Welcome to the monthly MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program news blog! This is a regular avenue for the public to learn about the achievements and good work of our alumni, students, and faculty.
FACULTY
Petra Kuppers (MFAIA-WA)is enjoying multiple artist residencies this Winter-Spring, including: Rancho Paradiso near Joshua Tree National Park, California; the Dansbyran Dance Research Studio in Gotenburg, Sweden; exploring disability culture in London, UK; University of Hawaii at Manoa with dance students; Auckland, New Zealand meeting dance artists; A Different Light Company in Christchurch, New Zealand collaborating with actors; and a month at the Bundanon Trust Artist Residency in Australia.
Seitu Jones (MFAIA-WA) recently exhibited “Collard Greens Manifesto,” a parallel journey of his ancestors and the plants he holds dear, at the University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center Gallery. The exhibit’s drawings, paintings, pottery, and living plants compelled viewers to ponder a greener existence and explore creating a manifesto of their own. Seitu also unveiled a new public art work, Alice’s Storyteller Bench, at the Rondo Community Outreach Library in St. Paul, MN, in honor of retired librarian Alice Neve. The bench’s carved symbols reflect the neighborhood’s many cultures (pictured below).
Lan Thao Lam (MFAIA-VT), in her art partnership, Lin + Lam, is part of the recently published anthology, Troubling Borders: An Anthology of Art and Literature by Southeast Asian Women in the Diaspora, edited by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Lan Duong, Mariam B. Lam, and Kathy L. Nguyen. Watch the book trailer below.
Devora Neumark (MFAIA-VT) published a new paper, “Drawn to Beauty: The Practice of House-Beautification as Homemaking amongst the Forcibly Displaced,” in the journal, Housing, Theory and Society. She considers the traumas associated with loss of home, or “domicide,” and ways to overcome that trauma.
Bonnie Schock (MFAIA-WA) was awarded an Intermedia Arts’ Creative Community Leadership Institute Fellowship for 2014. In March of 2013, she also took on the role of program officer at the Minnesota State Arts Board, where she is proud to oversee the largest state-funded, arts grant program in U.S. history.
Michael Sakamoto (MFAIA-WA) will serve as 2014 artist-in-residence at-large for the theater program at Bangkok University, teaching and performing in Thailand and abroad throughout the year.
CURRENT STUDENTS
Ronnie Burrage and his band have several engagements for the release of their new CD, “Heal” (see flyer below). He also has two upcoming Penn State Altoona speaking events: January 21, 4pm – “The Influence of Jazz and Hip Hop on American Culture,” and February 24, 12pm – Keynote Speaker, African American Read In “Jazz and Poetry.”
Jessica Pilmore’s essay “The ‘Unspoken’ Problem in Education,” based on her research on creative independence, community, and self-directed learning, was published in the December 2013 issues of Psychology Today.
Joshua DeMello’s installation, Going Somewhere, with canoe and suitcases of living flora, was a part of the University of Maine at Farmington’s 150th Charter Day celebration alumni exhibition. A second project, Re imagined Topographies, currently on exhibition in Farmington, ME, explores a connective community experience using art and the concept of life and vitality in the wake of destruction (photo below).
Christine Brubaker, one of ten members of Canada’s National Art Centre 2013/14 Acting Ensemble, will be performing in three shows (Tartuffe, Sound of Music and Enron) as well as running workshops in local high schools, workshopping new scripts and connecting with community groups. In March, she heads to the Stratford Festival to assistant direct Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Willi Singleton participated as one of seven international ceramic artists invited to a week-long international ceramics conference in Shigaraki, Japan, which included making objects from the famous local clay, which were exhibited in Gallery Ogoya in Shigaraki.
ALUMNI
Mark O’Maley (MFAIA ’13) designed a video installation, projecting poetry by Verandah Porche, on the front of Bartleby’s Books in Wilmington, VT, for the Winter Solstice.
