Hello Friend —

Please mark “Friday, March 5″ on your calendar as the College of Arts and Letters of Missouri State University is coming to Kansas City! TALENT ON TOUR 2010 is a showcase of Missouri State’s most talented students.

It’s going to be a great evening and I hope to see you there!  Join us and our special host Susan Hiland, co-anchor of WDAF Fox 4 News, for these free events:

6:00 PM Alumni Reception
7:00 PM Showcase Performance
8:00 PM Afterglow Reception with Performers

The Westin Crown Center
Washington Park Place Rooms
One East Pershing Road
Kansas City, Missouri

(Reserve a discounted room with code “Missouri State“)

Join amazing students from many of our academic departments:

• Art & Design
• Communication
• English
• Media, Journalism and Film



• Modern & Classical Languages
• Music
• Theatre & Dance

See you in Kansas City!

Sincerely,

Carey Adams, dean
College of Arts & Letters
Missouri State University

Please RSVP by Tuesday, March 2, to (417) 836-5247 or e-mail collegeofartsandletters@missouristate.edu.

Mission The College of Arts and Letters promotes learning, scholarship, and service to the broader community in all aspects of human communication — spoken, written, visual, musical, dramatic, and electronically mediated. With support for general education and with discipline-specific degrees, both undergraduate and graduate, we aim to foster intellectual independence, expressive competence, and aesthetic appreciation within the traditional arenas of arts and letters. We also aim to instill the desire and capability for lifelong learning, in keeping with the advancements of our disciplines and their technologies. In the departments and programs of the College, we enhance students’ creative and performance skills, sharpen students’ communication effectiveness in a variety of languages and media, and prepare students to be effective professionals and community members. We hope to model an attitude of respect for diverse cultures, traditions, values, ideas, and ways of knowing.

© 2010 College of Arts & Letters at
Missouri State University
February 5, 2010 • blogs.missouristate.edu/coalexpressions
901 S. National Ave. Springfield, MO  65897 • 417.836.5247

Professor Cedomir Kostovic's work "The Equality of People" is one of two pieces acquired for the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.

Two pieces of artwork by Art and Design Professor Cedomir Kostovic have been acquired for display in the United States Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program. This program, which was founded in 1964, exhibits original works of art by American citizens in the public rooms of approximately 180 diplomatic residences worldwide. The program’s web site states that its aim is to serve as a “global museum” in which international audiences can experience American art and culture.

Professor Cedomir Kostovic received his BFA and MFA in Graphic Design from the Sarajevo Academy of Fine Arts prior to coming to Missouri State University to teach. In addition to several national and international awards, he has had work displayed worldwide in numerous international poster competitions.

Trumpeter Jon Lewis will perform at the COAL Lecture/Recital series on Tuesday, January 26.

The College of Arts and Letters presents a recital featuring Jon Lewis (trumpet), Dr. Peter Collins (piano), and Dr. John Prescott (music theory and composition) as part of the College of Arts and Letters Lecture Series. This event will take place at Ellis Recital Hall (217B) on Tuesday, January 26 from 7:30 to 9:00 PM and is free and open to the public.

Jon Lewis is one of Hollywood’s top studio musicians, performing for over 500 movie soundtracks and a thousand television shows. Lewis’s trumpet work has been recorded for numerous recent films, including Avatar, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, and G.I. Joe, and for several television
shows, including JAG and Star Trek. Dr. Peter Collins is a Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Keyboard Area. Dr. John Prescott, Professor of Music Theory and Composition in the Department of Music, will be debuting his new composition, Sonata No. 3 for Trumpet and Piano. In addition to Dr. Prescott’s Sonata No. 3, Mr. Lewis will perform music compositions by
Gershwin, Henze, Shchedrin, Simon, Turrin, and Vizzutti.

A piece by Sarah Perkins in silver and vitreous enamel, featured in the "Heirlooms of the Future" display.

Work from Sarah Perkins, Professor of Metals and Jewelry in the Art and Design Department, is on display in the prestigious Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Perkins’s work is part of the “Heirlooms of the Future” exhibition, a group exhibition featuring jewelry pieces, sculptures, and hollowware. This exhibit will also be displayed in the Mobilia Gallery’s booth at the upcoming Sculpture, Objects, and Functional Art show, which will be in New York in the spring.

Perkins has also been elected to a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the Enamelist Society, a volunteer arts organization dedicated to promoting and discussing the craft of enameling. In addition to this honor, the Enamelist Society recently awarded Perkins their Creative Arts achievement award for “Creative Contributions to the Field of Enameling.”

COAL GA Phillip George poses with new quilt from OCF drawing

COAL Graduate Assistant Phillip George won the hand-stitched and hand-quilted, queen size quilt donated to the Ozarks Celebration Festival by Tri-Lakes Quilters of Branson.

Chances on the quilt were available throughout the Festival with the drawing held Friday, September 18. Nearly 200 chances were purchased this year.

George is a graduate student studying Professional and Technical Writing in the English Department.

(Click the image below to visit the Alumni Spotlight page and play video.)

Robert Wechsler is a choreographer, dancer and developer of interactive methods of performing with technology. He holds a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase, and an MFA in Choreography from New York University. From 1979 to 1988, he studied with Merce Cunningham. His interest in sensors and electronic devices dates back to the 1970’s, when he used body-worn electronic devices to generate sounds through movements on stage. Wechsler has been honored with a Fulbright Fellowship, grants from the Marshall Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He founded Palindrome in 1982, together with like-minded artists and scientists.

Wechsler also teaches and writes about dance and technology. From 2004 to 2006 he was head of England’s first Masters program in Digital Performance, at Doncaster College, Hull University. He has published articles in Leonardo Magazine, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Ballet International, Dance Magazine, Dance Research Journal, Nouvelles de Danse, Der Tanz der Dinge and others, and a book, Motion Tracking: a practical guide for performing artists.

For more information about Spring Dance Concert, visit the Department of Theatre and Dance website.

Dr. Dillon will serve as one of 9 faculty leaders in Communication from around the United States specifically invited in the 2009 Doctoral Honors Seminar.  Approximately 36 doctoral students from around the country have also been selected to participate in this year’s seminar.  Students are placed into one of three work groups which will be lead by three faculty leaders.  Working together, the three faculty leaders and the 12 students will discuss and evaluate the submitted papers as well as engage in discussion of the theoretical, methodological, ethical, and practical issues involved in conducting engaged scholarship. “I am honored to be asked to take part in this opportunity to work with talented faculty and doctoral students in the area of engaged communication scholarship,” said Dillon.

According to the National Communication Association website, NCA is the largest national organization dedicated to communication. Researchers, educators, and professionals, work to understand and better all forms of human interaction.

“The International Trumpet Guild was founded in 1974 to promote communications among trumpet  players around the world and to improve the artistic level of performance,  teaching, and literature associated with the trumpet.  ITG’s more than 6,000 members represent 64 countries and include professional and amateur performers, teachers, students, manufacturers, publishers, and others interested in belonging to an organization dedicated to the trumpet profession.” [Source: www.trumpetguild.org]

Grant S. Peters is Professor of Music at Missouri State University, where he teaches applied studio trumpet and serves as the Brass Area Coordinator. Peters is a member of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Regional Opera.

Peters holds the Bachelor of Music in Education degree from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Trumpet Performance from the University of North Texeas. His principal teachers include Mr. Dennis L. Schneider and Dr. Leonard A. Candelaria.

Filmmakers Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit pose with Theatre Professor Kurt Heinlein

Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit, the husband-and-wife filmmaking duo behind many influential documentaries and films, visited Missouri State University as part of the Public Affairs Conference and also held two workshops for students. Pitre and Benoit participated in the panels “Communicating Sustainability Through Media and the Arts,” “Social Networking and Sustainability Issues,” and “Common sense vs. Common Sense: The Design of Communities.” In addition to their participation in these panels, Pitre and Benoit held two workshops on April 22.

In “Performing on Camera,” students participated in mock auditions and the filmmakers shared their insights into the film industry. Later that day, they held a screening of their film American Creole: A New Orleans Reunion, which aired on PBS in 2006 and features musician Don Yappie’s struggle to rebuild the community in New Orleans after it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

With their production company, Cote Blanche, Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit have brought the rich history of southern Louisiana to audiences across the world. In addition to American Creole, films by the couple include Harvest to Restore America’s Coastal Heartland, the latest in a series on coastal wetlands loss for the National Estuary Program; The Man Who Came Back, about the first post-Civil War labor strike; and The Scoundrel’s Wife (released as The Home Front), about the bayou home front during World War II. Pitre and Benoit’s films have won international acclaim and multiple awards, in addition to featuring the talent of such stars as Armand Assante, Tim Curry, Robert Duvall and Tatum O’Neal.