ART

Mark Allen, founder of LA's Machine Project was profiled by PANK on the organization's range of creative partnerships.

Terry Allen (Chouinard '66), the first retrospective of Allen’s work, was recently published by University of Texas Press.

Randy Balsmeyer (BFA Design '72) was one of twelve directors of the feature film New York I Love You(2009).

Philip Chang’s (MFA ’05) Four Over One was published in May 2010 by the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Meg Cranston (MFA '86), Tony Oursler (BFA '79)and James Welling (BFA '72) were part of an LA Times interview on their experiences as students of John Baldessari (Chouinard '59).

Amy Ellingson (MFA ’92) held her third solo exhibit at Haines Gallery.

Writer, director and producer, Sharon Greytak (MFA '82), is working on her latest film, Archaeology of a Woman.

Jon B. Hudson (BFA ’71) reports that one of his sculpture commissions was permanently installed in the Beijing Olympic Park; another was installed in the Civic Center Park of Urumqi, Xinjiang, China; and two more are being built for the China-US Peace and Friendship Program in Beijing and the Peace and Friendship Park in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, with a third produced for Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. 

The Reading Public Museum in Pennsylvania is exhibiting the ceramics, paintings and drawings of Jun Kaneko’s (Chouinard) through September 5.

Jason Kraus’ (BFA ’08)work was profiled by Art Pulse.

Lifestyle profiled Katherine Leighnor’s (BFA ’90) collaborative exhibit, Duet, at Baxter Chang Patri.

Christian Lukather (BFA 84) announced that he launched a new literary website called The Writing Disorder, which features fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art. He encourages students, faculty and alumni to submit work. 

Celebrated theater designer, Joseph J. Musil, who helped to restore the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood and the Crest Theater in Westwood passed away on July 18. He was 73.  

Rika Ohara’s (MFA 85) first feature film The Heart of No Place was awarded  Best International Feature at the 2010 London Independent Film Festival . 

LA Weekly’s Pierre and the Lion focuses on the work of Pierre Picot (MFA, Design ’73).

CalArts alumnus Timothy Power’s (BFA ’88) children’s book, The Boy Who Howled, was featured on Authors Now! 

Jill Poyourow’s (MFA ’91)work is the feature of an exhibit at the New York Public Library.

Noelle Tan’s (MFA ’02) photography is the subject of a feature at The Studio Visit.

Natalie Zimmerman ('01) received a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue her work "Viennese Dreams: Mapping the 21st Century Unconscious."


CRITICAL STUDIES

Lisa Dowda (MFA ’04) reports that she is now the Program Director at the Bond Street Theatre. She has been working with the Department of Sanitation of New York to produce a book on the work of photojournalist Liz Ligon.

Alanna Lin (MFA '03) described her dual interests in writing and music in a Blog Downtown interview.

Amanda Jones Kik (BFA Art ‘97, MFA Writing ‘00) is co-director of the Institute for Sustainable Living, Art & Natural Design (ISLAND). In April, ISLAND announced its new Hill House Residency, to support writers and emerging musicians.


FILM/VIDEO

Danielle Ash was interviewed about her work in stop motion animation on NPR's Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC.

Jason Byrne (MFA '06) was named one of "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in Filmmaker magazine.

Ruben Esqueda (BFA ’02)is now Education Coordinator at The Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio of San Francisco, where he is developing curriculum for animation and education programs.

"25 New Faces of Independent Film" in Filmmaker magazine for 2010"

While still creating and teaching animation and motion graphics, Patricia Galvis-Assmus (MFA ’91) has been appointed as Director of Information Technology Program at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst.

University of Saint Francis announced the appointment of Liz Holzman (MFA ’79),Emmy Award winning director and producer for Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, as Director of their Computer Animation Program.

TV and movie rat wrangler Cathe Boudreau Jones (MFA '91) was featured in Ladies Home Journal's Dirty Jobs: You Won't Believe What I do for a Living! Jones also performs for the Short Bus Comics show in Las Vegas.

Alexis Krasilovsky's (MFA '84) feature documentary, Women Behind the Camerawomen,won the "Best of Fest Award - Documentary Film" at the 2009 WIN Awards held at the American Film Institute.

Craig McCracken('92), the creator of Powder Puff Girls, and Dexter's Laboratory's creator, Genndy Tartakovsky('92), who met at CalArts are the subject of a profile on The Scratch Pad.  

Hidden Spring Books published Ryan Metlen's (BFA '99) second book, EWE,now available on CalArts Amazon Listmania.

Animation World Network interviewed Shrek Forever After director Mike Mitchell (BFA ’92).

Teddy Newton('91) was interviewed by Smells Like Screen Spirit about his Disney/Pixar short, Day & Night.

Pixar animator Sanjay Patel ('96) is the subject of a Vectortuts+ interview.

Brian Sheesley (BFA ’91) won a daytime Emmy for directing Nickelodeon's first season of Fanboy and Chum Chum.

A.V. Club interviewed Joe Suggs (Character Animation)on his career in animation.


MUSIC

Composer Nan Avant (BFA’80) was given an Award of Merit by the Accolade Competition July 2010 for her original score in the award winning sci-fi thriller, Unremembered.

Sequenza 21 highlighted Whitney George (BFA ’08).   

Benjamin Juarez (MFA '73) was named as dean of Boston University's School of Fine Arts.

Wesleyan University Press published Douglas M. Knight’s (MFA ’73 ) biography of South Indian dancer T. Balasaraswati , who was in residence at CalArts’ Schools of Theater and Dance in 1972.

Robin Sukhadia (MFA '07), International Grants Program Director for Project Ahimsa (which provides music education to underserved children worldwide), received a Fulbright Senior Research Award to further develop his work in India.

THEATER

Deborah Asiimwe’s (MFA ’09) play Cooking Oil was read at SITI Company in May.  The play will be performed as an intercultural  project in Kampala, Uganda at the National Theater of Uganda with a group of U.S. -based artists, including Emily Mendelsohn (MFA’09), designer Shannon Scrofano (MFA ’06), filmmaker Qadriyyah Shamsid-Deen (Film/Video MFA 10, Theater MFA 09) and producer Miranda Wright (MFA ’09); local theatre artists; and members of the Nyonyonzi Cultural Troupe.

Asiimwe also recently won the annual BBC World Service African Performance playwriting competition for her play Will Smith Look-Alike.

Alison Brie, who played Trudie Campbell on Mad Men has been appearing as Annie Edison on Community.

Scrubs' Eliza Coupe was profiled online.

Sigrid Gilmer (MFA '05) discusses her play It’s All Bueno at Cornerstone Theater with Adam Szymkowicz.

Qadriyyah Shamsid-Deen and Emily Mendelsohn were awarded Fulbright fellowships this year.

Patricia Van Ryker's (MFA '73) independent film, Twenty Five Hundred & One won the 2010 San Antonio Film Festival's Grand Prize.

 

 


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