Community School of the Arts Receives Support

The NIU Community School of the Arts received a check for $801.82 in early December from the DeKalb Barnes & Noble Store. The money was raised during a recital/book fair held at the store on November 20. More than 60 community school students and teachers performed for a total of three hours on a wide variety of instruments, including harp, drumset, steel pan, piano, cello, and violin. The soloists ranged in age from four to adult. The community school received a percentage of money spent in the store (using a voucher) during the day of the performance and online for a few days following.

This money will be used for the program’s scholarship programs. The community school has both a talent and need scholarship program. Since the need scholarship program was started in 1993, more than $85,000 has been raised and close to 700 scholarships awarded to area students 18 years old and younger to pursue their study of the arts.

Presidential Research Professor Makes Several Presentations

Jeff Karl Kowalski, Professor of Art History at NIU and a 2010 recipient of NIU's distinguished Presidential Research Professor Award, presented the paper "Expressions of 'Maya Identity' in Contemporary Artworks from Yucatán to Guatamala," at the second triennial conference of the Association for Latin American Art, held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art November 12-14. The paper was co-written by former NIU art history graduate student Mary Katherine Scott and by NIU Art Education Associate Professor Kryssi Staikidis.

Jeff also delivered a lecture entitled "Art versus Artifact: Great Divide, Cultural Continuum, or Institutional Category?" on November 5 at Trinity University in San Antonio in conjunction with the exhibition "Crafting Maya Identity: Contemporary Maya Wood Sculptures from the Puuc Region, Yucatán, Mexico," which was shown at the Michael and Noemi Neidorff Art Gallery of the Dicke Art Building from October 14 - November 20.

In addition, Jeff gave a talk entitled "Archaeology, Tourism, and Invented Tradition: Contemporary Maya Sculpture in Yucatán," for the Milwaukee Society of the American Institute of Archaeology, held at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee on December 5.

NIU Music Alum's Recording Earns #1 Ranking

Greg Ward, who earned his B.M degree from the NIU School of Music in 2004, has been making headlines with his recent CD release entitled "South Side Story," under the name Greg Ward's Fitted Shards.

Howard Reich, the noted jazz critic of the Chicago Tribune, named Greg's recording the #1 most memorable jazz recording of 2010! You can read Howard's full listing here.

Ben Ratliff, reviewer for the New York Times, called Greg's playing "...one of the best things I've heard on record this year."

Neil Tesser, jazz critic for Playboy magazine, Jazziz magazine, and contributor to Jazz Times, said "Ward has moved from talented newbie to forceful younger statesman as his mercurial styles goes from liquid to edgy."

Congratulations, Greg!

Art History Division Head Makes Presentations

Rebecca Houze, Associate Professor of Art History at NIU and Head of the NIU Art History Division, presented the paper, “Ethnography, Art History, and the Design Reform Movement in Habsburg Central Europe. The Case of A Magyar Háziipar Díszítményei [Ornaments of the Domestic Industry of Hungary], 1878,” for the conference, The History of Art History in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, in Torún, Poland this past September. Additionally, Rebecca presented on the topic “Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse in Berwyn, Illinois,” for the INTBAU (International Organization for Traditional Building and Urbanism) at the Traditional Building Expo, held in Chicago October 22, 2010.

Art History Professor Staying Very Busy

In October, Sinclair Bell, NIU Assistant Professor of Art History,co-organized and spoke at “Celebration of the Achievements of Richard De Puma,” which was held at the School of Art & Art History of the University of Iowa. In addition, in November Sinclair presented “Fans, Fame and the Roman Circus,” at the Archaeological Institute of America, Rockford Society, and at the Department of Classical Studies at Loyola University.

Recently Sinclair was elected by Prof. Brian Rose, President of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), to serve as a delegate to represent the AIA Members-at-Large population at the 2011 Annual Meeting. The Archaeological Institute of America is North America's oldest and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. The Institute is a nonprofit group founded in 1879 and chartered by the United States Congress in 1906. Today, the AIA has nearly 250,000 Members belonging to more than 100 Local Societies in the United States, Canada, and overseas.

Theatre Professor Discusses Fight Scenes

Stanton Davis, professor in the NIU School of Theatre and Dance, is featured in a new video in which he discusses the fight scenes in the recent NIU production of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." The video provides terrific insights into staging fight scenes and consists of some really terrific footage from rehearsals as well as the production.