For several years, Missouri State University’s Department of Art and Design has hosted students from Tainan National University of the Arts (TNNUA) in Taiwan while sending a Missouri State student to TNNUA.

For the Spring 2026 exchange, Yu An Lin and Melody Yu Hsiu Weng are studying in Missouri State’s art and design department. Lin works with ceramics, and Weng works with metalsmithing and jewelry.

The contact, cooperation and collaboration the students enjoy brings a new layer of learning into the art studios at Brick City, said Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, interim art and design department head. This successful artistic and academic exchange between the two institutions, held every spring, supports students as they move between academic study and independent creative practice.

Lipchik to study at TNNUA

Meanwhile, Hannah Lipchik will attend TNNUA as a visiting artist Feb. 28-May 28. Lipchik earned her BFA from Missouri State in Fall 2025.

“This experience feels like an important moment of transition, a way of carrying forward what I’ve learned while allowing my work to be shaped by new places and perspectives,” Lipchik said.

Lipchik said she applied for the program with the help of her metals professor, Jina Seo. It seemed like a natural next step after graduation rather than a departure from her existing practice, she noted.

While at TNNUA, Lipchik will work in an international studio environment alongside artists and students across craft, design and fine art disciplines. She said she looks forward to working in studio spaces where craft traditions and contemporary practice intersect and to learning under Professor Amal Chao.

Lipchik uses hair and grooming objects as both subject and material in her art, working through jewelry, sculpture and performance. Through metal, bio-textiles and altered domestic objects, she examines cycles of removal, regrowth and repetition, reflecting on familiar rituals tied to beauty, labor and the body.

Learn about the BFA in Art: 3D Studies

Photo credits: Mitzi Kirkland-Ives except where otherwise indicated.

News edited by the Reynolds College Communications Team.

Sam Barnette is a writer for the Department of Art and Design. She earned an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Missouri State’s Department of Communication, Media, Journalism and Film. She is now working toward a doctorate in Interdisciplinary Education and Higher Ed Administration from Lindenwood University.