Alumni News: Robert Milnes
Robert Milnes (MFA 1974) is a Professor of Art and Dean of the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas in Denton. Prior to this position, he served for over fifteen years as the Director of the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University. He currently is President of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), which is a major accrediting organization.
Faculty News: Haicheng Wang
Art History Assistant Professor Haicheng Wang was elected to the board of the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications in March 2010. On 18 November 2010, he gave a lecture titled “Why is calligraphy the most admired art form in China?” at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Wang has submitted a chapter, “Inscriptions from Zhongshan: Chinese Texts and the Archaeology of Agency,” for a volume entitled Early Writing and Agency in Archaeology that has been peer-reviewed and is set to be published by the University of Colorado Press. He has been contracted to contribute a chapter titled “Writing and the City in Early China” to The Cambridge World History, Volume III: A World with Cities, 4000 BCE – 1200 CE. He will also co-author a section in this volume titled “Comparative Aspects of Cities and Record-Keeping.” In late March 2011, Wang will present his preliminary research on this topic at a conference titled “A World of Cities” being held at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University. On 01 April, he will be a discussant for a panel titled “China and Beyond: Exchange of Material Cultures.” This is part of a joint conference of the Association for Asian Studies and the International Convention of Asia Scholars. Wang is a member of the Simpson Center for the Humanities Society of Scholars for 2010-2011.
Strange Coupling 2011: Couples + Exhibit
The matches have been made! In early February, after a January auction and application process, Strange Coupling paired up the practicing artists and students, and the work has begun to create collaborative pieces for an April exhibit. The couples are:
Monica Mata Gilliam + Max Kraushaar (Photomedia undergraduate)
Susan Parr + Rodrigo Valenzuela (Photomedia MFA student)
Ben Waterman (MFA 2009) + Neil Fryett (Photomedia MFA student)
Nicholas Nyland (BFA 1999) + Joshua Peterson (DXARTS undergraduate)
Klara Glosova + Leanne Grimes (Painting MFA student)
Eli Hansen + Natasha Lozanoff (Photomedia undergraduate)
Sharon Arnold + Stephen Sewell (Photomedia MFA student)
Matt Browning (BFA 2007) + Leif Anderson + Ryan Mortenson (Photomedia undergraduate)
The exhibit will be at Vermillion Gallery, and it will run from 04 April through 23 April. The opening reception will be on 14 April (Capitol Hill Art Walk).
Faculty News: Helen O’Toole
Painting + Drawing Associate Professor Helen O’Toole currently holds the Jack and Grace Pruzan Endowed Faculty Fellowship. She showed recent paintings in a two-person show at Claremorris Gallery in Ireland from 30 July – 14 August 2010. In Seattle, O’Toole is represented by Linda Hodges Gallery.
Alumni News: Benjamin Shown
Benjamin Shown (MFA 2010) created a website based on his thesis “Mighty Maps.” He presented part of a workshop for K-12 teachers and librarians at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association using some of his thesis content. In this joint presentation (with Anastasia Shown, Assistant Director of African Studies at University of Pennsylvania), he described why maps are an ideal medium to promote a social cause and how maps can help students create an effective mental model for understanding and exploring the world around them. Specifically, he described and presented “Mighty Maps” as a design tool that can help students leverage the power of maps in tangible and relevant ways to benefit social good efforts. He also provided educational map resources on his website for everyone’s use after the conference. Shown plans to present at another workshop as part of the 2011 Annual Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies.
Faculty News: Robin Wright
Art History Professor Robin Wright is on sabattical this academic year, working on a variety of projects. She and Katie Bunn-Marcuse (MA 1998, PhD 2007) are completing a book titled In the Spirit of the Ancestors: Reflections on Contemporary Northwest Coast Art, which sprang from a 2007 exhibit at the Burke Museum. Wright continues her research for the Skidegate House Model project, and she is beginning work for her stint as a guest curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery, developing a major exhibition on the work of Charles Edenshaw, a Haida artist who worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That show is scheduled to open in autumn of 2012.
Staff News: Kim Van Someren
Kim Van Someren (MFA 2004) joined the School of Art as staff in 2009. She is a part-time Instructional Technician who works in the areas of printmaking, fibers, and painting/drawing. She also is a practicing artist who regularly shows her work. From 03 March through 02 April 2011, she is participating in a 3-person show titled Contained at Catherine Person Gallery in Seattle.
Faculty News: Dominic Muren
Design Lecturer Dominic Muren last summer presented a paper titled “Education for an Open World: A new Toolbox for Design Students” at the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) Annual International Conference in Portland, Oregon. He received a 2010 aLIVe grant from 4Culture and used the funds to support his pedal-powered sewing machine. He visited farmer’s markets and sewed shopping bags. As featured in the Autumn 2010 School of Art eBlast newsletter, Muren was a TED Global Fellow. The video of his talk at that conference is now available online. That experience led to him being an invited speaker at TEDxRainier in October 2010. His presentation there is also available in an online video. In late September 2010, he participated in two New York gatherings: the first Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire, where he gave a presentation on the main stage. Muren recently was invited to talk at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Because of collaborative work he has done with Inna Alesina, an adjunct faculty member at MICA, they have both been invited to display work created by their students at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in May 2011.
Alumni News: Linda Beaumont
Linda Beaumont (BFA 1974) recently installed a public artwork in the King County Courthouse that honors the late Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng. The piece is titled Standing Tall and combines light, glass, image, and text. It stands at a corner not far from the courthouse entrance so that all will see it. A video that includes interviews with the artist and the current prosecuting attorney is available online. Beaumont has created several other public art pieces over the years that will be familiar to people in the Puget Sound area.
Student News: Hedberg and Bennet
Two seniors in the Industrial Design Program, Erik Hedberg and Zack Bennet, have had their Autumn Quarter 2010 project featured on two blogs. The project was created under the direction of Assistant Professor Sang-gyeun Ahn and designers from Artefact, who posted a description of the class assignment. Hedberg and Bennet’s design, called “Thimble,” received notice by Core77 and Fast Company.
