Welcome!
The KU School of Fine Arts employs a dynamic, diverse and experienced faculty that contribute to nationally ranked programs.
Among the faculty is a Distinguished Professor, Sequeira Costa, music; and a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Organ, James Higdon.
Eight professors have been selected to receive the W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence: Janet Hamburg, dance, in 2005; Tanya Hartman, art, in 2004; Jack Winerock, piano, in 2003; Paul Laird, musicology, in 2002; John Stephens, voice, in 2001; Walter Clark, musicology, in 2000; Jon Swindell, design, in 1998, and James Higdon, organ, 1997.
Below you can read about the various accomplishments of our KU School of Fine Arts faculty members.
The National Endowment for the Arts announced the "Learning in the Arts"
grant recipients and the Arts at reStart
for Children and Youth, created by design faculty member Linda
Blaha-Kemnitzer, was included. Out of 500 eligible applications 216
projects received funding.
Dr. Michael Davidson, assistant professor of trombone, was the featured guest artist and clinician at Wright State University's Trombone Studio Night (16 April 2008) and gave a master class at WSU the following day.
Patrick Dooley's design for The Prints of Roger Shimomura: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1968-2005, has been awarded Honorable Mention in the books category of the American Association of Museums' 2007 Museum Publications Design Competition. This book has also received an Award of Excellence from the 37th Annual University and College Designer’s Association Design Competition. Over 1,500 print entries were submitted to the competition from which were chosen 156 pieces. Additionally this book received an Award of Excellence from the Kansas City Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts design competition. It was one of 100 pieces selected from a field of over 600 by a panel of “internationally renown” jurors. Dooley is professor of visual communications/graphic design. To view the design, click here.
Steven Spooner, assistant professor of piano, has been selected as a visiting professor at the Liszt Academy in Hungary and will lecture to the doctoral students on a variety of piano topics, as well as give a masterclass, interviews and participate in recruiting. Each year the Academy invites guests to visit and last semester's guest was the distinguished Hungarian pianist Andras Schiff.
Michael Krueger, associate professor of printmaking, has been been invited for a return visit to RISD. On this trip Krueger will give a lecture and work with students on a print. Additionally, Krueger will attend the Southern Graphics Conference @ VCU - Richmond, VA, and will speak on a panel titled - "Sample This: Appropriate Appropriations in Print Media." Professor Krueger has been invited to St. Louis to a printmaking event at the St. Louis Museum of Contemporary Art. This a one day printmaking 'fair' with artists from all over the country. He will be included in an exhibition at the museum curated by Tom Huck.
Linda Blaha-Kemnitzer, KU adjunct lecturer of Foundations, is the director of the Arts at reStart, a program funded by the National Endowment for the Art. The reStart program was featured on page 77 in the NEA's 2006 Annual Report. http://www.nea.gov/about/06Annual/Grants.pdf
David Fedele, assistant professor of flute, has recently performed a Trio Fedele concert at the Ruel Joyce Recital Series at Johnson County Community College, a concert with the Manhattan Sinfonietta at Miller Theater in New York, a chamber music concert at the Kosciusko Foundation in NYC, and a chamber music concert at Vassar College at the Skinner Hall of Music.
Scott Murphy, associate professor of music theory, was chosen by the Torch Chapter of the Mortar Board National Honor Society as one of five KU faculty recipients of the 2007 Outstanding Educator awards. Murphy will be honored at the November 28, 2007 KU basketball game.
Scott Watson, professor of tuba-euphonium, and Michael Davidson, assistant professor of trombone, are members of the Kansas City-based Fountain City Brass Band. The band recently won the 2007 United States Open Brass Band Championship, an event that took place in Chicago on November 10, 2007. The competition featured bands from across the United States as well as from the United Kingdom. Professors Watson and Davidson were also joined by KU graduate student Travis Hendra, a DMA candidate in tuba performance, and a member of the Foundation City Brass Band.
Stephanie Zelnick, assistant professor of clarinet, was recently selected to present master classes and to perform at three of the top universities in Brazil: the University of Brasilia, the University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of Campinas. The concerts and master classes will take place from November 18 through November 25, 2007. Additionally, Zelnick was asked to perform a solo recital at the Southern Clarinet Sympoisum in Mississippi on November 16-18.
Michael Krueger, associate professor of art (printmaking), will exhibit at the TAG Gallery in Nashville in early November. Krueger will also exhibit at his first solo show in New York at the Sunday Gallery, December 15-January 6.
Vince Gnojek, KU professor of saxophone, was chosen as one of eight winners of the 12th annual Phoenix Awards, a project of the Lawrence Arts Commission. The Phoenix Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the arts and recipients will be honored at a ceremony and reception on November 4, 2007, at the Lawrence Arts Center. Gnojek was chosen as a winner in the Performing Arts category.
For more information, you can contact the KU Department of Music & Dance at 785-864-3436.
Joyce Castle, KU professor of voice, is featured on new release Flesh & Stone: Songs of Jake Heggie, a recording of Heggie’s works that includes Statuesque, the song cycle commissioned by the University of Kansas for Castle in 2005. Flesh & Stone can be purchased online by visiting the Classical Action section of the web-store on the Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS web site www.broadwaycares.org or by contacting Americus Records www.americuscd.com. Proceeds from the sale of this CD will wholly benefit Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS, a fundraising program of Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS.
Joyce Castle will perform in Massenet’s Cinderella (Cendrillon), which opens October 27 , 2007 and will be dedicated to the late Beverly Sills. Castle was chosen to moderate the memorial reception that follows the opening night performance.
An arts program by a KU Department of Design lecturer Linda Kemnitzer was recently acknowledged by the Missouri Arts Council to receive funding to develop an arts program for adults at the Homeless Services Center at reStart, a homeless shelter in Kansas City. This funding will be supplied for the next two years. The Homeless Services Center provides counseling and referrals, as well as basic necessities, such as laundry, showers, phones, mailboxes and shelter to chronically homeless adults during the day.
David Neely, KU Symphony Director, was recently awarded the Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor Chair Award. Neely received one of two awards given, and he will receive a career development grant for $2,500. Neely is the new KU Symphony Director and will start his position in the fall of 2007.
So Yeon Park, assistant professor of art, has been involved in the
advancement of the ever-expanding Storytelling and Listening (STL)
Series:2006-2007 public art project. Each STL project seeks to engage
chosen communities in the elements of performance art & storytelling
through the development of a handmade circular bed cover that serves as
the focal point for an interactive storytelling environment. She
recently coordinated the second part of the STL series, with three
organizations, Chameleon Arts and Development, the Office of Homeless
Liaison, and the YWCA (Girl's program) in Kansas City, KS, where she
taps into a community of homeless urban youth in Kansas City. This
performance will be presented on July 16, 2007 at the YWCA theater in KC.
Summer 2007 Park will attend Changdong Art Studio's Artist-In-Residence
program fellowship sponsored by the National Museum of Contemporary Art
in Seoul, South Korea. While in attendance she'll produce the third
part of the STL series, "The Site of Mothers and Daughters".
http://www.artstudio.or.kr/eng/eindex.php/
The following KU design faculty took home awards from the third annual American Institute of Graphic Artists/AIGA Kansas City Design Awards in January of 2007. They were Jeremy Shellhorn, assistant professor of visual communications/graphic design and a KU graduate, Rebecca Tegtmeyer , lecturer in visual communications and a KU graduate, and Richard Varney, associate professor of visual com/illustration.
Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy and associate dean of the School of Fine Arts, gave presentations at two sessions of New Research Findings on Music Education and Learning, an education legislative staff briefing on February 22, 2007.
Michael Krueger, associate professor of printmaking, is curator for an exhibit entitled "I'd Rather be Drawing" on Friday, March 2, 2007, at 6pm at the Dennis Morgan Gallery in Kansas City, MO.
David Vertacnik, associate professor of design/ceramics, will exhibit at the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery with a show titled "Breaking the Mold," January 26 - February 20, 2007. This show is a juried sculpture exhibition featuring work by art and design alumni from Alfred University, Alfred, New York.
Vertacnik will also show work in an exhibit that is part of the upcoming National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference titled "Old Currents / New Blends: A Distillation of Art and Geography" in Louisville, KY. The exhibit is titled "Stardust memories: Fifty Years at Indiana University Bloomington" and features work by various artists who have taught ceramics at IU over the years. The 41st annual conference is March 14 - 17th 2007.
Vertacnik will also have a solo exhibition of selected sculpture produced from 1985-2006 at Indiana State University on March 14, 2007. He is part of the IU's guest artist lecture series titled "Evidence and Residues."
David Fedele, assistant professor of flute, recently performed in the Silver River, an opera-theatre work by composer Bright Sheng. The performance took place at the Power Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Michigan, January 12 and 13, 2007. Fedele performed a 70-minute flute piece from memory while moving around the stage as one of the characters.
Barry Fitzgerald, associate professor of design, was chosen to participate in two international competitions: American Illustration 25 and the Society of Illustrators 49 . These annual illustration competitions attract anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000 entries, and the acceptance rate is about 10%.
Jeremy Shellhorn, assistant professor of design, had a paper accepted for presentation at the National Conference on Civic Engagement.
Shellhorn and Dick Varney, associate professor of design, each had two entries accepted into the the third annual AIGA KC Design Competition; only 25% of the entries were selected.
Mahbub Rashid, associate professor of design, recently had articles published in two leading journals: the Critical Care Nursing Quarterly , and Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design .
"Improvisation," a sculpture by Jon Havener, professor of design, recently was purchased for the collection of Emprise Bank in Wichita.
Mary Anne Jordan, associate professor of design, had a solo exhibition at the University of Nebraska, Robert Hilestad Textile Gallery, in September 2006. In addition, the International Quilt Study Archive (also of the University of Nebraska) added three of her new works to their collection.
Greg Thomas, chair of the Department of Design, presented two papers at the national meeting of the University and College Designers Association.
Tom Huang, assistant professor of design, has been selected as an American Craft Council Searchlight Artist for 2007. Huang also has been selected to be on the Critical Discourse Panel at the Furniture Society's annual conference.
Steve Leisring, assistant professor of music, recently taught a trumpet master class in Helsinki, Finland, for students of the Sibelius Academy of Music. Steve also performed as a soloist at the Latvian Academy of Music.
John Stephens, professor of voice, appeared as a principal artist with the Santa Fe Opera during the summer of 2006.
Chris Johnson, associate dean and professor of music, was re-appointed as co-editor of the research journal for the International Society for Music Education. He also became a commissioner on the International Society for Music Education Research Commission, and was chosen as Chair-Elect of the Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. In January he will be presenting a research paper at the Pompidou Center in Paris.
Joyce Castle, professor of voice, was a principal artist with the Central City Opera this summer, and recently performed Statuesque, the Jake Heggie piece commissioned by KU, with funding from KUCR--both at the Spencer Museum of Art and in concert in Chicago.
Debra Hedden, associate professor of music, accepted the editor's invitation to join the Editorial Committee of the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education . She also was elected to serve a four-year term on the Editorial Committee of the Journal of Music Teacher Education .
Matthew Burke, assistant professor of art, had a solo show entitled "Da Birdies." His sculpture was exhibited during November at the Zone Gallery and Outdoor Sculpture Park in Kansas City.
Dawn Guernsey, chair of the Department of Art, was recently awarded the Astraea Grant for visual artists, and she placed two large-format, mixed-media drawings with the St Louis Museum.
Michael Krueger, associate professor of art, will be a visiting artist at the Rhode Island School of Design in the spring of 2007. Krueger is also currently on the steering committee for the Southern Graphics Council Conference that will be held in Kansas City in March. He will help coordinate events for the conference, and will be the curator for two Kansas City shows in conjunction with the conference: the first, a drawing show at the Dennis Morgan Gallery and the second, a video art show at the Zone Gallery. Krueger will also chair a panel on drawing for the conference.
Most recently, Krueger was invited by Bill North, the curator at the Beach Museum (K-State), to have a solo show at the museum and create a special print for the friends of the museum in April 2007.
Shawn Bitters, assistant professor of art, was recently selected to chair a panel on Art and Spirituality at the 2007 conference of the Southern Graphics Council. Bitters was also selected as a resident at the Vermont Studio Center where he was awarded a fellowship and studio space to conduct creative research last July.
Tanya Hartman, associate professor of art, served as Scholar in Residence at the Trinity Forum Academy near Washington, D.C.
Maria Velasco, associate professor of art, has been awarded a Hall Center Creative Fellowship for the 2007-08 school year. This year's Hall Fellow is Lin Stanionis, associate professor of design.
Gina Westergard, associate professor of metalsmithing/jewelry design and director of graduate studies for the Departments of Art and Design, is exhibiting in "Uncommon Metals - A look at Contemporary Jewelry & Metalwork" at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library Gallery, located at 1008 Wall Street, La Jolla, California, (858) 454-5872,
www.ljathenaeum.org. Exhibition dates are November 11-December 30, 2006.
Click here for a sample of her work.
Larry Mallett, chair of the Department of Music and Dance in KU's School of Fine Arts, was a member of the Commission on Accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) in Chicago, November 13-18, 2006. At the following NASM annual meeting, Dr. Mallett was a presenter at a session entitled "Leadership: Advocacy for Music in the Tenure and Promotion Process" on November 19.
For more information, contact the Dept. of Music and Dance at 785.864.3436.
In a collaboration between the School of Fine Arts and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, three KU School of Fine Arts Department of Art faculty members have their works on display at the Multidisciplinary Research Building (MRB) on KU's Lawrence West Campus through fall 2007.
Yoonmi Nam, assistant professor of art; Matthew Burke, assistant
professor of art; and Shawn Bitters, assistant professor of art, were
selected to display some of their work. Nam presents Bamboo Forest and a
collection of monotypes. Burke will display 5 months and Wedge. Bitter's
works are entitled Cavity and Columnar (click
here for entire story).
To read interviews conducted by the MRB with each of the faculty, click
here: Burke, Nam, Bitters.
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Shawn Bitters, assistant professor of art Cavity and Columnar |
Yoonmi Nam, assistant professor of art Bamboo Forest |
Matthew Burke, assistant professor of art 5 months |
Two articles by Scott Murphy, professor of music, are being published later in 2006. "On Meter in the Rondo of Brahms's Op. 25" is scheduled to be published in Music Analysis. This study explores a particular kind of metrical relationship not only in Brahms's well-known "Gypsy Rondo" from his First Piano Quartet, but also in the composer's entire oeuvre. "A Model of Melodic Expectation in Some Neo-Romantic Music of Penderecki" is due to appear in Perspectives of New Music. This article, the first in this journal to delve into the music of the living Polish master, demonstrates how two constraints on the composer's melodic style generate a model of melodic expectation that bears strong resemblances to tonal models.
Associate Professor of Art Michael Krueger will participate in a group
show at the Sears - Peyton Gallery in New York, NY, from January 5
through March 11, 2006.
Roger Shimomura, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Art, will exhibit a solo show of his recent paintings at the Flomenhaft Gallery, Chelsea, New York City. This exhibition will showcase many large paintings, some of which address issues related to physical stereotypes of Japanese people. Featured in the show is a large mural (8' x 12') entitled "Nikkei Story." This painting depicts the history of three generations of Japanese Americans, using the artist's family history as a metaphor for this experience. This show opens January 26th and runs through March 18, 2006.
Shimomura will also show his recent lithographs in a solo exhibition at the Gertrude Herbert Museum in Augusta, Georgia, from January 26 through March 18, 2006.
Dean, School of Fine Arts
University of Kansas
School of Fine Arts
Murphy Hall
1530 Naismith Drive, Room 446
Lawrence, KS 66045-3102
Telephone: 785-864-3421
Fax: 785-864-5387
E-mail: finearts@ku.edu
Administration Staff
Communications
Fine Arts Advisory Board
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The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts Lawrence, KS 66045 785/864-3421 |
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