March 11 marked the beginning of a new collaboration between the Department of Art and The Stranahan Theater. A show of photographs by Eric Ziegler, called “From the Middle of Nowhere” was unveiled as it was announced that faculty from the Department of Art will be displaying their work at the Stranahan, in rotating exhibitions. Ziegler is the Lecturer of Multidisciplinary Art and Foundations in the Department of Art.

“The Stranahan Theater, widely known for its presentation of all forms of live performances, draws countless guests, both locally and regionally. As a result of this ability, our theater can, at any given event, have thousands of people within our four walls. What an opportunity to allow our blank walls to be a platform for visual arts, and, in the process, enhance our patrons’ experience! We recently contacted the University of Toledo about partnering with us for this very purpose and couldn’t have received a more willing and excited response. What a great venture for the two of us and for the public not only to see the great forms of art, but also to have the chance to purchase them!” – Stephen Hyman, Executive Director, Stranahan Theater & Great Hall

“I am excited to be partnering with the Stranahan Theater for this exhibition of three photographs, selected from my series “From the Middle of Nowhere.” This exhibition marks the start of what will certainly be a beneficial collaboration between two centers of creativity in Toledo. The theater will provide the University of Toledo’s College of Communication and Arts with a new platform to harness our creative power. I am looking forward to what may be possible in the future through this partnering.” – Eric Zeigler, Lecturer of Multidisciplinary Art and Foundations

“The Department of Art in the College of Communication and the Arts at UT is now partnering with the Stranahan Theater. We are bringing the visuals arts to this wonderful, landmark performing arts center. On a rotational basis, our faculty will be exhibiting their works in the halls of the Stanahan. We are excited that the exceptional work of our faculty will be highlighted at the Stranahan, giving audiences a chance to engage in our multi-sensory artistic offerings.” – Debra A. Davis, Dean – College of Communication and the Arts, School of Visual & Performing Arts, University of Toledo

Zeigler’s “From the Middle of Nowhere” photograph collection is currently on display in the upper balcony lobby of the Stranahan Theatre, located at 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., in Toledo.

Midsummer Borrowings events on campus

The College of Communication and the Arts (CoCA) celebrated its annual Arts and Humanities Festival with a series of events in collaboration with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and its production of “Midsummer Night Mysteries,” March 27-28. UT students and faculty took part in the Symphony production at the Peristyle. Leading up to the performances, CoCA presented related lectures, a concert and a film screening on campus.

Friday film screening
On Friday, March 20 in the Haigh Auditorium of the Center for Visual Arts, a screening of the 1935 Max Reinhardt film A Midsummer Night’s Dream was introduced by Dr. Matt Yockey, Assistant Professor of Film in the UT Department of Theatre & Film.

Nominated for Best Picture, this film adaptation of Reinhardt’s successful Hollywood Bowl production of the Shakespeare play includes extensive use of Felix Mendelssohn’s music as re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and ballet sequences choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. The cast includes Mickey Rooney, Olivia DeHavilland and James Cagney, among many other familiar names and faces.

Sunday Great Gallery concert by Bezonian Trio
On Sunday, March 22, the Bezonian Trio featuring Antonina Chekhovskaya, soprano, performed in the Toledo Museum of Art’s Great Gallery. The concert featured pieces that recall two of Shakespeare’s most famous plays – Macbeth (Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D major, Op.70 #1 “Ghost”) and Hamlet (Ophelia’s Song by Dimitri Shostakovich). The Bezonian Trio is comprised of Merwin Siu (violin) and Damon Coleman (cello) of the Toledo Symphony, and Dr. Michael Boyd (piano), professor of piano at The University of Toledo.

Mendelssohn’s Music, Reinhardt’s Diaphanous Damsels, Shakespeare’s Fairies
On Wednesday March 25, Matthew Wikander, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of the UT Department of English, presented a lecture about fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“We are spirits of another sort,” the fairy king Oberon reminds Puck as Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dreamers awaken into morning. Puck has just been describing the dawn as a time when “damned spirits” return to their “wormy beds”—a kind of reverse zombie apocalypse. Oberon’s and Puck’s disagreements do not begin or end here, but this interchange raises the question of what kind of fairies the fairies in Shakespeare’s plays are, and, by extension, the further question of how to represent them. This talk focused on the problem of representing fairies musically, in Mendelssohn’s incidental score, cinematically, in Max Reinhardt’s film version of his famous stage production, and poetically, as the fairies appear in Shakespeare’s text.

The College of Communication and the Arts (CoCA) celebrated its annual Arts & Humanities Festival with a series of events in collaboration with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and its production of “Midsummer Night Mysteries,” March 27-28. UT students and faculty took part in the Symphony production at the Peristyle. Leading up to the performances, CoCA presented related lectures, a concert and a film screening on campus. More on those in another post.

Midsummer Night Mysteries with TSO

Mendelssohn’s ethereal Overture, effervescent Scherzo, and iconic Wedding March highlight the first half of “Midsummer Night Mysteries.” The North American premiere of Volker David Kirchner’s Labyrinthos presented the Bard’s fairies, lovers and comic sidekicks, alongside music inspired by the Italian Baroque master Claudio Monteverdi. Stephan Sanderling conducted and Cornel Gabara, associate professor of Theatre and Head of Acting at UT, directed and portrayed the dual character Egeus/Bottom.

A number of UT students and faculty participated in the performance. UT faculty who acted in the show included Irene Alby, Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film, who played Hippolyta/Titania and as mentioned above, Gabara played Egeus/Bottom.

UT Theatre students involved in the production included Ian Davis as Demetrius; Jeffrey Burden as Oberon/Theseus; Nolan Thomaswick as Lysander; Victoria Zajac as Hermia; Keely-Rain Battle as Puck; and Elif Ertürk as Helena. Students also doubled up and played other roles, such as the mechanicals and fairies.

Set design was done by Gabara; costume design was done by Daniel Thobias, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Head of Design in the Department of Theatre and Film; and lighting was handled by James S. Hill, retired chair of UT Department of Theatre & Film.

At the April 1, Assessment Appreciation Lunch, Dr. Mysoon Rizk, Associate Professor of Art History, received the Academic Program Award for excellence in assessment. This is the second year running that professor Rizk has been recognized for this achievement. The Art History program was nominated this year due to the strong assessment measures its faculty employ to determine how and what students are learning, and the clarity with which they link those measures to the results and subsequent actions they take in response to the results received. To do this, the Art History faculty designate particular assignments, which are then evaluated against a common rubric. The results are totaled, and shared with all faculty, who meet together to determine if any results are lower than expected, and what should be done to address any such result.

The Independent Collegian was named the best all-around non-daily newspaper in Region 4 at the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) convention in Athens, Ohio. Blake Bacho received first place honors in sports writing, and the staff was a finalist in editorial writing. UT:10 News was named a finalist for best all-around television newscast. The student journalists from UT compete with their peers from Ohio State, Bowling Green, Michigan Central, Marshall, and other universities in Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.

“The Ten Commandments of Propaganda,” by Professor of Communication Brian Anse Patrick, has been translated into and published in Polish

Brian Patrick, a professor in the Department of Communication, is one of the most colorful researchers and writers in our college. His recent books have covered issues ranging from the NRA to zombies. His classic book The Ten Commandments of Propaganda has now been translated for the first time, into Polish. 10 Przykazań Propagandy can be purchased online at the One Press website.

Members of Zeta Phi Eta, the national professional fraternity for communication, the arts, and sciences

Zeta Phi Eta, the national professional fraternity for communication, the arts, and sciences was recently nominated for the Parks Thompson Best New Student Organization Award at The University of Toledo.

This award honors Toledo’s most successful student organization formed within the last year. The Beta Theta Chapter of Zeta Phi Eta was founded in January of 2014, having only 10 members. Zeta Phi Eta currently has 37 active members.

Throughout the year, Zeta Phi Eta has participated in many philanthropic events on campus such as Relay for Life, The Big Event, Wrap up Toledo, and Tie One On.

According to the Office of Student Involvement, “the organization will be selected based on their organization’s development, leadership development of members, ability to overcome obstacles, and contribution to University and/or community.”

The recipient of this award will be announced in April.

More information regarding the Parks Thompson Best New Student Organization Award can be found at http://www.utoledo.edu/studentaffairs/osi/parksthompson/

A still from Holly Hey’s film “the dumdum capitol of the world”

Congratulations to Associate Professor Holly Hey, who screened her film The Dum Dum Capitol of the World at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Athens Film Festival, and the Queens World Film Festival.

A brief synopsis: The Dum Dum Capitol of the World (Holly Hey, 2014) 21 minutes.
An experimental documentary that contemplates landscape, home, memory, queerness, and time. The project illuminates social constructs about sexuality, self, and human instinct. Visible and latent hostilities directed towards queerness surface.

Image of space by Xueling Zhao

The University of Toledo Department of Art will be among the stars this spring, beginning Tuesday, April 14 in Ritter Planetarium. As part of the Planetarium program “Stars: Powerhouses of the Universe,” photographs made by students will be on display in the lobby gallery and on the dome as well.

The exhibition, titled “Faux Space,” is the third such photo show at the planetarium. The image on display were made in the Department of Art’s Fall 2014 introductory photo course, ART 2030: Photography, taught by Professor Deborah Orloff. Students were challenged to create photos that evoke a sense of space – in the extraterrestrial sense. They used a diverse range of materials to create their images including food, toys, pots, glitter, fire, lasers, smoke, and oils. All images were made with a DSLR camera; they are not computer-generated or taken from space.

The gallery images will be on display throughout the summer whenever Ritter Planetarium is open to the public.

Student artists featured in the exhibition include:
Shalissa Bailey, Jamie Campbell, Andrea Fackelman, Emily Frank, June Galvin and Danielle Hedger; Qiong Jia, Leanne Jones, Chariti Lockhard, Nicelle McCuchen, Kathlynn Meyer and Kayla Perez; Alexandra Ray, Daniel Rivera, Madison Roy, Jamie Snyder, Drew Tansel, Chelsea Thompson, Xueling Zhao and Yue Zhao.