Arts & Humanities Newsletter Dance Faculty Showcase Visual Performance and Art

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Arts & Humanities
Newsletter
Dance Faculty Showcase
Visual Performance and Art
December 2009
Volume 2, Issue 2
Inside this issue:
Dance Department
1
Art Department
2
Mellon Grant
2
English Department
2
Philosophy Department 3
If you witnessed the first annual
ArtPrize competition this fall in Grand
Rapids, you may have seen dancer
Angie Yetzke, part-time instructor in
the Hope Dance Department. Angie,
with six other professional
contemporary dancers of the Grand
Rapids area, performed Touching
Peace, a multimedia work involving
dance, video projection and a
climbing wall choreographed by
Chicago-based artist Catherine
Herrman. Herrman created the work
as a tribute to those impacted by
cancer and specifically to honor her
brother who passed away from
pancreatic cancer during the summer
rehearsal process. The dancers
performed the work seventeen times
over seven days; out of 1260 entries
of visual and performance art,
Touching Peace was the only
representation of contemporary
dance.
This Fall the world renowned
Pilobolus Dance Theater teamed
up once again with the NFL
Network to produce commercial
openers for the 2009 NFL season.
Last year’s collaboration yielded a
nomination for a Sport’s Emmy and
hopes are high that the relationship
will continue. Matthew Thornton,
first year Dance Department faculty
member, participated as a
performer.
Religion Department
3
DMCL Department
3
Music Department
3
Theatre Department
4
Thornton performed and
continues to work with
Pilobolus, whose work is
creative, collaborative and
physical, and he is excited
to bring his talents to the
Hope campus. Look for
the short shadow plays on
games broadcast on the
NFL Network.
Rosanne Barton-DeVries (Dance Dept. and
Student Development) received the “George
Nathan Makely Award in Systematic Theology”
from Western Theological Seminary. She was
also inducted into “The National Scholars
Honor Society.”
2
Spotlight on Art Students
25 Art History and Studio
students worked over several
days to help artist Margaret
Cogswell install the "River
Fugues" exhibition (sponsored
by Patrons for the Arts) at
DePree gallery from October 6
to November 7, 2009.
Art History major Rebecca
Bethard has been accepted to
participate in the Egypt Tell
Timai Field School sponsored
by the University of Hawaii.
Mellon Foundation awards arts & Humanities
division $200,000 to support Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation Scholars Program!
Bill Pannapacker
Carol Simon
Mark DeWitt
Bill Reynolds
David Cunningham
(Although this is a recap of a story that has already received well-deserved PR, we could not remove this wonderful accolade from our newsletter.
Provost Boelkins issued the following overview via a campus-wide e-mail)
“This proposal has been under development for over two years, so we are very excited to have it finally come to a positive
conclusion. Special thanks go to Professor Bill Pannapacker who served as the lead faculty writer for this proposal. Although
many faculty provided input to this proposal, special thanks also go to Carol Simon, Bill Reynolds and David Cunningham. I also
want to thank Mark DeWitt from Advancement who helped to shepherd the proposal through the program officers at the Mellon
Foundation.
A press release has been posted on the college website http://www.hope.edu/pr/pressreleases/content/view/full/24620
The press release provides more details about how the program will serve our students - I encourage you to read it.
The funding will cover the first three years of the program after which we hope to secure an endowment to help sustain the program
for the long term. I am confident that the Mellon Scholars Program will enhance student-faculty collaborative scholarship in the arts
and humanities. I also believe that this opportunity will help recruit some of the best students who are interested in the humanities
and the arts.
Again, my thanks to Bill Pannapacker and all the faculty who helped make this proposal successful.”
Jim Boelkins
English Department
The Institute for
International
Sport has chosen
Losing Season
by Jack Ridl as
the 2009 Sports
Education Book
of the Year.
Curtis Gruenler’s essay on Piers
Plowman has been accepted by
Speculum, the premier journal in
medieval studies. Getting accepted by
Speculum is a huge honor, a rare
accomplishment. V.A. Kolve described
the essay to David Klooster (chair) as
"very long, very learned, and very
moving." The review process was also
long--a 14 month wait--but the
acceptance makes the wait worthwhile.
Philosophy Department
Two Philosophy Graduates Accepted into Ph.D. Programs
Nicholas Engel ’08 and Robin Litscher ’09 were accepted into
Ph.D. programs in philosophy with full scholarships for five
years. Engel was accepted at Columbia University and enrolled
this fall. Litscher was accepted at Fordham University
but postponed her enrollment in order use her Fulbright Award in
Germany this year. In addition, one of the students in our
Department's exchange program with China, Ru Ye, was
accepted into the Ph.D. program in philosophy at Cornell
University, also with a full scholarship for five years. Ru worked
with Professor Joseph LaPorte on her writing sample and
application essay.
Senior Publishes Article
Senior Michael Bertrand published an article in a
professional philosophy journal. His article "God Might be
Responsible for Physical Evil" appeared in the
Australasian Journal of Philosophy, September 2009. His
paper is a response to an article by philosopher Alexander
Bird, also published in the same journal, which argues that
God is not responsible for physical evil on the grounds that
God could only have created a world without physical evil
by changing either the laws or the initial conditions of the
universe, and that no such world would be at all like ours.
Bertrand claims that Bird's arguments fail. Mike received
guidance on this paper from Professor Joseph LaPorte.
Mike also attended the 2009 Western Conference of the
Society of Christian Philosophers in Durango, Colorado,
October 22-24, 2009, where he and Professor Jack Mulder
presented a paper they co-wrote on "Kanean
Libertarianism in the Garden of Eden."
MORTAR BOARD 2009LAST LECTURE SERIES
features two Arts and Humanities faculty
Dr. Steven BoumaPrediger of the
Hope College
religion faculty
presented the
address "Can You
Count?" on Tuesday,
Oct. 27.
Dr. Ion Agheana,
professor of romance
languages at Hope
College, presented the
address "The Western
World: The Vagaries of
History and Faith" on
Thursday, Dec. 3.
MUSIC Department
Steve Talaga
Premiered own composition “Winter Suite” for Piano (commissioned by MAJIC in Grand Rapids)
Appeared on the compact disc “Jazz on Tap” issued by the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra
Brian Coyle
Appointed Artistic Director of the Holland Jazz Orchestra
3
4
THE HOPE - HOUSE CONNECTION CONTINUES!
The Theatre Department took a weekend field trip mid-November to see two productions -- Pinocchio at
Bradley University in Peoria and All the Fame of Lofty Deeds at the House Theatre in Chicago. Sixteen
students and two faculty members attended.
Pinocchio was developed by the Bradley Theatre Department in collaboration with House Theatre company
members Carolyn Defrin as director and Dennis Watkins as playwright. In many respects, their process
echoed Hope's process of development for its award-winning production of Rose and the Rime in 2007-08
(which culminated in a performance at the national Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in
Washington, D.C.).
After seeing the production of Pinocchio Friday evening, Hope theatre students were housed by Bradley
theatre students. Their exchange continued the next morning with a three-hour workshop led by Carolyn
Defrin, which included both Hope and Bradley students brainstorming about possible developments/changes
to Pinocchio. It was exciting to see how both schools' students had been impacted through their collaboration
with the House Theatre and how their shared vocabulary and perspective from those experiences facilitated a
creative and trusting rapport between both departments.
The Hope theatre group then drove to Chicago where two recent alums joined us for dinner before Lofty
Deeds. At the performance, it was particularly fun to see Nathan Allen, our director and primary collaborator
on Rose, appear onstage as the central figure in the production and to see Brandon Ruiter (‘07) perform in his
second production with the House. Tommy Rapley, our guest choreographer for last year's Hope production
of Big Love, was the director of Lofty Deeds.
Fall semester Guest Artists
While Professor Richard Smith has been on sabbatical leave this fall semester, the Theatre Department has had
the opportunity to invite two guest scenic designers to collaborate on their productions. University of Evansville
professor emeritus (and long-standing HSRT designer) Joseph Flauto designed the set and properties for
Thornton Wilder's The Skin of our Teeth, directed by John Tammi in October. Daniel Stratton, a recent graduate
from the MFA design program at Northwestern University, designed the set and co-designed properties for the
department's production of Rabbit Hole, directed by Daina Robins which played December 4-5, 9-12 in the Studio
Theatre.
The Skin of our Teeth
Richard L. Smith
Rabbit Hole
John Tammi
Daina Robins
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