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