December 2024

ART & MEDICINE: HELPING TOMORROW'S DOCTORS

For future physician Sabrina Ferrari (above, left), getting the chance to analyze paintings and sketch one helped her see the importance of observation, communication and empathy when treating patients. During the last four weeks, she and more than 100 other first-year College of Medicine students participated in an innovative medical humanities workshop at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, co-led by School of Art graduate student Amy Hu and assistant curator and alumna Willa Ahlschwede. “The workshop revealed to me the significance of never overlooking even a single detail about a patient,” Ferrari said. That kind of feedback brings joy to Hu, a clinical assistant professor in Psychiatry, as she pursues an M.A. in Art History.

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Student creators embrace
new online marketplace

When Reese McFarland (left) suffered a health scare, someone gave her a healing bracelet. Not only did it help her heal, but it also inspired her decision to study Design Arts & Practices at the University of Arizona. She’s among 15 School of Art students who’ve joined the new Student-Made Arizona, an online marketplace part of a national network that allows them to promote and sell their products and services, such as jewelry, visual and digital art, photography, apparel and fiber arts.

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Arizona Biennial features
3 grad students, 9 alums

School of Art graduate students Triston Blanton, Austin Caswell and Matthew Kennedy and nine alums are among the 41 artists selected for the 2024 Arizona Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art. A record 560 artists submitted their work for the 38th Biennial, which runs until Feb. 9. The alums include Lori Andersen (MFA ’00), Jacqueline Arias Thompson (MFA ’24), Clare Benson (MFA ’13), Alexander Brauer (BFA ’13), Linda Chappel (MA ’98, Art History), Drew Grella (MFA ’24), Serge Levy (MFA ’15), Anita Maksimiuk (MFA ’24) and Mariel Miranda (MFA ’23).

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Alumna Machado honors
roots in audiorama project

Tucked in the back of Arizona Arts Live’s audiorama installation near Centennial Hall is a small replica of El Tiradito, a popular wishing shrine in downtown Tucson. For landscape designer Micaela Machado (BA '07, Studio Art), owner of Old Pueblo Hemp Co., helping create the sculpture out of hemp blocks was a chance to celebrate her Mexican-American roots. Visitors can see the El Tiradito replica inside the “Cuk Ṣon Audiorama” until Dec. 10.

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New faculty members
making a difference

Dr. Ilayda Altuntas grew up in Turkey, Pooja Venkatachalam Kumar in India and Jandey Shackelford in Wyoming. The new School of Art faculty members may come from different backgrounds, but they share one common goal: to encourage students to push their creative and scholarly boundaries.

Altuntas, assistant professor in Art and Visual Culture Education; Kumar, assistant professor of practice in Illustration, Design and Animation; and Shackelford, an MFA alumna and visiting professor in 2D Studies and Printmaking, started this semester.

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Alum Mike Srsen honored
as ‘Legendary Teacher’

Before and after earning his BFA in Studio Art, Mike Srsen worked as a graphic designer for Arizona Athletics and for a local advertising firm. But he found his real calling — teaching — when he went back to get his master’s in Art & Visual Culture Education at the School of Art.

Nearly 20 years later, Srsen is now a “legend.” The longtime Flowing Wells High School graphic design teacher has been named the 2024 Pima JTED Central Campus Legendary Teacher.

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Check out these school
exhibitions, receptions

• UAUA: The University of Arizona Undergraduate Art Exhibition at the Lionel Rombach Gallery offers many students their first chance to exhibit their artwork in a gallery setting. It's on view until Dec. 12, with a reception Dec. 5 from 4-6 p.m.

• Painting Pop-Up: Students from Professor Lawrence Gipe's two painting classes will hold an exhibition Dec. 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Wave Archive, 197 E Toole Ave.

• Fall 2024 BFA Capstone:

See the work of student artists from the School of Art’s Illustration, Design & Animation program on Dec. 13 from 5-7 p.m. in ART Room 205.

• Won't You Be My Neighbor?: On view until Dec. 20 in the Joseph Gross Gallery, the show features community artists from ArtWorks, The Projects, Tiny Town Surplus/Tanline Printing, the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui Nations, and Snakebite Creation Space.

Events calendar

Faculty members
exhibit, publish work

• David Taylor: The professor's "Complex" exhibition, a visual survey of privately operated prisons that incarcerate migrants and asylum seekers, runs until Dec. 14 at Tucson's Pidgin Palace Arts (pictured).

• Sama Alshaibi: The Regents professor exhibited her work Nov. 7-10 at the Paris Photo Fair with Galerie Esther Woerdehoff.

• Lawrence Gipe: The professor's new painting, "In Commemoration of Gardi Sugdub," is part of the group exhibition "Phenomena" at the William Turner Gallery in Los Angeles.

• Irene Bald Romano: The Art History professor jointly published an article on how a gypsum relief fragment from 7th century B.C.E. Nineveh (Iraq) ended up at the university's Arizona State Museum.

• Marcos Serafim: The assistant professor's "SEMIPERMEABLE-SYRINGE" premiered at the Festival Mix Brasil in São Paulo Brazil.

• Yana Payusova: The assistant professor of practice's solo ceramic-based show in Dallas — "Is Your Halo on Too Tight?" — was a Top Five pick in the state of Texas by Glasstire.

Faculty highlights

Students honored
for accomplishments

• Aubrey Behrens (MFA, pictured) created and installed three Sonoran Yokai sculptures in Tucson after being named one of the school's several Medici Scholars.
• Beihua Guo (MFA candidate in Studio Art, a Chinese artist whose work spans photography and installation, was named to the prestigious University Fellows cohort.

• Nicolette “Niko” Gomez (Design Arts & Practice), a Yaqui undergrad, was named a JustArts Fellow for her project, “Digital Art Inspired by Indigenous Tradition.”

• Ben Davis (MFA) and undergrad Tucker Grams (both Photography, Video & Imaging) received the College of Fine Arts Creative Achievement Awards.

Student highlights

Alumna Gonzales creates
state's largest mural

• Jessica Gonzales (BFA '12) completed a state-record 26,000-square-foot mural, "Sonoran Skylines," on the west side of the Park Place movie theater with her husband, Dakin Martin.

• Özlem Ayse Özgür (BFA '10, Studio Art), an Arizona Public Media producer, and videographer Diana Cadena (PVI Minor '21), won Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards.

• Nathan Cordova (MFA ’24, Photo, Video & Imaging) saw two of his short films selected as semifinalists in the Blow-Up Chicago International Arthouse Film Festival.

Alumni highlights

'Where are they now?':
Schneider advises 'Anora'

Kennady Schneider (BFA ’19; Photography, Video & Imaging) is a Los Angeles-based professional choreographer and dancer — and the movement consultant for “Anora,” which won the Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Read more about other alums on our "Where are they now? page, and fill out the "Share your updates" form to be featured.

Where are they now?

Follow us on Instagram,
Facebook and LinkedIn

The School of Art created a new Instagram page in June, so please follow us at @uazschoolofart. We're also on Facebook, and while you're at it, please help us also grow our School of Art LinkedIn membership to let students and faculty connect with alums, professionals and former faculty in the field.

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