We welcome career and professional development news and accomplishments from VPA alumni. Emaivpanews@syr.edu to be included in a future edition of Class NotesThis archive contains class notes prior to October 2020. Visit our Class Notes page for more recent submissions.
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The industrial and interaction design (IID) program in the School of Design reports that several IID alumni presented at the Industrial Designers Society of America’s (IDSA) virtual International Design Conference this month: Basak Altan (BID ’97), Chris Hosmer (BID ’00), Ayana Patterson (BID ’06), and James Rudolph (BID ’06). Daina Mattis (MFA ’11) had her solo show, Family Style, featured in Design Milk by David Behringer of The Two Percent. The show was on view at High Noon Gallery in New York City August 6-September 20. View the exhibition catalog. Last summer, Carlton Daniel (MFA ’17) wrote and directed a short film in Syracuse titled Homegoing. The film stars Malik Shakur (nephew of the late Tupac Shakur) and Khalil Kain (Juice). Homegoing touches upon themes of racialized policing, gun violence, the racial wealth gap, and toxic masculinity. The film has screened at Outfest Fusion, Palm Springs, and the Atlanta Film Festival. Earlier this month, Light Work’s Urban Video Project screened the film in Syracuse at the Everson Museum Plaza. Learn more and view the trailer. Dani Pendergast (BFA ’17, MFA ’20) is the featured artist in Communication Arts, one of the industry's premiere publications. Jordyn White (BS ’17) has worked at the National Football League (NFL) as a public affairs coordinator (public relations for off-field/social responsibility) for the past year and a half. Widline Cadet (MFA ’20) is one of four artists who have been named 2020-21 artists-in-residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem. The artist-in-residence program advances the work of visual artists of African and Latino descent and has supported more than 100 graduates who have gone on to highly regarded careers. |
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Robert L. Kasprzycki (BID ’74, MS ’96, MBA ’99) , owner/artist of Kasprzycki Artistry in Fayetteville, New York, will have an art exhibition Nov. 5 through Dec. 7 at the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. He also recently published the novel The Talisman , available Sept. 30 at most major book retailers. Renee Cox (BFA ’78) was recently appointed an assistant professor of visual arts at Columbia University. This fall she will be exhibiting work in group shows at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Maccarone Gallery LA (Los Angeles), and Pen + Brush in New York City. She will also have a solo show at Cathouse Proper in Brooklyn, New York, and her Baby Back (2001) will tour America through 2024 as part of Posing Beauty in African American Culture . She also photographed Nick Cave for the cover of The New York Times Magazine , which will be released this October. Helen Zughaib (BFA ’81) and her father, Elia Zughaib (BA ’51, MA ’52, PhD ‘57) , have published the book Stories My Father Told Me (Cune Press), a collection of 25 stories of Elia’s growing up in Damascus, Syria, under the French Mandate and his young adulthood in Lebanon before he immigrated to America in 1946. Helen painted each story included in the book. Anthony J. “Tony” Zajkowski (BFA ’88) is part of the editing team for the reality television show Queer Eye , which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program. Cheryl Powell (MA ’98) is having a show of oil and watercolor paintings based on the town of Maysville, Kentucky, Oct. 4-28 at the Cox Gallery in Maysville. An opening reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 4, from 5-7 p.m. Visit Cheryl’s website for more information. Wesley Clark (BFA ’01) is having the solo exhibition Reparations: Some are Just Owed and Some More than Others through Oct. 31 at Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore. Writer/director J.D. Dillard (VPA ’10) had “ An Open Letter To the Man Who Yelled “Go Back To Africa” At Me ” published in McSweeney’s. Ozan Atalan (MFA ’16) is showing the installation Monochrome (concrete, soil, water buffalo skeleton, video, 2019) at the 16th Istanbul Biennial. He also held the conversation “Anthropocentrism and Animal Breeding,” a discussion of the water buffalos of Istanbul, with Prof. Dr. Serhat Alkan of Istanbul University. |
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Vera Farmiga (BFA ’95) received an Emmy Award nomination for the role of Elizabeth Lederer in the limited series When They See Us. The Emmys will be awarded on Sept. 22. James O. Welsch (MM ’07) is conductor of the El Paso (Texas) Youth Orchestra and was interviewed on KFOX14 in connection with the recent “This Is El Paso” benefit concert. Nilo Alcala (MM ’09) won the 2019 American Prize in Composition in the choral division (major works), for his composition Manga Pakalagian (Ceremonies). The American Prize is the nation's most comprehensive series of non-profit competitions in the performing arts, unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, ensembles, and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings. Ben Holtzman (BFA ’13) was selected as the next Geraldine Stutz T. Fellow in the one-year program designed to educate and empower new creative producers. Fellows receive a stipend of $10,000 with a $20,000 budget for the development of a new theatrical production and have access to courses in Columbia University School of the Arts’ M.F.A. theatre management and producing program. Holtzman is a co-producer on Be More Chill. |
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