MacArthur Fellows to lecture in M.F.A.
Series
The Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) program in the Department of Art and
Design (formerly Fine Arts) and the Montclair Art Museum are collaborating
on a lecture series that will begin Feb. 20 with a talk by the museum's
director, Patterson Sims (pictured below). The lecture, "MOMA to
MAM: Working in Art Musuems," will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Calcia Hall.
The next two lectures, which will be given by recent MacArthur Fellowship
Grant recipients, will take place in the museum's new Leir Hall. A bus
will leave campus at 6 p.m. to take people to the museum.
Admission to the lectures is free to the campus community with a valid
Montclair State I.D. card.
Sims' distinguished career as a museum professional includes serving since
1996 as deputy director for education and research support at the Museum
of Modern Art in New York. He served as associate director for art and
exhibitions, and curator of modern art at the Seattle Art Museum from
1987 to 1996, and was the first curator designated to oversee the permanent
collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The Feb. 27 lecture will feature David Hickey, a MacArthur Fellow for
2001-2006. A writer, art critic, curator, and professor of art theory
and criticism at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Hickey is a free-lance
writer of fiction and cultural criticism. He has served as director of
A Clean Well-Lighted Place gallery in Austin, Texas, and of the Reese
Palley Gallery in New York, as executive editor of Art in America
magazine in New York City, and as contributing editor to The Village
Voice.
He has written for most major American cultural publications including
Rolling Stone, Art News, Art in America, Artforum, Interview, Vanity
Fair and The New York Times. He has published volumes of short
fiction and critical essays on art and serves as contributing editor to
Art Issues and Context magazines.
On April 3, Xu Bing, a Chinese performance artist and calligrapher, will
present "Words Without Meaning, Meaning Without Words" at the
Art Museum. A MacArthur Fellow for 1999-2004, Bing studied traditional
bookbinding and calligraphy at the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, and left
China shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. A leading member
of a generation of expatriate Chinese artists based mainly in Paris and
New York, Bing has worked primarily in the area of written language.
A U.S. resident for the past 10 years, Bing plies the murky metaphysical
waters that run among language, culture, identity and nationhood. He first
gained international attention with the installation Book from the Sky
(1987-91), which included more than 200 hand-printed, hand-bound volumes
of a single "book" containing thousands of separate pages, each
filled with writing that resembled Chinese, but was really of his own
invention.
For more information about the M.F.A. Lecture Series, call Patricia Lay
at 973-655-4338.
Sports highlights
Two women's basketball players recognized for performance
Junior center Jasmine Batts has been named New Jersey Athletic
Conference (NJAC) Women's Basketball Player of the Week and freshman guard
Shirah Odeh has been named NJAC Rookie of the Week for the period ending
Feb. 11.
Batts averaged 23.7 points and 12.7 rebounds per game against Manhattanville,
Kean and Ramapo from Feb. 4 to 9. She set new single-game personal highs
with a 31-point, 19-rebound effort to help topple number one Kean, 85-67.
She also contributed 15 points and nine rebounds in a 70-64 overtime win
over Ramapo, and had 25 points plus 10 rebounds to help MSU overcome visiting
Manhattanville, 76-67. Click
here for the full story.
Men's track and field wins championship
The men's indoor track and field team won its first-ever Collegiate Track
Conference Championship on Feb. 9, finishing first among 24 schools at
the 168th Street Armory in the Bronx. Montclair finished with 98 points,
26 points ahead of runner-up C.W. Post. The
women's team placed eighth among 20 teams, finishing with a total of 24
points. Click
here for the full story.
Men's basketball earns top spot
The men's basketball team has moved into the top spot in the latest National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Atlantic Region poll
released Feb. 12. This is the first time the Red Hawks have garnered the
top spot in the weekly poll.
MSU (17-6) was ranked third in the first two polls on Jan. 15 and 22,
but dropped out of the top 6 on Jan. 29. Last week, the Red Hawks jumped
back into the number two spot, tied with the College of Staten Island.
Click here for the full story.
Acting director for MIS named
Scott Orenstein has joined Information Technology as acting director
for Management Information Systems (MIS). Previously, Orenstein served
as director of Sales and Marketing for Sterling Consulting and Technical
Services, LLC.
"[Orenstein] is a seasoned technology professional with nearly two decades of experience working in corporate settings and as a consultant on the technology service supplier side of the industry," Ed Chapel, associate vice president for Information Technology, wrote in a letter to the campus community. "A top priority for Scott, as he begins his assignment here at Montclair State University, is to conduct a business process analysis of our procedures for the creation and management of projects within the MIS unit. Accordingly, he will reach out to many of our user offices in the weeks ahead to refine the current MIS projects and ensure that the highest priority items are completed expeditiously."
Orenstein's office is in College Hall, Room 106 and he can be reached
at 6109, and by e-mail at
orensteins@mail.montclair.edu.
University arranges for collection of old
computers
The Purchasing Department, in conjunction with Information Technology,
Physical Plant and Environmental Health and Safety, will arrange to have
an authorized contractor dispose of no longer usable computer equipment
in an environmentally sound manner.
Any department wishing to have the computers removed should contact the
Information Technology Help Desk at 7971 to ensure that University data
on the machines and software licensed to the University are removed. A
Disposal Requisition Form must then be completed and returned to Environmental
Health and Safety at 30 Normal Ave.
Michael Stoffer, inventory control supervisor, should be given the equipment's
make/model, serial number and red MSU asset tag. Stoffer can be reached
at 7619.
After all University information has been removed by IT, the department
must submit a work order to Physical Plant to collect the computers and
take them to the computer storage area.
The computers will be collected from the storage area on a quarterly basis.
Travel photo exhibit winners named
The Global Education Center and the Art Galleries have announced the winners
of the first annual international travel photography exhibition. Winning
entries were selected based on artistic, technical and thematic merit.
The art work will be exhibited in Gallery One from April 4 through May
3. An opening reception will be held April 4 from 4 to 6 p.m.
First prize went to Judith Lin Hunt for "Museo Nacional de
la Ceramica II"; second prize was awarded to Lynda Hong for
"Luxembourg Gardens, Paris" and third prize was awarded to David
Witten for "Dance Academy."
Honorable mentions went to Sally McWilliams for "The Afternoon
Chess Match"; Jennifer Steuber for "Island in the Mist"
and Catherine Bebout for "Angkor Thom II."
The following works also will be included in the exhibition: John Amorison,"Saying
Goodbye"; Arlene Amorison, "Old City"; Ahmet
Baytas, "Map Butterfly"; Jessica Brandt,"Lonely
at the Top," "Please Keep Off the Grass" and "Cathedral
Ruins"; Randal Cain, "Tokyo Color Switch" and "Growing
Up Under Nara"; Michael S. Davidson, "Tattered Tee Shirt"
and "Three Faces in Egypt"; Ann Marie Di Lorenzo, "Basil
Vendor" and "Prickly-Pear"; Nadeem Firoz,"Color
Festival (Holi)" and "Old Hawker Not A Beggar"; Laura
Foresta, "Pisa, Italy," "Sunset in Florence,"
"Two Locals in Florence" and "Venice-Riotto Bridge";
Lise Greene, "Johan & Hans," "When You Come
to the Red Door" and "Thatched Bathing Hut"; Robert
Hermida, "Rainbow"; Elaine Hoff, "Inch Beach"
and "Kylemore Abbey"; Arthur Hudson, "Boat Pilot
and Daughter" and "Great Wall"; Judith Lin Hunt,
"Museo Nacional de la Ceramica I"; Susan Hussein, "Cistern,
Updated," "Bird in Cage" and "Morning Ritual";
Tina Jacobowitz, "Australian Mist," "Crossing Over"
and "Profile on the Oregon Coast"; Larry Londino, "Greenscape"
and "Feast in Florence"; John Luttropp, "Mona Lynda";
Katrina Macht, "Grandfather" and "Pacific Sunset";
Janet McLaughlin, "Tower of David", "Quiet Street"
and "Doorways"; Sally McWilliams, "Textile Dyes"
and "The Lingering Past"; Greg Pope, "Bring Them
to the Great Wall," "Making Roof Tiles" and "Jewish
Cemetery"; Faith Ryan, "Galway Bay" and Dunluce
Castle"; Anita Subramaniam, "Old Buildings and New Cars";
Jennifer Steuber, "Leeds Castle," "The Empire State
Building," "Big Ben" and "A View of Lower Manhattan";
Nancy Tumposky, "SPQR" and "Roman Arch in Segovia";
Susan Weston, "Sliabhron" and "Fidnemed"; David
Witten, "Along the Arbat," "Strawberries from the Dacha"
and "Street Musician."
Janis Ian to perform March 8
Janis Ian, who began her career at age 15 with the controversial hit "Society’s
Child" and followed it up with 17 albums, three Grammy awards, several
number one hits and a lifelong struggle with the FBI, will appear on campus
Friday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium. The event is being
held on International Women's Day in celebration of Women's History Month.
Tickets are $20.
Ian is one of the most talented and enduring singer/songwriters in American
music history. "Before Ellen came out and anyone who wasn't a Bible
scholar knew who Lilith was...before Jewel even...there was Janis Ian,"
Rolling Stone magazine said.
Ian's grandparents were immigrants, and she was raised to believe in the
American Dream. Her parents taught her that even though America was not
perfect, it was the best country on earth because it allowed you to help
change the bad things. When her father, a New Jersey chicken farmer, went
to a meeting about the price of eggs, the FBI picked him up on his way
home. A year later, Janis was born into a world of surveillance, interviews
with neighbors and landlords.
As a musician, Janis was a child prodigy, becoming interested in the piano,
and progressing from piano lessons to organ, flute and French horn. She
was 10 when she first picked up her father's battered Martin D-18 guitar,
13 when she published her first song in Broadside magazine. And
at 14, she wrote the song that chartered her life's course, a song that
Arlene Levinson of the Associated Press described as "a white teenager
indicting America for its racism and hypocrisy."
"Society's Child" rocked the nation at a time when the Supreme
Court had yet to repeal the laws against interracial marriage, and when
civil rights unrest was cresting. The song became number one across the
nation and the teenager was suddenly hanging out with Jimi Hendrix and
Janis Joplin, appearing on television shows, and getting hate mail.
A few years later, she had given most of her money away to friends and
charities, and was considered a “has-been.” With the tenacity
and perseverance that would see her through four decades as an artist,
she staged her first "comeback" with what would be become a
classic anthem for disaffected teenagers, "At Seventeen." Not
only did the song win Ian her first Grammy, selling over a million copies,
but it led to a period of high-profile success with several albums including
"Aftertones" and "Night Rains."
Shortly after her time in the spotlight, Janis Ian disappeared for almost
10 years. When she moved to Nashville in 1988, she had little more than
a guitar and the clothes on her back. She began writing songs for artists
such as Bette Midler, whose cover of "Some People's Lives" was
the title track of the album, selling over two million copies.
Her next comeback came in 1993 when her album "Breaking Silence"
not only earned her a Grammy nomination, but announced her sexual orientation
to the world. She began talking openly of her lesbianism and became a
champion for issues like spousal abuse and AIDS.
The opening act for Janis Ian will be Olympia's Daughters. Founded in
1990 by Penny Gnesin, Olympia's Daughters performs throughout the Northeast.
Tickets are $20. Call the MSU Box Office at 973-655-5112.