![Ghana Think Tank Project Wins Public Art Award
The Ghana Think Tank, a collaborative project developed by School
of A+D Professor Christopher Robbins and a group of colleagues,
has been awarded the opportunity to become a mobile workstation
at the 1964 World’s Fair grounds in Queens. Professor Robbins and
his colleagues were among 100 artists who submitted entries to
Open Door, a partnership between the Queens Museum of Art and
Creative Time, a nonprofit that commissions and presents public
arts projects. The guidelines: Propose a piece of public art or a so-
called social-practice-based (participatory) work to take space or to
take place within the culturally diverse half-mile radius of the
Unisphere, that durable symbol of the 1964 World’s Fair.
The Ghana Think Tank was founded in 2006 by Professor Robbins,
John Ewing, and Matey Ondonkor. The group collects problems and
sends them to think tanks in other countries. Once analyzed, the
suggested solutions are put into action in the country where they
originated. Carmen Montoya joined the project in 2009.
This spring, the Ghana Think Tank will set up a mobile workstation
in the old World’s Fair grounds. It will collect problems from the
people of Queens and send them to its expanding network of think
tanks in Ghana, Cuba, El Salvador, Iran, Serbia, Mexico, Sri Lanka,
and the Gaza Strip. The solutions will be put into action back in
Queens where they originated. The project is an attempt to trans-
pose parts of one culture into another, exploring the friction
caused by solutions that are generated in one context and applied
elsewhere, and reveal the hidden assumptions that govern cross-
cultural interactions.
“The Ghana Think Tank: Developing the First World” travelled to
Israel for an exhibition at the Museum of Bat Yam in January 2011.
The project has also been exhibited at the National Museum of
Wales, Eyebeam Atelier, the Foundation for Art and Creative
Technology in Liverpool, and the Westport Art Center. It was one
of three finalists for the 2010 Cartier Award from the Frieze
Foundation.
Christopher Robbins will implement this process at Purchase
College, along with several other public art and community develop-
ment strategies, as part of a course this spring called “The Arts for
Social Change.”
I am pleased to present the winter 2011 edition of Purchase
magazine. I believe the featured article of the magazine,
“Traditions Transitions,” captures the essence of the status of
the campus and is both timely and relevant as we progress
through this new year.
We have had a challenging fall. I announced at Convocation
last September that we expected yet another reduction in
state support; this time, a net reduction of $2.7 million,
representing approximately 15% of our state support. We
anticipated this reduction and had identified key savings in
utilities, operations, and retirements. No sooner had this work
been completed when SUNY announced that the state had
mandated an additional midyear cut. This cut and anticipated
additional reductions place serious pressures on campus
reserves. In response, I have asked administration, staff,
faculty, and students to “Think Wide Open” and to consider
what we might do either to find permanent cuts or to generate new revenue. At all
times, however, my message was clear: our focus has been and will continue to be on
student success. We will not cut in a way that reduces the quality of the education
we offer to our students. Despite the transition to a smaller budget, our historic
commitment to our mission stays secure.
There have been significant transitions in academic affairs. This fall our decanal
restructuring plan was implemented. We welcomed to campus Ken Tabachnick, who
serves as dean of the School of the Arts, while Suzanne Kessler serves as dean of the
School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Seven new faculty members joined our ranks
this year, a realization of part of our hiring plan, which will add 40 new faculty over
the next few years. We do say good-bye to faculty and staff who have retired—many
of whom have been at the college since its inception. They may depart knowing that
despite the changes in the administrative framework, the commitment of the faculty
members to serving the college and its students remains the same.
We begin the year with two active searches, one for a vice president for institutional
advancement and one for a provost. Margaret Sullivan, our vice president for
external affairs and development, left this past year, after 18 years at Purchase. The
change in the title for her successor marks a transition in the definitions of develop-
ment and cultivation of donors and alumni. Provost Damian Fernandez leaves after
three years at Purchase College to become head of school of the Ethical Culture
Fieldston School in New York City. We intend to preserve a sense of continuity and
stability—traditional values—in our search for a new leader of academic affairs.
Our magazine focuses on our faculty and students in a changing world. Please
enjoy the opportunity to read and appreciate the ways in which Purchase contin-
ues to evolve while preserving the mission, values, and standards that have always
defined it.
As always, we appreciate and need your support and value your participation. We
hope that you will advocate on our behalf among other Purchase grads, among
supporters of education, and in Albany.
Yours very truly,
Thomas J. Schwarz
President
Graham Ashton, Brass Performance, and his ensemble, the New York
Chamber Brass, performed the world premiere of “Among the Druids,” a
commissioned piece by Allyson Bellink, Studio Composition, on December
6 in the Conservatory of Music’s Recital Hall.
Joining the Purchase Conservatory of Dance as full-time technical director
is Gregory L. Bain, a legend in the field of stage production. Bain has
worked in performance theater, dance, music, and the visual arts for the
past 30 years in the United States and abroad, including 18 years as pro-
duction director for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.
Silas Brown ’10, visiting artist and lecturer in Studio Production, was the
mastering engineer for an album that won two Grammy Awards. The Verdi
Requiem, conducted by Riccardo Muti won for ”Best Classical Album” and
“Best Choral Performance.” A 16-year veteran of the music industry with
credits on hundreds of recordings,
Brown is the owner of Legacy Sound.
Todd Coolman, head of the Jazz Studies
program at Purchase, and international-
ly recognized jazz artist, is the bassist
on the recording. The late James
Moody’s most recent recording on IPO
records, 4B, received a Grammy Award
in the Best Jazz Instrumental Recording
of the Year category.
Larry Clark and Ted Kivitt, Dance, served as teachers-in-residence for
three weeks in January, as part of the conservatory’s unique degree-
completion arrangement with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in
Singapore. While there, Professors Clark and Kivitt taught dance tech-
nique, conducted an audition for the Purchase degree-completion pro-
gram, and led a master class for the community. They also initiated work
for the NAFA Spring Dance Concert, “Crossings.” Larry Clark is creating
a new modern dance, and Ted Kivitt is reconstructing a classical pas de
deux. Their pieces will be kept in rehearsal by NAFA faculty for the
performances.
Donna Dennis, Sculpture, is one of 18 artists and architects to have
been elected to the National Academy Museum and School in 2010.
Academicians are elected by peer artists and architects who are members
of the academy. Professor Dennis was also recently included in an exhibi-
tion at the CUE Art Foundation in Chelsea, curated by Professor Emeritus
Irving Sandler, Art History/Visual Arts, and Robert Storr, dean of the Yale
University School of Art. Titled, “That Is Then. This Is Now, the exhibit
featured artists who came to the fore in the mid-1970s and who have con-
tinued to produce vital work but, over the years, have disappeared from
the public gaze. Each artist was represented by two works, one from the
1970s and one from today.
Suzanne Farrin, professor and director of the Conservatory of Music,
was awarded a Creative Artist’s Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation's
Bellagio Center, located on Lake Como in Italy. Participants include schol-
ars, scientists, artists, journalists, writers, nongovernmental organization
practitioners, and policymakers from around the world. At the Bellagio
Center, September 7–24, Professor Farrin completed Ma Dentro Dove
[From Deep Within] for Clarinet and Resonating Instrument, based on a
sonnet by the poet Petrarch.
Ryan Homsey, Studio Composition, is the winner of ActorCor’s Second
Annual Interfaith Choral Music Composition Competition for his piece
Ring Out Wild Bells. The 40-voice choir performed the piece in January,
during the fourth annual “Say Yes! Voice of Unity” concert at the
Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City.
PURSUITS/Faculty news notes
Pursuits 1–5
Purchase Links Digital
Technology and
Filmmaking Programs 6–8
Purchase Alumni Set Social
Awareness into Action 9–11
News Briefs 12–14
Roy R. Neuberger:
A Purchase Legacy 15
Traditions Transitions:
Academic Excellence, Creativity,
and the Purchase Experience 16–20
Purchase Writers' Center 21
Alumni in Action 22–28
Annual Fund 29
Tableof Contents
Purchase College Alumni magazine is published
biannually by the Office of External Affairs and
Development, Purchase College, State University
of New York, Purchase, NY 10577-1400
Phone: (914) 251-6046
Fax: (914) 251-6047
Email: alumni@purchase.edu
Editor: Sandy Dylak, director, Publications
Design: Worksight.com
Cover Photograph: Kelly Campbell
info@kellycampbellphoto.com
Inside photography: Kelly Campbell,
Sandy Dylak, Chris Marsigliano, Jared Pereira
[this moment]
in Time
Please visit the college’s website
www.purchase.edu or contact the Alumni
Association by email (alumni@purchase.edu)
for programs and activities that may be
of greatest interest to you.
By Thomas J. Schwarz
PURCHASE | 1
Nelly Van Bommel
John Ewing, Christopher Robbins,
and Carmen Montoya—Ghana Think Tank
Todd Coolman and
James Moody](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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- 1. U.S. Postage paid Non-Profit Org. Permit No. 15 White Plains, NY Purchase College State University of New York 735 Anderson Hill Road Purchase, NY 10577-1400 Address Service Requested Purchase College Alumni Association Board of Directors 2011 Fadi Areifij ’99 Paula Cancro ’79 Audrey Cozzarin ’79, President Emerita Alison Kaplan ’86 Emily O’Leary ’06, Treasurer Mark Patnode ’78, Secretary Jeffrey Putman ’96, President Gorman John Ruggiero ’76, Vice President Morgan Selkirk ’05 Simone Varadian ’05 EX OFFICIO: Thomas J. Schwarz President, Purchase College Carla Weiland-Zaleznak Associate Director of Annual Giving Address Updates If this address is not current, kindly forward correct address information to us at alumni@purchase.edu or (914) 251-6054. Thank you. Purchase College magazine | think wide open winter 2011 PLUS: Traditions Transitions: Celebrating Academic Excellence Creativity Teach for America Taps Purchase Student Announcing: School of Film Media Studies Alumni Set Social Awareness into Action
- 2. Ghana Think Tank Project Wins Public Art Award The Ghana Think Tank, a collaborative project developed by School of A+D Professor Christopher Robbins and a group of colleagues, has been awarded the opportunity to become a mobile workstation at the 1964 World’s Fair grounds in Queens. Professor Robbins and his colleagues were among 100 artists who submitted entries to Open Door, a partnership between the Queens Museum of Art and Creative Time, a nonprofit that commissions and presents public arts projects. The guidelines: Propose a piece of public art or a so- called social-practice-based (participatory) work to take space or to take place within the culturally diverse half-mile radius of the Unisphere, that durable symbol of the 1964 World’s Fair. The Ghana Think Tank was founded in 2006 by Professor Robbins, John Ewing, and Matey Ondonkor. The group collects problems and sends them to think tanks in other countries. Once analyzed, the suggested solutions are put into action in the country where they originated. Carmen Montoya joined the project in 2009. This spring, the Ghana Think Tank will set up a mobile workstation in the old World’s Fair grounds. It will collect problems from the people of Queens and send them to its expanding network of think tanks in Ghana, Cuba, El Salvador, Iran, Serbia, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and the Gaza Strip. The solutions will be put into action back in Queens where they originated. The project is an attempt to trans- pose parts of one culture into another, exploring the friction caused by solutions that are generated in one context and applied elsewhere, and reveal the hidden assumptions that govern cross- cultural interactions. “The Ghana Think Tank: Developing the First World” travelled to Israel for an exhibition at the Museum of Bat Yam in January 2011. The project has also been exhibited at the National Museum of Wales, Eyebeam Atelier, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool, and the Westport Art Center. It was one of three finalists for the 2010 Cartier Award from the Frieze Foundation. Christopher Robbins will implement this process at Purchase College, along with several other public art and community develop- ment strategies, as part of a course this spring called “The Arts for Social Change.” I am pleased to present the winter 2011 edition of Purchase magazine. I believe the featured article of the magazine, “Traditions Transitions,” captures the essence of the status of the campus and is both timely and relevant as we progress through this new year. We have had a challenging fall. I announced at Convocation last September that we expected yet another reduction in state support; this time, a net reduction of $2.7 million, representing approximately 15% of our state support. We anticipated this reduction and had identified key savings in utilities, operations, and retirements. No sooner had this work been completed when SUNY announced that the state had mandated an additional midyear cut. This cut and anticipated additional reductions place serious pressures on campus reserves. In response, I have asked administration, staff, faculty, and students to “Think Wide Open” and to consider what we might do either to find permanent cuts or to generate new revenue. At all times, however, my message was clear: our focus has been and will continue to be on student success. We will not cut in a way that reduces the quality of the education we offer to our students. Despite the transition to a smaller budget, our historic commitment to our mission stays secure. There have been significant transitions in academic affairs. This fall our decanal restructuring plan was implemented. We welcomed to campus Ken Tabachnick, who serves as dean of the School of the Arts, while Suzanne Kessler serves as dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Seven new faculty members joined our ranks this year, a realization of part of our hiring plan, which will add 40 new faculty over the next few years. We do say good-bye to faculty and staff who have retired—many of whom have been at the college since its inception. They may depart knowing that despite the changes in the administrative framework, the commitment of the faculty members to serving the college and its students remains the same. We begin the year with two active searches, one for a vice president for institutional advancement and one for a provost. Margaret Sullivan, our vice president for external affairs and development, left this past year, after 18 years at Purchase. The change in the title for her successor marks a transition in the definitions of develop- ment and cultivation of donors and alumni. Provost Damian Fernandez leaves after three years at Purchase College to become head of school of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. We intend to preserve a sense of continuity and stability—traditional values—in our search for a new leader of academic affairs. Our magazine focuses on our faculty and students in a changing world. Please enjoy the opportunity to read and appreciate the ways in which Purchase contin- ues to evolve while preserving the mission, values, and standards that have always defined it. As always, we appreciate and need your support and value your participation. We hope that you will advocate on our behalf among other Purchase grads, among supporters of education, and in Albany. Yours very truly, Thomas J. Schwarz President Graham Ashton, Brass Performance, and his ensemble, the New York Chamber Brass, performed the world premiere of “Among the Druids,” a commissioned piece by Allyson Bellink, Studio Composition, on December 6 in the Conservatory of Music’s Recital Hall. Joining the Purchase Conservatory of Dance as full-time technical director is Gregory L. Bain, a legend in the field of stage production. Bain has worked in performance theater, dance, music, and the visual arts for the past 30 years in the United States and abroad, including 18 years as pro- duction director for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Silas Brown ’10, visiting artist and lecturer in Studio Production, was the mastering engineer for an album that won two Grammy Awards. The Verdi Requiem, conducted by Riccardo Muti won for ”Best Classical Album” and “Best Choral Performance.” A 16-year veteran of the music industry with credits on hundreds of recordings, Brown is the owner of Legacy Sound. Todd Coolman, head of the Jazz Studies program at Purchase, and international- ly recognized jazz artist, is the bassist on the recording. The late James Moody’s most recent recording on IPO records, 4B, received a Grammy Award in the Best Jazz Instrumental Recording of the Year category. Larry Clark and Ted Kivitt, Dance, served as teachers-in-residence for three weeks in January, as part of the conservatory’s unique degree- completion arrangement with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in Singapore. While there, Professors Clark and Kivitt taught dance tech- nique, conducted an audition for the Purchase degree-completion pro- gram, and led a master class for the community. They also initiated work for the NAFA Spring Dance Concert, “Crossings.” Larry Clark is creating a new modern dance, and Ted Kivitt is reconstructing a classical pas de deux. Their pieces will be kept in rehearsal by NAFA faculty for the performances. Donna Dennis, Sculpture, is one of 18 artists and architects to have been elected to the National Academy Museum and School in 2010. Academicians are elected by peer artists and architects who are members of the academy. Professor Dennis was also recently included in an exhibi- tion at the CUE Art Foundation in Chelsea, curated by Professor Emeritus Irving Sandler, Art History/Visual Arts, and Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art. Titled, “That Is Then. This Is Now, the exhibit featured artists who came to the fore in the mid-1970s and who have con- tinued to produce vital work but, over the years, have disappeared from the public gaze. Each artist was represented by two works, one from the 1970s and one from today. Suzanne Farrin, professor and director of the Conservatory of Music, was awarded a Creative Artist’s Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, located on Lake Como in Italy. Participants include schol- ars, scientists, artists, journalists, writers, nongovernmental organization practitioners, and policymakers from around the world. At the Bellagio Center, September 7–24, Professor Farrin completed Ma Dentro Dove [From Deep Within] for Clarinet and Resonating Instrument, based on a sonnet by the poet Petrarch. Ryan Homsey, Studio Composition, is the winner of ActorCor’s Second Annual Interfaith Choral Music Composition Competition for his piece Ring Out Wild Bells. The 40-voice choir performed the piece in January, during the fourth annual “Say Yes! Voice of Unity” concert at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City. PURSUITS/Faculty news notes Pursuits 1–5 Purchase Links Digital Technology and Filmmaking Programs 6–8 Purchase Alumni Set Social Awareness into Action 9–11 News Briefs 12–14 Roy R. Neuberger: A Purchase Legacy 15 Traditions Transitions: Academic Excellence, Creativity, and the Purchase Experience 16–20 Purchase Writers' Center 21 Alumni in Action 22–28 Annual Fund 29 Tableof Contents Purchase College Alumni magazine is published biannually by the Office of External Affairs and Development, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY 10577-1400 Phone: (914) 251-6046 Fax: (914) 251-6047 Email: alumni@purchase.edu Editor: Sandy Dylak, director, Publications Design: Worksight.com Cover Photograph: Kelly Campbell info@kellycampbellphoto.com Inside photography: Kelly Campbell, Sandy Dylak, Chris Marsigliano, Jared Pereira [this moment] in Time Please visit the college’s website www.purchase.edu or contact the Alumni Association by email (alumni@purchase.edu) for programs and activities that may be of greatest interest to you. By Thomas J. Schwarz PURCHASE | 1 Nelly Van Bommel John Ewing, Christopher Robbins, and Carmen Montoya—Ghana Think Tank Todd Coolman and James Moody
- 3. the 21st-century competencies; how to develop effective dance and music programs and ensure that they are effective in nurturing a love for the arts, as well as positive values; and methods to evaluate the effectiveness of performing arts programs. School of Film and Media Studies Carmen Oquendo-Villar, Media Theory and Film Production, received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. Professor Oquendo-Villar will spend a year in Puerto Rico working on a film in progress. She will also complete a book on Chile’s 1973 coup during her fellowship tenure. The critically acclaimed film Blue Valentine, starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, was produced by Alex Orlovsky (Film), Jamie Patricof, and Lynette Howell. Both Gosling and Williams were nominated for Golden Globe Awards. In addition to Blue Valentine, Alex Orlovsky produced the indie favorite Half Nelson with Ryan Gosling, and three other films that have been selected for the Sundance Festival. School of Liberal Arts Sciences Zehra Arat, Political Science, received the 2010 Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Political Science Association’s Section on Human Rights. The award recognizes Professor Arat’s enormous contribu- tion to the study of human rights. She was honored at the 2010 APSA annual meeting in Washington, DC. Professor Arat was also nominated for the 2010 Soroptimist Ruby Award: For Women Helping Women. This award, given by Soroptimist International of the Americas, acknowledges women who are working to improve the lives of women and girls through their personal or profes- sional activities. Taina Chao, Chemistry, Lee Ehrman, Biology, and Purchase alumni Adrianna Permaul, Rachel Vincent, Lana Sattaur, and Dan Brandt have had a paper, “Male-Specific Cuticular Compounds of the Six Drosophila paulistorum Semispecies: Structural Identification and Mating Effect,” accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Ecology. Permaul, Vincent, and Sattaur are Purchase graduates, and Brandt is a former summer Bridges to Baccalaureate student. Elizabeth Guffey, Art History, was awarded the 2010–12 Leff Senior Faculty Research Award. Professor Guffey will be conducting research and working on a book project, Poster. Recipients of this award receive $5,000 over two years to subsidize expenses. During these two years, the selected faculty member also carries the title of Juanita and Joseph Leff Distinguished Professor. This award is made possible thanks to the gener- osity of Juanita and Joseph Leff. Matthew Immergut, Sociology, was awarded the Jack Shand Research Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion to continue work on his visual ethnography about a Tibetan Buddhist convert commu- nity under the charismatic leadership of Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally. Professor Immergut’s research investigates charismatic authority and the group’s upcoming three-year, three-month, and three- day solitary and silent retreat in the desert of southern Arizona. Laura Kaminsky, Music Composition, was selected for a solo CD on Parma Recordings, supported by a grant from the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center. She has also been commissioned by the Seattle Chamber Music Festival for a July 2011 premiere at Benaroya Hall of Summer Music, a chamber work with digital projections of paintings by Rebecca Allan. Additionally, Professor Kaminsky has been awarded a Met Life Creative Connections grant from Meet the Composer for a yearlong residency in Staten Island with the Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble, for whom she has been commissioned to write a trio for flute, cello, and piano. Other projects include a string orchestra commission for the Lucy Moses School at the Kaufmann Center and a piano concerto for Ursula Oppens and the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, to be premiered in Russia in November 2011. Pete Malinverni, Music, celebrated the release of the Pete Malinverni Trio CD, A Beautiful Thing! in November. The trio performed with special guest Jody Sandhaus at the Music Conservatory of Westchester. The CD received a glowing review in the November issue of All About Jazz. At the invitation of baseball commissioner Bud Selig, Robert Thompson, Arts Management, conducted the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra last fall in a ceremo- ny honoring former Milwaukee Brewers and Braves players. Joining Thompson on stage were Hank Aaron, Rachel Robinson (widow of Jackie Robinson), and legendary announcer Bob Uecker. In November, Professor Thompson and Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield were featured performers at a gala event at the University of Illinois’ Krannert Center. Professor Thompson led the Champaign- Urbana Symphony, with Winfield as host and narrator, in a performance of The Baseball Music Project, a multi- media historical concert cele- brating the nation’s pastime. He is currently completing work on a second book, Rhythms of the Game (Hal Leonard Books, 2011), which explores the relationship between music and baseball, with colleagues David Gluck, Studio Composition, and former New York Yankee Bernie Williams. Carol Walker, Dance, was invited to Singapore by the Ministry of Education to present the keynote speech for the ministry’s February sem- inar/conference, “From Passion to Lasting Influence.” Seminar partici- pants included music and dance teachers, teachers-in-charge, and princi- pals from elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and junior colleges. Professor Walker’s address, “The Passion of the Arts, the Lasting Influence of the Teacher,” focused on the role of performing arts in equipping students with the necessary knowledge, skill, and expertise to succeed in work and life in the 21st century. While in Singapore, Professor Walker also led two days of workshops, addressing key issues for performing arts programs, including: How teachers can better shape their music and dance programs to infuse and incorporate the teaching of PURSUITS/Faculty news notes Paul Kaplan, Art History, presented a lecture, “‘Something American': Slavery, Veronese, Ruskin, and Charles Eliot Norton,” at the M. Victor Leventritt Symposium on “The Image of the Black in Western Art” at Harvard University, in conjunction with the exhibition “Africans in Black and White.” Professor Kaplan is a major contributor to The Image of the Black in Western Art publication project, sponsored by the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, and pub- lished by Harvard University Press. The first five volumes in this series were published under the auspices of the Menil Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s, but the series was never completed. Three of these earlier volumes have now been reissued, two with a new introduction on black Africans in medieval art by Professor Kaplan. Lisa Keller, History, received the Urban History Association’s Best Book prize for 2009 for her book Triumph of Order: Democracy and Public Space PURSUITS/Faculty news notes in New York and London. The hardcover edition was published by Columbia University Press in 2008 and the paperback was published in 2010. The book examines the creation of urban environments where residents work, live, and prosper with minimal disruption in London and New York. Professor Keller also chaired the international conference “Shrinking Cities, Smaller Cities: Modern Crisis or New Path to Prosperity? Is Smaller Really Better?” in September 2010 at Columbia University. Suzanne Kessler, dean, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, cowrote an article recently published in The American Journal of Bioethics, “Why History Matters: Fetal Sex and Intersex.” Anthony Lemieux, Psychology, presented “Turning to Terrorism: Experimental Data from Malaysia” and “The Effect of Priming on Individual Responses to Suicide Terrorism” with Jon Rubin, Film/New Media, at the annual meeting of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism in Washington, DC. Professor Lemieux presented “Terrorism out of Context? Laboratory and Experimental Approaches to Terrorism” at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the International Association for Conflict Management in Boston, MA, as well as a workshop, “Collaborative Online International Course in the Psychology of Terrorism,” with Professor Rubin and Keith Landa, at the SUNY Conference on Instructional Technologies in Plattsburgh, NY. Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts (2009), a book by Elise Lemire, English Literature, was featured in a full-length story in the September/October issue of Humanities magazine, a bimonth- ly review of notable projects published by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Michael Lobel, Art History, published an article in this month’s Artforum magazine about Laurie Simmons and Anne Collier,“Scale Models.” PURCHASE | 3PURCHASE | 2 Online Winter Session: Success for School of Liberal Studies Continuing Education Purchase's first online winter session was a significant achievement for the School of Liberal Studies Continuing Education. For three weeks (January 3–21), 241 students and 14 instructors worked online through the various snowstorms, safe and warm in the loca- tions of their choice. The average class size was 17. Winter ses- sion—a new revenue source that directly benefits the college—is one of many efforts bringing students a step closer to graduation. Of the 241 students in winter Session 2011, 57 percent of the reg- istrants were Purchase College matriculated students; of these 138 students: • 56% were seniors and 25% were juniors • 48% were in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences • 29% were in Liberal Studies • 23% were in the School of the Arts Of the 103 nonmatriculated/visiting students, 80 percent were new to Purchase College. “I want to thank and congratulate the many members of our com- munity who worked to get this new session off the ground and running smoothly,” said Provost Damian Fernandez, who credited the collaboration between faculty and staff in Liberal Studies Continuing Education; the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center; Campus Technology Services; and Enrollment Services. Purchase Professor Is Executive Editor of New Edition of The Encyclopedia of New York City With 5,000 revisions and 800 new entries, The Encyclopedia of New York City brims with data about the titans and scoundrels who built and passed through America’s premier city. It’s been 15 years since the first edition of this best-selling volume appeared. The Big Apple has changed in many ways. The second edition was published by Yale University Press and edited by histo- rian Kenneth T. Jackson of Columbia University, with history professor Lisa Keller serving as executive editor. The new edition helps com- plete the story of New York and has expanded its coverage to appeal to even more people everywhere who love the city and are intrigued by its history. From Air Train to E-ZPass, from September 11, 2001, to Yankee Stadium, the new material spans subjects such as architec- ture, politics, business, sports, and the arts. In addition, all previous entries have been updated to reflect the impact of the past two decades as well as to include more in-depth coverage of subject areas previously underserved. The encyclopedia is considered the one-stop guide to all things New York City. Faculty Achievements Showcased Online This fall, the Office of Academic Affairs at Purchase launched “Recent Faculty Films,” the fourth in a series of online showcases of faculty achievements (www.purchase.edu/departments/ AcademicPrograms/Faculty/RecentFilms.aspx). Theresa McElwaine, director of communications for academic affairs, created these showcases, which now include a total of more than 200 books, recordings, exhibitions, and films featured online. Dave Winfield Professor Robert Thompson The Baseball Music Project
- 4. PURSUITS/Faculty news notes PURCHASE | 5PURCHASE | 4 The second edition of Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives, by Lisa Jean Moore, Sociology, was published (Oxford University Press) in August. Professor Moore was also elected president of a section of the American Sociological Association on the Sociology of the Body. Lorraine Plourde, Anthropology and Media, Society, and the Arts, pre- sented a paper, “Noisy Writing,” at the Association of Japanese Literary Studies Conference at Yale University in October. Professor Plourde pre- sented a second paper, “The Allure of the Avant-Garde in the Department Store Culture of Bubble-Era Japan,” at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in New Orleans in November. Paul Siegel, Psychology, received an $8,000 research grant from the American Psychoanalytic Association to support an MRI study of unconscious reduction of fear. Professor Siegel is conducting the study at New York State Psychiatric Institute—Columbia University Medical Center (NYSPI-CUMC), in collaboration with the director of MRI research and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYSPI-CUMC. Purchase Opera received a first-place award for its world-premiere production of Confession in the National Opera Association’s Chamber Opera Composition Competition. “The award is an extraordinary recognition for the Conservatory of Music,” says Suzanne Farrin, director of the Conservatory of Music, School of the Arts. “The opera was not only a new production, but also a world premiere of a new opera conceived, designed, built, and performed entirely by Purchase College students and faculty.” Confession was conceived and written as a prequel to Puccini’s Suor Angelica by Jacque Trussel, head of Opera Studies at Purchase. “The idea came to me, and, literally, evolved during my daily commutes to Purchase,” says Professor Trussel. Having never written a libretto, he called on Margaret Vignola, his assistant in Opera Studies, to help. With some writing experience, but never having written a libretto, Vignola was hesitant, but she agreed to work with Professor Trussel and complete the task. Raphael Lucas, a classical composition student in the Conservatory of Music, composed the opera. The first-prize award was announced at the National Opera In recognition of the Purchase College Baccalaureate and Beyond Community College Mentoring Program, Dr. John P. Holdren, President Obama’s science and technology advisor and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, presented Professor Joseph Skrivanek with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering on January 28 at a special White House celebration. Supported and administered by the National Science Foundation, the award recognizes the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering—particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in these fields. The Purchase Baccalaureate and Beyond Community College Mentoring Program, founded by Professor Skrivanek in 2000, helps community college students from underrepresented minority groups transfer to four- year colleges and complete their bachelor’s degrees in the sciences. The program was started with an initial grant from the National Institutes of Health Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program, and initially involved three community colleges. It was expanded in 2005 with a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s STEM Talent Expansion Program. Later, Purchase’s mentoring program was adapted and expanded to humanities and social science students with a grant from the PepsiCo Foundation and was then named the “Baccalaureate and Beyond Community College Mentoring Program.” Currently in collaboration with six community colleges, the program provides a full range of academic and other support services for students, including peer mentoring, academic advising, tutoring, employment, internships, cultural and leadership development activities, career planning, and assistance with graduate school admissions. Students selected for the program work closely with faculty and mentors from Purchase College and their community colleges while completing their two-year studies. They then enter Purchase College, or another four-year institution, poised with the knowledge and experience necessary to successfully continue their education. Association’s Chamber Opera Composition Competition, held at its national convention in San Antonio, TX, in January 2011. This bien- nial competition to recognize new compositions of chamber operas received more than 35 new opera compositions submitted by pro- fessional composers and librettists from around the United States. The award includes a fully staged production of the entire work at next year’s convention at the University of Memphis, where hundreds of opera companies, music educators, singers, conductors, and producers will hear the new work. Several have already expressed interest in staging it at their schools and professional companies. The composer, Raphael Lucas, came to Purchase from southern France to pursue an undergraduate degree in composition, and is now a master’s degree student in composition at the Manhattan School of Music. The program has served over 300 students, of whom 60 percent are underrepresented minorities and more than 70 percent of whom have graduated with four-year degrees. Of the science and mathematics students served to date, 83 percent have completed associate degrees (compared to 30 percent nationally) and 71 percent have completed bachelor’s degrees in science fields. A third of the students are pursuing graduate work in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. Purchase’s Baccalaureate and Beyond program has been highlighted by the SUNY system as a model for replication among its other colleges, universities, and community colleges. In November, Professor Skrivanek led an all-day conference in Albany with officials from the SUNY Office of Diversity and Educational Equity and the SUNY provost. Representatives from 11 SUNY community colleges and 12 four-year institutions attended the event. The objective was to develop a plan to replicate and expand the Purchase mentoring program and adapt it to other institutions. When the award was announced, Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher responded, “Once again, SUNY has been acknowledged for its excellence, and I want to thank President Obama and the National Science Foundation for recognizing the exceptional work that is being done at SUNY’s Purchase College. The Baccalaureate and Beyond program is an excellent example of how SUNY’s colleges and universities are nimble, innovative, and effective in their goal to educate. As we work to replicate this successful program throughout our 64-campus system, this award is further proof that SUNY is an integral part of reigniting New York’s economic engine.” “The Baccalaureate and Beyond program has been recognized nationally for its success in increasing retention and graduation rates, particularly among minority students, beyond the current national norm,” noted Purchase College President Thomas J. Schwarz. “It reaffirms our goal as a public college to provide a gateway to a quality education. Its importance becomes even more significant during this challenging economic period and is one of the most compelling reasons for why state funding of the public higher education system should not be compromised. I want to thank Professor Joe Skrivanek for his work and dedication; Suzanne Kessler, dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Ronnie Halperin, chair, School of Natural and Social Sciences; and Lisbeth Wesley-Furke, assistant vice president for external affairs and sponsored research, for support of the program, as well as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and especially our neighbor PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation for their commitment to the success of this significant and important academic initiative. PURSUITS/Faculty news notes (L to R) Dr. John P. Holdren, President Obama’s science and technology advisor and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Dr. Joseph Skrivanek, Purchase College; and Dr. Subra Suresh, director of the National Science Foundation 2010 Chancellor’s Award Recipients The SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence are a recognition of and tribute to faculty and staff members whose expertise and commitment to the college and community set the highest stan- dards. The recipients personify professional excellence and serve as role models for the SUNY community. President Thomas J. Schwarz presented the 2010 Chancellor’s Awards during Convocation exercises in September. Recipients included: • Professor Cassandra Hooper, Printmaking for Excellence in Teaching • William Guerrero, Purchase College Association for Excellence in Professional Service • Anwarul Haque, Library, for Excellence in Classified Service white house honors purchase college “Confession was not only a new production, but also a world premiere of a new opera conceived, designed, built, and performed entirely by Purchase College students and faculty.” PURCHASE OPERA WINS FIRST PRIZE IN NATIONAL COMPETITION Dr. Joseph Skrivanek and President Obama
- 5. vision, on college campuses, and at progressive think tanks in Washington, DC. In 2011, it will be shown on Al Jazeera in the Middle East. He came to Purchase interested in Web design and Web-based pro- gramming. He left a social-issues filmmaker. “Our film has been part of the immigration-policy discussion, and I’m encouraged by that,” says Bruckman. “Studying political sci- ence gave me the inspiration to make my film. And collaborating with those outside of my major gave me a huge amount of insight.” 33The Purchase Connection: Collaboration Collaboration lies at the heart of successful film and digital-media projects. That collaboration, which begins on campus for school projects, often continues after graduation. Anne Kern, assistant professor of cinema studies and coordinator of the cinema studies program, says that collaboration will be enhanced by the new school. In 2010, there were 400 students in the school’s four majors: 152 in new media, 99 in cinema studies, 77 in media, society, and the arts, and 72 in film. “There’s incredible potential for all four majors to share resources, invite speakers, mix more, and collaborate more,” says Kern. “It’s all to the good.” That collaboration has long been the hallmark of the Purchase film pro- gram. Director and screenwriter Hal Hartley ’84, whose independent films have garnered widespread praise, has kept that Purchase con- nection strong throughout his 26 years in the business. His classmate Mike Spiller ’84 shot Hartley’s first film, The Unbelievable Truth. Frank Stubblefield ‘83 collected busted lights and light stands from his commercial work, fixed them up, and lit the film. Spiller shot Hartley’s films through 2001, when he decided to pursue tele- vision projects. His assistant, Sarah Cawley ‘87, then moved up to become director of photography for several Hartley projects. Jeff Pullman ’81, one of the industry’s top production sound mixers, has also worked on a number of Hartley films. “You create a network at school, and you keep coming across Purchase people,” says Pullman. “Film is a word-of-mouth business, so you develop relationships with people who are loyal and work well together, and it can develop into a long-term thing.” When it came time this fall for Hartley to shoot his latest film, he consulted the film program coordinator, Iris Cahn. She recommend- ed Steven Levine ’09, a camera operator, and Aleks Gezentsvey ’08, who is working as his sound editor, for a bittersweet movie about a middle-aged guy who is good at almost everything, but never has personal success. “If I have a new project going on, and I’m shooting it close enough to school, one of the first things I do is call Iris,” says Hartley, who taught a film seminar at Purchase in the spring of 2010 and sits on review panels for student film projects. “I’ve had great success working with Purchase graduates. They are not too obsessed with becoming famous or the supposed sexiness of the film business. They are just well adjusted, and have spent four years in an environ- ment that nurtured them in a good way.” In addition, Arend has completed shooting a feature film, Worst Friends, which he’ll submit to the renowned South by Southwest Film Festival. To finance the effort, which he shot for $15,000 over 10 days in August, he sought funds through Kickstarter.com, an online fundraising tool for artists. In December, he was seeking an additional $6,000 through Kickstarter to finish the film. Once it’s completed, Arend says, it may be distributed through on- demand digital platforms. “I’d love to have it play in a theater, but if it’s up on the on-demand services or Amazon or Time Warner, that would work,” he says. “That’s the way my friends and I are watching stuff. Maybe it’s a better thing than going to the theater.” 33The Crossover Goes Both Ways The interplay of new media and film can have a huge impact today as filmmakers such as Nicholas Bruckman ’06 share their artistic and political visions with the wider world. Bruckman majored in new media, focusing on digital production, while serving for two years as the general manager at PTV, the college’s student-run television channel. He minored in political science, digging into human-rights issues around the world. His twin passions came together in his thesis film, a short documentary about human rights in the Indian state of Kashmir. This fall, he returned from three months in Kashmir, work- ing on a feature narrative film, Valley of Saints, directed by Musa Syeed, whom he met while working on his senior project. Bruckman runs a small production company, People’s Television, Inc., that makes short Web com- mercials for nonprofit organiza- tions and Fortune 500 companies. And he’s also traveling the coun- try with his documentary La Americana, an intimate portrayal of the immigration issue in the U.S. as seen through the eyes of an undocumented immigrant in Queens who journeys to Bolivia to reunite with her daughter. It won the award for best documen- tary in the 2008 New York Latino Film Festival, and has been shown at numerous international film festivals, on broadcast tele- PURCHASE | 6 PURCHASE | 7 By David McKay Wilson of Theatre Arts actors and design-technology people at Purchase whom we make our art with, but we hope to benefit from being in a different world.” That different world—the digital world—has changed life for film- makers such as Ralph Arend ’07, who studied film at Purchase, when the program was within Conservatory of Theatre Arts. He has found great success bridging the analog and digital worlds, both to share his artistic vision and to drum up financing to support his work. In late December, Arend was writing and directing a series pilot for www.machinima.com, an online video entertainment channel that serves the video-gaming community and distributes its content on YouTube. According to Arend, the site’s first series had more than a million views—as many as some television shows might receive. Arend says he’s earning a fee similar to what he’d be earning for writing and directing a television pilot—far better than the $3,000 he was offered to write 15 two-minute videos for an online comedy website soon after he graduated from Purchase. The School of Film and Media Studies was launched this fall, bring- ing together four programs—film production; cinema studies; new media; and media, society, and the arts. “The merger of the four programs encourages the kind of creative, interdisciplinary production that characterizes the cross-media synergy of the communications industries today,” says Michelle Stewart, associate professor of cinema studies and the director of the School of Film and Media Studies. The film B.F.A. program, which is one of the top in the nation for fledgling filmmakers, will remain a Conservatory program, with 20 students each year accepted for the intensive course of study that trains students for the rapidly changing world of moviemaking. With the younger generation of filmmakers now looking to the Internet as an outlet for their creative vision, linking with new media makes sense, says Iris Cahn ’76, coordinator of the film program and associate professor of film. “Our program will benefit from having a home with new media,” says Professor Cahn. “We’ll stay connected with the Conservatory Purchase Links Digital Technology and Filmmaking Programs As media and technology transform our cultural landscape, and the broadcast and entertainment industries converge, Purchase College has created a school to educate a new generation of creative thinkers and savvy practitioners determined to make their mark in the world. A scene shot from Valley of Saints Sound production on Valley of Saints in Kashmir Hal Hartley ’84
- 6. By David McKay Wilson Growing up in Brooklyn, Maria Griffo ’10 says, she had the good fortune to attend top-notch schools where she took advanced classes with studious classmates who respected their teachers. But she also knew of the ugly underside of inner-city public education, with uninterested students, worn- out teachers, and a culture that looked down on good grades. Today, Griffo is teaching sixth-grade mathematics at Treadwell Middle School in Memphis, TN, located in one of the city’s tough- est neighborhoods. She was placed there through Teach for America (TFA), a program that sends idealistic college graduates into underserved communities for two years as they learn the craft of teaching and help boost achievement in struggling inner-city and rural schools. “Math was easy and fun for me, but for some of these kids, it’s a foreign language,” says Griffo, a cinema studies major at Purchase. “So you really have to break it down to the basics. It’s like teaching someone to walk. It comes down to teaching pure problem-solving skills. You see what information you have and what you need to fig- ure out. It’s a general life skill.” Griffo, like many Purchase alumni, is dedicating her professional life to serving the broader community. That service comes in myri- ad forms. In Peru, a sculptor and furniture-maker is teaching indig- enous tribespeople how to use modern woodworking equipment. An opera singer signed up with the U.S. Army and is performing patriotic songs in community venues across the country. A dancer has devoted her postperformance life to raising funds for HIV/ AIDS services. And one Purchase student, stunned by the devasta- tion of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, led a campus-wide campaign to raise awareness and support for Haitian relief efforts. “I came to realize that most students in urban districts didn’t get the experience I had,” recalls Griffo. “And I wanted to figure out how to get kids to love learning. There had to be a way.” Griffo is among several Purchase alumni who have found a foothold in the world of education by working in low-income schools through Teach for America. Ariel Akselrad ’11, a history major, was selected by TFA in November to work at an urban school in Connecticut in the fall of 2011. (See story, page 11.) Jonathan Klein ’96 also taught through TFA at a public charter school in Houston that was part of the national Knowledge Is Power Program. Klein, who worked in marketing for NBC and for the international advertising agency BBDO, says he turned to education as a way to give back to the community. He got his start in community service at Purchase, when he helped bring the AIDS Quilt to campus in an event at the Performing Arts Center. Klein subsequently worked in marketing and communications for three years at Family Services of Westchester before heading off for the corporate world. Opting to change careers restored to him the idealism he felt when he left Purchase in 1996. Klein recalled an article that appeared about him in the Journal News when he was nearing graduation, in which he said he wanted to give back to the community in his professional life. “I’d spent years at CNBC, NBC, and the ad agency, and I found that I wasn’t doing that,” he says. “I felt like I’d lost my calling. I needed to find something that I could be passionate about.” Suzanne Kessler, vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, says these students are follow- ing in the footsteps of some of Purchase’s first students, who came to Purchase in the early 1970s brimming with idealism and pre- pared to make their corner of the world a better place. “We developed a college at that particular moment in history, and it became part of the fabric of the school,” says Kessler. “It’s part of who we are at Purchase.” PURCHASE | 9PURCHASE | 8 33Programs Require Total Immersion That nurturing begins freshman year, when students plunge directly into filmmaking, with each student required to make a complete film in 16mm by year’s end. Come sophomore year, stu- dents make 16 short documentary and narrative films. That experience pro- vides confidence for students such as Caleb Foss ’12, who was one of a four- person team from Purchase to compete in the 2010 Lake Placid Film Festival’s 24-hour film competition, in which teams of college film students go to the Adirondacks with the challenge to create a film in 24 hours. The Purchase team in 2010 also included Darcie Wilder ’12, Shane Sheehy ’12, and Jonathan Robertson ’12. The team from Purchase—composed of sophomores in 2009 and 2010—won both years. The 2010 winner, Purity of Image, which can be viewed at Youtube.com/calebfoss, is a satirical takeoff on an instructional film about photography, with a disturbing twist. “You get to know what your impulses are as a filmmaker in Lake Placid,” says Foss. “You don’t have time to think about the right thing. You have to make a decision right now, and you have to do it right now. It’s stressful, but in a really fun way.” Above: Scenes from “Purity of Image” Above: Himmelstein’s home page Right: Himmelstein's Roarcolour — image drawn with micron pen: scanned in and colored in Illustrator Caleb Foss ’12 Those collaborative skills are crucial in new media as well. Joan Himmelstein ’11 says her years at Purchase have helped her sharp- en her skills in Web design, film, graphic design, and viral market- ing. Her abilities were honed this year in her position as Webmaster for both PTV and Fine Art Magazine, a glossy publication with an engaging Web presence. The rapid evolution of Web technology demands nimble minds and the ability to adapt to changing conditions. Himmelstein is now working with an attor- ney to set up the legal framework for the Web- design business she’ll launch this spring. “We have 22 senior majors, and we’ve really grown together over the past four years,” she says. “We all come together and work together, learn from our faculty and each other. We really feed off our friends and peers.” Joan Himmelstein ’11
- 7. PURCHASE | 11PURCHASE | 10 Ariel Akselrad ’11, selected by Teach for America (TFA) to work at an inner-city school in Connecticut this fall, has long wanted to pursue a career in the classroom; she wants to inspire low-income students who are looking to education as a way out of poverty. She discovered her knack for teaching in New York City, when she took a year off from college to tutor young people then under the supervision of the local probation department. Now she wants to make teaching her career. “Most kids don’t have access to the same educational resources that were available to me,” says Akselrad, who serves as a peer advisor for Purchase freshmen and a learning assistant for an introductory history class. “I feel strongly about working to end educational inequality. And Teach for America is a good way for me to get my start.” A history major at Purchase, Akselrad will be among an estimated 4,500 first-year teachers selected by TFA during the 2010–11 school year. Teach for America, which was founded in 1990, brings college graduates and midcareer professionals to underserved schools in 39 inner cities and rural communities, where, over two years, they learn to teach while helping educate mostly low-income students. TFA corps members receive intensive training during the summer before heading off to the classroom. In some regions, corps members earn master’s degrees in education during their two-year TFA commit- ment. In the 2009–10 school year, the program chose some 4,500 teachers from 46,000 applicants, said TFA spokesperson Kaitlin Gastrock. Among those selected that year, about 81 percent were graduating college seniors, 14 percent were professionals switching careers, and 5 percent came from graduate schools. TFA has a good track record for retaining teachers after their first year, traditionally the toughest year for fledgling educators. About 92 percent of TFA teachers return for a second year, compared to 83 percent of those who come from university education programs, Gastrock said. An estimated two- thirds of the 20,000 TFA alumni have continued to work in the field of education. “TFA has a proven record of success,” says Akselrad. “And it’s not like I’m going to teach for a year or two and it’s over.” Akselrad is slated to teach in one of Connecticut’s urban secondary schools, where the achievement gap between suburban and city schools remains large. She majored in history, so she’s hoping to teach social studies. “I feel I can make the greatest impact teaching kids who wouldn’t get into college if not for good teachers coming to help,” she says. Akselrad, who grew up in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, attend- ed private school through 11th grade. Her mother taught drama and produced children’s musicals, providing a glimpse into how adults can have a powerful influence on young hearts and minds. By the end of her junior year in high school, Akselrad grew disillusioned; she earned her high school equivalency diploma by passing the GED exam, and the next year enrolled in Simon’s Rock College in Great Barrington, MA, to start her postsecondary education a year early. After a semester at Simon’s Rock, she taught low-income teens in New York City through the Ivy Consulting Group, tutoring young adults convicted of crimes who were under the supervision of the city’s Department of Probation. The students, ages 18 to 22, were studying to earn GED diplomas as an alternative to incarceration. “If they didn’t meet the requirements, they had to serve time,” recalls Akselrad. “It was very eye-opening.” Before she heads to TFA’s six-week training program this summer, she has her senior year to complete at Purchase. Akselrad, president of the Purchase History Club, plans to build on the club’s success earlier this year, which included a well-attended trip to Washington Irving’s home, Sunnyside, in Irvington, and the screening of HBO’s acclaimed miniseries John Adams. This spring, the club plans to screen the Russell Crowe film Master and Commander and discuss the movie’s blurring of fact and fiction. “There are great lessons to be learned from history, and there’s so much we can learn from great historical figures,” she says. “Plus I find that history is lots of fun.” PURCHASE SENIOR PREPARES TO TEACH FOR AMERICA and grant-making organizations. In 2010, Hurlin’s group raised $4.1 million, with dancers standing with buckets for donations at the end of performances, and at the 17th annual Fire Island Dance Festival, at which dancers and top companies donated their time for the cause. DRA held a fundraising event at Purchase in February, called Stars of Tomorrow, Giving Back Today, in which students from 15 local dance schools performed. “It’s important to think outside yourself,” Hurlin says. “So many times when you are a performer, you need to concentrate on your work, your art, your craft. It’s empowering and joyful to come together and say, ‘We are going to use our craft for somebody else.’ It’s a powerful thing.” A Helping Hand for Haiti That spirit was alive on campus in 2010 following the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January. Francisco Donoso ’11, who grew up in Miami with friends who had fami- lies in Haiti, sprang to action, orga- nizing a campuswide campaign that raised about $4,000 for Haiti relief. “It wasn’t a question if I would do something,” recalls Donoso. “It was just what I was going to do, and when.” Donoso, a painting and drawing major in the School of Art+Design, called a meeting in the commuter lounge and more than 100 students turned out. Donoso put together a team that designed a logo and t-shirt, held a benefit concert, and offered workshops to raise aware- ness of Haiti’s cultural richness and its deep-seated development issues. Students also sold artwork for the Haiti relief project. “It consumed my entire semester,” says Donoso. “We never ques- tioned why we did it. It was something we were supposed to do.” She’s in the Army Now Staff Sgt. Rachel Rose Farber ’08 never dreamed of joining the U.S. mil- itary when she graduated from Purchase. Farber, an aspiring opera student who studied in the Conservatory of Music, headed for Europe after graduation, thinking she’d land a job singing on the Continent. She went to several audi- tions, but nothing came through. She found work playing violin in a rock band, living hand to mouth, unsure where her life was heading. Then she saw an advertisement in a classical music magazine for the U.S. Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus. The unit was looking for a soprano. The army flew her to Washington, DC, for the audition, and her bandleaders liked her. She was hired, pending completion of basic training with other army grunts at Fort Jackson, SC. “There were tons of push-ups and waking up at 4 a.m.,” says Farber. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Today, she sings in the 29-member chorus and plays fiddle with the army band. During the holiday season, Farber says, the chorus per- formed frequently in high school gyms and local theaters. The unit played with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in August, and at a performance at Washington’s Ford Theater, she found herself on stage next to President Obama. “We go to the grassroots, and we play patriotic music to lift the American spirit,” says Farber. “When we played to veterans on Veterans Day, they were so happy we were there. It feels good to give my gift of music to the American public.” Helping Peruvian Woodworkers While Farber is sharing her music through the U.S. Army, Andy Jack ’08 has traveled to the far reaches of the Pasco region in central Peru to share his woodworking skills with indigenous artisans. Jack, who majored in three-dimensional media in Purchase’s sculpture program, learned about the opportunity at a conference of the Furniture Society, where he met the founder of GreenWood, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable forest manage- ment by training woodworkers to produce high-quality products. Better products fetch higher prices in the marketplace, providing incentives to better manage the forest, instead of clear-cutting the land in the Amazon basin for cash crops such as soybeans. Jack was in the Pasco region for six weeks this past summer, staying in a community with no running water or electricity. He conducted demonstrations to show the Yanesha artisans how to sharpen a woodworking machine they’d obtained but hadn’t learned how to maintain. He came with a foot-powered grinding tool that helped tune up the woodworking implements. The artisans there make bowls and platters from scraps of the hardwood cut down in log- ging operations. “It’s a very small contribution I can make to protect the natural resources we have,” says Jack, who plans to return to Peru with GreenWood in 2011. “You get a good feeling working with people of another culture, and it’s an intense thing to experience and understand how these people are living with very little.” Dancers Responding to AIDS For Denise Roberts Hurlin ’84, her commitment to community ser- vice developed out of her work in the performing arts. After gradu- ation, Hurlin danced her way to the top echelons of the modern- dance world as a member of the Parsons Dance Company, and later, the Paul Taylor Dance Company. By the early 1990s, the dance com- munity was hit hard by the burgeoning AIDS/HIV epidemic. At the time, two Paul Taylor dancers had been stricken with the ill- ness. They needed care and support as the disease ravaged their once-strong bodies. So Hurlin teamed with fellow Taylor dancer Hernando Cortez ’85 to found Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA), a nonprofit that raises money to support organizations that pro- vide services to people afflicted with the disease. DRA became a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, one of the nation’s leading industry-based nonprofit AIDS fundraising Rachel Rose Farber Andy Jack Ariel Akselrad Denise Roberts Hurlin Photo by Kelly Campbell
- 8. NewsBriefs PURCHASE | 12 NewsBriefs PURCHASE | 13 Madison Square Garden—included headliners such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Michael Bublé. “It’s difficult juggling school and everything with the band,” Brian admits, “but we manage to stay on top of it.” Travis, a freshman at CUNY Baruch, plays guitar and piano, and Jeffrey, a junior at Croton Harmon High School, also plays piano. The three share the vocals. Their YouTube channel, originally made to keep in touch with family members and with kids from a summer camp where they worked, now has over 1.1 million hits and more than 13,000 channel subscribers from around the world. Purchase alumni at Sundance Director and screenwriter Azazel Jacobs (Momma’s Man) returned to the Sundance Film Festival in January with Terri, a tale that speaks to every- one who has ever felt insecure or misunderstood. Orphaned and left in the care of an uncle who is ailing, mercilessly teased by his peers and roundly ignored by his teachers, Terri is alienated and alone. When the dreaded vice principal sees something of himself in Terri, they establish a friendship that opens Terri up to the possibility that life is not something to be endured, but something to be shared, and even enjoyed. The Pact, a film by director and screenwriter Nicholas McCarthy, was one of 24 U.S. Narrative Short Films at the festival. McCarthy calls it a quiet horror story told in 11 minutes. As a woman struggles to come to grips with her past in the wake of her moth- er’s death, an unsettling presence emerges. Focus on French Cinema Focus on French Cinema is celebrating its seventh anniversary at Purchase as it presents a weekend of French films with international scope. The popular event is dedicated to creating an awareness of French cinema and is presented by the Alliance Française of Greenwich in partnership with Purchase College. A preliminary schedule calls for the first American screening of such films as Copacabana, starring Isabelle Huppert, and Chicas, written and directed by internationally acclaimed playwright Yasmina Reza. For information, visit www.focusonfrenchcinema.com. on the scene at golden globe and academy awards Former Purchase student Melissa Leo received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Fighter. The film stars Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg. Leo won a Golden Globe for her supporting role in The Fighter at this year's award ceremony. The Black Swan, which had many scenes filmed at the Performing Arts Center, received numerous Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Natalie Portman for Best Actress, and Darren Aronofsky for Best Director. Michelle Williams received a Best Actress nomination for her role in Blue Valentine, which was coproduced by Purchase professor Alex Orlovsky. Purchase alum William Sarokin also received an Oscar nomination for sound mixing for the film Salt, starring Angelina Jolie. Joseph to campus to work with the production and with the dramatic- writing students. “I am extremely honored and excited by this. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the production we did at Purchase a few years back. What a helpful and crucial moment in the development of my play. Thanks for that,” says Rajiv Joseph. Macy’s Holiday window designs by Purchase alumni It’s a big event when Macy’s unveils its Christmas windows each year in Herald Square and at several other stores nationwide. In 2010, it was a huge event for a group of Purchase alums, who designed the most animated and theatrical holiday windows ever for “America’s Largest Department Store.” Purchase graduate Jessica Malone ’06 is the owner and creative director of Spark Group, and served as director of design for the Macy’s windows. Her compa- ny is a newly launched event and live production company, special- izing in design and production. In February it was recommended by Troy Atkinson, a project manager at PRG Scenic Technologies, to Paul Olszewski, director of windows for Macy’s. After reviewing the theme of this year’s windows, Spark Group pitched the concept of exqui- site craftsmanship merged with cutting-edge technology and was chosen to design the windows. THE AUTISTIC MIND, MUSIC, AND THE BRAIN SYMPOSIUM Purchase College’s School of Natural and Social Sciences and the Conservatory of Music will present “The Autistic Mind, Music, and the Brain” on March 22 at the Performing Arts Center. The symposium will explore opportunities for applying recent research to enhance cognitive functioning through music. Speakers will include: Nina Kraus, professor of neurobiology (keynote speaker), Northwestern University; Meagan Curtis, assistant professor of psychology, Purchase College; Celine Saulnier, clinical director, Autism Program, Yale Child Study Center. For more information, please visit: www.purchase.edu/MusicAndTheBrain. Purchase Student Brian Crowley Wins Z100 Jingle Ball Contest For Media, Society, and the Arts major Brian Crowley ’12, the holiday sea- son shone with limelight. Crowley and his brothers, Travis and Jeffrey, have a pop band, post videos on YouTube, and have a large following all over the world. At the urging of a friend, they entered the “Hometown Hero” contest sponsored by New York City radio station Z100—and won. As winners, they performed live on stage at the Jingle Ball’s All Access Lounge preshow concerts at the Hammerstein Ballroom, and got to walk the red carpet alongside some of the concert headliners on December 10. The main event—the Jingle Ball at (L to R) Jeffrey Crowley, Travis Crowley, and Brian Crowley of the Crowley Brothers attend Z100’s Jingle Ball 2010 on December 10, 2010, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. PhotobyJasonKempin/GettyImages Melissa Leo Azazel Jacobs ing dance moves, and a lingering sense of loss at Danspace Project.” Kayvon Pourazar won for his performance of Sarah Michelson’s Dover Beach at the Kitchen in New York City. He was honored “for the fierce individuality of his sensual, grounded presence; for his ability to move through space with knife-slicing precision combined with a tender, fluid physicality; and for fully embodying the choreographic sensibilities of the artists he dances with, most notably in the works of John Jasperse and Yasuko Yokoshi.” Purchase Freshman Attends White House Award Ceremony Purchase freshman Rayhan Islam attended a special White House event in October, as a representative of the Global Action Project (G.A.P.)—a program he partici- pated in during high school. G.A.P. is an after-school/out- of-school project whose mis- sion is to “help young people most affected by injustice to build the knowledge, tools, and relationships needed to create media for community power, cultural expression, and political change.” Hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama, honorary chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the event celebrated the pre- sentation of the National Arts Humanities Youth Program Awards. “These outstanding programs are expanding horizons, changing lives, and helping young people fulfill their dreams—across America and around the world. Each of these programs is using achievement in the arts and humanities as a bridge to achievement in life,” remarked Ms. Obama. Islam, a G.A.P. leader and alum from Queens, coproduced several award- winning G.A.P. videos. He was honored to be invited to participate in the ceremony and says he loved working with the Global Action Project. “I have been to a lot of screenings and events as a filmmaker with G.A.P., but this really is the next level. Going to the White House as I start college is incredible,” he says. “It tells me that the work we are doing is making an impact and gets me even more excited about my future.” Purchase Did it First: Performed Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, soon to star Robin Williams in his Broadway debut, was originally performed by actors from the Purchase Repertory Theatre in 2006, while the play was in development. It was a collaboration arranged by Professor David Bassuck, artistic director of the Purchase Repertory Theatre at the time, and the Lark Play Development Center. The project benefited Lark Theatre Company, because Purchase helped a playwright develop a new script; and Purchase benefited, because stu- dents had an opportunity to work on a new play in the repertory training program. The project was developed with an all-student cast and an all- student design and production team. Guest director Giovanna Sardelli was recommended by the author, and Purchase brought playwright Rajiv GRANT AWARDED TO UPDATE BIOLOGY LAB The National Science Foundation awarded a $378,489 grant to the college to upgrade its molecular and cellular biology lab. Thanks to Prof. Jim Daly, the principal investigator, and the other members of the biology faculty who worked on the grant application, this will be the first upgrade of the lab since 1976, when the natural sciences building opened. The lab consists of a suite of three rooms, which will be outfitted with laboratory equipment, benches, and computer hookups to create 11 research stations. Suny approves B.A. in Theatre and Performance The State University of New York and the New York State Education Department recently approved a bachelor of arts degree (B.A.) in theatre and performance at Purchase College. Developed by the drama studies faculty, and approved last May by the Educational Policies Committee, the program is designed for the intellectually curious and creative stu- dent whose interests, while including traditional drama, extend to mak- ing new and cutting-edge theatrical and interdisciplinary work. It repre- sents both a title change and a curricular revision of the existing B.A. in drama studies, and will take effect in the fall of 2011. Purchase in Princeton Review’s Best 373 Colleges, 2011 Edition According to the Princeton Review, Purchase College is considered one of the best institu- tions for undergraduate education in the country. It is also ranked as one of the best 218 institutions recommended in the Princeton Review’s “Best in the Northeast” feature on its website. The education services company features Purchase in the 2011 edition of its annual college guide, the Best 373 Colleges. Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four year-colleges and two Canadian colleges are profiled in the Princeton Review’s flagship college guide. Its lists are based on an 80-question survey given to 122,000 students attending the colleges in the book, rather than on the Princeton Review’s opinion of the schools. Students rate their own schools in various areas and report on their campus experiences. Purchase Joins Association of Arts Administration Educators Purchase has been granted full membership in the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE); it is among only 17 undergraduate programs in the nation with this distinction. The AAAE represents collegiate graduate and undergraduate programs in arts administration. Since its founding in 1975, it has provided a forum for communication among its members and has advocated for formal training and high education standards for arts administrators. The organization reflects the continued burgeoning interest in arts management careers on the part of students throughout the country. Conservatory of Dance Graduates Receive Bessie Awards Kyle Abraham ’00 and Kayvon Pourazar ’00 each received 2010 Bessie Awards. Officially known as the New York Dance and Performance Awards, Bessiesare the Oscars of the dance world and honor exceptional and innovative achievement in choreography, visual design, and other areas of dance and performance. Kyle Abraham won for his choreography of The Radio Show, which was performed in February 2010 at Danspace Project in New York City. According to the Bessie Award Committee, Abraham was honored “for daring to mix stuff thought not to be mixable in a work that asked ques- tions about communication and community, using humor, lush and strik- Kyle Abraham Kayvon Pourazar Above: First Lady Michelle Obama with Rayhan Islam (C) and Meghan McDermott of Global Action Project, Inc. [UPI/Kevin Dietsch Photo via Newscom]
- 9. NewsBriefs PURCHASE | 14 PURCHASE | 15 he Purchase College family lost a dear member in December with the passing of Roy R. Neuberger, founding patron of the Neuberger Museum of Art. Mr. Neuberger’s involvement with Purchase College dates back to its inception. Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s vision of this SUNY arts flagship hinged upon the creation of two orga- nizations where students and faculty of all disciplines could be touched and inspired by the creative arts—a performing arts center and an art museum, both of distinguished repute. Dr. Abbott Kaplan, Purchase College’s first president, once remarked, “There is real opportunity for intellectual stimulus and cross- exposure. We hope both the artists and the liberal arts students will learn by exposure to each other.” It was over lunch on a sunny day in May 1967 at Nelson Rockefeller’s home in Pocantico that the governor piqued Mr. Neuberger’s interest in Purchase College, promising that the State of New York would build a museum bearing his name in exchange for a substantial part of his collection. According to Mr. Neuberger, “Nelson made the campus sound so exciting and was so convincing that I said ‘yes.’” By the late 1960s, Roy R. Neuberger had amassed a remarkable col- lection of contemporary art by artists working mainly in the United States. Mr. Neuberger seized upon his guiding principle as a collec- tor—to support living artists by purchasing their works—in Paris in 1928 after reading a biography of the painter Vincent van Gogh, who died in poverty. As Mr. Neuberger observed in his 2003 auto- biography, “When my ship docked in New York in March 1929…I was fired by enthusiasm for art. But to become a collector, I had to earn money.” He began working on Wall Street in 1929, survived the crash better than most, and, ten years later, founded the asset management firm Neuberger Berman. Mr. Neuberger prided himself on never selling the works that he purchased. Rather, he donated hundreds of paintings to small and large museums across the country. During the 1960s, several muse- um directors and universities approached Mr. Neuberger about donating his collection, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York University, and the National Gallery in Washington. During that period, he also received an anonymous bid of $5 million for his entire collection. Many years later Mr. Neuberger learned the anonymous bidder had been Nelson Rockefeller. An initial gift numbering 300 works of art in September 1969 established the core collection of the Neuberger Museum, which opened to the public in May 1974. Mr. Neuberger refused the posi- tion of chair of the board, citing that he did not wish to be involved in the governance of the museum, where he might “excessively cast influence.” He did, however, serve the college as chair of the Purchase College Foundation for many years. In 1984, Purchase College was again the recipient of Mr. Neuberger’s largesse. At the time, his donation of $1.3 million dol- lars was the largest gift to SUNY received to date and founded the Roy R. Neuberger Endowment Fund. Regarding corporate obligation to educational institutions, his ardent feelings were clearly apparent when he stated in 1984, “It’s in their interest to back up these entities, and I can’t think of any- thing more important than our educational and cultural institu- tions.” He added, “I also feel that if I can give any one message to the gen- eral public it is that they should participate in things that are good for the general good. They will get repayment of a certain kind that you can’t get from making money or something else. As Emerson said, the giver receives more than the recipient.” As a businessman, an art collector, and a philanthropist, Roy R. Neuberger was a pioneer. Purchase College will remember him for the ideals he embraced of the arts as the embodiment of our shared aspirations for a better world. His legacy will live on here at the Neuberger Museum of Art and in the hearts of all whom he touched with his kindness, his stories, his wisdom and wit. 1. Will Barnet Portrait of RRN, 1966-67 Oil on canvas 53 1/2 x 42 1/2 inches Collection Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art Purchase College, State University of New York Gift of Roy R. Neuberger Photo: Jim Frank 2. Peter Fink Portrait of Roy R. Neuberger, n.d. Gelatin silver print 13 7/8 x 10 5/8 inches Collection Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art Purchase College, State University of New York Gift of Roy R. Neuberger Photo: Jim Frank 3. Lois Steckler-Ehrman Portrait of Roy R. Neuberger, 1974-75 Oil on canvas 47 1/2 x 42 inches Collection Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art Purchase College, State University of New York Gift of the artist Photo: Jim Frank IN MEMO R I A M ROY R . NEUBERGER A PURCHASE LEGACY Recreating Pat Steir's Self-Portrait: An Installation A team of 30 students, overseen by School of Art+Design faculty mem- bers, completely took over the Richard Dolly Maass Gallery (locat- ed in the visual arts building) for two weeks in September to re-create one of artist Pat Steir’s most acclaimed wall drawings, called Self-Portrait: An Installation. The project coincided with the Neuberger Museum’s exhibition “Pat Steir: Drawing Out of Line,” which was on view through December 19. Wall drawings have been an ongoing aspect of the artist’s work since 1975, and this work was first presented in 1987 at the New Museum in New York. Faculty members Susan Horvath, Julian Kreimer, and Michael Torlen selected a group of undergraduate and graduate students to execute the work, using pencil lead, ink wash, oil stick, and red pencil and chalk. The work was managed, according to Steir’s instructions, under the supervision of Anthony Sansotta, the artistic director of the Sol Lewitt estate. ART ON CAMPUS Malcolm MacDougall ’12 scored a first among Purchase College stu- dents when his sculpture Microscopic Landscape was selected by the President’s Committee for Public Art on Campus. MacDougall’s eight-foot welded steel sculpture is now on display at the main entrance to campus, where it can be seen by the more than four thousand visitors and stu- dents who pass it daily. The President’s Committee for Public Art on Campus, chaired by Professor Eric Wildrick, was created last year to encourage the display of original work, crafted by Purchase students, in outdoor spaces on campus. All forms of art are considered, including sculpture, murals, and new-media art. The chosen installation remains in place for up to eleven months. The competition is open to all current Purchase College students, regardless of major. Collaborative submissions are encouraged and artists may sub- mit more than one proposal. A stipend of $2,500 is offered to cover the cost of materials, fabrication, installation, maintenance, and removal. MacDougall, from Ardsley, NY, is a junior and a sculpture student in the School of Art+Design. He has worked on the piece for the past year. It is made of five thousand pounds of steel and is 24 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 11 feet tall. It is a conceptual piece inspired by the principle of growth, as in the reproduction and mutation of cells. “I work in multiples as a way to expand forms sequentially,” he says. “Mathematical patterns of organic growth emerge through this exploration. This amalgamation and merging of forms are a continuing theme throughout the work, which produces a framework for growth and expansion.” Faith Ringgold’s Painting Sprung from Rikers Island for Neuberger Exhibit The Neuberger Museum of Art’s curator, Tracy Fitzpatrick, convinced the warden of Rikers Island to approve a loan of artist Faith Ringgold’s mural for the Neuberger Museum’s exhibit of her 1960s paintings. It had been at Rikers since 1971. The painting, which was on view through the autumn of 2010, is called For the Women’s House, and was Ringgold’s first public commission in 1971; it was supported by a Creative Arts Public Service grant. This was her first feminist work, and it depicts women engaged in a variety of everyday activities, many of which were generally attributed to men. The artist cre- ated the eight-by-eight-foot work for what was then the Women’s House of Detention. The mural hung in the Rikers cafeteria until the early 1990s, when the deten- tion center became all male. Fearing the painting would have an adverse effect on the inmates, the guards had it white- washed by an unknown prison artist. The mural was then moved to the base- ment. A female guard, who remembered Ms. Ringgold, got in touch with her and warned her that the canvas was slated for disposal. Ringgold went to the com- missioner of the Department of Corrections to try to rescue her work. The commissioner had the painting restored in 1999 at a cost of $25,000. The painting was displayed in the lobby of the Neuberger Museum of Art through December 18, 2010, as part of the exhibit “American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s.” PURCHASE REMEMBERS NEA JAZZ MASTER JAMES MOODY The Purchase College community was deep- ly saddened by the death of NEA Jazz Master and legendary saxophonist James Moody in December. A close friend of renowned bassist and Purchase professor Todd Coolman, head of Jazz Studies, Conservatory of Music, Moody was dedicat- ed to supporting young jazz musicians. Impressed by the quality of the jazz pro- gram and faculty at Purchase, Moody and his wife Linda established the James Moody Scholarship Endowment Fund to help young musi- cians achieve their educational dreams and to support the next gener- ation of Jazz Masters. The scholarship was established in 2005, and the first award was presented in 2007. Five Purchase students have been the recipients of this scholarship. Moody’s generosity extended beyond his scholarship fund. The Performing Arts Center was the venue for a benefit concert featuring Moody’s band in 2005. And annual benefit concerts took place at B. B. King Blues Club Grill in New York City from 2006 through 2009. Professor Coolman and Purchase professor Jon Faddis, jazz trumpeter, played key roles in planning the concerts, and both per- formed at the annual events. Moody would invite students to play with the band both at the PAC and B.B. King events. NEA Jazz Master Paquito D’Rivera, who recently received a Rockefeller Award from Purchase, also performed in Moody’s benefit concerts. C O R R E C T I O N Editors’ apologies to Rockefeller Award recipients Lynn Nottage and Kiki Smith, whose names were inadvertently transposed in the last issue of Purchase magazine. See corrected caption below. Nelson A. Rockefeller Award recipients (L to R): Paquito D’Rivera, Jane Cecil, Kiki Smith, Donald Cecil, Lynn Nottage, and Paul Taylor. 1. 2. 3. T
- 10. Since 2009, Purchase has welcomed more than 20 new full-time faculty. According to Provost Fernandez, “These outstanding educators, artists, and scholars have studied at a variety of dis- tinguished institutions, including Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, Stanford University, Duke University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Rhode Island School of Design, the University of California at Berkeley, Case Western Reserve University, Temple University, the University of Miami, New School University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, among many oth- ers located across the United States and abroad. “They represent a diverse range of fields, including art history; arts management; dance; history; journalism; media, society, and the arts; music studio production; new media; painting and drawing; printmaking; sculpture; sociology; and theatre cos- tume design. I am confident that their contributions will enhance our academic programs and enrich the intellectual and creative life of our academic community.” For the most up-to-date list of all new Purchase faculty, please visit: www.purchase.edu/Departments/AcademicPrograms/ Faculty/newfull-timefaculty-10-11.aspx (Adapted from publication: New Full-Time Faculty 2009–2011, Editor: Theresa McElwaine) PURCHASE | 17PURCHASE | 16 New directions On the day after the Purchase Dance Company wrapped up its annual production of The Nutcracker this past December, Conservatory of Dance classes were cancelled. Instead of pursuing business as usual, the conservatory’s leader, Wallie Wolfgruber, scheduled a day of wellness and rejuvenation, offering sessions in guided imagery, Trager Approach, Alexander Technique, yoga, meditation, energy healing, and more. With an M.F.A. in dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, 27 years of performance, worldwide instruction, and choreography experience, as well as her own dance company, Wolfgruber reflects a long-standing Purchase tradition of attracting excellent, accom- plished, renowned faculty. She is also one of many newcomers on campus who embody the spirit of optimism and growth that has characterized Purchase since its founding 48 years ago. “I’m really into helping dancers take better care of themselves,” says Wolfgruber. “Right now our schedule is extremely full, which is not unusual for B.F.A. dance programs but can be problematic if students get overly stressed. We have classes from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.—in one case even to 10:30 p.m. I question the benefit of over- working the body all the time; you need rest, you need good nutri- tion. You need a life outside the studio. You need balance. You need a lot of things to inform you as an artist.” She also is focused on the theoretical and practical questions that have challenged the creativity of Purchase administrators and faculty from the start: how best to merge the complementary—yet often competing—forces of the professional arts programs with the liberal arts and sciences, and how to do so in a world of limited time and resources. “Even though it is difficult to fit everything into the schedule, I understand that dance students need time to take their liberal arts and science courses,” Wolfgruber says. “It is important for them as future professional dance artists to take an interest in the world at large, to be able to articulate their views and express themselves well verbally and in written form.” building on experience As a newcomer to Purchase, Wolfgruber might be interested to hear the views of a longtime faculty member such as John Howard, Ph.D., J.D., who came to Purchase in 1971 as dean of what was then the division of social sciences, and who as a distinguished service pro- fessor emeritus continues to teach in the School of Liberal Studies and Continuing Education. Professor Howard remembers how the college not only survived several rounds of state budget cuts— including the infamous “doomsday budget” of 1971—but also grew to become a thriving, first-rate cultural and academic institution. “Different people had different conceptions of what this new insti- tution would be,” Professor Howard remembers. “The core idea was that it would be some combination of professional schools of the arts along with a first-class letters and science program. The particulars varied from person to person—different people had dif- ferent perceptions of what the experiment was about.” NEW FACULTY LINEUP Marc Brudzinski Lecturer in Language and Culture/Literature Appointed in 2009–10 PhD, Duke University Peter Denenberg Lecturer in Studio Production Appointed in 2009–10 BPS, Empire State College, State University of New York Richard N. Gioioso Lecturer in Sociology Appointed in 2010–11 PhD, Florida International University Meagan E. Curtis Assistant Professor of Psychology Appointed in 2010–11 PhD, Dartmouth College Stella Ebner Assistant Professor of Art+Design (Printmaking) Appointed in 2010–11 MFA, Rhode Island School of Design Maria Guralnik Visiting Assistant Professor of Arts Management Appointed in 2009–10 MNO, Case Western Reserve University Antonio C. Cuyler Assistant Professor of Arts Management Appointed in 2010–11 PhD, Florida State University Christian J. Gay Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies Appointed in 2009–10 PhD, University of Miami Paula Halperin Assistant Professor of Latin American History Appointed in 2010–11 PhD, University of Maryland Traditions TransitionsAcademic excellence, creativity, and the Purchase experienceT By Christina Horzepa Wallie Wolfgruber, director, Conservatory of Dance John Howard, Ph.D., J.D., founding faculty member in social sciences
- 11. PURCHASE | 18 PURCHASE | 19 One idea never changed: the coexistence of the professional arts and the liberal arts and sciences on one campus—an alliance per- fectly illustrated by Professor Howard’s career, which reaches beyond teaching legal studies and practicing law to include an interest in film. His most recent book, Faces in the Mirror: Oscar Micheaux Spike Lee, chronicles the struggles of African Americans in the film industry, and helped convince the continuing education division to create an African American cinema course that he now teaches. According to Professor Howard, this core idea makes Purchase unique, and attractive. “The Purchase idea is different in the sense that you do have in close physical proximity, and therefore also, I think, in academic and intellectual proximity, the professional arts and the liberal arts. There’s an inherent tension in that. As a conse- quence of that inherent tension, Purchase is ever becoming, and perhaps will never be this particular one thing. That relationship between the professional arts and the liberal arts and sciences has to continually work itself out for the good of both. In essence, it makes it a very exciting place to be,” Howard says, adding that the tension hasn’t “prevented the school—both in terms of liberal arts and sciences and the School of the Arts—from achieving world- class recognition.” That recognition encompasses inclusion in prestigious college- ranking guides, a growing list of successful alumni, and an expanding pool of talented faculty. Despite the state’s economy and other chal- lenges, the college is building on those foundations and traditions. STRATEGIC PLAN creates opportunity to INVEST IN FACULTY Purchase continues to capitalize on its initial investment in faculty excellence—professional teaching artists and academics. “Whether in the liberal arts and sciences or the visual and performing arts, Purchase faculty are well-connected, accomplished professionals. They are intellectually and creatively inspired, and dedicated teachers,” notes Purchase College Provost Damian Fernandez. “Our faculty are one of our great, if not our greatest, assets. We’ve made a concerted effort to harness the value of faculty growth and development as vital to enhancing campuswide academic excel- lence and creativity.” This faculty-building initiative is the outgrowth of a new five-year strategic plan that highlights the college’s singular mission and identifies its core strengths, according to Fernandez, who cochaired the Strategic Planning Committee. “Purchase is unique because the arts are everywhere. They’re not tangential. They’re core to the mission. At Purchase, we pair the professional arts with the liberal arts; they connect and intersect, and enhance each other. The new plan articulates this mission and identifies ways to increase synergy, showcase Purchase’s programs properly, and increase the college’s physical, financial, and academic sustainability.” The new strategic plan accompanies a recent restructuring of the academic administration from eight deans to two: Ken Tabachnick joined Purchase in July to lead the School of the Arts, and Suzanne Kessler, a seasoned teacher and administrator, leads the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences in addition to serving as vice provost for academic affairs. The restructuring was a strategic decision: despite the approximately 30 percent reduction in state support, Purchase’s tradition of academic excellence would not be compromised. “Nationally, in response to the slow economy, colleges are asking, ‘What do we do now?’ But at Purchase we’ve been proactive and creative—even bold,” Fernandez says. Purchase College Welcomes Ken Tabachnick as Dean of the School of the Arts Among a handful of U.S. colleges and universities (and unlike any other school in the SUNY system), Purchase College is home to world-class conservatory programs in the visual and performing arts, collectively known as the School of the Arts. These extremely selective, rigorous, professional training programs provide a source of cultural stimulation, creative energy, and an opportunity for expression across academic divisions and throughout the campus community. With a new dean at the helm, the School of the Arts is poised to enter, with great momentum, a new and progressive era. Just before the start of the fall (2010) semester, Ken Tabachnick was selected to serve as dean of the School of the Arts, overseeing conservatory programs in dance, music, and theatre arts, as well as the School of Art+Design. Dean Tabachnick’s extensive experience in the arts includes work as an administrator, lighting designer, consultant, producer, and legal counsel. He brings to Purchase an impressive profession- al reputation and long-standing connections with prestigious New York City arts networks. Most recently, he served as gen- eral manager for the New York City Ballet, where he was responsible for managing the largest dance organization in the country, a position that included developing its long-term strategy, cultivating relationships with trustees, and oversee- ing a $60 million annual budget. With the development staff, he was responsible for raising approximately $15 million annually to support the New York City Ballet’s operations. Prior to joining the New York City Ballet, Dean Tabachnick practiced law, representing the unique interests of perform- ers, designers, producers, authors, and filmmakers. As he has done for more than 30 years, he continues to work as a light- ing designer, and has illuminated prestigious companies, including the Paris Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, New York City Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Philadelphia Drama Guild, and Second Stage. He has also worked on television projects for National Geographic and Live from Lincoln Center. Dean Tabachnick has collaborated with renowned artists such as Philip Glass, Trisha Brown, Martha Graham, Robert Wilson, and Stephen Petronio, receiving a Bessie Award in 2005 for his work with Mr. Petronio. He is a trustee of Dance/USA (where he is a member of the Executive Committee and the Technology Committee, and chairs the Audit Committee), Stephen Petronio Company, and the Gilbert V. Hemsley Lighting Internship. At an event for faculty this past fall, Dean Tabachnick deliv- ered an eloquent talk on creativity as part of a program titled “Creating the Creative Campus.” An excerpt follows. (The pre- sentation, in its entirety, can be found at www.purchase.edu/ Departments/AcademicPrograms/arts/Tabachnick- Remarks-8-24-10.aspx.) “Creativity is not restricted solely to the arts, nor is it solely relegat- ed to formal training. It can be messy, disorderly, and even poorly articulated. In my experience as a designer, lawyer, arts manager, fundraiser, teacher, and father, I have seen creativity in every area, in every field. I am amazed at the richness of creativity I see in daily life in large and small ways.” Professional Transition for Longtime Purchase Administrator After a quarter century with Purchase College, Margaret Sullivan, formerly vice president of external affairs and development, announced in November 2010 that she had accepted the position of vice president for institutional advancement at the National Academy Foundation. The National Academy Foundation, founded and chaired by Sanford I. Weil, is an organization that promotes and encourages academic achievement among at-risk high school students. According to Purchase College President Thomas J. Schwarz, “This is an exciting opportunity for Margaret to pursue her interest in providing access to educational opportunities for our nation’s neediest students. The National Academy Foundation’s gain is Purchase’s loss: among Margaret’s many accomplishments are the growth of the pooled endowment supporting scholarships, faculty and academic programs, and Board development; the School of the Arts galas; and the Think Wide Open marketing campaign. Margaret has been a dedicated and committed officer of our college.” Sullivan joined Purchase in 1985 as director of sponsored research. In 1991, she was promoted to vice president of external affairs and development. In a message to the col- lege community, Sullivan said, “While I am thrilled to start a new chapter in my professional career at NAF, Purchase College will hold a special place close to my heart. It is with sincere appreciation that I acknowledge the exemplary work of the trustees of three foundation boards and my faculty and professional staff colleagues for what we have accom- plished collectively in fundraising, marketing, sponsored research, and alumni and community relations to make Purchase College more visible and better funded.” The search for a vice president for institutional advancement is currently a high priority for the college. Dean Tabachnick says the new faculty will further solidify the col- lege’s reputation as a magnet for artistic talent. Notably this year, scenic designers Santo Loquasto and Karl Eigsti are joining the Conservatory of Theatre Arts as visiting artists within the B.F.A. and M.F.A. design/technology programs. Professor Eigsti, who briefly taught at Purchase in the early 1980s, will teach scenic design to undergraduate seniors and graduate stu- dents. His Broadway scenic design credits include the original pro- ductions of Grease, Yentl, Knockout, Eubie!, Cold Storage, and Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and his work has been featured in exhibits and retrospectives around the country. Professor Loquasto will lead an advanced scene-design seminar. His career has included work with American Ballet Theatre and the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and scenic and costume design credits for a host of major theatrical productions, including That Championship Season, Short Eyes, American Buffalo, Bent, Lost in Yonkers, The Goodbye Girl, Grand Hotel, Ragtime, Fosse, Race, and Collected Stories. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards and four Drama Desk Awards. Barbara Hauptman Visiting Assistant Professor of Arts Management Appointed in 2009–10 MFA, Yale University Diana Reinhard Assistant Professor of History Appointed in 2009–10 PhD, Temple University Joseph D. McKay Assistant Professor of New Media Appointed in 2009–10 MFA, University of California at Berkeley Mary Alice Williams Assistant Professor of Journalism Appointed in 2009–10 BA, Creighton University Carmen Oquendo-Villar Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies Appointed in 2010–11 PhD, Harvard University Soyoung Yoon Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Appointed in 2009–10 PhD, Stanford University Genevieve Hyacinthe Assistant Professor of Art History Appointed in 2009–10 PhD, Harvard University Christopher Robbins Assistant Professor of Art+Design (Sculpture) Appointed in 2010–11 MFA, Rhode Island School of Design Gaura Narayan Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature Appointed in 2009–10 PhD, Columbia University Wallie Wolfgruber Associate Professor of Dance and Director, Conservatory of Dance Appointed in 2010–11 MFA, New York University Jason A. Pine Assistant Professor of Media, Society, and the Arts Appointed in 2010–11 PhD, University of Texas at Austin Julian Kreimer Assistant Professor of Art+Design (Painting/Drawing) Appointed in 2009–10 MFA, Rhode Island School of Design Andrew Salomon Assistant Professor of Journalism Appointed in 2009–10 MS, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Marisa Olson Assistant Professor of New Media Appointed in 2009–10 MA, CPhil, University of California at Berkeley Anita Yavich Assistant Professor of Theatre Design/Stage Technology (Costume Design) Appointed in 2009–10 MFA, Yale University Lorraine Plourde Lecturer in Anthropology and Media, Society, and the Arts Appointed in 2009–10 PhD, Columbia University