Lycoming College News

Art Department seeks alumni submissions for gallery exhibition

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Lycoming College Art Department is seeking submissions for an upcoming alumni art exhibition. Art alumni may submit up to three art works, in any medium, for juried consideration. The juried alumni show will be held from Sept. 15 through Oct. 21, in the College's Art Gallery in Snowden Library. An artist reception will be held Friday, Oct. 14, during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend.

All work must have been completed after graduation and be submitted by July 8. Entry forms and CDs with digital images of work can be sent to Rose DiRocco, Lycoming College Art Department, 700 College Place, Williamsport, PA 17701. Additional details and submission guidelines are available at www.lycoming.edu/art/CurrentGalleryShows.html. For more information, email DiRocco at Dirocco@lycoming.edu.

Lycoming College is a national liberal arts and sciences school dedicated to the undergraduate education of 1,400 students. It is recognized as a Tier 1 institution by U.S. News and World Report. Founded in 1812 in Williamsport, Pa., Lycoming is one of the 50 oldest colleges in the nation.

Professor of art to be featured on PBS

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lynn Estomin, Lycoming College professor of art, will have her latest video, “Out of Step,” screened on WVIA (PBS) on Thursday, April 14, at 7 p.m. The program will also feature the Warrior Writers website, designed by Estomin, www.warriorwriters.org.

“Out of Step” features the voices of four young female veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: Jen Pacanowski, Chantelle Bateman, Kelly Dougherty and Robynn Murray. The project. Produced and directed by Estomin, is a collaboration with choreographer Kelly Knox and composer/electric violinist Ritsu Katsumata.

The project is a high definition digital production with dance interpretations, original music and audio recordings of the veterans’ personal stories dealing with the war.

The four featured veterans wrote the pieces in “Out of Step” at a writing workshop presented by the Warrior Writers project.

“There is a deep necessity for veterans to create when so much in their lives has been shattered,” says Estomin. “A profound sense of hope comes from the ability to rebuild and transform.

“The stories I began collecting while I was creating the Warrior Writers website are powerful, raw, emotional and haunting – content that is challenging, but definitely open to interpretation in dance, music and video. As a documentary filmmaker/artist who deals with political subjects, I am interested in human stories and what they tell us about society.”

Warrior Writers provides veterans with a safe space to explore, express and develop their feelings, thoughts and memories through creative writing, performance and visual arts.

Student receives photography recognition

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College junior photography and commercial design major Lindsay Stern placed as a finalist in Serbin Communications’ 31^st Annual Student Photography Contest, sponsored by Nikon, USA.

Stern’s work will be published in the hardcover book “Best of College Photography 2011,” along with selected photographs of all winners, honorable mentions and finalists. The contest involved over 3,500 students from the U.S., Canada and other countries.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College junior photography and commercial design major Lindsay Stern placed as a finalist in Serbin Communications’ 31^stent Photography Contest, sponsored by Nikon, USA.

Art Department to hold senior exhibit

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College will host its annual Senior Art Show from April 1 through May 8 in the College''s Art Gallery in Snowden Library. An opening reception will be held on Friday, April 1, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. The reception and gallery viewing are free and open to the public.

The 15 Lycoming students featured in the exhibit are Aleksandrs Alunans, Erica Bouch, Tara Clark, Michaela Cote, Amber Davis, Morgan Guest, Erin Healy, Ashley Lubold, William Mauro, Joanna Pallas, Lauren Shambach, Chelsea Stein, Amanda Thomas and Kelsey Weaver.?

Digital Media Gallery to host exhibit

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College will host “THERE AND BACK” by artist Andrew Stanbridge from March 31 to April 30 in the Digital Media Gallery of the Mass Communications Building.

Stanbridge will hold a free lecture in the College’s Fine Arts Lecture Hall from 2-3 p.m. on Thursday, March 31, followed by a gallery opening and reception from 4-5:30 p.m. While the lecture and gallery opening are open to the public, additional viewings are by appointment only.

Stanbridge has been photographing beaten and unbeaten streets, dirt roads and superhighways in Asia for the past 12 years. Published and exhibited internationally in a straight photojournalist form, his work has addressed issues including westernization, post-conflict rehabilitation, the sex industry and environmental tragedies. He often redresses his more arcane imagery with various inks, stickers and other items he collects along the way.

For his exhibition at Lycoming College, Stanbridge will be showing digital prints of bombs, shamans and temple paintings, amongst other things. There will also be a two-channel, psychedelic bomb explosion video sequence displayed along with the two-dimensional work.

Stanbridge earned his Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University in Boston, Mass. He was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Research Fellowship to continue his photographic work in Thailand and has been the recipient of numerous grants.

Art students to exhibit "The Real Fiction"

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College art students Joshua R. Troxler and Rene Pucilowski will host an exhibit titled “The Real Fiction” April 2-3 at 7 p.m. in Pennington Lounge of the College’s Academic Center.

According to Troxler and Pucilowski, viewers of the free public exhibit will become the main character of a story with two different paths, walking through many environments and encountering problems that connect to an overarching storyline.

“Rene and I are going both young artists with a lot of ideas,” says Troxler. “Not everything has to be so deep all the time. We want to show a fun side to what artists can do by giving the audience some fun cinematic time with great sci-fi themes. The show will exhibit many themes that take place either in outer space or in the future. We are giving the viewers two paths to choose from. That is what we hope people will like.”

“The Real Fiction” is being funded solely by third party donation. A video describing the project, produced by Troxler and Pucilowski, can be viewed at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1406634533/the-real-fiction.

Art major completes sculpture using Kohler award

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST

Art students to participate in benefit auction

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College students will hold a silent auction of their work to benefit the Responsible Drilling Alliance (RDA) as part of Williamsport’s First Friday program on March 4.

The auction, themed “The Faces of Marcellus,” will be held at Alabaster Coffee Shop, 410 Pine Street, from 6-8 p.m. Starting bids range from $5-$35 for works by students Meggie Adams, Aleksandrs Alunans, Lacey Gustafson, Erin Healy, Joanna Pallas, Rene Pucilowski, Lauren Shambach, Chelsea Stein and Amanda Thomas and alumna Venessa Lechler.

Art Department to host Nagatani’s “Chromatherapy”

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Lycoming College Art Department will host an exhibit by artist Patrick Nagatani titled “Chromatherapy” in the College’s Art Gallery in Snowden Library Feb. 24-March 25. A gallery opening and talk is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 24, from 4-5:30 p.m. The event is part of the College’s Spring Symposium on the health care crisis in America.

Nagatani is an internationally recognized photographer, artist and Hollywood model maker. In “Chromatherapy,” he creates real and imaginary relationships between photography, light and healing as he photographs persons, animals and objects being exposed to a variety of colored lights. Nagatani explores popular culture’s fascination with growth and healing, teasing the fine line between a staged fiction masking as a documented reality, and the undeniable need humans have to embrace magic and pagan rituals for their own sake.

Spring symposium to focus on health care in America

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Lycoming College Spring Symposium will feature a variety of events focusing on the state of health care in America.

“The current crisis in health care impacts almost everyone on campus and in the surrounding area in one way or another,” said Lynn Estomin, professor of art and symposium committee member. “Health issues of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be the focus of two events that we expect to be of particular interest to psychology, political science, pre-med and sociology students as well as to veterans and medical and mental health professionals in the area. We hope to involve the campus and Williamsport community in a dialogue and search for ethical solutions.”

“Chromatherapy,” an exhibition from artist Patrick Nagatani, will be in the College’s Art Gallery in Snowden Library Feb. 24-March 25. A gallery opening and talk is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 24, from 4-5:30 p.m.

On Wednesday, March 9, Dr. Joshua Wilk will deliver a lecture on the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers in Heim Building G-11 at 7:30 p.m. Wilk is deputy branch chief in the Division of Military Psychiatry in the Center for Military Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the Army’s leading center for mental health research of active duty and National Guard soldiers

The documentary “Poster Girl” will be screened at Williamsport’s Community Arts Center on Wednesday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. The film is the story of Robynn Murray, an all-American high school cheerleader turned “poster girl” for women in combat, distinguished by Army Magazine’s cover photo. When Murray returns from Iraq, her tough-as-nails exterior begins to crack, leaving her struggling with the debilitating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Following the screening, a reception with Murray and film director Sara Nesson will be held in the Patron’s Lounge of the CAC.

A panel discussion titled, “The Health Care Crisis in America: An Open Conversation,” will take place Wednesday, April 6, at 7 p.m. in Mary L. Welch Honors Hall. Moderator Dr. Neil Boyd, assistant professor of management at Lycoming, will lead four panelists in a discussion of the state of health care in America.

Panelists include Alice Brody, a consumer advocate and outreach director for Single Payer New York, who spearheaded a statewide effort in support of universal, guaranteed and cost-effective health care; Gary Colberg, Lycoming alumnus and CEO of Southeast Georgia Health System; Dr. Donald Hess, instructor of medical ethics at The Commonwealth Medical College and retired physician in charge of medical education at Susquehanna Health; and state Rep. Rick Mirabito, Williamsport, sponsor of the state health care bill.

All symposium events are free and open to the public.

Art Department to host Kreisher’s “Meeting My Selves”

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - The Lycoming College Art Department will host an exhibit by artist Katharine Kreisher titled “Meeting My Selves” from Jan. 20 to Feb. 18 in the Art Gallery in Snowden Library. An artist's reception and gallery talk will be held on Thursday, Jan. 20, from 4-5:30 p.m.

Kreisher is a professor of art at Hartwick College (N.Y.), teaching courses in documentary photography and alternative processes as well as photo-related printmaking methods. Her autobiographical work centers on highly manipulated photographic images and photo-etchings.

Student nominated for statewide intern of the year award

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College senior Ashley Lubold was nominated for the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Employers (PennACE) JoAnne Day Student of the Year Awards.

Three awards, in the categories of technical, non-profit and business, and are given each year to recognize outstanding interns enrolled at member institutions. Lubold was among 34 students representing 15 colleges and universities nominated for the honor.

Lubold, a native of Shamokin, Pa., who is an art major seeking K-12 teacher certification, has interned for Lycoming’s education department since September 2007. During her four years, she has performed a wide variety of services, including working on brochures and bulletin boards, updating study materials, analyzing data and providing much-needed office support.

“One of the major tasks that I completed this year was a brochure that was used at a nationally-recognized educational conference,” said Lubold. “This brochure included information on our HOPE enterprises preschool learning center, reasons why students would choose teacher certification at Lycoming, the education faculty and the areas of certification offered by the education department.”

“Ashley has learned almost every facet of the work that we do in the Education Department,” says Dr. Amy Rogers, chair and assistant professor of education at Lycoming. “She will definitely be an asset to the classroom when she teaches. Her ability to work with both students and colleagues will be evident in any job she pursues.”

The JoAnne Day Student of the Year Awards are in memory of JoAnne Day, a longtime colleague and friend to many involved in cooperative education, academic internships and career services, who died in 2005 after a two-year battle with cancer. Day’s professional tenure spanned decades and included a time as director of career development and assistant dean of students at Lycoming College.

In addition to her internship, Lubold is an active member of the College and local community, donating more than 100 hours of community service per month to organizations such as College’s Against Cancer, Habitat for Humanity and Big Brothers/Big Sisters. She also can be found working as a resident advisor, summer orientation staff leader, career services peer advisor and admissions tour guide.

The Pennsylvania Associate of Colleges and Employers is a collaborative organization of career development and recruitment professionals that provides professional growth and networking opportunities designed to enhance career development practices for Pennsylvania college and university students and graduates.

Art faculty to host exhibition

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College will host an Art Faculty Exhibition from Dec. 2-17 in the College's Art Gallery in Snowden Library. An artists' reception and gallery talk will be held Dec. 2 from 4-5:30 p.m.

Lynn Estomin, professor of art, will show images from two on-going projects “Wall Murals” documents the artwork found on urban wall murals in the U.S. and abroad. “Landscapes of the Mind” examines the juxtaposition of natural and man-made environments to emphasize the fragile relationship between humanity and nature.

Seth Goodman, assistant professor of art, will exhibit work made during a six-week artist residency at a gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y. The work examines cultural expressions of identity as it relates to American social class. The painted imagery is meant to test the viewer’s assumptions and tolerance toward particular lifestyle choices and interests that are both commonplace and objectionable.

Leah Bedrosian Peterson, assistant professor of communication, will display “Erasure,” a project comprised of photographs and videos taken during her recent travels to South East Asia. Peterson documented villages and cities in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam over a two-month period. “Erasure” references the changes in the local traditional culture and the changes to the landscape that are occurring as the third-world nations are being influenced by Western culture.

O. Gustavo Plascencia, visiting assistant professor of art, will show “Capricious Tales,” a series of images that talk of the duality – and sometimes conflict – between domesticity and utilitarianism, personal and communal, and self and society. Many of the stories depicted in the images are based on family interactions and kitchen stories. The kitchen is such an important place in many houses; it seems to be the nucleus of the family. “Capricious Tales” is a series of metaphors of family secrets, personal struggles and shared experiences – both in public and private places.

Kimberly Rhone is a part time instructor of photography at the College.

Kathy Sterngold, part-time instructor of art, is exhibiting several wheel-thrown stoneware bottles and some slab-built vase forms.

Howard Tran, assistant professor of art, was inspired by his recent sabbatical in Vietnam. His work explores class stratification, decadence vs. simplicity, and economic complexities in a changing society. Tran experiments with combining video and sculpture.

College to host exhibition by Boston-based artist

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College will host a solo exhibition titled “Becoming One With Zero,” by Boston-based artist Julie Miller in the Digital Media Gallery of the Communication Building from Nov. 11 through Dec. 18. The exhibit opening and artist’s reception will take place on the 11th from 4-5:30 p.m. That same day, Miller will give a lecture on her work from 1-2:30 p.m. in the College’s Fine Art Lecture Hall.

“Becoming One With Zero” is an exhibition of animations, drawings printed on more than 700 stickers, and works on paper that Miller says “reflect her fascination with sensation through aesthetic experience.” Her work is deceptively simple, but through the obsessive abstraction of shape and form, she engages the viewer in a phenomenological experience.

Cate McQuaid of The Boston Globe states that Miller’s work “challenge[s] ordinary assumptions about visual perception” and that “her remarkable video most dramatically throws vision into a new light [through] wild variation and hypnotic correspondences. That tension between obsessive similarity and inherent differences can make looking at her work nearly as compulsive as their creation must have been.”

Miller earned a master’s of fine arts from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University. Her work has been reviewed by The Boston Globe and The Boston Phoenix among many other publications. She is represented by The Steven Zevitas Gallery in Boston, Mass., and has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Art department to host “Unpredictable Things” exhibition

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - The Lycoming College Art Department will host an exhibit by artist Casey McGuire titled “Unpredictable Things: Installations Focusing on the Uncertainty of Home” from Oct. 21 to Nov. 19. The exhibit’s opening will feature an artist’s reception and talk from 4-5:30 p.m. in the College’s art gallery in Snowden Library.

McGuire’s installations serve as a vehicle for storytelling and are a presentation of personal narratives and memories. She wants viewers to have a dream-like relationship with the artwork. The exhibit features an array of disconnected stimuli such as physical structures, video and sculptural components.

McGuire’s work is influenced by a fascination with her family members. Her taxidermist and decoy carving father is able to exercise total control over his subjects’ appearances, allowing him to create perfect animals. Her grandmother, a former Rockette and model, embodied physical perfection. Both family members created contrived forms of beauty. McGuire is interested in questioning these ideas of beauty as well as the postmodern reticence to confront such concepts.

Most recently, McGuire taught three-dimensional design at the University of West Georgia. She has also been featured in several publications, such as Sculpture magazine, and has received numerous faculty and student achievement awards.

McGuire earned a bachelor’s degree from Alfred University and an M.F.A. from the University of Colorado.

Art Gallery to host Alshaibi's "Flight" exhibit

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College will host an exhibit titled “Flight” by artist Sama Alshaibi in the Art Gallery located in Snowden Library from Sept. 16 through Oct. 17. An artist's reception sponsored by Lycoming’s art department and the women's and gender studies program will be held on Thursday, Sept. 16, from 4-5:30 p.m.

Alshaibi was born in Basra, Iraq, to an Iraqi father and Palestinian mother and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. Her works evoke the language of suffering, displacement and loss. She often uses her own body as both a protagonist and a site, linking struggles and the way that nations have affected and twisted lives in bodily performances. Her auto-ethnographic approach is informed by her own history of living in war, the double negation to her familial homelands and her countless encounters with those policing borders from the undesired. Alshaibi is an assistant professor of photography at the University of Arizona.

A photographer, video artist and accomplished filmmaker, Alshaibi has exhibited in more than 20 countries. She is represented by Selma Feriani Gallery in London and in the United Arab Emirates by The Empty Quarter in Dubai. Recently, she was accepted in the prestigious Light Work artist-residency program in New York, exhibited her first solo exhibit titled “Zero Sum Game” in London and premiered her collaborative short dramatic film “End of September” at the 2010 Chicago Palestine Film Festival.

Art Gallery features student work from Central America

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EST

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - Lycoming College’s art department held its first gallery opening of the school year on Sept. 2. It features student work from the May Term trip to four Central American countries: El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. The exhibit, located in Snowden Library, will be open until Sept. 10.

The trip, which took place May 12-26, was attended by 12 studio art and art history students, seven of whom have art featured in the gallery. Seniors Tara Clark, Venessa Lechler, Bill Mauro, Joanna Pallas and Lauren Shambach and juniors Valerie Caswell and Lindsay Stern showcased paintings, drawings and photography that profiled their inspiration in each country.

Mauro, whose work consists of photography, drawing and painting, wanted to tell the story of his journey, with a complete beginning, middle and end. Two of his favorite pieces were from the very first and last days of the trip.

His digital print, “Quietly We Stole the Best they had to Offer,” was taken on the first full-day of the tour. “It is my first artistic shot of the trip,” he said of the picture showing a boardwalk pier. What he liked the most about it was that the end result highlighted the exact colors and textures that he had seen in his camera’s viewfinder.

Another favorite is a large painting of a Guatemalan woman, based on a photograph taken while she was taking a break from sweeping. “I was looking through my collection of photos, trying to pick one to turn into a painting,” he said. One of the features he was most intrigued by was the negative space in the photo.

One of the more common mantras of the artists was that they had no plan for what they wanted to capture or where their inspiration came from in their work. This was certainly true for Stern, as her digital camera broke before she arrived. “I was basically working with a small point-and-shoot camera,” she said.

The technical difficulty certainly did nothing to diminish the quality of her work, as her photos’ brilliant reds, blues and yellows stand out in the gallery. “Feathers No. 3” is a close-up of feathers from one of the exotic birds near her hotel room. Two others feature stained glass: one is the glass sections on a church window, the other is the reflections of that glass on the ground, which look like spatters of paint.

Stern says she chose to profile colors in her work because “color is big in the Central American culture and traditions.” It’s found in everything from clothing to buildings.

May Term courses are offered by the art department every two years. Though the trip is not required for art majors, students are credited for one four-credit course. They can choose from painting, drawing, photography and digital imaging courses. Past art May Term courses have taken students to Greece, Italy, Spain and Jamaica.