Jackson Boelts' Senior Graphic Design Class

Dozens of members of The University of Arizona community volunteered their time to paint walls, build benches, trim trees and organize supplies at the Primavera Foundation, an organization that provides services to homeless men, women and families, as part of Cats in the Community Day. For the second year in a row, art professor Jackson Boelts' senior-level graphic design class pitched in to help meet those goals. The theme of this year's project is a nest, says Alex Parisi, a student in Boelts' class who is helping to manage the project. He says the team chose the nest theme because Primavera is like a nest for many of the people that use its services – a safe place where people can get the things they need until they are ready to move on. In addition to designing and implementing their own project, Boelts says that participating in this event gives students the opportunity to be active in Tucson.

Erica Solomon

Joshua Murphy and Erica Solomon, both seniors in the Media Arts program, have each been awarded a prestigious and all expense-paid Summer Fellowship from the International Radio & Television Society (IRTS). The Summer Fellowship Program, the most notable student outreach effort of IRTS, teaches up-and-coming communicators the realities of the business world through an expense-paid fellowship, which includes practical experience and career-planning advice. Each year, select college juniors, seniors and graduate students are chosen nationwide to attend the nine-week Summer Fellowship Program.

The Program begins with an extensive one-week orientation to broadcasting, cable, advertising, and new media. Fellows have a rare opportunity to meet industry professionals and to attend industry social functions. Fellows gain full-time "real world" experience at New York-based media corporations to which each is assigned for the duration of the nine-week Fellowship. Fellows are then able to reinforce or redefine specific career goals before settling into a permanent job in the electronic media industry.

Jordan Fuller

Media Arts senior JorDan Fuller attended the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) National Conference 9 on March 7-9 in Dana Point, CA. The conference, Sin Limites: Trends in Pan-Latino Cinema, focused on the growth in cross-boundary, cross-cultural creations that have developed in the Latino media landscape. Fuller was one of only ten nation-wide applicants selected to attend the Harrison Reiner Story Development Workshop. Attendees to this workshop had an intensive and collaborative feature-length film script development experience, focusing on their existing scripts. This workshop was taught by UCLA Extension Instructor of Story Analysis and Screenplay development, Harrison Reiner.

Fuller was also chosen for a pitching workshop, where he had five minutes to pitch a film idea to a group of executives.

Alejandro Perez Avila with MFA Thesis Project

Alejandro Perez Avila, Graduate Research Assistant for CFA's Treistman Center for New Media, has just been hired by Microsoft as Program Manager for their Speech Recognition Group in Seattle. Those who've worked with him at the University recognize his creativity and user interface design expertise. "Alex", from Hermosillo, Mexico, speaks three languages: Spanish, English and Italian and his degrees will include a BA in Studio Art, BS in Computer Science and an MFA in Digital Arts (May 2008). His computer-based MFA project provides five interactive portals, each representing his relationship with parents and siblings. Alejandro has been the recipient of Medici Scholars awards in 2006 & 2007 and his work has been shown at SIGGRAPH, the largest computer graphics
exhibit and conference in the world.

Architecture and Dance collaborated once again in a premiere production entitled “COUNTDOWN.” Prompted by the University of Arizona’s involvement in the Mars Landing Project, this unique project marks the second meeting of the minds of UA faculty members Beth Weinstein (Architecture) and Douglas Nielsen (Dance). Students in the School of Dance have been working on choreography that encompasses a rush of search, rescue, and physical endurance. Students in the School of Architecture have undertaken their own mapping of the planet Mars. Working from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment's (HiRISE) output gathered during this Mars mission, students have been translating the information on Mars’ landscape to create the setting for Nielsen’s choreographic work. The performance and set loosely probe themes related to the Mars voyage, the countdown and launching of a mission into the unknown, the anticipation and journey involved, the arrival, and discovery, and gathering of data and its interpretation.

Gary Setzer (Art)

Assistant Professor Gary Setzer will be doing a new performance work, Simultaneous Repellents (Repressed Sentient, Oppressed Séance), at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, UK on May 2nd. Setzer will also be doing a lecture on his artwork there on April 30th.

Simultaneous Repellents (Repressed Sentient, Oppressed Séance), is a
performance piece with video and installation elements. The work features the artist venturing back and forth from his post in a naked architectural framework. Collecting salt from the floor of the framed station, the artist generates salt “landmarks” around the gallery. The performance is premised on our attempts to process experience and the suspension of direct access to that experience that involuntarily results from the attempts. Setzer uses performance, installation and video as tools to plot different functions of representation. Setzer's artworks celebrate the humor and poetry of language’s inconsistencies.

Aaron Templin, Kyle Jenkins, Runa Ingimundardottir, Jason Thompson and Don Traut

The UA Music Theory Area made an impressive showing at the recent Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory Conference, held at Utah State University (March 28-29). Assistant Professor Don Traut gave a presentation and was named President of the regional society. As head of the graduate theory program, Dr. Traut was particularly pleased that four UA students gave scholarly presentations as well. Aaron Templin (Ph.D.-theory), Kyle Jenkins (Ph.D.-theory), Runa Ingimundardottir (DMA-composition), and Jason Thompson (DMA-composition) all did a wonderful job of representing our school. It is clear from this event that the UA has the strongest theory program in the region.

Frida Torresblanco and Carlos Gutierrez

Hanson Film Institute US-Mexico Border States Conference Film industry professionals, U.S. and Mexican government officials, economic development experts and university faculty and students gathered in Tucson March 27 for a two-day conference on Border States issues relating to film. The group assembled to take a closer look at the intellectual property rights, economic development prospects and other issues surrounding the film industry in the U.S. and Mexico. The discussion focused on the collaboration needed to address shared challenges and embrace the benefits of the film
industry in the these two countries.

Sponsored by The University of Arizona¹s Hanson Film Institute, the two day conference featured keynote speaker Frida Torresblanco, the producer of "Pan's Labyrinth," and included international leaders in the film industry including Panamax Films Head of Production Ben Odell, Motion Picture Association of America President Bob Pisano and Eniac Martinez who was the still photographer on the set of the award winning film "Babel." In addition to panels, the conference included presentations by Odell and Martinez, a reception, and a premiere screening.

Kristin Griffeath '07; Ann and Neal Blackmarr, Medici Scholar donors; Vanessa Salaz, '01; Hector Acosta, '03 - '07

Members of the Medici Circle make a tremendous difference in the lives of students and faculty in the College of Fine Arts. On April 10, members gathered to celebrate 10 years of the Medici Scholars program. Twelve Medici Circle families were recognized and presented with a bottle of Medici Vineyards wine in appreciation for supporting Medici Scholars for all 10 years of the program’s existence. Since the program began, more than 700 scholarships have been awarded to 456 students who have traveled to more than 30 countries throughout the world to pursue summer study projects that have allowed them to think and learn and to return to campus with fresh ideas and broadened perspectives.

Several Medici Scholars alumni as well as current Scholars from the Schools of Music, Art and Theatre Arts spoke and performed for the audience of more than 130 guests.