News

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  All Hands on Deck: VPA Senior’s Involvement on Campus Springs Him Into ‘Elf the Musical,’ New York City and Beyond

  ">By Joyce LaLonde Behind the scenes of every production is a team making it all happen. An organized chaos of choreographed disarray moves to give the audience the experience and “wow” moments for which they attend the theater. Samuel Arencibia, a senior in the B.F.A. program in stage management in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA), graduates this December to begin orchestrating the chaos full-time as a stage manager. Not until, however, he wraps up “Elf the Musical,” a show currently being co-produced by Syracuse Stage and the Department of Drama through Jan. 6. Read More...

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  CRS, Invent@SU Alumna Wins Share of Aging Innovation Challenge

  Millions of people around the world with mobility challenges have trouble standing up from a chair or couch. During the Invent@SU program in the summer of 2017, communication and rhetorical studies (CRS) major Kalia Zizi Barrow ’17 of the College of Visual and Performing Arts and mechanical engineering major Ruby Batbaatar ’19 of the College of Engineering and Computer Science had an idea for a device that could help. Read More...

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  Transmedia’s Boryana Rossa Presents Project at Beijing Media Art Biennale

  Boryana Rossa, assistant professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Department of Transmedia, presented her collaborative bio-art project “Snowflake" 2006-2015 (together with Guy Ben-Ary and Oleg Mavromatti) at the 2018 Beijing Media Art Biennale (BMAB) at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Beijing, which is the most prestigious art university in China. Read More...

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  Voice Performance Student Receives Civic Morning Musicals’ Neva Pilgrim Award

  Katherine Skafidas '20, a voice performance major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music and student of Professor Janet Brown, won the $500 Neva Pilgrim Award in the Civic Morning Musicals Vocal Competition held in November at Onondaga Community College. Skafidas, a Liverpool native, received the top honor in the 17-21 age category. Twenty-four singers from across New York State competed in the competition for $2,900 in prizes. The singers represented the studios of 19 teachers. Read More...

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  Second Smart Cities Seminar Will Exhibit Student Ideas

  By: J.D. Ross (315) 443-3094 The second in a two-year series of working seminars and meetings that is exploring the broad space of ‘smart cities’ is scheduled for December 10. This broad topic includes issues as varied as designing livable spaces, considerations of urban life and work, the importance of sustainability, the roles of information and digital technologies, the ways in which municipalities work together and with residents, the nature of community, and the ways in which Syracuse—as a city and a region—reflects the issues and opportunities of vibrant communities. Read More...

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  Indigenous Filmmaker, VPA Faculty Member Scores Sundance Debut for Documentary on Native Author N. Scott Momaday

  A documentary film on the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday by Jeffrey Palmer, an assistant professor of film in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Department of Transmedia, will make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival. “N. Scott Momaday: Words From A Bear,” an imaginative visual journey into the mind and soul of the Oklahoma-born Native American author and poet, will have its world premiere at the festival in Park City, Utah, in January. Read More...

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  Relieve Exam Stress with the Syracuse All Steel Percussion Orchestra

  To help relieve the stress of final exam week, the Syracuse All Steel Percussion Orchestra (SASPO) will perform a selection of “bangers and party anthems” on Friday, Dec. 7, at 4 p.m. in the Schine Student Center Atrium. Members of the University community are invited to enjoy the sounds of the University’s new steel band in an informal setting. Read More...

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  Invent @Su Students Turn Mouth Cleaning Device into a $5 Million Business

  For hundreds of years, the fundamental mechanism of cleaning your teeth through physical brushing has not changed very much – just variations of toothbrushes with bristles. Tairan Li and Chao Huang, industrial and interaction design majors in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Design had an idea to modernize the age-old process, starting from the six-week Invent@SU challenge in the summer of 2017, they designed, prototyped and pitched a hands free device called Panacea that cleans all your teeth at once. Read More...

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  Museum Studies Students, Faculty Bring 238-Piece ‘Americans Who Tell the Truth’ Exhibition to Life

  /">Joyce LaLonde Hannah Barber hopes to be a collections manager after her December 2018 graduation from the Graduate Program in Museum Studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ (VPA) School of Design. Thanks to the University’s Robert Shetterly exhibition, she is ready for the position post-graduation. Through an independent study course advised by Andrew Saluti, assistant professor and program coordinator in the museum studies graduate program, Barber is the collections manager for the “Americans Who Tell the Truth: Models of Courageous Citizenship” exhibition on display Nov. 29-Dec. 14 in the Schine Student Center’s Panasci Lounge. Read More...

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  Design Students’ Exhibition Addresses Microaggressions on Campus

  Junior communications design majors in the College of Visual and Performing Art’s School of Design have ventured to solve the subtle issues involved with microaggressions as perceived on campus through the exhibition “Microaggressions: Ignorance Does Not Equal Bliss,” part of this semester’s CMD 351 Problem Solving Strategies course. Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal and environmental slights, snubs or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. Six CMD 351 teams have created a scale model exhibition consisting of six categories: color, ethnicity, disability, religion, gender and sexual orientation. Each team has modeled a themed room and a separate digital experience. Every student also designed a poster. Read More...

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  School of Design Invent@SU Team Excels at Impact Prize Competition

  /">VPA News A student startup company developed by two School of Design students during the Invent@SU invention accelerator program took the top prize at the 2018 Syracuse University Impact Prize Competition organized by Blackstone Launchpad. The winners were selected for presenting the most innovative and implementable ideas to help solve civic, environmental, economic or other public challenges as part of a campus-wide social entrepreneurship challenge. Read More...

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  Genet Gallery Presents Visual, Literary Elements of Roderick Martinez’s ‘Wondering the Alphabet’

  A new exhibition in the Sue & Leon Genet Gallery serves as a companion to “Wondering the Alphabet,” a book for readers, writers and designers by Roderick Martinez, associate professor of communications design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Design. The “Wondering the Alphabet” book (The Bitter Oleander Press, 2017) features a continuous chronology of the English alphabet, tracing graphically its changes over time. Included are written reflections from 26 accomplished poets about a single letter assigned to them by chance for the book’s purpose. Beautiful visual translations, or character reenactments of poems set face to face, create a most unique and heretofore unseen correspondence between two art forms. Read More...

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  CRS’s Charles Morris Named Chair-Elect of NCA Research Council

  Charles E. Morris III, professor and chair of the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in the College and Performing Arts, has been named chair-elect of the Research Council of the National Communication Association (NCA), 2020-2022. The Research Council “supports and promotes disciplinary research through facilitation of professional development opportunities for communication scholars and through external advocacy efforts.” As chair of the Research Council, Morris will also serve as a member of the NCA’s 12-seat executive board. In 2016 Morris was honored with the Distinguished Scholar Award from the NCA’s Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division. He is recognized for his books and essays...

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  Shaped Clay Society to Host Holiday Mug Sale Nov. 28-30

  The Shaped Clay Society in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) will host its annual holiday mug sale Nov. 28-30 in the first-floor galleria of the Dorothea Ilgen Shaffer Art Building. Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. The sale will also include student work in jewelry and metalsmithing and printmaking. The Shaped Clay Society is a student-run ceramics group based in VPA’s School of Art. Active on campus and in the community, the group uses various fundraising activities to increase educational opportunities, such as bringing visiting artists to campus, and to support local organizations. For more information, contact .

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  Good Seats Still Available for Drama Department/Syracuse Stage’s ‘Elf The Musical’

  Joanna Penalva The good news from Syracuse Stage is that there are still excellent seats available for the holiday family show “Elf The Musical,” a co-production with the College of Visual and Performing Arts' Department of Drama, scheduled to run Nov. 23 – Jan. 6. While many performances are full or near capacity, the Syracuse Stage Box Office recommends patrons check dates after Dec. 28 as performances with good availability. Tickets may be obtained at www.SyracuseStage.org, by phone at 315-443-3275 and in person at the Box Office. Read More...

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  Thirteen CRS Graduate Students, Faculty Present at National Communication Association Conference

  ">Erica Blust Thirteen graduate students and faculty in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies (CRS) delivered 22 competitively selected presentations and performances at the National Communication Association’s (NCA) 104^th annual convention held Nov. 8-11 in Salt Lake City. Read More...

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  VPA Participation Soars in Boost the ’Cuse II

  On Oct. 25, Syracuse University launched Boost the ’Cuse II, a day of giving, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) is proud to announce the results of its participation: Read More...

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  In Memoriam: August L. Freundlich, Founding Dean of VPA

  VPA News Editor’s Note: The following uses excerpts from a biography of Freundlich by Syracuse University’s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at the Libraries, which holds an inventory of his papers. An obituary was also published by the Tampa Bay Times. August L. Freundlich, founding dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts and past dean of the School of Art, died on Oct. 24 in Bloomington, Ind. He was 94. Read More...

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  VPA’s Morris Awarded Research Grant for Harvey Milk Project

  Charles E. Morris III, professor and chair of the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in the College and Performing Arts, and his colleague, Jason Edward Black, professor and chair of the Department of Communication Studies at University of North Carolina-Charlotte, have been awarded a $9,000 research grant from the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society, housed in Villanova University’s Department of Communication. Read More...

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  Department of Drama Continues Sunday Salon Series with ‘Faith and Sexuality: Resolving and Living with the Conflicts’

  The College of Visual and Performing Arts’ (VPA) Department of Drama continues its Sunday Salon Series with the panel discussion “Faith and Sexuality: Resolving and Living with the Conflicts.” Presented in conjunction with the department’s production of “Next Fall,” this installment of the Sunday Salon Series will take place on Sunday, Nov. 11, at 4:30 p.m. in the Arthur Storch Theatre, 820 E. Genesee St. The discussion is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Read More...