College of Arts & Communication at UW-Whitewater

Two of Edgar Allen Poe’s greatest works come alive on the Hicklin Studio Theatre stage with spine tingling retellings by the narrators themselves in Poe, Times Two. In the first story, The Cask of Amontillado, Ethan Wakefield plays the part of Montresor, a Venetian nobleman who is crossed by the man known as Fortunato. Montresor recounts their macabre interactions to a courtroom that decides whether he is guilty or not.

In The Black Cat, Nathan Broege plays the part of Alfred, a self-proclaimed friend of animals. Trapped in a prison cell and documenting his story via quill and paper he explains his misfortunes with one of his favorite pets: a black cat named Pluto.

Poe, Times Two begins on June 27-30 at 7:30pm and runs until the final matinee performance on July 1st at 2pm. Tickets are available at the Greenhill Center box office M-F 9:30 am – 4:00 pm or online at tickets.uww.edu Find out how the stories end from the characters themselves!

Bethany Moran-Handzlik coping a Rubens at the National Gallery in Scotland.

The Ekphrastic and the Copied, an interdisciplinary exhibit in Roberta’s Art Gallery April 24 – May 13, 2017. The exhibit features the           poetry of Professor Patrick Moran and the artwork of Bethann Moran-Handzlik; a pairing of paintings and poems; with the poems de scribing the artwork’s meaning as imagined by the poet. An opening reception takes place on April 24 from noon-2pm. Everyone is invited to come and enjoy some art, poems and mandolin playing with light refreshments.

Ekphrastic means “description” in Greek. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning. A notable example is “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” in which the poet John Keats speculates on the identity of the lovers who appear to dance and play music, simultaneously frozen in time and in perpetual motion.”

Pat Moran and Bethann Moran-Handzlik have created an interdisciplinary exhibit of ephrastic poems and painted copied studies they created while directly observing a select group of works of art.   Current students, alumni, invited faculty and staff are also presenting work. Work is either poems or two dimensional drawings or paintings.  All work is considered “study” both poetic and painted “sketches”.

Copying works of art is a classical method of gaining skills.  Bethann gained permission from varied museums in Europe to paint many of the studies on-sight. Drawings were also made to assist in the development of the work. Pat stood in front of each work and composed an ekphrastic sketch of the work.

The paired ekphrastic and copied sketches provide an audience with a tangible experience of looking at a work in a museum through the lens of a painter and a poet.  This secondary presentation of work is a kind of translation, calling the audience into a new relationship with these works of art.

Pat, the author of 5 books of poetry, including the 2016 Grayson book prize for his book “There Are Things We Live Among”, is able to present a ‘stop and drop’ poetry reading.  Bethann would set up her pochade box that she used when painting in the museums, while informally fielding questions about the work.   Pat is going to read a poem and maybe a student will read one, while Bethann will talk about her museum work, in addition Pat will play his mandolin at the reception. The reception free and is open to the public.

Kiki Smith

Sometimes in life, something BIG happens that makes an indelible impression on your life. Well, something big is happening this March, and you have an opportunity to be part of it.

Internationally recognized artist Kiki Smith is coming to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater March 6-10 as the first resident artist sponsored by the Annette and Dale Schuh Visiting Artist Endowment. She will be presenting a lecture about printmaking on Monday, March 6, 2017, at 7 pm in Young Auditorium and YOU NEED TO BE THERE! This has the potential to be something you reflect on and say — “Wow, I was so lucky to have had a brush with greatness!”

You may not know a lot about Kiki Smith, so do yourself a favor — click on this.  Learn about her in advance, come to the lecture, ask an insightful question at the end of her talk and observe the interaction in the Crossman Gallery all week as she works alongside students to create three new prints. Dan Welden,  the inventor of the solar print and master printer, will assist Smith in creating solar prints. Also working alongside Kiki and Dan will be Professor of printmaking, Max White and several UW-Whitewater students who will also be creating solar prints. This residency will be the first in an ongoing series of iconic art experiences made possible by the Schuh Endowment.

Here is what alumna Annette Schuh said about similar experiences in her college career: “As a 1971 graduate of UW-Whitewater I am very appreciative of my experiences as an art major. One thing that stands out in my memory is the program of visiting artists that existed at that time. Among others, Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, and William T. Wiley visited campus. My professors and these special guests left their imprint, which remains to this day, on my life and work. With the establishment of the Annette and Dale Schuh Visiting Artist Endowment, it is our intent to continue that legacy.

We believe that the Arts are an essential part of a quality life. A civilization is represented and known by its art. Our desire is to inspire, enlighten, broaden and encourage students in the visual arts. We are humbled and grateful we are able to make a contribution of this kind and look forward to seeing the impact it generates.”

UW-Whitewater is thrilled to announce that visiting artists Allison Snowhawk Lee and son Trent Lee will be sharing their talents as silversmiths with UW-Whitewater students and the public on Wednesday, February 8, 2017. This program is funded by Alloy, UW-Whitewater Visiting Artists Fund, College of Arts and Communication, UW- Whitewater Native American Cultural Awareness Association, and Katy’s American Indian Arts.

There will be a free public illustrated lecture by Allison Snowhawk Lee and Trent Lee in the Greenhill Center of the Arts Room 3 starting at noon. This will be followed by a workshop for Advanced Metals Students from 2:00-5:00 pm on February 8th and from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm on February 9th (the Public is welcome to observe) An informal lunch and conversation will also take place from noon-1:30 pm on February 9th. Continue Reading »

Dr. Glenn Hayes isn’t one to toot his own horn, but we will do it for him! On Saturday the 32nd Annual WSMA State Marching Band Championships take place at Perkins Stadium on the UW-Whitewater Campus. During the day’s competition and festivities Dr. Glenn Hayes will be officially inducted into the WSMA Marching Band Hall of Fame. This honor recognizes his contribution to marching band activities in Wisconsin. Glenn not only directs the UW-Whitewater Warhawk Marching Band but has hosted and helped organize the WSMA State Marching Band Competition for decades.

“His dedication and contributions help make this event possible. In addition, Hayes’ love of music, as well as his love of marching, inspires his music students (future music educators) to pass that same passion onto their students throughout the state of Wisconsin.” (Tim Shaid, WSMA executive director)

We applaud Dr. Hayes for this well-deserved honor, thank you for your enthusiasm and dedication to keeping the music alive!

Bill Miller’s work exhibited in Paris and New York!

What a thrill it is to find out that your professor is on the cutting edge of animation and motion capture technology. Not only that but is exhibiting an animated video and presenting the accompanying  paper in Paris, France at the Computer Art Congress 5, October 16-28. Miller’s video “phantoms 2” and the paper titled “Movement Systems from Motion Capture Data”. The Computer Art Congress is an international gathering around art, science, technology, and design. In fourteen years, a community of artists, curators, researchers, scholars, scientists, designers, students, and professionals has contributed to the domain with artworks, papers, round-tables, workshops and exhibitions, exploring questions such as “emerging forms of computer art”, “post-digital art”, and “computer art for all”. 

Following is a link with more information:  
http://www.computer-art-congress.org/index.php/2016/06/07/accepted-papers-and-artworks-for-cac-5/

Kudos Continue for Bill Miller

‘Ways of Something’ curated by Lorna Mills is part of the DREAMLANDS: IMMERSIVE CINEMA AND ART 1905-2016 exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City- October 28, 2016 – February 5, 2017, it is a contemporary remake of John Berger’s BBC documentary, “Ways of Seeing” (1972). Compiled by Lorna Mills, the project consists of one-minute videos by web-based artists who commonly work with 3D rendering, gifs, film remix, webcam performances, and websites to describe the cacophonous conditions of artmaking after the internet. A. Bill Miller is one of the artists included in Episode 4 of ‘Ways of Something’. 

Following is a link with more information: http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/Dreamlands

Congratulations Bill Miller – you make us proud!

The University of Wisconsin- Whitewater’s Department of Art and Design welcomes Kyle Patnaude, sculptor, and metalsmith to campus October 5 – 7, 2016 offering workshops, student critiques to UW-Whitewater metals and jewelry students and a public lecture. Grandchildren’s University and Alloy funded this visiting artist. Patnaude will give a free public lecture on Thursday, October 6, 2016, in the University Center room 275A.

Kyle Patnaude completed his BFA degree in Sculpture from Pratt Institute in 2006. In 2013 he received an MFA in Metalsmithing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Patnaude is a sculptor based in the rich tradition of metalsmithing, combining contemporary sculptural forms with the skill and elegance of precious metalworking. His work explores the political and humanistic qualities of an ever-present “queerness” through coded objects of the mundane.

Artist Statement: Qualities of “queerness,” or what one might call “identity,” is a winding course. In my work, an attempt to look for an inward “queerness” has found the lens to project outward. There is a fine line between me and we, so little in fact that the personal will undoubtedly volte-face back to the world. This contradiction in “identity,” as presented through art and life, shapes the complex and elegant forms of my work. Objects in the external world of public restrooms, city streets and parks, provide for the subtext of distinct themes in their “queerness.”
Yet for all the qualities of an object maker — my obsession with material and a skilled hand– the manner in which I create requires more than that hand. I must engage in collecting and interpreting the intimacies of anthropological, sociological, cultural and personal queer histories. The task at hand is then to uncloak the non-communicability of meaning behind these things into understandable and potent imagery.

Kyle Patnaude’s schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, October 5^– Student Critiques with the artist in the Greenhill Center of the Arts room 2054 -1:00 pm – 6:00 pm.

Thursday, October 6^– Advanced Student Workshops in the Greenhill Center of the Arts room 2054 10:00 am – 4:00 pm (Die forming, cold forging and other advanced techniques)

Thursday, October 6– Public Lecture in the University Center room 275A – 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Friday, October 7^– Advanced Student Workshops in the Greenhill Center of the Arts room 2054 10:00 am – 5:00 pm (Die forming, cold forging and other advanced techniques)

The public lecture on Thursday, October 6 at 6:30 pm in the University Center room 2054 is free and open to the public.

Last week the world received a shock when it was reported that Prince had died. So much talent had left this earth all too soon. Word got around that Barbara Grubel, dance professor and interim associate dean of the CAC and Jay Craggs, student services program manager had worked with Prince before working at UW-Whitewater. Here are the stories:

Barb Grubel, danced At Prince’s nightclub Avenue One in an opening act prior to his show. Here’s the story. She was dancing with a Minneapolis-based dance company when they received word that there was a call for dancers to be in a big show. She auditioned, was cast and danced on stage prior to a Prince show. The choreographer was Donald Byrd, a very notable choreographer. She wore a black sexy outfit with her hair in a high ponytail all frizzed out and danced around on stage as an opening act for a Prince performance! She saw Prince from a distance surrounded by bodyguards and his entourage. This certainly was a brush with greatness! As she said, “We were just fluff on the real dessert!”

Jay Craggs, in the 90’s was involved with an audio electronics start-up called Uptown Technology. The team was creating really innovative new pro audio products for the music industry.  At the time, Jay was a full-time guitarist making a living doing sessions and performing, his role with Uptown was to come up with ideas and to prototype new pro audio devices, and then work with artists and help them understand how cool these new devices were.  The company started out with a prototype opto-switcher that ended up with Sammy Lanas of the BoDeans, Jay etched the first circuit board for that product in his kitchen.  They also did custom tech work for guitarist Adrian Belew, who was at that time playing on the David Bowie  “Sound + Vision” tour.  Other artists started hearing about Uptown Technology and they ended up working with many national acts.  Prince was one of those, along with Living Colour, the Bowie Tour,  Rush, Lou Reed, Paul Pesco, the Tom-Tom club, there were a ton of them! That was incredibly fun and exciting time for Jay Craggs.

Jay worked with Prince showing different approaches to switching, routing, layering, MIDI control, and running parallel audio in guitar systems.  At the time, Prince did some of that, and he had a lot of series stomp boxes in his rig as well.

Jay, unfortunately, did not play with any of Princes’ bands but did play alongside him in the studio working on guitar tones, routing, and switching. When asked what Prince was like when he wasn’t on stage, Jay states, “He was a more private person off stage, compared to his show persona. I think that he was about a foot shorter than I am physically, but he had a larger personal presence that was much more powerful.”

When asked to share a favorite story about this incredible artist Jay shared this: A friend, Gary Brandt, is an outstanding recording engineer who recorded all of the tracks for Prince’s first major album “Prince.”   At the time, Prince was still an unknown artist and Prince’s management had scheduled enough time with Gary to record, but no time for mixing and finishing the project.  Gary did top notch work recording the songs, and the management then requested that Gary also mix the record.  Gary was in demand and already had a very busy schedule and declined to take on the project, which eventually became an important record for Prince and a great mix project to be involved with.   When your schedule is full you have to choose which projects to accept and which to pass on – but it illustrates the fact that you never know what the next “big thing” is going to be!

Prince was really a Big Thing and his influence in the music industry will live on for a long time. It is fun to know that the faculty and staff at UW-Whitewater are just a few degrees of separation from amazing artists.

The Creative Enterprise Symposium 16 coming up this Monday, April 11 will feature in the 2:00 – 3:15 Candid Interviews in UC Room 68 the following creative people: Michael Cesario (hosting the interview) Heidi Lofy (interviewee #1) and Matt Schliesman (interviewee #2).

Now for a little about each of them.

Michael Cesario currently serves as Artistic Director of Drum Corps International.

He is known for his work on Broadway, Television and Repertory stages across the country, including Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, Houston’s Alley Theater, Cleveland’s Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Stratford’s American Shakespeare Theatre, New York’s Playwrights Horizons and Lincoln Center.

He has been a member of the Costume Society of America, the Costume Society of England, United States Institute for Theatre Technology and United Scenic Artists Local 829, where he headed the Examination process, establishing the evaluative leading to certification by this national professional design body.

Respected as an educator, Cesario was honored as Professor Emeritus by New York’s Purchase College where he headed the Graduate Programs in Design and served as Director of Design/Technology for the Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film. He has been a lecturer and teacher at the Julliard School (NYC), School of Visual Arts (NYC), Bennington College (VT), Dartmouth College (NH) and the University of Illinois.

His work has been featured in numerous gallery shows and is prominent in two texts for the training of designers, “The Magic Garment” by Rebecca Cunningham and “Costumer’s Handbook” by Ingham and Covey.

Recognized as a national leader in Pageantry Arts, Cesario is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician for high school bands nationwide. He has also worked as a consultant for the World-Champion Cadets, Phantom Regiment and Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, and he was inducted into the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame in 1996. He is responsible for creating the trademark uniforms of America’s finest bands, drum corps, and color guards through FJM Inc., and he also produced the original DCI Tour of Champions. Michael is a graduate of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Theatre major, Speech minor class of 1971.

Heidi Lofy is the vice president of sales and marketing for the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. She has responsibility for sponsorship, ticketing, group & corporate sales, marketing, public relations, facility rentals and Marcus Center programming. She has bee with the Marcus Center for 12 years. Prior to joining the Marcus Center in 2002, Heidi worked in the technology and banking fields for 18 years. She worked for 16 years at M&I Data Services (which became Metavante/FIS) in software development, sales, PR, advertising, and brand management.

The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts offers the best of cultural and community programming. We are home to the finest performing artists in Wisconsin, including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet Company, Florentine Opera Company, First Stage and Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra plus the host of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration.

Heidi is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater BBA, Management Computer Systems 1981-1985.

Matthew Schliesman – http://entertainingarts.net/projects/ 

Matthew Schliesman is a Nonprofit Arts Executive,  an Arts, Entertainment and Business Consultant, a writer, producer, director, teacher and Theme Park Entertainment Executive.

• Creative work on multiple fronts continues while I have the pleasure of running a charming and historic performing arts center in the warm and memorable community of Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
• Long based in Los Angeles, at the end of 2010, my work brought me back to the state-of-mind-and-being where my roots begin.
• Looking back, I’m pleased with the depth and breadth of my experience.  Looking ahead, the best is yet to come.
• Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre/Directing, Lindenwood College, St. Charles, MO.  1987.   As a graduate assistant, coordinated theater management activities and taught arts administration courses.  Concurrent voice studies with the St. Louis Conservatory of Music.  Published research
• Bachelor of Arts with double major in Theatre (Acting/Directing emphasis) and Communications (Radio/TV emphasis), University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  1978.
• Awarded THE BIG-E Award by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) for the leadership of and service to the association as chair of Entertainment-related professional outreach for their international conferences, 1997-2000.
• Distinguished Alumnus Service Award from the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.  1999.

In addition to the interviews, there will be roundtable discussions facilitated by Michael Cesario, Matthew Schliesman, Heidi Lofy, Janet Rortvedt, James Caldwell, and Amy Arntson. Please join us for a portion of the day. Find the schedule at: www.uww.edu/cac/creative-enterprise-symposium