Missouri State University
Arts & Letters Expressions
An online publication for the alumni and friends of the College of Arts and Letters

Missouri artist and alum to receive state award

Posted on by Phillip George
Governor Nixon with Billyo O'Donnell
Billyo O'Donnell discusses his "Painting Missouri" exhibit with Governor Jay Nixon at the Art and Design Gallery in downtown Springfield.

Billyo O’Donnell, a 1980 graduate in art and design, will receive the Missouri Arts Council’s Individual Artist Award for 2012. This award is the highest honor the state can confer to an artist. O’Donnell will receive the award on Feb. 8, 2012 in a 2:00 p.m. ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City, Mo.

O’Donnell says that Art and Design professors Bill Armstrong, Jerry Hatch, Dwaine Crigger, John Careggio and Maury Cooper contributed to his development as an artist. He practices the plein air style, in which artists paint outside to be closer to their subjects. It was in this style that he depicted scenes from Missouri’s counties in a 2009 book, Painting Missouri: The Counties en Plein Air, which he published with author Karen Glines. The book received a 2009 Missouri Humanities Award. O’Donnell toured the state with a “Painting Missouri” exhibit, which the University’s Art and Design Gallery featured in September 2009. Governor Jay Nixon, who will participate in the award ceremony, visited Springfield to view the exhibit.

The Missouri Arts Council, a division of the Department of Economic Development, provides grants to nonprofit organizations to stimulate arts participation, art-related economic development, and education through the arts. The council established the Missouri Arts Awards in 1983 to honor individuals and organizations who have contributed to Missouri’s arts culture.

O’Donnell was profiled in the Fall 2009 issue of Expressions. Visit his artist page at http://www.billyoart.com to learn more about his life and work.

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Fall 2011 edition of Expressions available online

Posted on by Phillip George

Expressions Volume 6 Issue 1

Volume 6, Issue 1 of Expressions, the biannual newsletter of the College of Arts and Letters, has been posted online. Highlights of this issue include:

  • The Center for Dispute Resolution and its programs, including restorative justice, community outreach, and education
  • A letter from Dean Carey Adams and the holiday wishlist
  • Dr. Kurt Heinlein’s role as Provost Fellow for the 2012 Public Affairs Conference
  • Student groups that have increased recognition with the help of Arts and Letters Student Achievement Funding Awards
  • Stories from Arts and Letters students, faculty and staff who contributed to Joplin relief efforts
  • Successes of the Missouri Fine Arts Academy and its Joplin outreach
  • The Ozarks Writing Project and its impact on writing pedagogy
  • Events on the horizon for Spring 2012

Read the newsletter online and share your thoughts in the comments.

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**Register by Dec. 20** Tour Germany and Paris with the Concert Chorale

Posted on by Phillip George
Concert Chorale at St. Peters Church, Vienna
The Concert Chorale performs at St. Peter's Church in Vienna, Austria in 2010.

From May 24-June 2, 2012, you can tour with the Concert Chorale and their family and friends as they visit Germany and Paris, performing six concerts along the way. This wonderful tour continues the tradition of the Concert Chorale performing internationally every even-numbered year, regaling audiences abroad and making new connections. In 2010, the Concert Chorale visited Austria, and in 2008, they toured Italy.

“The MSU Concert Chorale has toured nine times with Concept Tours in New York City, and always the tour is first class,” Dr. Guy Webb, Concert Chorale director, states. “Fine tour guides, city guides, and well-thought itineraries.”

The tour leaves the United States from JFK International Airport on Thursday, May 24, and arrives at Frankfort International Airport on May 25. You’ll visit the Hannover region and Rhine River Valley (including a Rhine cruise) in Germany, then spend four days in Paris. Other sites in Germany include Mainz, a sightseeing tour of Hamelin (the village known for the famous “Pied Piper” story) and Limburg. In Paris, you’ll see the Champs-Elysees, Place de la Concord, Versailles, the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, and the Louvre. In addition, you will hear the Concert Chorale entertain audiences at several venues including Minden-Hanover, Limburg, the Abbey at Lorch, La Madeleine Church in Paris, and Chartres Cathedral.

Download the reservation form or contact Concept Tours directly by calling (800) 300-8841 or emailing info@concept-tours.com. Group size is limited — sign up now to confirm your seat on the group flights from New York City. December 20 is the deadline for registration and first payment. You may also contact Webb, choral director, for more information about the trip by emailing GuyWebb@missouristate.edu or calling (417) 836-5182.

“We have had so many memorable experiences on these tours abroad,” Webb adds. “It would be hard to duplicate the experience of touring alongside the Concert Chorale, with beautiful concerts and venues. Come and join us!”

PDF Download the Concert Chorale tour itinerary to learn more about places visited on the tour.

PDF Download the Concert Chorale tour information sheet to learn more about tour amenities and fee schedules.

 

 

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Moon City Invitational presents student creative writing

Posted on by Phillip George
The Moon City Student Invitational provides a venue for showcasing student creative writing.


The English Department hosts the Fall 2011 Moon City Student Invitational Reading on Friday, Dec. 2 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Plaster Student Union theater. This event is free and open to the public.

Held once each semester, the student invitational reading highlights student writing in the areas of fiction and poetry. Katherine Botts, Matthew Stewart and Matt Whitaker will read fiction, and Allys Page, Kat Kelly and Hannah Nobrega will read poetry. You may contact Jennifer Edwards, instructor in english, at (417) 836-5107 or JEdwards@missouristate.edu to learn more about the student invitational reading.

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Holiday tradition continues with Elizabethan Christmas Dinners

Posted on by Phillip George
The Chamber singers entertain the crowd during the Elizabethan Christmas dinners.

The Concert Chorale once again joins the University Chamber Singers and Collegiate Singers for the 46th Annual Elizabethan Christmas Dinners. Held in the Plaster Student Union Ballroom from 6:15 to 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 30 through Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, the dinners feature tantalizing entertainment and a delicious array of Olde English style food.

At 6:15 each evening, guests assemble in the third floor lobby of the Plaster Student Union, where revelry and serenading passes the time until the Grande Dining Hall opens at 7:00. The Chamber Singers serve as the royal court for the event, the Collegiate Singers sing and serve the meals, and the Concert Chorale performs the formal concert at the end of each dinner. The following is a description of the menu:

“This year’s menu features the King’s Butternut Squash Soup with Creme Fraiche and Chives, Salad of Winter Greens and Root Vegetables with Sherry Vinaigrette Dressing, the King’s Fowl stuffed with Cheese of the Goat, Fresh Spinach with a Cranberry Glaze, Potatoes Baked a Second Time, Green Beans, and a scrumptious new dessert for the Elizabethan Dinner menu – a Ginger Bread Trifle with Citrus Custard. All of this will be accompanied by an abundance of beverages! Vegetarian or an alternate entree selection may be indicated on ticket requests.”

Tickets are $25 for students, $30 for adults, and $27.50 each for groups of ten or more. Tickets can be purchased online. Hurry to reserve your seat at the table!

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The Standard receives first Newspaper Pacemaker award

Posted on by Phillip George
Jack Dimond (left), Jon Poorman, Megan Gates, and Michael Gulledge (right) at the National College Media Convention in Orlando after winning a Newspaper Pacemaker award.

The Standard, Missouri State University’s official student-run newspaper, received the first Newspaper Pacemaker award in school history at the National College Media Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Standard was one of thirteen schools out of the 24 finalists in the four-year non-daily category to receive the award, which is given by the Associated Collegiate Press. Jack Dimond, faculty advisor for The Standard, describes the Pacemaker award as a “comprehensive measure of quality of student media” and explains that professional journalists judge student newspapers on several criteria based on five full issues. This year’s finalist nod was the first for The Standard since 1998.

“We are obviously excited to receive this award,” the editorial board of The Standard writes in a Nov. 1 opinion piece about the award. “The award has further inspired all of our staff members to continue to produce a newspaper that is of high quality and most importantly, that serves the students of our great university.”

Convention attendees included Dimond, editor-in-chief Jon Poorman, managing editor Megan Gates, and photo editor Michael Gulledge. In addition to the Pacemaker award win, former members of the Standard received honorable mentions in individual categories. Matt Kile, former photo editor, and Mikaela Buck, former advertising designer, were honored at the convention. Both are Spring 2011 graduates of the College of Arts and Letters.

The Standard, formerly known as the Southwest Standard, has served as the official student-run newspaper since 1912. It is published every Tuesday during fall and spring semesters (with some exceptions for holidays) and has a print circulation of 7,000. You may read The Standard online at http://www.the-standard.org.

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Art professor selected for national printmaking exhibitions

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Missouri Waltz, by Jacek Fraczak, is included in the printmaking exhibition "50 Places" at the University of Colorado.

Work by Jacek Fraczak, assistant professor in art and design, is included in Prints U.S.A, a national biennial competitive exhibition opening at the Springfield Art Museum in November 2011. Prints U.S.A., which was created to recognize skilled artists in printmaking, is in its seventh year. Elizabeth Wyckoff, curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the Saint Louis Art Museum, judged exhibition entries. Fraczak received a $350 cash award, one of nineteen cash awards distributed out of the eighty-six entries included in the exhibition.

“This recognition, for me, is so valuable because it happens here, in the Springfield Art Museum, in the city where I decided to settle down with my family,” Fraczak says.

Jacek Fraczak received his masters in fine arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland. Since 2007, he has lived in Springfield and taught computer graphics and illustration courses in the art and design department. Fraczak has also been selected for “50 Places” a national printmaking exhibition curated by Melanie Yazzie of the University of Colorado. The exhibition consists of one print representing each of the fifty states. Fraczak’s print, Missouri Waltz (featured above) was selected to represent Missouri.

Fraczak is one of several artists from Springfield and the region to be featured in the Prints U.S.A. exhibition. A reception for the exhibition will be held on Nov. 18, 2011 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Springfield Art Museum. Prints U.S.A. will be on display at the museum from Nov. 19, 2011 to Jan. 8, 2012.

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University Film Series brings master filmmakers to campus

Posted on by Phillip George
"Two Soldiers," with cinematography by David Boyd, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

David Boyd, a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and his wife, film producer, actress, and theatre and dance alum Lisa Rhoden Boyd, will visit campus for masterclass workshops on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 and a screening of works on Friday, Nov. 4. All events are free and open to the public, and will be held in the Plaster Student Union theatre. David Boyd’s workshop is from 2:00 to 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3, and Lisa Rhoden Boyd’s workshop is from 4:00 to 5:45 p.m. The Nov. 4 screening and talkback session is from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. and will consist of two works for which David Boyd has done cinematography: “Two Soldiers,” an award-winning short film, and “The Trial of Jack McCall,” an episode from season one of HBO’s hit series “Deadwood.” (The “Deadwood” episode is rated “TV-MA” for adult language.) After the screening, David and Lisa will participate in a talkback session about making films in and out of Hollywood. 

“Two Soldiers,” which won an Academy Award in 2004 for Best Live Action Short Film, stars Ron Perlman and is based on a story by William Faulkner. When ten-year-old Willie Grier’s older brother enlists in the Army after Pearl Harbor, Willie sets out to track him down, determined to follow his brother and best friend off to war. “Deadwood” ran on HBO from 2004 to 2006 and followed characters living in Deadwood, South Dakota, a crime-ridden mining camp, following the massacre of Custer’s forces. “The Trial of Jack McCall” is episode 5 of the show’s first season. Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) transforms his bar, The Gem, into a courtroom to try a murderer.

David Boyd was nominated for an ASC award in 2004 for his work on “Deadwood.” Other television credits include cinematography, camera, and direction work on “Firefly,” “Without a Trace,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Sons of Anarchy” and “The Walking Dead.” He has also worked on feature films, including “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” (2008), “12 Rounds” (2009), “Get Low” (2009; Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray) and the upcoming feature “Joyful Noise” (2012; Dolly Parton, Queen Latifah).

Lisa Rhoden Boyd is a Springfield native, film producer, actress, and graduate from the University’s theatre and dance department. She has worked extensively with Cuban-American director Leon Ichaso, producing his 2009 film “Paraiso” and serving as associate producer on his 2001 film “Pinero.”

The University Film Series is made possible by a grant from the Office of the Provost and support from the College of Arts and Letters. All students and interested members of the public are encouraged to attend the Thursday workshops and Friday night screening and meet these master filmmakers. You may contact Mark Biggs, department head of media, journalism and film, at (417) 836-5218 or MarkBiggs@missouristate.edu for more information.

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Communication graduate student receives Basil and JoAnn Boritzki Endowment

Posted on by Phillip George
Jinghua Bi
Jinghua Bi, graduate student in communication, received the Basil and JoAnn Boritzki Endowment award. (Photo credit: Keith Kennedy)

Congratulations to Jinghua Bi, graduate student in communication, who has been selected to receive one of the two Basil and JoAnn Boritzki Endowment awards given in the 2011-2012 academic year. These awards are given annually to two full-time graduate students to recognize their academic excellence. Eligible students must enroll full-time and intend to teach in a publicly-supported educational institution (K-12 or college). Hundreds of graduate students applied for this award, which is one of the few graduate student awards eligible to students across all disciplines.

“I’m greatly humbled and encouraged,” Bi says about receiving the award, which she also feels reflects the support and guidance she received from the communication department.

Bi’s research interests are intercultural communication and organizational communication. She has presented research related to organizational communication at the Springfield chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Sooner Communication Conference at the University of Oklahoma. She plans to pursue additional research related to intercultural communication.

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Orchestra concert to benefit Joplin high school

Posted on by Phillip George
The University Symphony Orchestra will play a concert with the Joplin High School String Orchestra on Nov. 1.

On Tuesday, Nov. 1 from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. the Missouri State University Symphony Orchestra will hold a special benefit concert featuring Joplin High School’s orchestra at Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts. This concert is free and open to the public, and donations are encouraged to support the Joplin High School and its orchestra to help it recover from the destruction of the school after the tornado on May 22.

For over ten years, the University Symphony Orchestra has hosted concerts featuring talented high school string orchestras from the area. Dr. Robert Quebbeman, professor of music and conductor of the symphony, says that this is the first time the concert has been a fundraising activity, but explains that this event is special due to the circumstances. This year’s program will include three pieces performed by the Joplin High School string orchestra, three by the University Symphony Orchestra, and will end with two pieces performed by both groups. You may contact Dr. Quebbeman at RobertQuebbeman@missouristate.edu or (417) 836-5729 for more information about the concert.

The following is the finalized program for the performance:

Joplin String Orchestra: “Alla Tchaikovsky” (a potpourri of 22 Tchaikovsky melodies), “Adagio Cantabile” (from “Pathetique”), “Lady Gaga Hit Mix” (a medley of songs by pop artist Lady Gaga)

Missouri State Symphony Orchestra: “Polonaise from Eugene Onegin” (Tchaikovsky), “Two Elegaic Melodies” (Grieg), “Rienzi Overture” (Wagner)

Combined groups: Into the Storm (Robert W. Smith), Russian Sailors Dance (Gliere)

 

KY3 News has also covered the benefit concert. Embedded below is Jay Scherder’s report, which aired on the station:

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