December 2023

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

With mural, students give back to community; Art History senior wins top university award

As we look back on 2023 and ahead to an exciting 2024, join us in celebrating the amazing accomplishments of our students, faculty and alumni at the University of Arizona School of Art.

This month, for example, students in Associate Professor Kelly Leslie's “Clients in the Community” class (ART 465) painted an 80-foot mural (above) at the B’nai B’rith Covenant House, a HUD-funded affordable housing community for older adults. And Art History senior Grayson Agrella was one of only two undergraduates at the university to win the Centennial Award.

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Art History student Agrella
receives Centennial Award

Senior Grayson Agrella, a triple major in Art History, Anthropology and French whose research interests center around the gender non-conforming community, was named a prestigious Centennial Achievement Undergraduate Award recipient — one of the highest honors a student can achieve at the University of Arizona.

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Campos named fall 2023
Outstanding Senior

Alexis Campos found her passion as a teaching artist and gallery assistant in the Art and Visual Culture Education program, where “everywhere I turned there was someone always willing to guide me and share their knowledge,” she said. And now Campos, named the School of Art’s Outstanding Senior for fall 2023, is sharing that knowledge with children from the Sunnyside School District, where she attended classes.

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MFA candidate Blanchette
creates living sculpture

Grad student Claire Fall Blanchette, recipient of the 2023 Marcia Grand Centennial Sculpture Prize, presented a fascinating solo exhibition featuring two interacting walls of bricks that she “grew” with mycelium — the invisible part of mushrooms whose roots consist of minuscule fungal threads. In the spring, she plans to move the living sculpture to The Land with No Name, an outdoor art sanctuary near Tucson.

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Romano edits, co-authors
‘Antiquities in Nazi Era’

For Art History Professor Irene Bald Romano, a five-year journey with 15 other international scholars culminated this fall when the authors saw their research published as a special online monograph, “The Fate of Antiquities in the Nazi Era.”

Edited and co-authored by Romano, it presents for the first time a comprehensive view of the fate of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern antiquities that changed hands during the Nazi period from 1933 to 1945.

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New faculty member Liv
wins Silver Medal

Jenn Liv, a new assistant professor in our Illustration, Design & Animation program, has been awarded the Silver Medal in the advertising category for this year's Society Of Illustrators 66th Annual Competition for a three-color risograph illustration series commissioned by the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways and art directed by VIRTUE NY.

See Liv's artwork

Video journalist attracted
to school's DAP program

After 24 years traveling the world as a video journalist for the NBC affiliate in Los Angeles, Lori Bentley Law decided to go back to college. Now living in Winslow, Arizona, she selected Arizona Online, seeking a degree in Design Arts and Practices from the School of Art, minoring in content creation. “The (DAP) major has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” she said. “I eagerly anticipate every class.”

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Faculty, students impress
attendees at AERI event

The school's Art & Visual Culture Education program hosted the 2023 Art Education Research Institute (AERI) national symposium in October. "The attendees and presenters were amazed by our preparation and organization of the event," said Professor Ryan Shin, AERI's program director. (See photos). "I've received many positive and encouraging comments ... about our faculty and graduate students."

School highlights

Grad student Ruiz works
with Alzheimer's patients

MFA candidate Deborah Ruiz (Studio Art) became an Alzheimer's Association volunteer after her mother, Zoe, was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia. Deb is part of a free class, "The Art of Memory," for Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers at the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block. "Being able to to create artwork ... helps (patients') hands with dexterity, and it keeps their mind active," Ruiz says.

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Student notes: Fellows,
Medici Scholars excel

Arizona Arts profiled School of Art students this fall and their projects and residencies, including University Fellows Cohorts Maya Jackson (MFA, Photography, Video & Imaging, pictured) and Savanah Pennell (PhD, Art History and Education), and JustArts Fellow Semoria Mosley (MFA Photography, Video & Imaging). Also featured were Medici Scholars Galen Dara Smith (MFA, Studio Art), Deb Ruiz (MFA, Studio Art), Jenna Green (PhD, Art & Visual Culture Education) and Sedona Heidinger (PhD, Art History).

Student & exhibition highlights

Faculty notes: Art Matters
honors Alshaibi, Macias

Professor Sama Alshaibi and Assistant Professor Alejandro Macias were among 30 artists nationally to receive "Artist2Artist" fellowships. Also, Assistant Professor of Practice Yana Payusova‘s work was part of the “Pleasure & Protest” invitational exhibition at TCU; and Professor David Taylor‘s interview in Patagonia for a Border Chronicle podcast was released on Oct. 17.

Faculty highlights

Alumni notes: Espinosa
creates NYC art mural

Karlito Miller Espinosa (MFA ‘19, Studio Art) unveiled a new art installation “Esta Tierra es Nuestra Tierra” (“This Land is Our Land”) at the FDR Four Freedoms State Park in New York City on Sept. 15. Heather Roper (BFA '15), the lead graphic designer for the NASA OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, gave a TEDxUArizona Spirit of Wonder talk at Centennial Hall on Nov. 1.

Alumni highlights

New UAMA building
planned for 2027

To help "create opportunities for all students across campus to have meaningful arts experiences," the University of Arizona Museum of Art plans to open a new building in Spring 2027 at Speedway and Vine under the leadership of UAMA Director and alumna Olivia Miller, College of Fine Arts Dean Andrew Schulz and Tilghman H. Moyer, Arizona Arts executive director of development.

Read AZ Luminaria story

UAMA features Katoney's
weavings, paintings

First trained as a painter at the University of Arizona, Winslow-based artist Marlowe Katoney (Diné) was taught to weave by his maternal grandmother in 2010. "Pulse," an exhibition at the University of Arizona Museum of Art until March 23, 2024, features about 30 of his weavings and paintings created over the span of 15 years that are drawn from both private and public collections.

More details

LinkedIn page to help
students, alums network

The School of Art created a LinkedIn page to let students, alumni and faculty communicate and network in a professional environment. In addition to acting as an internship and job resource for students and recent graduates, the site features stories and upcoming events. Help us double the group membership to 500 people!

Join SOA LinkedIn page