Summer 2018 Herron Highlights

Summer is not only a time of rest and renewal but also a time when students, alumni, and faculty travel across country or overseas; return to the studio; pursue creative or scholarly research; and exhibit in and outside the walls of the school.

Here, we recap what the Herron community has been up to as the 2018–19 academic year gets underway.

• The Arts Council of Indianapolis named four Indiana-based visual artists with the 2018 DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award, including associate professors Anila Agha and Stefan Petranek. Each recipient receives a $10,000 grant to fund new and dynamic creative projects. Utilizing the grants, Agha will create two installations and mixed media drawings for exhibition in January 2019 at Talley Dunn Gallery in Dallas, Texas; and Petranek will create two video sculptures and a series of augmented photographic prints.

• Associate professor Anila Agha is also among 44 artists participating in Open Spaces, a ten-week arts experience across Kansas City, Mo., during which her new work, "This is NOT a Refuge," is on display through Oct. 28 at Kansas City Art Institute.

• In the Galleries at Herron, 41 faculty across all programs exhibited their work in the Biennial Faculty Exhibition, June 7-Aug. 29. Participating artists included Anila Quayyum Agha, Karen Baldner, James Brown, Doug Daniel, Stephanie Doty, Ray Duffey, Chad Eby, Matthew Eickhoff, Valerie Eickmeier, Vance Farrow, Brandon Fields, Reagan Furqueron, Anita Giddings, David Hicks, Robert Horvath, Katie Hudnall, Greg Hull, Lowell Isaac, Marc Jacobson, Sarah Jones, Ben Martinkus, Chaz Martinsen, John Collins McCormick, Mary McClung, Craig McDaniel, David Morrison, Jeanne Nemeth, Eric Nordgulen, Stefan Petranek, William Potter, Melissa Parrott Quimby, Danielle Riede, Cory Robinson, Dominic Senibaldi, Meredith Setser, Jake Sneath, Shelley Spicuzza, Carolyn Springer, Sherry Stone, Liz Wierzbicki, and Andrew Todd Winship.

• Amy Applegate (B.F.A. Painting '15), Josh Haines (B.F.A. Painting '15), and Stuart Snoddy (B.F.A. Painting '09) are exhibiting in "Current Mood," a four-person group show at the Indianapolis Arts Center running through Oct. 2.

• The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced a major retrospective featuring nearly 150 works spanning Vija Celmins' (B.F.A. '62) career from the 1960s to the present. "Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory" is on view at the museum Dec. 15, 2018, through March 31, 2019.

• A paper by Aaron S. Coleman (B.F.A. Printmaking '09) was accepted for presentation on the panel "Making Our Place: Disruptive Narratives in Contemporary Printmaking" at the 2018 Society for Utopian Studies conference in Berkeley, Calif., Nov. 1-3.

• A new series of illustrated silkscreened prints by Kaitlyn DeSpain (B.F.A. Drawing & Illustration '17) were on display through August in "Ramble" at the Indianapolis Artsgarden.

• World-renowned sculptor Heinz Aeschlimann and his wife, Gertrud, selected Cassidy Frye (B.F.A. Sculpture '15) for the International Sculpture Center's artist residency at art-st-urban in Switzerland from May 23-July 9. Frye was the 2017 recipient of ISC's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.

• The International Sculpture Center also gave Kenzie Funk (B.F.A. Sculpture '18) and Anna Lottes (B.F.A. Sculpture '18) honorable mentions for this year's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. They will be recognized online and in the October issue of Sculpture magazine.

• Associate professor Aaron Ganci along with 12 faculty members nationwide was awarded a first-time Teach Access Curriculum Development Award to develop lesson plans on the fundamental concepts and skills of accessible design and development for "Digital Experience Design." During the eight-week course this fall Ganci's class will design and develop accessible apps in collaboration with a computer science class at IUPUI.

• Dean Nan Goggin contributed a chapter to "New Media Futures: The Rise of Women in the Digital Arts," published in June by University of Illinois Press, about her involvement with the first curated art website. Edited by Donna J. Cox, the book chronicles the work of trailblazing women who established the Midwest as a hotbed for creative experiments in the digital domain.

• Danielle Joy Graves (B.F.A. Drawing & Illustration '16) and Nick Witten (B.F.A. Sculpture '15) are exhibiting in "Dream Anywhere, Play Here Part 2" at the Indianapolis Art Center through Oct. 2. The artists' installation utilizes video and sculpture to create an absurd world investigating Graves and Witten's childhood imaginings.

• Cindy Hinant (B.F.A. Sculpture '08) exhibited in a five-person group show, "Negotiating Geometry," at Häusler Contemporary in Zurich, Germany, May 31-July 21. The exhibition showcased post-minimalist geometric forms.

• Associate professor Laura Holzman, public scholar of curatorial practices and visual art, curated "We're Open, Come In: The House Life Project," an exhibition on view Aug. 2-30 at Gallery 924 at the Arts Council of Indianapolis. The show highlighted how the House Life Project used creative activity, community collaboration, and abandoned houses on Indianapolis's Near eastside to examine difficult questions related to race, ethnicity, and housing inequity. The project is part of her ongoing work using art history, its methods, and its related institutions to strengthen communities and build a more reflective society.

• Associate professor and director of visual communication design graduate programs Youngbok Hong and adjunct instructor Bryan Richards co-presented the paper "Growing an Orchard: How to Instill Design Thinking in an Enterprise" during the Biennial Academic Design Management Conference at Ravensbourne University London Aug. 1-2.

• Associate professor Robert Horvath and professor and former Dean Valerie Eickmeier led 18 students on a three-week study abroad trip to Central Europe to explore the vibrant cities of Berlin, Dresden, Prague, and Vienna. See the highlights in a 4-minute video on Facebook, created by student participant Courtney Poor. Afterwards, Horvath traveled to Thailand and Cambodia on a General Education Study Abroad Grant from the Study Abroad Office with the objective of developing a new study abroad program. The new program will provide elective courses at Herron to IUPUI students who are completing their arts and humanities requirements.

• Samuel Levi Jones (B.F.A. Photography '09) is exhibiting works in "Sedimentations: Assemblages as Social Repair," featuring artists who employ in their art practice strategies of reuse. "Sedimentations" is on view through Dec. 8 at The 8th Floor in New York, N.Y. Additionally, Jones' work is included in "Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press," a traveling group exhibition scheduled Sept. 2018 through Aug. 2022 at art centers and museums across the country.

• "The Key," an animated short by Kylie Kinkoph (B.F.A. Drawing & Illustration '18), was selected for screening Sept. 27-29 during the inaugural Circle City Film Festival at Georgetown Cinemas.

• Jonathan McAfee (B.F.A. Painting '06) was accepted as one of 100 artists to participate in the 2018 BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Artisan Series, a competition for a chance to exhibit across the U.S. and Canada and at SCOPE Miami Beach, one of the largest art fairs in the world. Online voting is open to the public through Oct. 26.

• From June 9-24, Dominic Sansone (M.F.A. Visual Art '10) exhibited at Novado Gallery in "Permutations of Vulnerability," highlighting four participants of the International Sculpture Center's artist-in-residence program at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, N.J.

• On Aug. 29 during the closing reception for Herron's Biennial Faculty Exhibition, the Herron Alumni Association celebrated three individuals whose service, dedication, and achievements have exceptionally contributed to the school. Professor Marc Jacobson was bestowed the Harry A. Davis Faculty Award; James Sholly (B.F.A. Visual Communication '87) was awarded the 2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award for his exceptional service, dedication, and career achievements; and Melissa Cardenas (B.F.A. Visual Communication Design '18) received the 2018 Spirit of Herron Award.

• Commissioned by Indianapolis arts patron Livia Klain Russell, associate professor Andrew Todd Winship led a project through Herron's Basile Center of Art, Design, and Public Life with painting student Logan Thomas Gainey and recent graduate Natasha Vidger (M.F.A. Visual Art '18), who designed and completed a mural for the Phoenix Theatre's new building, located at 705 and 709 N. Illinois St.