it’s a lot more environmental, and it’s a lot more involved with animal studies. Like insect epistemics, you know, insect media, which is the title of a book that I’ve been reading and thinking about, in terms of how we can look at insect life as another ground for divination. The two projects also deal with

J. Molina-Garcia, Cancer and abortion mandala, from the Gyneco-Theosophy Institute project, 2023

community and kinship. Roaches have a kinship network, you know? They’re almost always in groups. I think where the Cyanotype project is really looking at the sociology of nationalism, the roach project is a lot more involved with the anthropology of the monster.

C O U R E T S Y O F J . M O L I N A- G A R C I A

STUDIO: There’s an undercurrent of unabashed optimism in your work and the way you talk about your work with students that is fascinating. Could you talk a bit about that? Do you feel it, and does it give you hope as well? MOLINA-GARCIA: Yes, it totally gives me hope. I think art classes helped me understand the dialectics of hope a lot more authentically – that hope moves through tragedy, that hope is extant in mystery and in negativity, in moments of terror. You know, it’s there. And I think as we develop it in class, it became – hope was a hermeneutic. It had to be a type of analytical or interpretive lens that you had to put on, right? Very deliberately. Otherwise, you might never see it. So, in my work there is this sort of thread of negativity, violence, trauma and death. I’m constructing these elaborate kinds of gothic terrors, you know? I think in the past couple years I’m deliberately trying to do that because I’m also conscious of my position as an artist of the South —the American South. You know, this is the home of Edgar Allan Poe, right? So, we can inherit, if we choose, the gothic horror genre. I think what is interesting for me is then to think about weaponizing gothic terrors for the VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

purpose of hope. I think that there is a hopefulness akin to afro pessimism in my work, a sort of a hope for collapse. The roaches, you know, or the seance with the 49 victims of a mass shooting, there’s a sort of a hope that these entities will exert some sort of force that will flatten the environment. But it’s ultimately grounded in the hope we will return to something better. STUDIO: It’s like opening a portal for a period of transition through ruins and that idea of creating ruins, of leaving ruins behind as points of departure. That’s a great theme in the South. I mean, the way that a a s cific h and a contradictory sort of statement out of the Southern gothic and gothic s ha ls d find ni or seminal about the South, about being here in Richmond—the heart of the “old South”? MOLINA-GARCIA: Southern gothic traditions are powerful, Southern eccentricities. Queerness, I think, plays out very differently in the South. It manifests and it grows in ways that are sometimes more polarized in the commonly contextualized East or West Coast environments. I think queer identities in the South are so complex and so strategic and learned. You know, we are so adept at code switching. I think most people might think of the South as a space that enforces a type of closeting or concealment. And some of that is true, if we think about concerns for safety and personal wellbeing. How many

trans or queer people are currently hiding or in the closet because gender affirming care is being legislated away in Florida, in Texas and the South in general, you know? I think artistic thinking would have to be involved here to kind of nuance this conversation to consider different ways that closeting behavior works. Where are the positives there, right? If we think of it as just a kind of a neutral category, yes, we are familiar with all of the kinds of self-loathing and self-negation that happens when one hides. I think culturally it’s read as a kind of activity of fear or selfcensure, you know? But I think there might be more to it than that. There has to be something more to that—to concealing oneself. I mean, if we’re thinking about hyper camouflage as a utilitarian political tool, then the ways that the queer subject hides in the South must also be kind of attuned to a kind of hyper camouflage strategy. You know, we hide because also we’ve then become more influential agents. I have a very low profile at this school. I have a very low profile on social media, you know? I talk a lot and I’m discursive, and some of my projects are out there, but it would be a mistake to assume that I’m closeting myself by not having a bigger public presence. So, to answer your question, I think I’m hugely inspired by the complexities of being queer in the South. Interview conducted by Micah Jayne and edited for brevity and content. You can read the full interview at arts.vcu.edu/curiousminds. 47

on the world’s living systems. His global perspective challenges and inspires his students to think beyond formal ideas of permanence, the wastefulness of extractive industry and encourages them to build resilient, emplaced communities with globally impactful vision.

Massa Lemu Department of Sculpture + Extended Media

LEMU: Yes, I was on leave this semester. I went to Malawi for two weeks to do my research with the Ozhopé Collective. You’ve seen Row 1 and Row 2. Row 3 will be appearing on the website soon. I was also invited to Switzerland for the La Becque Artist Residency with one colleague from the collective where we made work and just experimented on another aspect of what we had been doing previously, because we usually make our work on the shores of Lake Malawi. This was obviously a different context, the shores of Lake Geneva, and we were looking to how different geographies and environments might affect our work. Now we are looking back and seeing how people are responding to the images that we brought from that experience. I returned to the United States at the end of March to take part in a workshop at the University of Minnesota. There was an exhibition titled Why Canoes? at the University’s Center for Community Engaged Learning. The questions that they were asking paralleled the kinds of questions that we asked when we were working with the canoes on Lake Malawi for the Row projects. That similarity gave us momentum to carry on with the work that we do, because we saw that there are other people looking at the same things, interested in the same issues and problems, but from different angles. Maybe in the future, those things will start to intersect. STUDIO: You and the Ozhopé have been so focused on a very local community and environment in Malawi. Has that changed? You spoke about the perspective becoming broader because of your work in Switzerland and then Minnesota. How are those encounters changing your view of the community you are speaking to and trying to create?

Massa Lemu, A cabin of articulaged histories, 2022. Lamps, blown glass, sewing machine, kerosene, wood, corrugated iron, mixed media.

LEMU: So, we think in terms of communities more than a single community because there is not one homogenous community out there. Some of the communities we encounter we co-create through our work, but at the same time the work encounters these different communities on different levels. For example, there are the fishing communities which we work with right on the shores of Lake Malawi. Even within the fishing communities, there is a subset of people who are interested in what we are doing and with whom we have conversations. It’s not everyone in the fishing community, but it’s a curious group that gravitates toward what we are doing and engages in conversations. Then there are the broader communities; that of Malawian Society in general, which is able to see our work through social media, or the people who read newspapers where there is a different kind of conversation happening, you know? Those are communities of people who are also eager to learn more, who see and respond to the work. There is the academic community, which is broader, a global academic community where we engage in conversations through journals, or maybe the art world community through exhibitions. There are different levels of communities, and each has different priorities. We do not want to lose sight of the fact that perhaps the most impactful is where we are making the work on the shore of Lake Malawi.

COURE TSY OF MASSA LEMU

Massa Lemu is a Malawian visual artist and writer whose multidisciplinary artistic practice takes the form of text, performance and multimedia installations that are concerned with the contradictions of migration and h s ch l gical cs an i a ial i l and il capitalism on the post-colonial subject. He is a founding member of the Ozhopé Collective, which works globally and in Malawian communities to spur conversation around global environmental and economic issues. Lemu makes interventions into objects to comment on their social, economic or spiritual aspects and occasionally uses the aesthetics of politics to comment on the politics of aesthetics. As a writer, Lemu’s scholarly interests lie in what he calls a biopolitical collectivism in contemporary African art, which he d fin s as a s c c n d and collectivist art practice situated in everyday life. His writing has been published by the Burlington Contemporary, Wits University Press, Third Text, Stedelijk Studies Journal and Contemporary And. Lemu earned his Ph.D. in visual arts from the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, South Africa, his M.A. in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design and his Bachelor of Education degree in fin a h hanc ll ll g University of Malawi Zomba, Malawi. After a semester of research leave, Lemu has returned to VCUarts charged with a growing network of global collaborators and a shared vision. His research is deeply engaged with the life of objects, h i ic s and h cs as paced, consumer society is having

STUDIO: Can you rewind us to the past academic year, what you’ve been up to, and what’s made an impression on you over that time?

That’s the primary community we are interested in engaging and observing how the work has an impact. That work then is echoed through the other communities. We are now thinking about connecting to other communities of intellectuals, activists, environmentalists and academics who are interested in the ecological issues that we are engaging with, or the political issues that we feel are urgent in the work that we do. So yeah, the local communities and the global communities, all of these are contributing to the processes of meaning making in the work that we are doing. STUDIO: The valences of those conversations are very interesting. Everybody seems focused on these issues now—building communities focused on mutual aid, exploring the rhetorical value of art as it’s presented h ld h gh h di n channels you mentioned. How do you understand your ability and c i n ss in all h s di n spaces while maintaining the core, local message? Does your original audience somehow force you to maintain that focus, or are you happy to expand it? Does that message translate? LEMU: Yeah, I think there is a flexibility in the approach that we take. We allow for the open-endedness in terms of

the work existing in multiple forms and dimensions as it accumulates meaning through different conversations. It is not just one kind of thing that we create. Even if we focus on a very specific topic in a very specific geographical area in Malawi, the issues that we are dealing with are interconnected with the larger world. Other people sharing similar concerns might not experience them in exactly the same way that we experience them in Malawi, but we know that they share similar concerns, and those who recognize the concerns present in the work are attracted to the work and engage in conversations around it. I was recently invited to give a talk at the Ocean / Uni, a group of academics, artists and environmentalists dealing with the transformations happening in the world’s oceans at the moment. [Read more about Ocean / UNI: www.ocean-space.org/activities/ ocean-university] They consider the militarization of the ocean, for example, big container ships, cruise liners and the pollution they create, the accumulation of plastics… Also, the effects of extractive industries like big trawlers and raking, the shipping of oil, oil drilling and associated spillages and how all of these things are destroying oceanic ecosystems. These people recognize that if you destroy the oceans, you’re destroying life on the planet. All these issues are

Massa Lemu, The Malawian Dugout Canoe is Portal, 2023. Cut dugout canoes, images on vinyl, wheel, rope (with Ozhopé).

alawian Dugout Canoe is Portal”, 2023. Cut Dugout Canoes, Images on Vinyl, Wheel, Rope (With ). VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

also connected to climate change and global warming and so on and so forth. At the conference, one of the people who saw our work on Lake Malawi invited me into conversation with a South African professor who is also dealing with how fishing communities are endangered off the Western Cape in South Africa. So, people are looking at this and it’s resonating with them, and they’re inviting us to join their conversations. STUDIO: It’s amazing because the conversations are as globalized as the issues, but they are all doing decolonizing work—decoupling from the harmful trends of globalization. Your sense of place is so acute, like with the objects that you choose to center in your art. Many of them are found objects. Many of them are very lac s cific li h nding ls How do you continue to focus on these c s s cific ala i h n doing work in Switzerland, for example, or in Richmond? LEMU: It’s really personal, you know. As an artist, I’m drawn to objects that I’m familiar with, objects that I grew up with. I have so many stories to tell with these objects because there is a familiarity and a relationship with them. Some of them I have worked with my own hands, others I’ve just been looking at for a long time. There is a limited repertoire of objects that I work with. I tell my students that, even having lived in the U.S. for six or so years now, most of the objects here remain strange to me. I cannot say much with them because I haven’t really had that relationship with them. They are alien to me. They are other people’s objects. If you take that mortar, the object for pounding grain, we call it mtondo, I have so many things to say with a mtondo, and I don’t have to force out the things that I can do with it because it’s already in me. I have touched it. I have heard its sounds when my mother and aunties and grannies were working with it. I’ve listened to the songs that have been recorded and put on the radio. I have eaten flour pounded in those mtondo. I have a very deep connection with these objects. Interview conducted by Micah Jayne and edited for brevity and content. You can read the full interview at arts.vcu.edu/curiousminds. 49

and Pocosin School of Fine Craft, for example, which is really exciting. Can you talk a little bit about the ways in which your studio practice and your teaching work complement each other?

Blair Clemo Department of Craft/ Material Studies A. Blair Clemo is associate professor of Ceramics in Craft/Material Studies. Originally from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Clemo spent many years out west studying ceramics and working at small production potteries in Idaho and Montana. He has been an artist in residence at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, the Da Wang Culture Highland in Shenzhen, China, and the Zentrum für Keramik in Berlin. His utilitarian pottery, sculpture and installation work have been included in numerous national and international exhibitions. Clemo received his B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Montana Missoula, and his M.F.A. in ceramics at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. In this interview, Clemo shares insights into his evolving practice and the lines of questioning that continue to challenge his work even as his reputation as a potter and sculptor reaches new heights. What does it mean to develop a practice and seek mastery? He also shines an intimate light on the playful, experimental curiosity and openness that have made his courses some of the most sought-after in the School of the Arts. Clemo’s body and i l ss s l ci n remind us that the nature of making is intimately bound up with our ways of living consciously in relation with ourselves and each other. STUDIO: So you’ve been a part of the VCUarts community for years now, but you’ve also taught in other capacities. I’m talking about your time as a visiting professor at Shandong University in China. You’ve also taught numerous workshops at craft centers, Arrowmont School of Art and Craft, 50

CLEMO: I think one of the biggest things that I try to do or have to do in my studio is to find a balance between skilled execution and doing things that I don’t know what the outcomes are going to be. I’ve made thousands of cups and I pretty much know how to do it at this point, right? So, when I sit down to throw a cup, I can do that and anticipate that what I’m going to get is what I’m going to get. I know what that looks like, but it’s a common and important part of my practice to throw a wrench in those gears and ask a lot of “what if” questions. To really invite the possibility of failure into the studio. It’s really important to keeping my work going. I think the longer I make and the more skill I gain, the more important it becomes for me to challenge that skill and really invite myself to fail. That’s something I really try to include in all levels of teaching. It’s something that I think is important to model. I do a lot of demonstrations in class. I’m a demo-heavy professor because I think that a big part of building skill is watching how other people operate and how other people do things and sort of decoding that for yourself based on your own practice. I try to disenfranchise the idea that there’s a right way, especially that my way is it. My way is not the right way, It’s just a way. I think that I’ve learned so much through failed attempts. Most of my career has just been one big failure that’s led to a couple of pictures on the internet or something. [laughs] But really, failure is so integral to what I do. I think sometimes in class it’s a little theatrical. I’ll do something that I know is not going to work and fail on purpose in front of the students so I can scramble. They all kind of go, “Wait, is this really happening? Like, you don’t know how to make this thing?” Sometimes I’ll genuinely try something new that I’ve never tried before. It’s just an idea I have during a demo or a lesson, and I’ll fail actively in front of the students and try to salvage that. I think that, either way, it’s really important that they see me try new things, see those things not work, and see how they end up transitioning into something that does work or

transitioning into an outcome that’s unknown, but still fruitful. One of the things about my practice is that I really try to challenge my work as a maker. I work in bodies of work, but if I want to move on to something else or have a new idea, I’m not averse to trying that. I had a professor named David Regan in undergrad and during one of our last studio visits I kept saying, “Oh, well, my work does this and my work does that, and my work whatever.” He just sort of looked at me and said, “Who do you think you are to have your work? I’ve been making work for decades and I don’t know what my work is.” I really felt kind of caught out in that moment, trying to build an identity for myself. I hear that in my head every time a student starts to talk about my work, my work, my work. I do try to pop that bubble a little bit and say, “Well, you know, your work is always wheel thrown, covered in white glaze and has a decorative surface. What happens when you hand-build a sculpture and glaze it blue? Is it still your work? Of course, it is.” I think broadening the way that we think about what we’re capable of in the studio or broadening the way that we identify with what we make is a really important part of my practice and definitely something I try to build into the classroom too. STUDIO: I loved hearing you talk about the idea of failure, because I think it’s an idea that weaves through all of our classes and that we try to get students to embrace. How else can they really understand when something is working really well? CLEMO: We also have to define what success is for ourselves. Especially in a world where people are really pushing

can’t get into that class. I’m curious if you think students are asking themselves those same questions in terms of the rules that they are establishing around utilitarian objects. Are they thinking about the work in sculptural or performative ways?

O P P O S I T E : C O U R T E S Y O F B L A I R C L E M O , M O N I C A E S C A M I L L A , T H I S PA G E : D AV I D H U N T E R H A L E

Blair Clemo, Absence of Grey (exhibition installation view), dimensions vary, 2021

the boundaries of craft—really thinking about what touch means and what things that we traditionally think of as flaws, how we can capitalize on those flaws and make new objects the world’s never seen before. If you’re entrenched in this idea of the right way of doing something, or “My work does this and doesn’t do that,” what you’re doing is excluding a world of possibilities by saying, “I’m a potter—I’m not open to every single other way of making things in the entire world.” That’s very limiting. I think it’s important that instead of saying, “I do this,” you are looking at all the things you’re not doing and say, “Well, why aren’t I interested in those things?” How are they not being built into the dialogue that I have between material and practice and the work and asking those “What if” questions? What if I did try this thing? How would I translate this new idea through the lens of work I’m already making? I think those are really important lessons. STUDIO: We ask students to think about failure, but what are some of the other important questions that you feel like we need to ask young artists today? I don’t mean young in the sense of their time and experience in the world, but their time and experience with material or in their practice. What are some of the most important questions they should be asking themselves as emerging artists?

going to be, how different the field that we work in is going to be when they get where I’m at. I made my first pots with real sincerity in 1998 in a college class and it was very clear to me that I was going to be selling the pots at craft fairs, like “art in the park” or whatever, for the rest of my life because that’s how I found art. There wasn’t Instagram, there wasn’t really any kind of internet presence for art at all. So, every gallery I ever went to sold work in person, every artist I ever met, you went to their studio, and you bought their work. I was totally convinced I was going to follow that model. That model doesn’t really exist anymore. Even reputable, prominent galleries sell a huge portion of work online. My point is that my career as an artist today looks very different than I thought it was going to look back then. It wasn’t even possible to be the kind of artist I am now back then. It’s very, very possible— I’m going to say absolutely 100% likely —that artists graduating right now with a B.F.A. in 20 years are going to be making a living using a model that currently does not exist. So how do you prepare yourself for a model that doesn’t exist? How, in 1998, was I going to prepare myself for an online presence? I couldn’t. So, I think it’s really vital for students, or early career artists, to start asking themselves, “How do I really want to interface with this field? And what do I want my presence to look like?”

CLEMO: One of the things that I think about when working with early career artists is how different the world is

STUDIO: You teach a tableware class and it’s incredibly popular. Students are really disappointed when they

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

CLEMO: Sure. I hope so. I think we do some projects in that class to help them think about those more performative aspects. For example, one project I’ve done in years past is to have them craft a dining experience rather than crafting dinnerware or tableware. When you don’t think about the tableware, but instead about how the tableware gets used or what context it works in, it allows you to build the context first and then say what tableware is appropriate for that context. So, let’s say we’re going to have a meal, but there’s not going to be a table between us. Well, now we have to design a table and it’s going to sit on our laps or maybe hang from the ceiling. Or maybe it’s contained in some weird backpack. We have to come up with novel solutions because we’re not taking for granted what that dining space looks like. So, I think, again, by shifting the place where your focus is, you get to ask new questions about the fundamental thing. We’re still just making dishes. I think that they are asking questions, but the big thing is, how do we know what the questions are? We ask a lot of questions and find out which ones we get stuck on. A couple things I’ve heard or thought of 20 years ago have never left my brain, because they’ve been pivotal questions that have pushed my work forward. I want to challenge what a pot can be. I hope I have a student in class that really wants to focus on what a pot is from a traditional lens, and then explore that with virtuosity through innovation. I want to live in that world too, right? I think it’s important that we’re also questioning what our expectations are. I mean, you talked about rules and developing those rules. Rules are great because they give us a place to start and something to push against, but it’s important that we take a moment to identify what a rule is and ask if it still has a place. Interview conducted by Cindy Myron and edited for brevity and content. You can read the full interview at arts.vcu.edu/curiousminds. 51

bodies and spaces. They recently served as guest editor for the Walker Art Center’s Soundboard and organized “How Will We Queer Design Education without Compromise?” Killian earned an M.F.A. in 2D design from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Diplom Hochschule Anhalt in graphic design from the University of Applied Sciences/Bauhaus Universität, and B.F.A. in graphic design from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

nicole killian Department of Graphic Design

KILLIAN: I love this question! For me, my project for MURRMUR is about use— it was important that the pieces were looked at through the lens of design and of use. Going off this idea, when it came for the work to be documented by the institution, I stipulated that the work was not to be photographed without people in the image. With this body of work, I want to design things that aren’t just fun to photograph, but have an aspect of use, and maybe for me use is also connected to generosity. It’s giving people a place to sit; it’s softening existing structures, it’s creating support. STUDIO: The title of the show encapsulates an intriguing chain of concepts related to texts, the act of reading and the fundamental challenges of human-to-human communication. The title acronym stands for “Misread Unread Read Re-read Misread Unread Re-read.” Were you involved in establishing the theme of the show and its title, or was this given to you when your work was commissioned? How did this challenging deconstruction of what it means to read (or misread) play in your conceptual approach to the final s KILLIAN: The title of the program was dreamed up by Egbert Vongmalaithong, assistant curator of commerce and

STUDIO: So, the spaces set up the situation where the act of reading is not necessarily an isolated personal experience, but one that is communal? And by this I’m not thinking of reading groups or book clubs, but an actual physical space where “‘shared reading”’ can happen. It seems this reframing of communal reading leads to your focus on the physical body and ad d fini i ns ha i is to read? KILLIAN: Yes, exactly. I think it’s also important to think about how the act of reading is not just for the page, but for example: reading the room, reading others, reading yourself. And this can also play into a question I like to pose often of “what does it mean to be legible?” or “what are the differences between legibility and being read?” or lastly “who do you want to be read by?” Lots of questions surrounding visibility and communication in all its difficult and fun forms. Another node of this work deals with our awareness of our own bodies when we relax. I sometimes think the act of getting ready to read can be just as enjoyable as the act of reading. Sometimes you get so relaxed cozying up to read that the book never gets opened! STUDIO: It’s interesting that you extend your focus to issues outside of our normal understanding of what constitutes a book or a text, saying (and I’m assuming these are your words

KEISHA EUGENE

nicole killian’s work uses graphic design, publishing, video, objects and installation to investigate how the structures of the internet, mobile messaging and shared online platforms a c c n a in ac i n and shape cultural identity from a queer perspective. They are interested in the repetition, looping and dissemination of content. killian has exhibited at Sediment in Richmond, CAVE in Detroit, Arcadia Missa in London, Present Works in Milwaukee, Little Berlin in Philadelphia, Embassy in Los Angeles, Sadie Halie Projects in Brooklyn, Nomade Gallery in Hangzhou, Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema, and Artat the Whitney Museum of American Art for Lorna Mills’ “Ways of Something.” Their writing has been published by WOW HUH, The Enemy, Carets + Sticks (now Contemporary Art Review LA), The Journal of Feminist Scholarship, The Theo Westenberger Foundation and in the third edition of Terry Barrett’s Criticizing Art. A current essay, “The Emotional Potential of Girls Presented on the Internet as Object” will be included by Exempt Works (formerly Penny-ante Editions) in Modern Behaviours. They have spoken at the Rhode Island School of Design, CalArts, Central Saint Martins, Royal College of Art in London, Pratt Institute, Yale School of Art, Kunsthall Stavanger, Maryland Institute College of Art and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. They previously were a visiting artist at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design from 2011 to 2013. killian appreciates a good karaoke performance and is co-creator of annual publication ISSUES with Sarah Faith Gottesdiener. Their publishing initiative, nico fontana, is concerned with a queering of language, objects,

STUDIO: You recently participated in the MURRMUR show at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU that featured installations of three, threedimensional objects in the gallery space all addressing the intersection of diverse themes including, “reading,” “the body” and “queering.” I’m also remembering your recurrent interest in the idea of generosity. Can you talk about the connections between these ideas and how your understanding of them has evolved in your work?

publications. The title of my specific commissioned project is “between a book and a soft place.” Egbert and Senior Curator Sarah Rifky had originally reached out to me regarding a book fair taking place at the ICA and wanted to know my thoughts on that possibility. At the time, I wasn’t necessarily interested in another book fair in Richmond, or participating in it, but I expressed my interest in creating spaces for reading to occur. I mentioned that at book fairs, sometimes the most exciting things are not the books you buy, but the programming that happens in the space. The programming, and gathering of people—that’s what really has legs to walk off and generate new ideas, forms, projects, collaborations. I told them I had an interest in making space, or building spaces. So, this is what I came to originally prior to the actual work.

nicole killian, between a book and a soft place, 2023, in collaboration with HH Hiaasen, Matt Pockett and Jen Ansley

from the ICA website, “each structure invites visitors to have a seat and become a book,” and also that, “we dance language with our bodies, wear it and hold it in our hands.” This certainly opens up the idea of texts and their form well beyond what most people think of graphic design.

D AV I D H U N T E R H A L E

KILLIAN: That is actually writing from the curator, Egbert Vongmalaithong. It’s fun working with an institution because the curator ideally brings new language to your practice. Coming from a background in graphic design, I love the overlap in our discipline’s language between bodies and formal elements: body text, header, footer, the “bleed” and so on. Additionally, there is this lovely quote by Roland Barthes that goes “Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words.” When working with typography in the classroom, I try to encourage students to think about manipulating the form of the language just as they would a piece of clay, or a piece of wood. So then, for me, is the exciting thing of combining both of these points, and thinking about the body as a book, or a body within a book. STUDIO: I love how this addressed the stereotypical obsession with form that is associated with graphic design and its struggle with the legacy of modernism. Bringing in not only the syntax of form as a focus, the idea of thinking of formal manipulation of semantics in a constructive way is a fascinating idea. It’s not a function of VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

editing or revision of the given text, but a way of engaging actively with content. KILLIAN: Totally—when I first started teaching, I really reflected on how much of the body is left out of the classroom, of graphic design pedagogy. Not only does the “canon” not reflect the bodies in the room, etc; but also, so much of learning has students sitting at tables, working from their own laptops, not engaging with others, let alone themselves. I’ve tried to think about building a practice that allows for bodies, allows for movement, for rest, and for play. And I hope that this project at the ICA starts to do that formally with the support structures I’ve made. STUDIO: Interestingly, your work for the MURRMUR show does not deal explicitly with content per se, but rather with a person’s physical experience of engaging with content, with the act of reading. It’s not about the designer’s usual role of giving form to content, but with the idea of giving form to the act of engaging with it. This brings us back to the concept of generosity in design. Do you have anything further to say about that thread of your work? KILLIAN: That’s a great way of thinking about it. This project is a first for me. It’s the first time I explicitly chose to not put actual language into the work. I wanted the bodies that used the work, the bodies that inhabit it, to create the context and conversation. Prior to this project, all my video work, wearables and editions had words on them—this

felt scary to do, but it was something I wanted to try. It’s an experiment I want to keep working with. Form is inextricably linked to content, so am I able to create a structure or form that communicates without words? STUDIO: This is interesting, because at least in the realm of print design, designers rarely engage with or observe readers’ physical experience with a piece. It’s printed, shipped, and often forgotten … on to the next job. KILLIAN: [Laughs] Yeah. I think also living in Richmond where this work is being exhibited has been a funny experience. I work from the ICA a lot, so I’ve been seeing strangers on the soft bench, cradle, opening the soft book, gathering on the conversation pit. I’d have to say, the people who really get it are the future adults, the kids. They just get right on everything without asking any questions and start experiencing for themselves. It’s a great lesson for us all. It’s also been nice to hear the workers at the ICA say how much they’ve enjoyed the pieces being installed and how it’s provided soft spaces in such an austere building. Perhaps the whole MURRMUR project gives people more language to think about how we can inhabit spaces better, softly and communally. It’s definitely something I want to continue to challenge and work with. Interview conducted by Roy McKelvey and edited for brevity and content. You can read the full interview at arts.vcu.edu/curiousminds. 53

Emmy-winning VCUarts alumnus gives back to the department that helped him find his calling BY L EIL A U G INC I U S

Dumb luck brought two-time Emmy winner Richard C. Hankins to Virginia Commonwealth University to study theater design in 1969. But his experiences here made such an impact that it stayed with him throughout his career— which started in local theater productions and culminated on prime-time television shows such as NYPD Blue and Private Practice. “What I learned [at VCU] was the camaraderie of being in a theater production with other people, all working together to make something really wonderful,” he said. “It was a wonderful experience and that’s what I think I carried through my whole career—being a part of that.” Wanting to give back to the community that set him on his path, Hankins is donating from his estate, a gift of about $500,000 to the Department of Theatre in the VCU School of the Arts to set up an annual scholarship for students majoring in scenic, lighting or costume design. “I have always been interested in helping young designers, whether reviewing their portfolios, hiring them, or referring them to other designers and producers,” Hankins said. “I wanted to set up a scholarship fund for talented designers in the VCU Theatre program to help defray the costs of materials and the cost of starting their careers as designers. I have been so very lucky to meet and work with talented people who gave me my chances, and so I wish to honor those who gave to me by setting up a scholarship specifically for designers.” Scholarships mean so much for future generations, according to Bonnie McCoy, chair of the VCU Department of Theatre. “For many years the theatre department has been very successful at training designers and technicians and helping them get their first professional jobs,” she said. “Most of our graduates go on to successful careers nationally—including working in regional shows, touring companies, and even on Broadway. We have been able to do this in spite of the fact that we don’t otherwise have a lot of scholarship funding available. Our faculty work professionally and take great pride in helping students begin professional careers of their own. This generous gift will help us support those students in other ways as well. VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

“We are very honored that Hankins is a part of the VCU history.” VCU SPEAKS THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Hankins originally applied to the art department at American University across the river from his hometown of McLean, Virginia, simply because he had a lot of friends in the area. But the AU admissions officers weren’t interested in his art portfolio. Rather, they wanted to know how many years of a foreign language he had taken in high school. Technically he had taken a foreign language for three years—one year each of French, Spanish and Latin. But AU required at least two years of one language. “And I said, ‘Well, I don’t quite understand that. I’m going into the art department. And my understanding is that art is a universal language,’” Hankins said. While the clever response failed to impress AU, it’s just the kind of off-the-wall attitude that VCU embraces. After reviewing Hankins’ record, talents and interests—and his art portfolio—VCU’s admissions counselors suggested he join the theatre department. “You could be a design major,” they said. At that point, Hankins said, he would have taken anything. “So, I applied, and they accepted me in the theatre design department, which I had no idea what the hell that was,” he said. “How I got into the theatre department was just by luck, I mean just sheer luck. And actually, my career has been kind of like that too.” THE ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD

After graduating from VCU with a degree in scenic and lighting design in 1973, Hankins designed scenery and lighting various venues around Richmond; Washington, D.C.; and Brunswick, Maine. He made about $50 a week—barely enough to cover gas, food and rent. He moved on to the assistant designer position at what was then the Virginia 55

landed jobs on several productions including the soap opera Another World. “I immediately went from making $1 a day to $600 a week,” Hankins said. Working on television sets for a few years—including Guiding Light, which earned him two Emmy awards—allowed him to understand how the camera sees the set, differentiating TV and film from stage settings. By 1995, Hankins had moved to Los Angeles where he joined the Art Directors Guild, local 800, and became production designer for ABC’s NYPD Blue—a position he held for more than 10 years and more than 200 episodes. There, Hankins said, he worked with a great group of creative and gifted people. “We all had a lot of fun. … But the biggest thing was that Steven Bochco—who was the executive producer and co-creator—believed that you hire the best people and you let them go do their thing: ‘As long as I see it on the screen!’ And so that was it. I was allowed to read the scripts and allowed to design without worrying about a budget.” He received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Art Direction and a Society of Motion Picture and Television Art Directors Excellence in Design nomination for his work on NYPD Blue. He went on to design the first season of TNT’s Saving Grace and two seasons of ABC’s Private Practice. In

COURTESY OF RICHARD HANKINS

Museum Theater at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, eventually becoming the resident designer. His first production there was The Caretaker by Harold Pinter. “It’s an interesting play,” Hankins said. “It kind of starts from nowhere and ends in nowhere.” After the director, Keith Fowler, rejected about 25 set designs, “I realized what he wanted me to do was to design a show that asked nothing but questions, that gave no answers because that’s what Pinter did. Once I figured that out, it was like, ‘I got it!’ So, everything designed for the set made no sense.” Hankins later became resident designer with former classmate Jim Bloch. “I always appreciated Richard’s dedication to his role in the design team,” Bloch said. “Always looking to help out where needed and using a fresh and innovative eye towards his designs. I learned a lot from him. He was a good friend and colleague.” Hankins went on to work for several more theaters in the Richmond area—winning several honors, including being named to dogmatic theater critic Roy Proctor’s “Phoebe List” in the Richmond Times-Dispatch numerous times—before deciding he could no longer live paycheck-to-paycheck and needed to take the union entrance exam. He moved to New York in 1979, joining United Scenic Artists, local 829, and

Examples of Hankins’ sketches for theater and television productions through the years include (clockwise from top left) The Mouse Trap, Cabaret, Richard III, NYPD Blue, Funny Girl and Othello.

addition to numerous Emmy nominations throughout his career, Hankins was nominated twice for the ADG Outstanding Production Design award and received the Lou Dorfsman CBS Outstanding Design award. THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

Hankins’ work has always been informed by his time at VCU, which required theatre students to take a wide swath of classes, regardless of their concentration. So as a design student, Hankins still had to take everything from acting and directing to dance and costume design. “One of the things that the acting class taught me was, when you had a character, you would be required to come in with a complete bio of that character—where they were born, how they were brought up, events in their lives, everything that pertained to their character that would not be in the script,” he said. “And by doing that, it taught me to do the same thing as a designer.” If an actor opened a drawer, Hankins made sure that drawer contained something relevant to their character. “I would always tell my decorators that everything should have a backstory,” he said. “So, if I pick up anything on the set and say, ‘Where did this come from?’ I expect you to tell me where the character got it and its history.” VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Details like that support the action, Hankins said. It gives the actors room to be even more creative. Today, Hankins lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he continues to create—a passion that goes back to his childhood when he would take things apart and put them back together just to figure out how they worked. Back then, he would disregard the instructions to plastic model kits, and construct the model by looking at the picture on the box and building what made sense to him. “Which was, you know, the fun of it all,” he said. He worked his way up to giant models with thousands of pieces, such as the Cutty Sark clipper ship. “I loved doing that,” Hankins said. “I [also] started drawing as a young child and doing sketches. I became a big fan of N.C. Wyeth for his illustrations that were very cinematic and theatrical.” These days, Hankins regularly hosts potluck dinner-andmovie nights for 20 or 30 artistic friends outdoors—his giant movie screen comes with a lighted marquee that reads “THE WILMINGTONIAN THEATER, CLASSIC MOVIES UNDER THE STARS!”—or in “THE CINEMA GARAGE,” his former two-car garage that he converted into a smaller movie venue for rainy days and winter showings. 57

Faculty News ART FOUNDATION

Lily Cox-Richard delivered an Artist

talk at the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City in November 2022, where her work also appeared in a solo show by Hirschl + Adler. Organized annually, the ADAA show benefits Henry Street Settlement, one of New York’s leading social service, arts and health care organizations. Cox-Richard’s work was also included at Art Basel Miami Beach, represented by Hirschl + Adler. These Pre-War and Post-War offerings were complemented by work from contemporary artists Angela Fraleigh, Julie Heffernan, Colin Hunt and Elizabeth Turk. Over the past year, Hope Ginsburg has exhibited and published widely. This includes the Meditation Ocean, curated by Jennifer Lange at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. To complement that exhibition, Ginsburg published the article “Deep Breathing: Annie Dell’Aria on Meditation Ocean” in ARTFORUM in May 2023 and

“Meditations on Amphibiousness,” in the book Breathe — Critical Research into the Inequalities of Life. In addition to facilitating and organizing a number of the AFO Visiting Artist workshops, Roberto Jamora participated in the group exhibition, More Than Shelter (curated by Heather Hakimzadeh and Alison Byrne), at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in February 2023 and “Od „abstrakcji” do abstrakcji” (organized by Emilia Kina and Bartek Buczek), at the Fundacja Stefana Gierowskiego in Warsaw, Poland, in August 2022. ART EDUCATION

Lillian Lewis is serving as key re-

search personnel on two different interdisciplinary research projects funded through the Transdisciplinary Environmental Research Incubator. Her work with the Climate Justice Materials Research Lab aims to investigate the nature, history and function of materials that shape our lives and to

imagine the creation of new materials and modes of production, consumption and disposal that support sustainable energy and environments. Her other project with the Urban Green Equity and Resilience Project uses GIS data, social network mapping and detailed site analysis to examine complexities of designing and maintaining urban green infrastructure. Lewis was also a co-planner for the Transdisciplinary Environmental Research Incubator and contributed a chapter titled “Ferns, Streams, and Studio Media” to the book What Happens at the Intersection of Conceptual Art and Teaching? Ryan Patton, who serves as the chair of the Department of Art History, contributed a chapter titled “Disruption, Innovation, Creativity, and the ‘Right Thing’ in the Age of Global Media Arts,” in Global Media Arts Education: Mapping Global Perspectives of Media Arts in Education. Yiwen Wei, Ying-Chao Kao (assistant professor in Sociology, VCU) and nicole killian (associate professor in Graphic Design) received a grant for their work identifying needs and supporting first-generation LGBTQ+ Students at VCU from the VCU FirstGeneration Student Success Research Grant program. Their work is the first of its kind to look at First-Gen LGBTQ college students. Wei also published “Identity Exploration of a Taiwanese–Chinese Immigrant Art Educator in Higher Education” in the Routledge book Counternarratives from Asian American Art Educators. Sara Wilson McKay completed the Harvard Macy Institute’s Art Museumbased Health Professions Education Fellowship, consisting of two weekend workshops and four months of online meetings to advance a project using the arts and humanities in medical education at VCU impacting racism in medicine. Out of a cohort of 15, Wilson McKay was the only art educator ever invited to participate as a fellow. The other fellows in her cohort represented institutions such as Harvard, Duke, the Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Columbia and Yale. ART HISTORY

Hala Auji co-edited The Arab Nahda as Hope Ginsburg

Popular Entertainment: Mass Culture and Modernity in the Middle East, published by Tauris and Bloomsbury

from the Terra Foundation and a $250,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Michelle Yee published “On Tehching Hsieh’s Disappearance: Interrupting the Prevailing Narratives of the Artworld” in the journal Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas. Together with Yun Wei, she also published “Slant/Diptych” in The Brooklyn Rail’s July-August issue. Last February, Yee also organized and chaired “Beyond a Basic Need: Circuitous Paths of Food in Contemporary Global Asian Art” at the 111th College Art Association Annual Conference in New York City. CINEMA

Roberto Jamora

Publishing. She co-edited the volume with Raphael Cormack (Durham University, U.K.) and Alaaeldin Mahmoud (American University of the Middle East, Kuwait). Auji was also a guest editor for a special issue of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture: “Rupture and Response,” among other publications, including Facing Pages: Arabic Publishing, Portraiture, and the Making of Public Intellectuals and Museums After Empire: Mediating Constructs of Nationalism and History in Mandate Lebanon. Lisa Freiman advised on museum acquisitions at the Indianapolis Museum of Art with the aim to diversify and expand their permanent collection. She helped the museum acquire works by Ana Teresa Fernández, Zaneli Muholi, Mary Sibande, Shinique Smith, Vaughn Spann and Hale Woodruff, all of whom are BIPOC and some are LGBTQIA+ artists. Freiman also organized and chaired the panel “Rethinking Museum Studies in an Era of Cultural Crisis’’ at the 111th College Art Association Annual Conference, New York City, and published Vaughn Spann’s ‘Rover’: Art, Race, and Status with the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. Catherine Roach was named the Allen W. Clowes Fellow at the National Humanities Center. She also co-organized a scholarly VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

conference, “Paintings, Peepshows, and Porcupines: Exhibitions in London, 1775–1851” at the Huntington Library and was co-organizer of “Performance/Live Bodies,” in January, which featured presentations by Ann Bermingham of the University of California, Santa Barbara, John Plunkett from the University of Exeter and Adam Eaker from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. T W authored “Adaptable Legacies: Alain Locke’s African Art Collection at Howard University” and “Neo-Hoodoo: The Southern Roots of a Black Avant Garde” with the National Gallery of Art and Yale University Press. He is teaming up as co-curator with Karen Lemmey and Grace Yasumura for the exhibition The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, which will be presented at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., from November 2024 to September 2025. Wofford presented the paper “Africa in the American Imagination,” followed with a conversation with Lauren Kroiz at the New Perspectives: The Collection in Dialogue Series, organized by Dr. Tanya Sheehan, and hosted online by the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts, in April. He was also awarded a number of prestigious grants for his work last year, including a $200,000 grant

In April 2023, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City showcased a retrospective of the works of Rob Tregenza entitled, “Thinking with Cinema.” Josh Tyree made a noteworthy contribution to Film Quarterly (Issue #98, 2022) with his review entitled, “You Could Drive a Person Crazy, Take 10,” analyzing D. A. Pennebaker’s Original Cast Album: Company. COMMUNICATION ARTS

Stephen Alcorn continues to produce

a tremendous output of commissioned work. A longtime contributor to Prometeo Cultural Quarterly, Alcorn’s work this year has focused on portraits of rock icons, international authors and Richmond’s own Edgar Allan Poe. He created cover artwork for The Four Seasons of Bob Dylan, an illustration accompanying a review of The Philosophy of Modern Song, an image of the author Armando Massarenti for Prometeo Cultural Quarterly and a cover illustration of Edgar Allan Poe for The Angels of Poe by Rositas Copioli. Jason Bennett is working on a project, VR Intervention for ADHD, with Dr. Josh Langberg and (Rutgers University) David Shepherd (Louisiana State University). He also serves as Technical Artist, Simulating Infrared Light with Unreal Engine, with Nibir Dhar in the VCU College of Engineering—where he focuses on advising researchers and generating the necessary artwork. After a busy summer residency in Paris, Miguel Carter Fisher is currently working on publishing a collaborative project involving students from VCU, Virginia State University and Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. This 59

Faculty News

Christopher Irving

project is in cooperation with Lei Chen, a former VCU guest lecturer now pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia. The project will be published in the journal Canadian Art Teacher/Enseigner les arts Au Canada. Sterling Hundley conducted the second iteration of “Blue Sky to Red Skies,” which established VCU as a NASA T2U (Technology Transfer University) partner. As part of the partnership Hundley facilitated, VCUarts students were paired with NASA inventors and administrators working in the tech transfer field to develop visual illustrations, animations and designs that directly communicate complex NASA initiatives. This year, Christopher Irving published CLIFFHANGER!: Cinematic Superheroes of the Serials: 1941–1952 with TwoMorrows press. This work explores the early days of the film serial to its explosion as a juvenile medium of the 1930s and 40s. Ying-Feng Shen created and contributed four illustrations to “Pearl Divers of Toba Cove” by Miyuki Jane Pinckard in the March 2023 issue of CRICKET Magazine. Matt Wallin, who serves as chair of the Department of Communication Arts, produced, hosted and edited 17 episodes of The VFX Show podcast for FXGUIDE. He also produced, hosted and edited 71 episodes of the 8111 podcast. Both shows have a global audience of working professionals, students and fans in more than 38 countries. 60

CRAFT/MATERIAL STUDIES

Along with co-author Mariah Doren, Elissa Armstrong wrote and published Let’s Talk About Critique: Reimagining the Art and Design Tradition, released in August by Intellect Books and distributed in the USA by The University of Chicago Press. This work examines how critique in art education has evolved, how it falls short and what else it could be. Armstrong and Doren contextualize current practices by discussing the history of critique, the field of education and the characteristics of today’s students, then offer suggestions for ways to have more open, inclusive and dynamic classroom conversations about art and design. Hillary Waters Fayle presented a number of solo exhibitions last year, including Raft of Sanity in Buffalo, New York, and Circadian at the Brokkart in Algiers, Algeria. Her work was selected as part of the United States Art In Embassies Residence Exhibition, showing in Algiers, Algeria, and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hillary is artist-in-residence at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, Virginia, and at Bazart Textile in St. Antonin Noble Val, France. Susie

Hillary Waters Fayle

Ganch participated in the exhibition

This Present Moment: Crafting A Better World at the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. This exhibition and symposium was part of the Renwick’s 50th anniversary celebration. Her work also appeared as part of Pearl Stories, an invitational curated by Biba Schutz and Petra Class at Jewelry Library in New York City. She is currently artist-in-residence at the Haystack Mountain School in Dear Isle, Maine; the Baltimore Jewelry Center in Baltimore; and Pentaculum, the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Jason Hackett took part in the group invitational exhibition, Clay+/Invitational, at the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art at the University of Alabama. Kathleen Kennedy received a grant from the Center for Craft Teaching Artist Cohort for $10,000 and will participate in an 8-month cohort experience. Cynthia Myron, who chairs the Department of Craft/Material Studies, opened the exhibition Mineral Matters at the Watts Museum in Morgantown, West Virginia, which ran until May 2023. Keenan Rowe received a Virginia Humanities

Jason Hackett

Grant for $14,850 as part of the team developing “Loose Parts: Exploring the Public Humanities of Child-Directed Adventure Play.” Bohyun Yoon participated in several prominent national and international group exhibitions and activities, including: New Glass Now at Toyama Glass Art Museum in Japan; the group exhibition Through a Glass Darkly at Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, Delaware; and delivered a lecture at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in China. He also received a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship and presented with Ross Walter, “fanfares et s’ épanouit dans de la lux” at the Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, Delaware, and at the 2023 Glass Arts Society Conference in Detroit.

REACH at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. “Hoptown” also garnered Abadoo a development residency at Dance Place in Washington, D.C. Sinclair Emoghene published Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences with Routledge and launched the Dance Filmmaking platform online. Through this, Sinclair aims to bring dance filmmaking to the masses, showcase and promote new talent, and create a surge of inspiration and opportunity. Trebien Pollard’s piece Moving Stories of Liberation and Truth received a $2,500 grant. He was commissioned by The Flea Theater in New York City to develop a Juneteenth performance. This work is in dialogue with two of Audre Lorde’s essays—“Poetry Is Not a Luxury” and “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” Pollard also devised “The Hang,” a vocal recording presented at HERE in May. He designed costumes for What We Ask of Flesh devised by Christal Brown/INSPIRIT at Middlebury College, and created choreography for “Recall: A Process of Reclaiming,” for Dartmouth Dance Ensemble students’ spring concert at Moore Theater in Hanover, New Hampshire. Pollard also co-choreographed and perfromed in The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist—an opera responding to the murder of Eric Garner—at Stanford University in October 2022. Gaynell Sherrod, a member of International

Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), received the National Medal of Honor, the highest award given to individuals, groups or organizations for the arts in the U.S. The IABD received the recognition for “expanding our Nation’s appreciation for the practice and preservation of dance from the African diaspora,” according to a release from the National Endowment of the Arts. “Through teaching, training and performance, the IABD promotes dance by people of African ancestry and origin, explores and exchanges art, spans cultures and generations, and enriches the dance culture of America.” Sherrod was also selected to contribute to “Dancing Digital, Phase III” by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Judy Steel maintained a strong presence within IADMS (the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science), an international community of dance artists, health professionals and artistic directors. Her most recent participation was at their October 2022 conference. She continues development of Dance Science coursework in the B.F.A. degree program, which is co-taught with Health Science professionals. FASHION DESIGN + MERCHANDISING

Jeannine Diego was a reviewer on the paper “From Handkerchiefs to Feminisms,” presented at “Kaleidoscope: Conference on Fashion in Mexico, 1970-1999” at El Chopo

DANCE + CHOREOGRAPHY

MK Abadoo was awarded a National

Dance Project Production Grant via the New England Foundation of Art and National Performance Network Storytelling Grant. This supports artists’ ability to document, promote and share their work, ideas and selves, as well as to create pathways to new opportunities for career advancement, such as creating work materials for a grant or sharing stories and ideas to develop collaborative relationships. Abadoo’s project, “Hoptown,” was supported by the Community-Engagement and Development Residency of the PennyRoyal Arts Council’s Alhambra Theatre, by the Office Hours Residency,

VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

MK Abadoo 61

Faculty News University Museum and the Institute of Aesthetic Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She also presented at “UN75+2 at NTU Fashion Fictions: Living Together in Imagined Worlds Fashion Fictions,” organized by Amy Twigger Holroyd at Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom. Additionally, Diego was a juror for selection of proposals and an editorial board member for the international conference, “Earth, Water, Air, and Fire: The Four Elements of Fashion,” organized by Università Iuav di Venezia. Hawa Stwodah organized the exhibition and presentation of Speculative History¡Design with Patricia Brown as part of the Tasmeem Doha, an international, biennial art and design conference organized by VCUarts Qatar. The show featured the work of many current VCUarts students in the Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising. She also helped to organize Material Exploration and Artisanship. presented at the VCUarts Fashion Event in May at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. GRAPHIC DESIGN

Laura Chessin was granted a Smithsonian Artist Researcher Fellowship (SARF) from the Smithsonian Institution. Her fellowship is in partnership with Joan Boudreau, Curator of the Printing and Graphic Arts Collections, and their work will focus on the documentation and examination of “The American Type Founders” archive of original drawings, matrices and other equipment. Kimi Hanauer’s spring 2022 exhibition If we choose to reclaim ourselves from the ashes: eulogy turned dance hall transformed UCLA’s Lainer Family Gallery into a nightclub and subsequently re-envisioned its location, the Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios, as a massive concrete tomb. Hanauer also participated in a number of panel discussions, including “Teaching at the End of Times” at the University of Pennsylvania and the “Technologies of Friendship and Solidarity” panel WESTAF’s Creative Vitality Summit. Hanauer 62

Kimi Hanauer

also delivered artist lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, Pratt Institute and Moore College. nicole killian contributed an essay on Gran Fury’s Kissing Doesn’t Kill titled “The Precarious Body (Text)” to After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet: A History of Design Pedagogy. Edited by Geoff Kaplan, the volume was published by MIT Press in October 2022. David Shields delivered the lecture “Tales from the Kelly Collection Catalog, or Typographic Research as Tool Builder” as part of the Herb Lubalin Lecture Series at Type@Cooper at Cooper Union in New York City. He also presented and hosted a panel discussion on “Archival Research as Tool Builder” at the Department of Graphic Design of Yale University. Wes Taylor is a 2D Research Fellow at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He was also recognized by the Robert Johnson Wood Foundation’s Pioneering Ideas Award for “Design Justice Care Pods,” which garnered a $564,000 grant, and for “The One Project” by the National Philanthropic Trust with a $250,000 grant. Taylor also delivered a number of keynote addresses, including one at the Design Justice Symposium at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an address at the Rand Lecture Series at Yale School of Art, and another appearance at “Rethink Festival!” hosted by Spaces Porto Novo in Milan, Italy.

Lauren Thorson is currently serving as

a faculty fellow at the Center for Book Arts in New York City.

INTERIOR DESIGN

Laura Battaglia and Timothy Hamnett worked in collaboration with

the Weyanoke Association on multiple student studio projects to study and promote their combined Indigenous and African heritage. Battaglia also contributed to a multi-university “design+build” project focused on creating an outdoor classroom at Sewanee with particular attention paid to underrepresented histories in the region of formerly enslaved peoples. Kristin Carleton was a panelist at the Art and Design of Teaching InteriorConstruction-Related Courses in CIDA-Accredited Programs, 2023 IDEC Annual Conference. Her work with “Loose Parts: Exploring the Public Humanities of Child-Directed Adventure Play” in association with VCUY faculty members Corin Hewitt (Sculpture + Extended Media), Aspen Brinton (School of World Studies), Jesse Goldstein (Sociology) and Keenan Rowe (Craft/Material Studies), was awarded a Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) grant. Carleton also served as a panelist at the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Annual Conference in May, talking on the art and design of teaching interior-construction-related

KINETIC IMAGING

Shawné Michaelain Holloway

Dean Moss

MOSS: IAN DOUGL AS

Shawné Michaelain Holloway

courses in a Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) accredited program along with collaborators from several other universities. Emily Smith serves as the curator and faculty lead at VCUarts’ mOb (middle Of broad) studio. Smith exhibited Both Near & Far: A Study Away Program on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, an exhibition featuring student and VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

faculty work from the September 2022 Eastern Shore Study Away program. Roberto Ventura presented the paper “Canon Fodder: Critical Methods for Diversifying Precedents Through Blogs” at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student in Fargo, North Dakota. He currently serves as the chair of the Department of Interior Design.

completed a residency at Process-asPractice. Continuing their practice in the spaces where identity, technology and social justice are formed, their exhibitions last year included “Bone Lattice” in the group exhibition Remembering to Remember: Experiments in Sound, hosted by the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art. “closeLISTENER (reverse, react, ‘desire’)” was featured at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. They also presented “Black Feminist Practice in Open Source Software Community, 2017-2023” at New York University and contributed “Open Source Software Arts Contributor’s Conference Archive and Legacy Project Notes” to The Clinic for Open Source Arts, hosted by the University of Denver. The performance by Dean Moss titled Your marks and surface opened at Danspace in New York City and received favorable reviews from The New York Times. The review (“He Needs Your Help. And She’s Trapped Under a Mound”) was published online by The New York Times on the Feb. 24, 2023. Semi Ryu created the presentation of “SentimentVoice: VR-based talk therapy project, using emotion AI,” which was presented at the NOAH (National Organization for Arts in Health) conference at the American Visionary Art Museum. The work was created in collaboration with Stefano Faralli, professor of Computer Science at the University of Rome, Italy, and undergraduate students from the Department of Kinetic Imaging and Computer Science at VCU. Kate Sicchio was awarded the Algorithmic Patterns Residency by Then Try This. She presented a number of talks internationally, including: “Live Coding as (Dis)placement: Artists, Programming and the Dancing In-Between” at the International Conference on Live Coding in Utrecht, Netherlands; “Algorithmic Choreography” at Tanz Messe in Dusseldorf, Germany; “EveryBody: City, Technology and the Body” at the Inspace Gallery at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; and “Collective Meanings and Ethical Responsibilities In Live Coding Choreography” at the Canadian Communication Association Annual Meeting in May. Sicchio also performed locally and internationally, 63

Faculty News including Choreographing Privacy at the Taubman Museum in Roanoke, Virginia; Together//Apart at the Anderson; and Codes for a Dance at Theatre Deli, Sheffield, United Kingdom. She also appeared with performance partners in Utrecht, Netherlands and Paris, France throughout April. Further developing her work connecting the living world and unique animation techniques, Pamela Taylor Turner published “Sensing Chapel Island: Animation as a Process of Witnessing Place” in the Tangible Territory Journal and presented “Animating Place: Connecting to Place through the Process of Animation” at the Society for Animation Studies in Middlesbrough, England. Stephanie Thulin published CoRelations on Diptychs, an exhibition catalog for the eponymous group exhibition at LoosenArt Mag/Gallery in London. She also participated in the group/juried exhibition 2023 Biennial Juried Exhibition at Olin Hall Galleries. Stephen Vitiello, who currently serves as the chair of the Department of Kinetic Imaging, is the resident artist at ArtLab at Mountain Lake Biological Station. Continuing his collaborative work with Harvestworks on Governors Island in New York, Stephen presented Ear Hut, along with exhibitions at the Ucross Gallery in Clearmont, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Florida; and two pieces exhibited as part of the exhibition, Nam June Paik: I Expose the Music at Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder University in Germany. Vitiello’s work spread throughout the city of Dusseldorf as part of OUT OF SPACE: DUSSELDORF VARIATION, curated by Sophia Scherer and Junni Chen. His work on Pauline Oliveros for the Museo Reina Sofia in Barcelona, Spain, “Genealogías sonoras Radio del Museo Reina Sofia” took the form of text and a recorded podcast. He also composed music for Dean Moss’ show, Your marks and surface, which opened at Danspace at St. Mark’s Church in New York City in February 2023. 64

MUSIC

Magdalena Adamek performed Chopin’s works for piano and cello with Emmanuel Feldman for the Kosciuszko Foundation Gala at Mount Holyoke College on March 26, 2023. She also performed Daniel Dorff’s “Ballade for Alto Flute” and Valerie Coleman’s “Amazonia” in 2022. Taylor Barnett headlined and performed several events with No BS! Brass, including appearances at The Broadberry concert venue, the Richmond Symphony, and Daydream Fest, all in Richmond, Virginia. Barnett also performed with the Daniel Clarke Quartet at a 2022 concert. Tabatha Easley performed the 21st Century American Flute Sonatas with Catherine H. Garner on piano, released digitally in December 2022. Sandy Goldie published Rehearsing the Full Orchestra with GIA Publications in 2022. Goldie also was associate editor for four issues of the journal, American String Teacher, from August 2022 to May 2023. Goldie also conducted and performed for various events throughout Virginia in 2022 and 2023. Bruce Hammel was principal bassoonist in the touring production of My Fair Lady with Broadway Under the Stars, where he performed at the Altria Theatre in Richmond, Virginia. Chris Hansen conducted a performance of “Dark Night of the Soul” and “Luminous Night of the Soul” at Carnegie Hall on June 25, 2022. Susanna Klein performed many events in 2022 and 2023, including chamber music concert performances at Loon Lake Live in Loon Lake, New York; a gala performance with YoYo Ma at the Richmond Symphony; a performance with the Mannheim Steam Roller Orchestra at the Landmark Theater in Richmond, Virginia; and many more performances with the Richmond Symphony in Richmond, Virginia. Filipe Leitão composed and released a film score for the documentary, EU (Me, a Journey Within). Rex Richardson began a residency at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in the United Kingdom. He also performed in the Sardinia Brass Festival in Sardinia, Italy, in a brass quintet with prominent European brass artists, and also performed at the Williamsburg Jazz & Blues Festival in Williamsburg, Virginia; the Isla Verde Brass

International Festival in Argentina; the Tokyo Wind Symphony Orchestra in Japan; and several other performances across Chicago, Atlanta, and Williamsburg, Kentucky. George performed as the principal S clarinet, second clarinet or E-flat clarinet with symphonies in Rochester, Oakland, and Midland, Michigan. He also performed as principal clarinet at the Lexington, Michigan, Bach Festival. Walter Ross performed with the Bon Air Baptist Church Orchestra and the Northern Neck Orchestra, both in May 2023. PAINTING + PRINTMAKING

Cara Benedetto was invited to the residency program at Callie’s in Berlin—a laboratory for expansive thinking— where she worked during summer 2023. Benedetto also had a number of solo shows: CLOSER at Chapter in New York City; My Condolences at the M+B Gallery in Los Angeles; and Love You, hosted at the Night Gallery in Los Angeles. Katerina Muromtseva’s solo exhibition, Women in Black Against the War, opened at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan, followed by contributions to Dystopia – Transition from Memory at Art Front Gallery in Tokyo. In December, she brought her work to the group exhibition A Room Full of Mirrors at Fragment Gallery in New York City. Noah Simblist published “Alia Farid: Water Holds a Poetics of Relation” in Where I’m Calling From: The Fourth Edition of the Burnaway Reader. Hillary Wilder

Cara Benedetto

Arizona on a forthcoming photography book, Garry Winogrand Archive 19481984. Waters’ short essay film Fragile screened at 12 juried international film festivals, including a monthlong video installation in the Chapel of the Carmelites in Toulouse, France, as part of the Traverse Vidéo XXVI Int’l Encounters. Waters’ film also streamed at venues and festivals in Rio de Janeiro, Taipei, Cesena, Seattle, Los Angeles and Boston. SCULPTURE + EXTENDED MEDIA

Corin Hewitt’s work “Time

Paul Thulin-Jimenez

spent the summer at the Galveston Artist Residency (GAR), where she took part in Before Apollo, Before the Sun, a group exhibition produced by the community of artists. GAR awards three artist-in-residence fellowships a year. PHOTOGRAPHY + FILM

John Freyer spoke to Columbia University’s Public Humanities Workshop about his Recovery in Practice conference that he is organizing for the Humanities Center at Columbia. He also developed a national edition of Recovery Roast Coffee at the Institute for Contemporary Art during the national conference of the Association of Recovery in Higher Education hosted by VCU. The event included tasting previous editions of Recovery Roast Coffees from events held at Tate Modern in 2018 and the Liverpool Biennial in 2016. Sonali Gulati’s film Bye Bye Lullaby was awarded the Director’s Choice Award at the long-running Thomas Edison Film Festival. She served as a juror for the IDA (International Documentary Association) for their short film selection for 2022, helping to select a number of films that later went on to be nominated for Academy Awards. Her upcoming project Occupy was awarded second prize at BlackStart Film Festival Pitch, resulting in an invitation to participate in IF/THEN SHORTS Finish Line Program. Gulati was awarded an Honorable Mention for her script titled Between at the Big Apple Film Festival & Screenplay Competition. J. Molina-Garcia was VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

included in a four-person exhibition, Legible / Illegible, at PS 122 Gallery in New York City, with a public panel talk delivered to the New York community. Paul Thulin-Jimenez created a collective project, Isla De Las Palmas: 100 years, examining Puerto Rican identity within the layered sociopolitical dynamics and systemic pressures of colonialism. He is currently seeking out libraries and cultural institutions to add the book to their collections. Sasha Waters has been contracted by THIRTEEN/WNET to research and develop a feature documentary tentatively titled, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, for the national PBS series American Masters. She is in collaboration with Köln-based artist and writer Jeffrey Ladd, publisher D.A.P. and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of

Management Techniques” showed at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hewitt was also chosen to be a visiting artist at the Vermont Studio Center, which included an artist lecture and 17 individual studio visits with fellowship artists and writers. His project, “Loose Parts: Exploring the Public Humanities of ChildDirected Adventure Play,” was funded by a variety of sources and became the recipient of a VCU Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) grant. Michael Jones McKean became the first artist-in-residence at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. The fiveyear position, although connected to the observatory itself in Cerro Pachón in Chile’s Andes Mountains, is global in nature as Rubin systems and staff are decentralized and spread around the world. Massa Lemu completed a La Becque Artists Residency at La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland. His work “Catch” with Ozhopé Collective was featured in Christian Nyampeta’s Boda Boda Lounge festival as part of Documenta 15. He was also invited to a Boss Visiting Artist Fellowship at the University of Minnesota, where he delivered a lecture, conducted a workshop and visited graduate student studios. THEATRE

Kendra Rai

Deaprtment of Theatre Head of Voice and Speech Karen Kopryanski was awarded a Fulbright specialist award and is currently pursuing research in Cape Town, South Africa. Kendra Rai, who is currently head of costumes in the Department of Theatre, was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Costume Design for Dracula, produced by the Synetic Theatre Company. 65

Student News ART EDUCATION

Marzia Farhana presented at the

Dhaka Art Summit, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Lia New was the 2023 recipient of the VCU Library Leila Christenbury Literacy Fund Award, which includes funding to attend the American Library Association conference and an ALA membership. Juanita Zapata-Orrego contributed heavily to the Department of Art Education contributed heavily to the 2023 National Art Education Association Annual Convention, held in San Antonio on April 13-15, 2023. ART HISTORY

Ashley Botkin presented “From Chop Suey to General Tso’s Chicken: Chinese Food as Agents of Diaspora” at the William & Mary Graduate and Honors Research Symposium in March 2023. Mary Catherine Langston undertook department-funded research at the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Kate Sunderlin authored “Medium and Myth in a Southern City: Plaster in the Studio of Edward Virginius Valentine and the Valentine Museum” and presented at the Middle Atlantic Symposium, held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in March 2023. She also is a co-curator of the Edward V. Valentine Studio Project at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia.

hosted by Danaca Design Studio. Shannon Kurzyniec’s pieces showed at: AdornAxis in New York City as part of NYC Jewelry Week (Nov. 16-20, 2022); Anonymous Brooklyn 2022 at Brooklyn Metal Works; Signs, Signals, + Symbols at the Baltimore Jewelry Center, Dec. 2, 2022-Feb 10, 2023; Material Synthesis, East Carolina Univeristy Material Topics Symposium, January 12-15, 2023; and the Brushes with Cancer program, hosted by Wayne State University in Detroit in May 2023. Eileen Morley’s exhibition Materials Hard + Soft opened at the Greater Denton Arts Center. Chelsea Rowe took part in Material Synthesis at the Wellington B. Gallery at East Carolina University in January 2023.

CRAFT/MATERIAL STUDIES

Justin Cockrell gave the presentation

“Weaving and Media Art” at the VA Humanities Conference. Yifei Kong took part in: the SNAG Show during NYC Jewelry Week; Anonymous Brooklyn 2022 at Brooklyn Metal Works in Brooklyn, New York; the Enamelist Society slide show at the ECU Symposium in Greenville, North Carolina; and Battle of the Rings, 66

Shannon Kurzyniec

DANCE + CHOREOGRAPHY

Sophia Berger performed Eric

Rivera’s original choreography “En el Vacio” at Publick Playhouse for the Performing Arts in Maryland for the Uplift Inspirational Dance Festival. The piece was among the few that were chosen for this prestigious festival. Sydney Goldston received an internship with the LocoMotion Project as part of Ready Avatar One at Gallery 5 in Richmond, Virginia. Olivia Gwinner received an internship at Biometrically Secure Human Robot Interaction. Zoe Kim received an internship as a Research Assistant at Biometrically Secure Human Robot Interaction. Solana Rios-Shkodriani was accepted into the Dunham Legacy Revisited at Jacob’s Pillow in July 2023. Marissa Schoeder received an internship as a research assistant at Creative HumanRobot Teams. Holly Trenbath earned an Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship Fellowship. This recognition awards $1,500 to apply toward summer study. She will utilize these funds to attend three summer intensives with Orange Grove Dance, the Dance Exchange and David Dorfman Dance.

FASHION DESIGN + MERCHANDISING

Sarah Dickens, Miguel George, Ariana Monterrosa, Diamond Wilson, Victoria Woodward and Claire Woolfall exhibited as part of

Speculative History¡Design during the Tasmeem Doha, an international, biennial art and design conference organized by VCUarts Qatar, from Aug. 28-Sept. 22, 2022. GRAPHIC DESIGN

Jennifer Bui began an internship at

Chica Project in Quincy, Massachusetts. Nuran Cicek began an internship at Energage LLC in Exton, Pennsylvania. Yejin Lee began an internship at Pro Sports Outlook Inc. Ariana Osornio began an internship at VCU Humanities and Sciences Department. Callum Doty began an internship at VCU’s OVPRI. Esther Lee began an internship at VCU’s da Vinci Center. Lindsay O’Neill began an internship at Jackson Spalding in Atlanta. Paige Cassidy began an internship at SingleStone Consulting in Richmond, Virginia. Ana Campos, Sydney Folsom, Felipe Fonseca and Garrit Lichtenberg participated in a Research Practicum, “Access,” the 2023 VCUarts Fashion Event. Nhan La began an internship at Dentsu Creative, Global. Alyssa Dixon entered the Adobe Ambassador Program at Penguin Random House in New York City. Wendy Thi Nguyen began an internship at Modern Nursery in Hartford, Connecticut, managing the

Speculative History Design VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Alexis Mabry

company’s website and social media. Priya Sugathan began an internship at Next Media Group in Greenwood Village, Colorado. Emmeline Osayah began an internship at Alta Media Inc. in Dover, Delaware. Jade Stella held internships at the Anderson and Studio Two Three in Richmond, Virginia. Solimar Santoyo began an internship at VCU’s Student Media Center. Tenzin Tsering held internships at VCU Athletics and Zen3 Info Solutions. Eric Couture began an internship as a studio monitor and instructor at Studio Two Three in Richmond, Virginia. Joy Lee began an internship as a designer at Creative One Media in Austin, Texas. Inho Park began as a UX/ UI design intern at Bank of America in New York City. Jess Mayrides began an internship as a designer at 1455 Literary Arts in Reston, Virginia. Hannah Robinson began an internship as an illustrator and designer at Mary Washington University Department of German Language in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Lesly Melendez began as a graphic design intern at Leading Edge Screen Printing in Warrenton, Virginia. David Reyes began an internship as a graphic designer in Print Production at Bon Secours and Mercy Hospital in Petersburg, Viginia. Taehee Whang began an internship at Forbes Magazine in New York City.

MUSIC

The VCU Large Brass Ensemble of 14 students performed “Fanfares et s’épanouit dans del la Lux (Fanfares and Blooms in Light)” at the Fall Season Opening of Through a Glass in Wilmington, Delaware, on September 9, 2022. The VCU Trumpet Ensemble was invited to the National Trumpet Competition in Boulder, Colorado, in March 2023. KINETIC IMAGING

Kendall Kelly, Gezelin Cantuba and Elliot Kim (along with VCU

Computer Science students Darriel McLaurin and Cassidy Coates) presented VR and poster presentations of “SentimentVoice: VR-based talk therapy project, using emotion AI,” at the National Organization for Arts in Health conference. This project was advised by Semi Ryu and funded by VCU Arts and Health Innovation grant. Kelly and Kim also created video documentation of the experience.

PAINTING + PRINTMAKING

Alexis Mabry had work featured in the group show Drop-In at M+B Doheny, in Los Angeles. The show was curated by Pat Philips. Grace Bromley’s work featured in the exhibition Water is Not for Sale at Bloom Galerie, St. Tropez, France, from Oct. 8 through 67

Student News Dec. 30, 2022. Bromley also curated a booth for the Spring Break Art Fair in Los Angeles. PHOTOGRAPHY + FILM

Arghavan Heydareslam screened her short film Don’t Touch Anything at Oakwood Art’s East End Film Society in Richmond, Virginia and at Bright Lights Cinema Series at Emerson College in Boston. Kat Thompson had a solo exhibition titled Looking for My People at the Fenwick Gallery at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She also presented in the group exhibition CAST / RECAST at the Gillespie Gallery at George Mason University. The work of Madeline Mae Morris was included in Unbound 12, a group exhibition at Candela Gallery, in Richmond, Virginia. Jack Fox published Quiet From Here with Pomegranate Press and contributed work to Fragments of Devotion, a curated exhibition held at Secret Flowers in Richmond, Virginia. Sydney Harrison received a Virgina Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) Undergraduate Visual Arts Fellowship. Walker Moore received a VMFA Undergraduate Visual Arts Fellowship and was awarded Best Cinematography for Streetlight—directed by Anson King (B.F.A. ’23)—at the Virginia Emerging Film Festival in Winchester, Virginia.

Arghavan Heydareslam 68

Jermaine Ollivierre

Sarah Cook

Eileen Morley

Walker’s films took home three awards at the James River Short Film Showcase, including Best in Show and the People’s Choice Award for On My Mind and The Kathryn Stephens VA Filmmaker Award for Two Lines. SCULPTURE + EXTENDED MEDIA

Bridget Hamel was awarded a Yale/ Norfolk residency for summer 2023. This highly competitive international summer program recognizes and fosters rising undergraduate seniors. • Rabeeha Adnan took part in the Karachi Biennale in the Fall of 2022. • Jermaine Ollivierre’s solo exhibition Thy Kingdom Comes Apart was displayed from April 13 through May 20, 2023, at the Automat Collective in VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Theatre students, faculty and alumni at NEA Conference

Philadelphia. His work was featured in Ignite Magazine’s 22–23 edition in the article, “From Adversity He Creates Art.” THEATRE

Nesziah Dennis and Katherine Nguyen and a group of VCUarts alumni took Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates’ “The Conciliation Project” to the National Education Association Conference in Seattle. The cast performed uncle tom: deconstructed for an audience of more than 800 as part of the conference’s opening keynote event, in addition to leading a workshop with the cast and conference participants. • Several VCUarts Theatre students were among the SETC Design Competition

Award Winners: Angela McLean took First Place in Undergraduate Costume Technology for Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni. Sarah Cook took Second Place in Undergraduate Scenic Design for Gross Indecency. Christopher Goode took Second Place in Undergraduate Costume Design for The Importance of Being Earnest. Max Hamme earned an Honorable Mention for Undergraduate Costume Design for The Rivals. Sarah Minor earned an Honorable Mention for Undergraduate Costume Design for Alice in Wonderland. In the Stage Management Games, Carissa Lanstra won Visual Memory, Ellie Chaumont won Line Notes and Breanna Swain won Paper Tech. 69

Alumni News ART EDUCATION

Céline Anderson (M.A. ’23) and Susu Johnson (B.F.A. ’23) earned

VCU’s 2022-2023 Black History in the Making Award. Caitlin Black (M.A. ’23) published “Monumental impact: Honoring the Life & Legacy of Dr. Melanie Buffington” in the Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, vol. 42, no. 1, 15 May 2023 and “Public Art and Engaged Pedagogy: Restorative Practices in the Arts and Education,” as a chapter in Restorative practices in education through art, published by Davis Publications. Black was also awarded the National Art Education Association’s START (Social Theory in Art Research and Teaching) Grant. Dani Gonzalez (B.F.A. ’20) presented “Supporting Student Autonomy With Organization” at the National Art Education Association Annual Conference held in San Antonio, Texas. Hannah Kim Sions (Ph.D. ’19) wrote an article, “Preparing Antiracist Teachers: Reflections on an Antiracist Elementary Methods Curriculum,” which appeared in the journal Art Education. She also wrote “How Do I Belong?: The Space Between Korean and American in Korean American” which appeared in Counternarratives from Asian American Art Educators, published by Routledge in 2023. Luke Meeken (M.A. ’14) made a number of significant publications this year, including: “Glitching Form: Subverting Digital Systems That Capture the Physical World” with Aaron Knochel in Art Education; “Land-based Art Intervention: Disrupting the Settler Colonial Curriculum of Public Parks” (with Michelle Bae Dimitriadis), which appeared in the International Journal of Education Through Art; and “Critical Sensitivity in Digital Place-Craft to Unsettle Settler Sentiments of Place” in Marilyn Zurmuehlen Working Papers in Art Education. Erika Ogier (M.A. 70

’15), who works for Chesterfield County Public Schools in Virginia, was named Chesterfield Elementary Art Teacher of the Year. Faculty and students from the Department of Art Education contributed heavily to the 2023 National Art Education Association Annual Convention, held in San Antonio in April 2023. In addition to the many faculty contributions, the following students and graduates also presented research, published and took part in panel discussions: Jazmine Beatty (M.A. ’22), Caitlin Black (Ph.D. ’23), Fatima Khawaji (Ph.D. ’22), Hannah Sions (Ph.D. ’19), Oscar Keyes (current Ph.D. student) and Jenna Gabriel (Ph.D. ’24). COMMUNICATION ARTS

Austin Anderson (B.F.A. ’13) accepted

a role as lead UX researcher at Square. Lindsi Bellomo (B.F.A. ’11) accepted a role as a graphic designer at U.S. Space Command. Ben Bryant (B.F.A. ’13) accepted a role as a concept designer at Lucasfilm. Elly Call (B.F.A. ’17)

accepted a role as a game writer at Free Range Games. Caroline Davis (B.F.A. ’21) accepted a role as an associate game artist at Light & Wonder. Byron Edge (B.F.A. ’20) was an art director at the Martin Agency and recently accepted a new role as social art director at Dentsu Creative. Erin Forgit (B.F.A. ’19) accepted a role as an asset production assistant at Nickelodeon Animation. Zachary Graves (B.F.A. ’08) accepted a role as an art director at Ubisoft Red Storm Entertainment. Shannon Hood (B.F.A. ’14) accepted a role as a graphic designer at MadCap Software, Inc. Carson Jones (B.F.A. ’15) accepted a role as a concept artist at Virtuos. Mira Ko (B.F.A. ’16) accepted a role as background painter at Nickelodeon Animation. Emily Kopf (B.F.A. ’15) accepted a role as senior art director at Baldwin and Obenauf. A L D (B.F.A. ’17) accepted a role as a product manager at IBM. Ameorry Lou (B.F.A. ’16) accepted a role as a senior character artist at Deviation Games. Caroline Pierpoint (B.F.A. ’14) accepted a role as design lead at IBM. Eric (B.F.A. ’12) accepted a role as P a concept designer at Bungie. Della Sigrest (B.F.A. ’15) accepted a role as product designer at Reddit, Inc. Odette Strider (B.F.A. ’22) accepted a role as an unreal visual effects artist at Future House Studios. Will Sullivan (B.F.A. ’17) accepted a role as a 3D environment artist at Arbitrarily Good Productions. Zhaoyi Wang (B.F.A. ’19) accepted a role as a concept artist at Veno Games, Inc. Anne Marie Wonder (B.F.A. ’11) accepted a role as a senior art director at 72andSunny. Shannon Wright (B.F.A. ’16) is a published author and illustrator of multiple children’s books. CRAFT/MATERIAL STUDIES

Nastassja Swift (B.F.A. ’15), a Painting

Shannon Wright

+ Printmaking graduate who minored in Craft/Material Studies, received several awards: the Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship from Center for Craft, a Cultural Equity Artist Grant from CultureWorks and a Public Art Commission through the City of Richmond Public Arts Commission. Ambrose DeVine (B.F.A. ’22) received a paid internship at the Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Anne Bujold (M.F.A. ’18) joined the faculty of the

Fumi Amano

University of Louisiana at Lafayette as a tenure-track assistant professor. Caitie Sellers (B.F.A. ’07) became the co-owner of Dranfield’s Jewelers in Richmond, Virginia. Kristen Wheatley (B.F.A. ’23) was hired by A-Z West Works near Joshua Tree National Park. In this role, Wheatley will contribute to functional objects that support High Desert Test Sites in a mission to provide experimental arts programming through residencies, workshops, publications, stewardship, exhibitions and events. Paige Morris (M.F.A. ’20) received a 2023 Creative Glass Fellowship from Wheaton Arts. Andy Lowrie (M.F.A. ’20) participated in a two-person exhibition at Iridian Gallery and put up the solo exhibition Fulfillment at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. He also participated in Tender Presence, a traveling exhibition curated by Everett Hoffman and Adam Atkinson. E H (M.F.A. ’18) was a panelist at the Museum of VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Arts and Design, discussing queer identities within the field of jewelry and metalsmithing. This was held in conjunction with NYC Jewelry Week and saw the auditorium filled with international artists and curators. He co-curated several exhibitions, including Tender Presence, a traveling exhibition, and participated in Material Synthesis, a juried exhibition on view during the 2023 East Carolina University Material Topics Symposium. Taylor Zarkades King (M.F.A. ’19), Corey Pemberton (B.F.A. ’12) and Mattie Hinkley (B.F.A. ’20) participated in Tender Presence, the traveling exhibition co-curated by E H (M.F.A. ’18). Emily Kuchenbecker (M.F.A. ’19) joined the sculpture faculty at Colorado College’s Bemis School of Arts. Fumi Amano (M.F.A. ’17) took part in several group exhibitions, including CHOICE at Vashon Center Gallery, Designing Motherhood at the Gates Foundation Discovery Center, Howl at RailSpur in

Seattle, and the Percival Plinth Project at Isthmus Park in Olympia, Washington. They were also commissioned by Open Arts to create an installation for Meta’s Seattle office. Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez (M.F.A. ’16) was an artist-in-residence at Corning Museum of Glass and taught at OxBow School of Art. Emily McBride (B.F.A. ’16) received a $10,000 grant from the American Craft Council’s Emerging Artist Cohort program. Grace Whiteside (B.F.A. ’17) was a featured artist in the third season of the Netflix show Blown Away and was also featured in Vitreous Theater’s The Inflatables: Meet the Cast at the Chrysler Museum of Art. Grace was also included in Corning Museum’s New Glass Review 42. Hannah Shaban (M.F.A. ’19) took part in Coined in the South: 2022, a group Exhibition at Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Magdolene Dykstra’s (M.F.A. ’18) work was included in 71

Alumni News

Dance, which was engaged at the Joyce in New York City in June. FASHION DESIGN + MERCHANDISING

several exhibitions, including Between the Two my Life Flows, and a solo exhibition at A-B Projects in Los Angeles. She also received grants for her work from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Abi Ogle (M.F.A. ’23) showed Barren Landscape at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, and Braille, an exhibition with Kayb Joseph at The Harrison Center in Indianapolis June 3-30, 2023. DANCE + CHOREOGRAPHY

Mikayla Young (B.F.A. ’22) joined

the “Gardens of Clay Project” at the Kennedy Center as an artist intern in August. Casey Gutenberger (B.F.A. ’22) joined the Dallas Black Dance Theater (DBDT) in June as administrative and artistic assistant. Keola Jones (B.F.A. ’22), who joined William & Mary as adjunct faculty in August 2022, earned an apprenticeship with Urban Bush Women Inc. Dance Company and performed UBW’s Give Your Hands to Struggle at the BOLD showing at Wesleyan University in May 2023. Joi Brown (B.F.A. ’22) was a Fulbright semifinalist for her proposed project, “‘She Taught Me’: How Intergenerational Traditions Inform Black Women’s Identity in Barbados.” Based on the connections Brown made while preparing her proposal, she is considering alternative resources to engage her project in the near future. Misha Joao (B.F.A. ’23) held an internship with the LocoMotion Project as part of Performance Ready Avatar One at Gallery 5 in Richmond and was recently hired as the new student and family services administrator at School of Richmond Ballet. Fredrick (Ttendo) Williams (B.F.A. ’23) received a full scholarship to attend Philadanco’s 2023 Summer Skill Enhance Program for Emerging Dance Professionals. Khiana Gilmer (B.F.A. ’24) was accepted into the A.I.M. Summer Intensive in New York City. The mission of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham is to create a body of dance-based work that is galvanized by Black culture and history. Nelson Mejia (B.F.A. ’22) continues to perform and tour internationally with GALLIM 72

India Claiborne (B.F.A. ’22) participated in the Council of Fashion Designers of America Education Initiative Future Fashion Graduate Showcase in September 2022. Alice Babashak (B.A. ’20), who graduated with her degree in fashion design, completed a footwear certificate at Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design and accepted a position as an associate concept modeler at Timberland. Jared Francois (B.A. ’23) accepted a position as assistant merchant at Land’s End. Makeda Martin (B.A. ’14) moved from Calvin Klein to a buyer position at Sandro. Erin McLemore (B.A. ’20) completed graduate school in London and secured a production position at LiveNation. Christopher Pleasant (B.F.A. ’21) was a VCU Blkrunwayfeatured designer in April 2023.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Tara Pairoj-Boriboon (M.F.A. ’18) was hired as a visual designer at Amazon’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Drew Sisk (M.F.A. ’18) was hired as a full-time, tenure-track professor at Clemson University. Huiyu Wang (M.F.A. ’22) joined the Wolff Olins agency as a graphic design intern in their New York office. Chino Amobi (M.F.A. ’19) had a solo booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach in 2022. He gave a performance/lecture at the event, collaborating with Finnish artist Moon Jérin. Amobi also had a solo show through Fitzpatrick Gallery in Paris, France in spring 2022. HH Hiassen (M.F.A. ’22) showed work at the Leslie Lohman Museum (NYC) and with ONE Archives (Los Angeles). Julia Dann (M.F.A. ’20) curated a show at the Anderson this winter, including works by VCUarts M.F.A. alumni Mariah Jones and HH Hiassen and faculty nicole killian and Lauren

India Claiborne

(B.F.A. ’18) was hired as an art director at Hunt, Gather in Austin, Texas. Ivan Witteborg (B.F.A. ’18) was hired as a UX motion designer at Google. Sam Adkins (B.F.A. ’17) was hired as a graphic designer at the Virginia Department of Health in Richmond, Virginia. DeAudrea (Sha) Rich Aguado (B.F.A. ’17) was hired as a visual identity manager and graphic designer at Genworth in Richmond, Virginia. Ren Schwarz (B.F.A. ’17) was hired as a graphic designer at Instrument in Brooklyn, New York. Lauren White (B.F.A. ’17) was hired as a digital consultant and strategist at Repairers of the Breach in Goldsboro, North Carolina. KINETIC IMAGING

Chino Amobi

Thorson. Mariah Jones (M.F.A. ’20) gave a lecture at Brand Bureau in New York titled, “Reality TV and Design Research.” Jones was hired as a visiting faculty member at Virginia Technical University and will continue in that role in the 2023-2024 academic year. Sami Wittwer (B.F.A. ’13) was hired as senior brand designer at Win Brands Group in New York City. Jordan Weaver (B.F.A. ’11) was hired as lead graphic designer at Great Point Studios, New York. Shannon Baker (B.F.A. ’22) joined the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond as exhibitions graphic designer. Nan He (B.F.A. ’22) was hired as UX designer at Florida Disability Access and Awareness Foundation. Jayce Nguyen (B.F.A. ’22) was hired as a graphic designer at Bergdorf Goodman. Quynh Nguyen (B.F.A. ’22) was hired as a fellow at Clinton Global Initiative. Alana Ward (B.F.A. ’22) was hired as a junior production designer at The VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Quarto Group in New York City. Archerd Aparejo (B.F.A. ’21) was hired as graphic designer at Helmut Lang in New York City. Victoria Crouch (B.F.A. ’21) was hired as senior designer at Starch Creative in New Orleans. Nicole Orsolini (B.F.A. ’21) was hired as graphic designer at Berkshire Hathaway in Boston. G H (B.F.A. ’19) was hired as a designer at Coterie in Richmond, Virginia. Cody Hopper (B.F.A. ’19) was hired as front end developer at Happy Cog in New York City. Emma Coté (B.F.A. ’18) was hired as a graphic designer at The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia. Anya Kobayashi (B.F.A. ’18) was hired as a digital designer at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Lucie Mullen (B.F.A. ’18) was hired as a multimedia designer at Coolr in London & Los Angeles. Katrina Navasca (B.F.A. ’18) was hired as a designer at The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. Hope Trujillo

Meaghan Long (B.F.A. ’16) served as chair of the Student Volunteer Committee for Siggraph 2023. Jordan Bruner (B.F.A. ’06) was the VCUarts commencement ceremony keynote speaker in May 2023 and put up her solo painting exhibition at the Black Iris gallery in Richmond, Virginia. Saiara Mashiat (B.F.A. ’22) has accepted a full time assistant editor position at TBWA/Chiat/Day in New York, working with clients such as Nissan. Eric Millikin (M.F.A. ’21) has had a busy year in the gallery world, including shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU; 1708 gallery’s InLight, an outdoor exhibition at Bryan Park in Richmond, Virginia; and ArtPrize, hosted by PO (Art)Box in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Esther Kim (B.F.A. ’22) and Andrew Perrius (B.F.A. ’22) created and performed the LocoMotion Project as part of Ready Avatar One, at Gallery 5 in Richmond, Virginia. Ximena GuerreroZdeinert (B.F.A. ’23) was the recipient of YouFirst fellowship, for which she submitted animation to and attended the Ottawa International Animation Festival during the summer of 2022. She presented her research April 26, 2023, at the VCU Poster Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creativity. PAINTING + PRINTMAKING

Malcolm Peacock’s (B.F.A. ’16) served as visiting faculty at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. Loie Hollowell’s (M.F.A. ’12) first solo museum exhibition in America, Tick Tock Belly Clock, went up at the Manetti Shrem Museum 73

Alumni News in Davis, California, in September 2022. Her work was featured in 52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone at The Aldrich Contemporary Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. In January, she co-curated the exhibition Love Letter at Pace Gallery in New York City. Her work was also featured in the exhibition Earthseed, hosted at White Cube Gallery in Paris. France. Lauren Clay (M.F.A. ’07) presented the solo exhibition Phantom Stair in September at the Roswell Museum in Roswell, New Mexico, where she was a RAIR Artist in Residence for 202122. John Hee Taek Chae’s (M.F.A. ’20) solo exhibition Shed Your Eyes opened at MARCHGallery in New York City in February 2023 and was selected by ArtForum as a “MUST SEE.” His solo exhibition Western Paintings opened at D.D.D.D. Gallery in New York City in September 2022 and he was awarded an Ellis-Beauregard Foundation residency in July 2022. Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo (M.F.A. ’22) was awarded the Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist Fellowship at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque for spring 2023. Their solo exhibition Rituals Here appeared at the Center for Book Arts in New York

City from January 13 through June 24, 2023, and they had an artist talk and workshop titled “these-are-our-toolsforms-of-connectivity” in conjunction with the show. Damien Ding’s (M.F.A. ’21) solo exhibition Private Paintings opened at the Denny Gallery in New York, February 17-March 25, 2023. Ali Kaeini (M.F.A. ’23) was a finalist for the 2022 Trawick Prize. His work was featured in the Trawick finalists’ exhibition at Gallery B in downtown Bethesda, Maryland in fall 2022. Natalia Mejía Murillo (M.F.A. ’23), Ali Kaeini (M.F.A. ’23) and Postmasters Fellow Eleanor Thorp (M.F.A. ’22) were featured in The Sadza Series at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, March 3–April 8, 2023. PHOTOGRAPHY + FILM

Shane Rocheleau (M.F.A. ’07) was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. His photography confronts the endemic position of toxic masculinity and white supremacy within the American experience, and it’s been exhibited in the United States, Spain, Russia, Brazil, Australia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, India and Germany. His photographs have been featured in a wide variety of online and print publications, including Aperture’s The PhotoBook Review, Dear Dave Magazine, The Heavy Collective, Paper Journal and The Washington Post. Cecilia Kim (M.F.A. ’21) accepted a tenure-track

Shane Rocheleau 74

position teaching film and media at the University of Notre Dame, beginning fall 2023. She was a 2023 Wherewithal Research Grantee and won the Trawick Prize 20th Anniversary Emerald Award, which presented her work in a group exhibition of top Trawick Prize winners from the last 20 years. Mireille Heidbreder (M.F.A. ’20) accepted a tenure-track position teaching film at Ithaca College. B (M.F.A. ’18) was appointed a postdoctoral scholar in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico. William Glaser Wilson (M.F.A. ’23) took part in the group show, NOT EVEN HOME WILL BE WITH YOU FOREVER, hosted at the Field Projects Gallery in New York City. His work was also featured in the group show Self Adjacent at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, curated by Sarah Irvin and Dr. Tracy Spencer Stonestreet. Caroline Minchew (M.F.A. ’23) had a solo exhibition titled Vernal at Richmond, Virginia’s Candela Gallery. Amarise Carreras (B.F.A. ’18) relocated to New York City, where she contributed work to New York Now Home at the Photo Triennial at the Museum of the City of New York. She also contributed work to DOMESTICANX, a seven-person exhibition at El Museo del Barrio, in New York City. Her solo exhibition Nene Sin Patria opened at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Deep Pool (B.F.A. ’19) exhibited work at Wave Hill as part of the Community Trust Van Lier Fellow Fellowship in New York City. Nadiya Nacorda (B.F.A. ’14) was named a tenure-track post-doctoral fellow at Wayne State University in Detroit. Billie Clarken’s (B.F.A., ’15) solo show Two Truths and a Lie opened at Number 1 Main Road, in Berlin, Germany. The Reboot, another solo exhibition, appeared at DOCK20 Kunstraum und Sammlung in Lustenau, Austria. Group exhibitions included: Ashes to Lashes, Dust to Lust at Grove Berlin; REALMS at JVDW in Düsseldorf; Father’s Chariot / THE FALL, curated by COUNCIL+ at the von Racknitz + Baer Gallery in Berlin; and CRUSH, hosted at the Grove Collective in Berlin. Fanxi Sun (M.F.A. ’23) showed her work Somewhere In Between at the Kansas City Library South Branch in Kansas City, Kansas, and The Homecoming at the Society for Photographic Education

Combined Caucus Exhibition in the Rotunda Gallery at RMCAD in Denver. She also screened her project Triangle at the East End Film Society by Oakwood Arts in Richmond, Virginia. Another of her projects, Lucid Dreams, was an Official Selection of Student Experimental Film Festival at Binghamton, New York, and an Official Selection of the Los Angeles Asian Film Awards in Los Angeles. SCULPTURE + EXTENDED MEDIA

Manal Shoukair (M.F.A. ’22) was

selected for a Skowhegan Residency. Larissa Garcia (M.F.A. ’21) took part in the SOMA Summer Residency, an intensive three-week residency program for artistic inquiry. Aida Lizalde (M.F.A. ’23) received a Dedalus Foundation Master of Fine Arts Fellowship in Painting and Sculpture, which is awarded annually to final-year students who are graduating from an M.F.A. degree program in the United States. Four fellowships are awarded every year, each carrying a stipend of $15,000. In November 2022, Lizalde’s work appeared alongside that of Painting + Printmaking graduate Natalia Mejía Murillo (M.F.A. ’23) in the two-person show Hard time holding silence at KOIK Contemporary in Mexico City. THEATRE

Josh Marin (B.F.A. ’12) is currently with

the Angelica Company of the National Tour of Hamilton. Tyler Fauntleroy (B.F.A. ’17) joined the Philip Company of the National Tour of Hamilton in the role of John Laurens/Philip Hamilton. Fauntleroy performed in Richmond at the Altria Theater in April. While he was in town, Tyler and other Hamilton team members sat for a Q&A session with current theatre students, moderated by Mikayla Bartholomew (B.F.A. ’17). Joshua Boone (B.F.A. ’10) received notable press coverage for his role in Tyler Perry’s A Jazzman’s Blues. Boone appeared on the Today Show and was recognized with a number of NAACP Image Award Nominations for his role: Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Breakthrough Performance in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture. Curt Miller (B.F.A. ’16) is head of sound on the Broadway premiere of & Juliet, which has VCUarts Studio Magazine // Fall 2023

Curt Miller

received nine Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Sound Design of a Musical, in addition to multiple Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. Jason Butler Harner (B.F.A. ’92) appears in the fifth season of The Handmaid’s Tale, playing Commander MacKenzie and in Season 11 of The Walking Dead as Toby Carlson. Matt Armentrout (B.F.A. ’13) received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Hair and Wig Design on the Broadway production of Paradise Square. Diego Villada (M.F.A. ’08) received a 2023 Emerging Scholar award by Billie Diverse: Clarken Issues in Higher Education, a national publication dedicated to diversity in higher education. Diego teaches at the New College of Florida in Sarasota. Claire Yenson (B.A. ’13) has taken on a new role as casting-director-in-residence for the New York Theatre Workshop. Adam Karavatakis (B.F.A. ’10) is the art director for FX’s American Horror Story: NYC and is one of two art directors on Netflix’s The Watcher. Megan Coatney (B.F.A. ’22) received a Berkeley Repertory Theatre Fellowship position for the 2022-23 season as the development/ fundraising fellow. Caroline Mae Woodson (B.F.A. ’22) received a Berkeley Repertory Theatre Fellowship position for the 2022-23 season as the marketing fellow. Omiyemi (Artisia) Green (M.F.A. ’03) and Corey Roberts (M.F.A. ’06) are the editors of The Black Theatre Review, a biannual online, peer-reviewed journal published by

the Black Theatre Network. Shinji Oh (B.F.A. ’22) spent the summer of 2022 playing Philostrate in the Folger Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Andrea Detwiler (B.F.A. ’93) worked as the speciality creature supervisor on the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi, part of the Star Wars franchise. Addison Michael (B.F.A. ’21) took on a new role at John Kristiansen’s renowned Broadway Custom Costume Shop in New York City. Mikayla Bartholomew (B.F.A. ’17) performed in a leading role in the short film Dear Mama..., which received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding ShortForm (Live Action). Sophia Choi (B.F.A. ’15) was co-costume designer for the Broadway premiere of KPOP, which received a Tony Award nomination for Best Costume Design of a Musical and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Costume Design of a Musical. Theatre Alumni took Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates’ “The Conciliation Project” to the National Education Association Conference in Seattle. The cast performed uncle tom: deconstructed for an audience of more than 800 as part of the conference’s opening keynote event, in addition to leading a workshop with the cast and conference participants. Participating alumni included Paige Smeltzer (B.F.A. ’22), Trevor Lawson (B.F.A. ’21), Trey Hartt (B.F.A. ’08), Joseph Carlson (B.F.A. ’08, M.F.A. ’11) and Jasmine Eileen Coles (B.F.A. ’10). 75

Last Look: From the VCUarts Archives

COURTESY OF VCU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES

School of the Arts students take advantage of fair weather to sketch on the lawn outside of Cabell Library on an unknown date in the 1980s. We want to hear from you! Share photos from your time at VCUarts or your recent news at arts.vcu.edu/alumni/ where-are-you-now.

UPCOMING EVENTS QATAR WEEK VCU welcomes VCUarts Qatar to the Monroe Park campus in Richmond for Qatar Week, an exchange between the VCUarts Richmond and VCUarts Qatar campuses. MONDAY, OCTOBER 9 (ON DISPLAY THROUGH NOVEMBER 1) | 5 PM | THE ANDERSON

Exhibition: Legacy & Horizon, VCUarts Qatar Alumni and Art Foundation Students TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10 | 9:30 AM

Virtual Seminar: Teaching in a Global Context: Collaborations in Art History TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10 | 12 PM | POLLAK BUILDING

Panel: Semester Exchange Dialogue

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 | 2 PM | INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART AT VCU

The 2023 Creative Research Pecha Kucha Series

MUSIC WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 | 7:30 PM | SINGLETON CENTER

Faculty Chamber Recital

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12 | 7:30 PM | SINGLETON CENTER

Guest Artist: Percussionist BIll Shaltis

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 | 3 PM | SINGLETON CENTER

Mary Anne Rennolds Chamber Concert Series: Isidore Quartet (Tickets: $35) THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 | 7 PM | SINGLETON CENTER

Guest Artist: Eastern Boundary Quartet

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 | TIME TBD | SINGLETON CENTER

Fall Choral Classic, featuring high school choirs

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26 | 7:30 PM | SINGLETON CENTER

Jazz Orchestra and Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

DANCE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 | 7:30 PM | VCU DANCE CENTER

Student Salon

NOVEMBER 17–18 | 7:30 PM | GRACE STREET THEATER

Fall Senior Projects

THEATRE OCTOBER 5–8 | 7:30 PM THUR/FRI/SAT | 2 PM SAT | 3 PM SUN | SINGLETON CENTER

Let The Right One In

NOVEMBER 30–DECEMBER 3 | 7:30 PM THUR/FRI/SAT | 2 PM SAT | 3 PM SUN | SINGLETON CENTER

The Imaginary Invalid

For more details and to learn about other upcoming VCUarts events, visit arts.vcu.edu/events or scan the QR code.

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID

Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts 325 North Harrison Street, Suite 201 Box 842519 Richmond, VA 23284-2519

PERMIT NO. RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

ON THE COVER The CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation will begin taking shape this fall on the corner of Belvidere and West Broad streets. The 213,000square-foot facility will combine the School of the Arts and the university’s innovation programs, creating a hub of interdisciplinary collaboration. Read more on Page 26. ILLU S T RA T IO N B Y IS R AEL VAR G AS