School of Fine Arts News
KU's fine arts dean to step down at end of academic year
Department of music and dance presents "Asian Soundscapes"
Senior reaches semifinals of international competition
Artists create offbeat signage and audio tours
Fall events honor Murphy Hall's 50th birthday
KU's fine arts dean to step down at end of academic year
Steve Hedden, dean of the School of Fine Arts at KU, announced his decision to step down at the end of the academic year and return to teaching.
KU begins a national search this fall to have a new dean on board by Aug. 1, 2008.
"Under Steve Hedden's watch as dean, the School of Fine Arts has accomplished a great deal—innovative degree programs, new technology and career support services and even new uniforms for the Marching Jayhawks," said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Richard Lariviere. "Steve has much of which to be proud, and we thank him for his dedication and service."
Hedden, d'64, g'69, PhD'71, a native of Colby who earned three degrees in music education from KU, has worked in arts administration for 15 years at universities in Kansas, Iowa and Arizona. He has been at KU for five years.
"I’ve been fortunate in my career that exciting new opportunities have presented themselves every few years, and that's true now," said Hedden. "I've always thought there couldn't be better life's work than to be a college professor. I look forward to my new opportunities as part of the energetic and extraordinarily talented faculty here."
Under Hedden's leadership, the School of Fine Arts has increased external funding, including a $500,000, three-year grant from Hallmark to the department of design and one of eight national "creative campus" grants from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters to the Lied Center of Kansas. Other achievements include new degrees in interaction design, design management, photomedia and a bachelor's in music with a concentration in jazz; the addition of faculty positions in opera and interaction design and a career services coordinator; and creation of additional staffing in computer facilities and the "common shop" that supports student and faculty projects in art and design that involve metal working or woodworking. Read more.
Department of music and dance presents "Asian Soundscapes"
The KU department of music and dance will present a free lecture and concert featuring modern and classical Japanese musical works at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, in Swarthout Recital Hall.
"Asian Soundscapes: Silk and Bamboo in Japanese Music" features the artists of Duo Sőkyő, a USA-based Japanese performance ensemble. Duo Sőkyő, composed of artists David Wheeler and Yoko Hiraoka, specializes in the classical music of Edo and Meiji-era Japan, as well as 20th century and contemporary Japanese compositions.
The performance at Swarthout will feature works of the koto, shamisen and shakuhachi, as well as vocal and ensemble arrangements. Already scheduled to perform in Kansas City for the Great Kansas City Japan Festival, Wheeler and Hiraoka will bring their performance to the KU community on Thursday evening.
"This concert is a unique opportunity for our community to take a musical journey to Japan without literally traveling there," said Ketty Wong, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at KU. "It will be particularly interesting for the public because David Wheeler and Yoko Hiraoka will complement their performances with insights and comments on Japanese musical aesthetics and the history of silk and bamboo instruments. 'Silk' is the East Asian category for string instruments such as the koto and the shamisen, while 'bamboo' refers to wind instruments like the shakuhachi flute."
Wong adds that this concert will better help the public understand Japanese music.
"Traditional Japanese music is quite different from Western music in terms of sound, texture and rhythm. The lecture and concert will help the audience better understand the essence and beauty of Japanese music, and I know it will be a great musical experience that will open our Western ears to the world's diversity."
KU's department of music and dance collaborated with the Great Kansas City Japan Festival, the KU Department of East Asian Language Cultures, the KU Department of History and the Center for East Asian Studies to secure this performance.
Click here to learn more about the artists.
Senior reaches semifinals of international competition
Natalie Bonebrake, a KU senior from Topeka majoring in industrial design, was a semifinalist in the fifth annual Interior Motives Design Awards competition, an international event sponsored by Motives Design magazine of London.
The Interior Motives competition celebrates creative thinking and innovation in automotive interior design and provides a meeting place for the world's auto design industry. Bonebrake’s "Zero-Impact Urban Mobility" was one of 50 designs selected this summer for the semifinals. Her design proposed the creation of intelligent transport that would provide mobility in an urban setting but would have zero impact on the delicate ecosystem.
Although her design proposal was not chosen for the final round, which took place Sept. 12 in Frankfurt, Germany, Bonebrake was one of the few semifinalists from a public U.S. university at the international competition.
"I am thrilled to have represented KU at such a prestigious event," said Bonebrake.
Lance Rake, KU professor of industrial design, encouraged Bonebrake to enter her design, which was a project from the spring 2007 industrial design course he teaches. The class is required for industrial design majors and this year was structured around the Interior Motives competition.
Bonebrake is the daughter of Richard and Carol Bonebrake and a graduate of Topeka High School.
"The department of design is pleased that our students continue to place in competitions and receive awards for their conceptions and innovations even though we do not offer concentration in these specific areas," said Greg Thomas, chair of the design department.
Artists create offbeat signage and audio tours
Commissioned by the Spencer Museum of Art, artists María Velasco and Janet Davidson-Hues have created Stop // Look // Listen, an unusual "way-finding system" for the museum that debuted at a public reception Thursday, Aug. 30.
Inspired by images from the SMA collection and common traffic signage, their works outside the museum announce "Warning: Art Approaching," while MP3 audio tours inside offer offbeat looks at the collection, encouraging visitors to slow down and, as the title suggests, stop, look, and listen. Click here to listen to the audio tours online and to download and synch the tours to your own player.
This project is co-sponsored by the KU School of Fine Arts, department of art, and KU Parking & Transit.
The outside signage consists of fabricated yellow metal signs with iconographic black images inspired by artworks existing in the Spencer collection. The signs, placed in the parking lot behind the museum, seem familiar yet provide an opportunity for unexpected experiences for visitors.
The inside component is a self-guided audio tour of certain paintings and art objects, identified as part of the audio tour by a symbol or iconographic sign at their site. Participating patrons can either visit the Spencer Web site and synch the tour's MP3 files to their own iPod-type listening device, or borrow a player from the museum when they visit (a limited number are available). The tour eschews the traditional, historical information found in many such endeavors, instead offering mischievous, insightful, or ambiguous comments, unanticipated words and sounds, contributed by a variety of voices.
By creating a playful way-finding system both inside and out, and providing an unpredictable audio tour, the artists intend to create a system for people to move through a space that feels unique. Chance encounters with familiar signs, symbols and sounds will provide viewers with an enhanced museum experience. Ideally, viewers will be intrigued by the signs in the parking lot, drawn into the museum out of curiosity, and engaged by the visual and auditory experiences that are available to them inside. Read more about Stop // Look // Listen and the artists.
Fall events honor Murphy Hall's 50th birthday
In celebration of Murphy Hall's 50th anniversary this academic year, the University Theatre and the department of music and dance have planned a yearlong series of activities to celebrate the students, faculty and staff who have occupied its halls and rooms.
- Murphy Hall was dedicated on Nov. 10, 1957. To commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the building, the department of music and dance will rededicate Murphy Hall on Nov. 10, 2007, in the Murphy Hall Courtyard at 5 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
- The department of music and dance, the department of theatre and film and the University Theatre will present “The Music Man” in Crafton-Preyer Theatre on Nov. 9-11 and 15-17, 2007. The popular musical premiered on Broadway in 1957.
- The department of music and dance and the department of theatre and film will present a national symposium on Broadway musicals, entitled "Musical Theater in 1957," and directed by Paul Laird, professor of musicology and John Staniunas, associate professor of musical theatre and chair of the department of theatre and film, Nov. 9-10, 2007.
Visit the Murphy Hall 50th Anniversary Web site to learn about some exciting spring events, including the two-week Festival of the Arts celebration, the Alums Come Home series of events, and the Elizabeth Sherbon Centennial Celebration.
"We invite our alumni and friends to celebrate this wonderful facility and to renew acquaintances developed during the first 50 years at Murphy Hall," said Larry Mallett, chair of the KU department of music and dance.
"This is a time to celebrate a building that has served us well, and we will continue to make improvements so we can enjoy an even better place to live in for the next 50 years," John Staniunas, chair of the department of theatre and film added.
Murphy Hall is home to a variety of resources, in addition to classrooms and rehearsal studios. These include four major performance spaces: Swarthout Recital Hall, Crafton-Preyer Theatre, William Inge Memorial Theatre and the Baustian Opera Theatre. Also located in Murphy are three scholarly resources: the Gorton Music & Dance Library, the James Seaver Opera Archive and the Richard M. Wright Jazz Archive. The building also is the home to the administrative offices of the School of Fine Arts, its department of music and dance and department of theatre and film, as well as the University Theatre from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
Visit the School of Fine Arts Web site for more information.
