CHI And the beat CHI College Dean's welcome

CHI Theatre & Music And the beat goes on: goes on 70 years of theatre & music, and Louis Bergonzi becomes Head of Music

CHI Architecture A historic future: the Chicago Architecture Biennial

CHI College CHI A historic future:Four degrees of combination

CHI College Engaged, for good: making the Chicago artful history at UIC

NYC Art & Art History Carrie Rebora Barratt: Architecture from UIC to the Met CHI Design UIC's cool CAT (Lab)

Biennial CHI Art & Art History In memoriam: D. Ross Edman

CHI Architecture In memoriam: John Macsai

CHI Architecture In memoriam: Louis Rocah

CHI Four degrees ofCHI College IGNITE capital campaign launch

CHI Theatre & Music combination Latin American music course now online

CHI Art & Art History Jennifer Reeder’s Signature Move

CHI Architecture Article of acknowledgment CHI Engaged, for and sabbaticals

CHI Design good: making Entrepreneurs in training CHI, NYC Art & Art History A monumental move: Tony Tasset sculpture arrives artful history on campus

University of Illinois at Chicago College of Architecture, at UIC Design, and the Arts

Fall 2017 Glenn Gould, the eccentric and brilliant knowing our history is critical; it helps us performing arts excellence, we are adding Recent Recognitions Canadian pianist, once stated that the to not only correct the record, but also to important new degree programs to meet purpose of art is the lifelong construc- hone our ability to conceive and implement the interests and needs of our evolving stu- tion of a state of wonder. In the College positive change. dent community. Please also take a minute Jenna Blazevich, AIGA Chicago Emerging of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, the to read the impressive list of recent awards Designer Award creative imagination and wonder are very These pages thus document a range of received by faculty and students across our Ted Burdett, First Prize, UIC Startup much alive and embedded in all we do. Our ways that our students and faculty are member schools, and join me in congrat- Challenge faculty and students imagine new struc- making an indelible impact on their imme- ulating them. The future will benefit from Jimmy Carter, Schiff Award, Critical Writing tures for human interaction; new ways to diate communities and the world at large, their work. Sarah Dunn, Urban Lab, AIA Chicago Design design, produce, and interact with the do- right now, with the future in mind. This Excellence Award in Regional and Urban mains we inhabit; and new interpretations year’s theme for the Chicago Architecture Finally, I hope you will consider attending Design of historical artifacts. We imagine new ki- Biennial, “Make New History,” for instance, the launch of IGNITE, UIC’s new capital Alexander Eisenschmidt, ACSA Creative netic performance practices, more just and reflects the very cause of looking back campaign on October 28. The campaign Achievement Award inclusive communities, and discover new while designing forward. The biennial is will help advance the University’s strategic Tom Groom, Be Original Summer Design potentials and insights into human-com- presenting work by 141 practitioners from priorities, which are centered on student Fellowship puter interactions. We are the historians more than 20 countries, an impressive 10 of achievement, faculty leadership, and ex- Sarita Hernández, Kress Fellowship, and theorists opening new provocations on the architects affiliated with the College’s emplary civic engagement. Your participa- National Museum of Mexican Art how, why, when, and where design and ar- School of Architecture. Meanwhile the tion will help ensure that the College and Jacob McLaughlin, Schiff Award, Design tistic speculations shaped our lives. Much Caterpillar Lab, housed in the UIC Innova- University that you hold dear will remain Jonathan Mekinda, Graham Foundation of our creativity is increasingly propelled tion Center, is bringing together student a vital voice in the history-making con- Grantee by the intersections today with science, minds of many disciplines to integrate the versations of the future. Not only looking Yasen Peyankov, CADA Distinguished technology, literature, social studies, and past into the present by contributing to but also acting forward — in teaching and Faculty Award healthcare advances. If the 20th century the company’s rapid response capabilities learning, across disciplines and discoveries School of Art & Art History, Humanities was the century of specialization, the 21st in the Data Economy. Lisa Yun Lee, Di- — remains the most viable path to a Access Grant, National Endowment century is all about increasing integration. rector of the School of Art & Art History better world. for the Humanities talks to Carrie Rebora Barratt (BA, 1981) Deborah Stratman, Prix d’Aide a la Integration is not only the ability to put about her memories of the College and her Cordially, Distribution Ciné + Award, EntreVues things together, to make new connections, current work at the Metropolitan Museum Steve Everett Belfort International Film Festival but also to find new ways in which knowl- of Art; and as the College looks back on Simon H. Wan, Andrew Mellon Fellowship edge carries new meaning for our lives. We its accomplishments, including 70 years of Daniel Wheeler, Driehaus First Award for live in a world in which the discreet, silo- Community Design ed forms of knowledge remain some of the Cheryl Towler Weese with 2012–13 most powerful driving forces in our lives. School of Design students, UCDA Award History is our teacher, but the future can’t of Excellence always wait until we clarify the lessons for our current circumstances. As artists and scholars, we have to keep making, keep Dean’s formulating new ideas, and keep conceiving new ways of expressing them. We desire original thought, after all.

If this issue of the College newsletter has a theme, it’s the artist’s use of past and welcome present to shape the future. As educators and students, we already understand that And the beat goes on CHI

operations (just $600 per semester was and faculty are bringing their professional to imagining how the Department of Music Theatre & Music allocated to the theatre program) that its networks to bear on their students’ lives at UIC can best respond to the needs and participants recall not only fondly, but through internships, practicums, and artis- talents of our students, contribute to the with dogged loyalty to its superior benefits, tic exchanges. progressive mission of the University, and Since the 1960s UIC’s Associate Professor as it required the students to collaborate reflect the astounding vitality of Chicago’s Emeritus in Theatre William Raffeld has and improvise, at every turn. Another exciting development at the diverse musical communities.” taught his students about the “beat” of School is the appointment of the Director a scene or sequence of scenes — described Thus described, the beat also serves as of the Orchestra, Louis Bergonzi, as Head On October 27 the School of Theatre & in the fall 2004 issue of the University’s a way of thinking about the history of per- of Music. During his most recent tenure, Music will mark its 70th Platinum Jubilee magazine as “a unit of action that consists forming arts education at UIC: students as Professor and Daniel J. Perrino Chair in with a day of events for alumni, followed of four sections: what a character wants; and faculty with high aspirations born out Music Education at the University of Illinois by a reception and celebratory dinner. For why the character wants it; the actions of a passion to make music and theatre, Urbana-Champaign, Bergonzi specialized more information, visit: cada.uic.edu/ the character takes to get it; and the ob- pushing through the early challenges in conducting and string education. Previ- tm70. stacles that get in the way.” of budgets and migrating performance ously, he was on the Music Education facul- spaces, and the ongoing story of choosing ty at the Eastman School of Music, serving This fall, as the Departments of Theatre collaboration and generous creativity over there as Director of the Rochester-Eastman and Music celebrate 70 years of pioneering personal grandeur. Out of necessity and Urban String Project, a multifaceted pro- work at UIC, it’s clear that the College’s integrity came the invention of an ensem- gram for preparing studio and group string performing arts students continue to ble ethic that still drives performing arts teachers for work in urban settings. He has benefit from Raffeld and his command of at the University today. been a guest conductor for all-state and the beat. Although the University’s theatre regional honors youth orchestras through- and music performances date back to 1946, Now in its fourth year as the School of out the world and served as co-director Raffeld’s arrival at the Navy Pier Campus Theatre & Music within the College of Arch- of Establishing Identity: LGBTQ Studies coincided with the formal theatre pro- itecture, Design, and the Arts, the school & Music Education I–III, symposia designed gram’s establishment in 1963, followed by is welcoming a record number of perform- to energize the discussion of how LGBTQ the move to the Circle Campus in 1965, just ing arts students of diverse backgrounds, issues operate within music education. in time for the artistic cauldron of the later with recently added degrees in music Image (above left): Band concert in decade. Read through the archival mater- business; theatre and performance; and As both an educator and a performing Circle Forum. 086 UA 90-999.2270, ial from those early years and the story theatre design, production, and technology. artist, Bergonzi says he is excited and hon- Photograph Subject File, UIC Archives, of UIC faculty establishing its theatre The school has also added an international ored about his new appointment: “With University of Illinois at Chicago Library and music programs, and you’ll invariably exchange program with Eolia Conserva- students, alumni, and members of the Image (above right): Scene from encounter descriptions of barebones tory of Dramatic Arts in Barcelona, Spain, faculty and administration, I look forward Life's a Dream, Spring 2017 Architecture against unbridled progress. Instead, at a The advantage for students of architec- You are making this projective thing but time when there is too much information ture would seem to be the discovery that immediately situating it in architectural and not enough attention — when a gen- being able to know anything, anytime history, which is what we do all the time. The title of this year’s Chicago Architecture eral collective amnesia perpetuates a state remains less important than what you un- There’s always the pursuit of the new, but Biennial — Make New History — is succinct, of eternal presentness — understanding the derstand. Expectations can be successfully not everyone talks about how the new fits yet robust. From the declarative verb channels through which history moves and subverted only when they are grasped. into the old, and the biennial invites us to make, to the tenet of innovation embedded is shaped by architecture is more import- look closely at work in that framework.” in new, to the respect for past and future ant than ever. A generation of architects In this spirit of close looking within the indicated by history, the exhibition prom- has noted a renewed interest in precedents context of both an omnipresent past and For details about the biennial, visit: ises to present work of currency and of architecture. Committed to progress, impending provocation, faculty mem- chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org. consequence while calling the architecture but always from within an architectural ber and biennial participant Sarah Dunn community to further action. tradition, these architects are producing advises architecture students and recent innovative and subversive works grounded graduates to go, and go often, to the bien- Ten members of the UIC School of Arch- in the fundamentals of the discipline, and nial. Students in the School of Architecture itecture faculty are participating in the rooted in the fabrics of the cities where are fortunate to be learning their profes- Image (below left): Paul Preissner biennial, which runs from Saturday, Sep- they are built, without feeling pressured to sion in one of the great modern cities of & Paul Andersen. Photo: James Florio tember 16, 2017, to Sunday, January 7, 2018: keep up with micro-trends or being acc- the world, but the biennial brings a host of Image (below right): UrbanLab, Paul Andersen (Independent Architecture) used of cultural appropriation.” other cities and projects to Chicago as well. Ancona Playground, Chicago, 2016. and Paul Preissner (Paul Preissner Archi- Dunn says the phrase “make new history” Photo: Michelle Litvin tects); Sarah Dunn (UrbanLab); Sam Jacob The assertion that architects are working is “an interesting one that makes you think (Sam Jacob Studio); Ania Jaworska (Ania “at a time when there is too much informa- twice. How does one do that? It’s a process Jaworska); Stewart Hicks and Allison New- tion and not enough attention” frames the of both looking forward and looking back. meyer (Design With Company); Thomas biennial with some urgency, as an exercise Kelley (Norman Kelley); Robert Somol (UIC in close looking, and posits architecture School of Architecture); and Andrew Zago itself as an intervention against the “collec- (Zago Architecture). tive amnesia” that “perpetuates an eternal presentness.” Architecture’s future seems In their program statement, the biennial’s newly and fearlessly drawn by the lines of Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston and historical understanding intersecting with Mark Lee write: “Today, history represents entirely new lines of inquiry in the current neither an oppressive past that modernism age of sustainability, accessibility, speed, tried to discard nor a retrograde mind-set and the constant flow of information. A historic future CHI

CHI Four degrees of combination

Faculty member Robert DiFazio, who has only after completing several semesters of a 13-year career as a music producer and higher education. It is also designed for UIC comes to UIC most recently from the intercollegiate transfer students whose Music Business Management program at exposure to design only occurs during their Columbia College Chicago, is coordinat- early college career. The program will pre- ing the new Music Business degree. With pare students for entry-level design employ- required coursework in both the School ment or enable them to gain acceptance of Theatre & Music and the UIC School of to a graduate program in the field. at the College and UIC — particularly given Business, the degree combines a rigorous College the University’s urban setting. Access formal music curriculum — courses in music As art making becomes increasingly plural- to the riches of Chicago’s renowned visual theory, master classes in performance, ear istic in contemporary society, our students and performing arts scene, along with training, keyboard skills, music history, and and faculty seek new ways to cross dis- Students in the College of Architecture, College resources such as the Jane Addams analytic technique, among others — with ciplines and foment ideas amid artists Design, and the Arts (CADA) have always Hull-House Museum, the original landmark classes geared to succeeding in a rapidly working in different mediums, to combine been makers — developing architects, and a museum committed to social justice, changing industry. Culminating in a spring art forms in their work in inventive ways, artists, designers, authors, dramatists, and Gallery 400, a dynamic, cutting-edge internship in the music industry, the degree and to merge areas of study such as the and musicians — and creative interactions contemporary art gallery, will further program will cover subjects that include humanities or sciences with an arts educa- among the communities have long been enhance the program. marketing, entrepreneurship, management tion to drive social change. The Interdisci- encouraged, but with the current aca- information systems, managerial finance, plinary Degree in the Arts at UIC (IDEAS) is demic year four new degree offerings will Graduates of the Art Education program and conflict resolution. Students enrolled intended for students who may or may not integrate more formal combinations into will meet the requirements for Illinois in the degree program will enjoy the added have a background in the arts but seek the College: the relaunch of the Art Educa- State art teacher certification and gain benefit of being in Chicago, one of the to cultivate creative and critical skills as tion BFA and the expansive Interdisciplinary the experiences needed to become effec- largest markets in the nation for music artists, makers, designers, or arts writers. Studies in the Arts (IDEAS) program, both tive teachers/artists/researchers at the events and a thriving music scene with a With an emphasis on interdisciplinary offered through the School of Art & Art high-school level in Chicago’s diverse public rich heritage. methods, IDEAS promotes creative problem History, as well as a new BA in Music Busi- schools and communities, and beyond. solving through the arts, as well as en- ness through the School of Theatre & Music; Sandlos explains, “The undergraduate Art Combining methodologies and processes gaged work within any of the departments and, with the 2018–19 academic year, the Education program will cultivate the study from the graphic design and industrial within CADA. new BA in Design, offered by the School of and making of art in a variety of ways that design disciplines, the new BA in Design Design. are rooted in local cultures and histories will focus on the human experience in the of activism and democratic participation creation of communications, objects, and/ As the lead of the new Art Education pro- in the public sphere. Student teachers will or services, all in the context of a liberal gram, Karyn Sandlos, Associate Professor, develop their own artistic practice and arts education. The new program seeks to School of Art & Art History, emphasizes learn how a rigorous process of art making address demand from community college Image (above left): Billy James that there is no better place for art making can be shared with their students.” and transfer students who have decided Joyce (MFA ‘17) in UIC Open Studios, and arts education to come together than to pursue a bachelor’s degree in design Spring 2016 A legacy of responsibility information is organized and displayed; How are these conflicts related to the As our climate warms, seasons and eco- how we engage both the real and virtual current vibrant theories of the academic/ zones will shift. While the rate will vary spaces of our collective interaction.” metropolitan center? And how might these widely for different species, the principle As the Print Shop Manager at UIC, Daniel theories be affecting various communities remains the same — that in order to sur- Mellis has a job with a long heritage of in their relationships to their land, its re- vive the locked-in warming predicted in our disseminating information, for both sources, biodiversity, and cultural heritage? future, organisms, including plants, must activism and posterity. Not one to shirk Climate change — and inquiry Therefore, the project has two interrelated move toward the poles. The push-able responsibility, he is currently preserving a pursuits: first, to bring together scholars and pull-able, wheeled Garden planters, relevant piece of UIC history: five posters to examine not only global theories of the filled with diverse midwestern plants and printed by students for the protests on Through the competition “The Work of the Anthropocene and its new ontologies of constructed with reclaimed materials, the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Humanities in a Changing Climate,” the time and materiality, but also their links demonstrate these changes in accelerated Democratic National Convention. At the Humanities Without Walls Consortium, to regional practices and discourses, and fashion. time, the students pasted some of the based at the University of Illinois Urba- second, to investigate place-based politics – posters up beneath a skylight in the Art & na-Champaign and funded by the Andrew pressing issues of the environment explored Beginning in April 2018, Chicagoans, Architecture building (now Architecture W. Mellon Foundation, has granted support through local and far-flung fieldwork, from through the moving garden and activities, and Design Studios), where they remain to two relevant UIC projects: Political Ecol- the study of industrial row crop farming in walks, and conversations, will envision today. The letterpress shop in which they ogy as Practice: A Regional Approach to the northern Illinois and the water system in the otherwise largely invisible, slow, and were printed is now part of the School Anthropocene and Garden for a Changing Cochabama, Bolivia to hydropower dams dispersed threat of climate change, and of Design, enabling Mellis to reprint them Climate. Ömür Harmanşah, Associate and large-scale industrial tree plantations understand how a shifting climate will using the very same fonts of metal and Professor of Art History, is the Lead Co-or- in Cambodia, and a coal-fired power plant change our urban environment and affect wood type, sometimes down to the individ- ganizer of the 2015–17 UIC working group in West Central Turkey. Developed from us directly. Planned in the neighborhoods ual letter. With slogans such as “All power Political Ecologies: Nature, Place, Heritage, existing projects of graduate students and of the Southeast Side, Little Village, Fuller to the people” and “Free Huey, support which includes Molly Doane, Associate faculty at UIC and UW-Madison, these ini- Park, Albany Park, and the UIC campus, the Panthers,” the posters refer to another Professor of Anthropology; Ralph Cintron, tiatives will be carried out by small teams Garden for a Changing Climate events are place and time, but in re-creating them Associate Professor of Latin American and through field observations and interviews, being developed with community-based Mellis takes us beyond nostalgia to some- Latino Studies and English; Beate Geissler, visual documentation, and creative inter- organizations such as the American Indian thing vital and ongoing — the University’s Associate Professor of Art; and David ventions such as public engagement events Center, Albany Park. commitment to social and political en- H. Wise, Professor of Biological Sciences, or art installations. The eight field initia- gagement. Associate Director of the Institute for tives will be represented in a culminating In addition to this programming, local Environmental Science and Policy, and Co- exhibition at UIC’s Gallery 400 in spring residents are featured alongside scientists Currently on view at the Cultural Center, Chair of the Chicago Wilderness Science 2019, along with a publication. and naturalists in the development of a the Chicago Architecture Biennial carries Team. Faculty and graduate students from video series that will map out, in clear and the title Make New History (see page 3), the fields of art history, art, anthropology, Meanwhile, in Chicago, the UIC cam- engaging ways, the effects of the ecozone thus positing history’s perennial role in English, rhetoric, environmental sciences, pus and various neighborhoods will host shift and climate change in the city of art making. The biennial asks questions Latin American studies, urban studies, and Garden for a Changing Climate, led by Chicago — from human health impact to about the precedents of architecture and geography are also on the team, collabo- Lorelei Stewart, Director of Gallery 400 and new plant and animal environments, from acknowledges a resurgence of interest in rating with counterparts at the University lecturer in the School of Art & Art History, extreme weather conditions to housing the history of the art form, but is squarely of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). and Hannah B. Higgins, Professor of Art instability. The educational ambitions of committed to showing groundbreaking History and Founding Director of CADA’s the project also extend to UIC’s student new work with “transformative global Political Ecology as Practice reflects time- Interdisciplinary Education and the Arts population. IDEAS students, who partici- impact of creativity and innovation.” This less best practices within humanist inquiry: Program (IDEAS). Created by the National pate in practice-based group projects, will call to change the world through works of exchanging ideas across disciplines, and Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) first be involved in design, app development, art that are used in the world also reso- rigorous fieldwork. The project is inves- artist-in-residence, Jenny Kendler, Garden sonification and visualization, and writing nates in the College’s mission statement, tigating the reciprocal relationship and for a Changing Climate is a community for the Garden during the 2017–18 which begins with the assertion that it has the disjunction between the metropolitan driven participatory public art project that academic year. “the unique pleasure and responsibility of theories of the Anthropocene — the current uses a traveling garden of local plants to mentoring the next generation of cultur- geological age, defined by the dominance give Chicagoans a dynamic and tangible Garden for a Changing Climate project al producers” and embraces a collective of human activity on the earth’s environ- experience of the central effects of climate collaborators include Demecina Beehn, responsibility to “reimagine how the world ment — and local ecological conflicts in change. Community Engagement and Public Pro- looks, sounds, feels, and moves; how various micro-regions around the world. grams Manager at Gallery 400, and Noora

Images: 1 1. Poster re-created by Daniel Mellis 2. Illuminated sign at night, 1947. 4 003-09-00-01-02.UA.96.33.236, Navy Pier Negatives and Prints, UIC Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago Library 3. Photograph of posters uncovered in the UIC Art and Architecture building 4. Free speech protest, 1968. 086 UA90-999. 2214, photograph subject file, UIC Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago Library 5. Garden for a Changing Climate by Jenny Kendler. Courtesy of the artist, Jenny Kendler, and Goldfinch Gallery Engaged, for good: making

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3 artful history at UIC

5 Al-Balushi, MA candidate in Museum and to those who arrive hoping to retain a bias knew that the palpable intensity of social orts to change norms and improve lives, Exhibition Studies, who are coordinating that the site seeks to subvert. But the prob- consciousness across campus could provide the students promoted their project the Garden community partnerships and lem can operate in reverse: drawing visitors her students with a range of historical and through social media, including a trailer programs; Robyn Mericle, PhD student who arrive expecting only a tragic story, current events to shape a collaborative advertising the tour; collected stories of in Art History, who is working on a data- and not the uplifting stories of place, family, class project for the UIC community. former student activists; published a paper base of US artistic landscape and climate and community that NPHM has to tell. First, the students organized themselves and presented it at a conference; and interventions that have preceded the The National Public Housing Museum cre- into teams according to abilities and in- worked with visiting artists Kemi Ilesanmi Garden; Nelly Kluz, Art alumnus who is ates a living cultural experience on social terests, from a propensity for straight-up and Kameelah Janan Rasheed from the creating a documentary video to accom- justice and human rights out of the stories historical research, to graphic design skills Laundromat Project in New York, and with pany the Garden; Erin Nixon, Assistant and insights of individuals who have lived and social media communication planning. Paul Durica, well known for his series of Director at Gallery 400, who is producing in public housing. The museum also seeks In the first stage of research, they discov- free and interactive Chicago-based public the video documentary and coordinating to document the range of effects of public ered particularly compelling artifacts: a history programs, “Pocket Guide to Hell.” other aspects of the public artwork pro- housing on the people who have experi- photograph of the original ribbon cutting Their work culminated in the “ALTour UIC,” gram; and Noah Weeth Feinstein, Assistant enced it over decades of fluctuating Ameri- for the opening of the UIC East campus which they described as “an interactive Professor, School of Education, UW-Mad- can housing policy. Finally, NPHM employs in 1965, as well as those student protest walking tour that considers lesser known, ison, a science education scholar who is a rich history to drive a vital reimagining of posters still hanging up by that skylight. alternative histories of student organizing developing an evaluation framework that the future of our community, our society, The photograph was particularly revealing and protest at the University of Illinois at examines the effectiveness of artwork and and our personal and public spaces. NPHM of its context, showing a preponderance of Chicago (UIC).” The tour reflected their community engagement in climate change is not only committed to the preservation middle-aged white men in suits. As anni- newfound understanding of how visitors education along with UW-Madison gradu- of stories, but also to helping to articulate versary planners were readying to reenact experience such activities, from nev- ate students. and preserve society’s highest ideals, and the image to commemorate the 50-year er making people walk too far between to inspiring youth, families, and the broad- mark, the students couldn’t help thinking opportunities to stop and rest, to teaching er community to see opportunities where of the stories that weren’t evident within participants original protest chants and others saw only poverty. The museum’s the photo’s borders: a public university re-enacting them on-site. For Quinn, the Public housing — and consciousness building is currently being renovated and founded for a diverse student body, one class has lingered as a cherished teaching will be open to the public in 2018. that began under the controversial deci- experience: “UIC students are so great,” sion to take over a Chicago neighborhood she recalls. “For this class, they all worked Lisa Yun Lee, Director of the School of Art and displace long-time residents. The together to create a rich public event fo- & Art History, has recently been named the students began to ponder the erasure of cused on the long history and importance Executive Director of the National Public Social justice — and memory stories that had occurred in favor of that of organizing for justice. The results of Housing Museum (NPHM). The history of photograph. As for the posters, they told this work are everywhere around us, and public and publically subsidized housing an important story of student protest, and remembering that can bolster us as we in America is vastly complex, and largely In 2015 Therese Quinn, Associate Professor so the theme for their project was born: continue those efforts today.” misunderstood. Built in a historic public of Art History, and Director of the Muse- campus organizing at UIC. housing site in Chicago, NPHM preserves a um and Exhibition Studies (MUSE) gradu- From posters decrying the status quo, to key chapter of our nation's history by doc- ate program, taught a core course titled Akin to those steeped in developing a site scholarship, installations, and public pro- umenting and disseminating perspectives “Public Engagement in Museums.” The of conscience for a public audience, the gramming tackling its egregious effects, of residents and others at the heart of the class took students through the hands-on students began to conceive of the campus faculty and students will continue to use public housing story. experience of developing public program- itself as an engaging place of historic ac- the combined power of memory and the ming, but as Quinn explains, “the big ideas tivity. They conducted careful research and imagination to do what the 1960s poster To use the museum-world vernacular, for the class were, how do you identify a interviewed former students and faculty demands: be the solution, not the prob- NPHM is a “site of conscience,” and like public, and how do you engage it?” Quinn who had dispersed across the country, in- lem. Through projects currently underway, others with that moniker — including mu- recalls, “I wanted to give the students a cluding founders of a group that changed others being devised, and myriad collabo- seums dedicated to histories such as the topic that would be a place to start, but campus facilities for disabled students rations yet to be conceived, the College is Holocaust, historic sites like battle fields or still leave room for them to innovate and 20 years ago. They decided to create a extending its legacy of social engagement places of political resistance, and memo- have their own perspectives present.” At campus tour with an annotated map of well into the future. The 2017 version of rials to events or individuals — it seeks to the time there was a strong atmosphere of these historic spots on campus, mapping the poster might read: Pressing problems frame a painful historical narrative in ways campus organizing at UIC, as the faculty sites of the origins of organizing: childcare call for pressing engagements. that will deepen memory and understand- was negotiating their contract, with a real centers on campus, which were the result ing as well as spark new dialogue and possibility of a strike; the graduate em- of faculty members bringing their babies activism. Audiences for sites of conscience ployees’ union was also organizing; and the to the president’s office and occupying Note: Daniel Mellis is seeking to learn range from the uninitiated (visitors born UIC Latino Cultural Center was engaged in it, to secure funding for childcare; the more about the posters printed by students too recently or from a place too far away the “Fight for 15” initiative to increase the Gender & Sexuality Center; the UIC African- at UIC in the 1960s. If you have additional to even be familiar with the painful subject hourly wage for fast food workers to $15. American Cultural Center; the Nature information, or a resource to share, please at hand), to the unknowingly prejudiced, With all these struggles in process, Quinn Center. Excited about these focused eff- email [email protected]. Carrie Rebora Barratt: Engaged, for NYC from UIC good: making to the Met

Image (left): Carrie Rebora Barratt. Courtesy of The Metropolitan artful history Museum of Art

over two million artworks in its sweeping She had a commanding presence, a future of museums in society, was con- at UIC by Lisa Yun Lee encyclopedic collection, including scul- mischievous smile, and a fierce intensity ducted via email at an interesting moment Director, School of Art & Art History ptures and paintings, weapons and armor, to her gaze — like she was really trying while the art news rumor mill is abuzz musical instruments, costumes, fashion to truly see and understand each student, about the possibility that a woman might art, and more — and a staff of curators faculty, and alumni with whom she become the next Director of the Met — and As Deputy Director for Collections and and scholars in 17 different departments. chatted. She also seemed utterly non- Carrie’s name is right at the top. Administration, Carrie Rebora Barratt The Met welcomed 6.7 million visitors this plussed by the fact that she was the only (BA, History of Art and Architecture, 1981) past year, and has an endowment of 2.5 one dressed in a stunning evening gown. Lisa Yun Lee: You are a head honcho at the is currently one of the highest-ranking billion dollars — larger than that of most Carrie had endured the rush-hour trek Met now, but what was your first job after executives at the Metropolitan Museum colleges and universities. downtown to come to the UIC event, but college? of Art in New York City. just an hour later, was scheduled to preside I first encountered Carrie at an alumni at a black tie gala for the Museum. Founded in 1870, the storied Met, as it is event for UIC’s College of Architecture, colloquially referred to, is the largest art Design, and the Arts hosted by Dean Steve This wide-ranging candid interview about museum in the United States. The Met has Everett and Chancellor Michael Amiridis. career, art history, gender politics, and the (continued on page 6) (continued from page 5) CRB: Quotidian, but sliding across the particularly in the Western world, such as We have also had a fine record over the upper walkways, covered with ice, to get the Met, are really vestiges of imperialism, past years of special exhibitions devoted to Carrie Rebora Barratt: I worked at the from one class to another. It made studies with a vast number of artifacts in their female artists. School of Art and Architecture during challenging in a life-affirming way. I took collections acquired due to oppressive and my junior and senior years at UIC, and my life into my hands to get to “Pre- unjust systems of power? LYL: Just as many of us would’ve loved kept that job during the summer until my Columbia Architecture” class. to see a woman president, I think we would departure for sunny Los Angeles, where I CRB: Hmmm. The Met will celebrate its also love to see a woman director at the continued my art history studies at UCLA. LYL: If you could go back to school 150th anniversary in 2020, founded in 1870 Met! Only one of the country’s 13 largest UIC set me up perfectly for the rigorous now and take any class that you think by a group of New York art collectors and museums is run by a woman (Brooklyn master’s degree curriculum and also for would help make you a better museum artists who wished to bring the art of the Museum). three years in the sun, so sorely needed professional what would it be? world to the city of New York. The Met had after growing up in Chicago. a building before it had a collection (not so CRB: It’s time, and also worth saying that CRB: I would take a course in accounting. different than the Art Institute of Chicago a woman director at the Met would be LYL: I remember the moment I read the Sounds silly, but every college student or the entire Smithsonian, both of which joining a senior team on which the CFO, Bhagavad Gita in college. It totally blew should know how to read accounts, were founded on a passion for culture and General Counsel, Head of Strategy, Head of my mind. Do you remember a particular manage budgets, and have a basic art and the great effect art would have on Exhibitions, and VP for Human Resources text that you read at UIC, or a work of art understanding of finance. For museum visitors). Today, we can tell a meaningful are all women, not to mention the extra- that you encountered as a student that work, for life. story of how each and every work in the ordinary balance of men to women across has stayed relevant to your life and work collection was acquired and how each the staff of the museum. and why? LYL: Hmmm . . . what about any class that teaches and inspires. you think would help make you a better LYL: I know you are so busy, and so please CRB: Learning from Las Vegas by Robert person? LYL: The Guerrilla Girls’ most recent Do know that UIC and I really appreciate this Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the interview. Izenour, given to me by the architecture CRB: Every class should make one a better Met. Museum? campaign showed that student (Michael Barratt) whom I would person, if the learning is true, applied the representation of women artists in CRB: Did I make the deadline? Phew! marry several years later, so a book judiciously, and extrapolated into other the Modern Art Department has actually that formed my thinking about practice areas. gotten worse in the last decade, not Note: This interview has been gently edited. and theory in the arts overall and also a better! ARGH! Why is it so hard to diversify token of love. LYL: Why do you think institutions like the collections in museums? Are there ways Met are relevant to society today? you are trying to address this issue? Leda and the Swan by Leonardo da Vinci, my first serious art history paper on the CRB: Great art museums, like the Met, are CRB: Diversity and inclusion are top mythology, the woman, the bird, and the conveners of people with shared interests considerations in Met governance, visit- artist. After that I knew what I wanted in life, history, and human creation. The orship, and in our collection. We consider to do when I grew up. works of art we show evoke personal this in every acquisition we make, from the stories, even as each work of art tells its ancient world to the modern, from Asia to LYL: Our brutalist campus sometimes gets own story. America, in contemporary paintings and a bad rap. Do you have a specific memory musical instruments. of a moment from your life as a student LYL: How would you respond to critics that at UIC? would argue that encyclopedic museums,

Image (right): Lisa Yun Lee

UIC’s cool TEX CAT (Lab)

industrial designers, business majors, ex- Andrew Kunk (BDes ’18) explains his expe- “a tangible budget, really a microcosm of Design perts in computer science, data analytics, rience in the lab: “Before working at the what you might experience at a corporate and information systems — are being CAT Lab, I was unsure about what kind of level.” For Caterpillar, Ladd explains, the mentored by Samantha Melchiori, Cater- design I wanted to practice. The lab has students offer valuable perspectives un- “The thing I like the most about the CAT pillar’s Digital and Analytics Site Director, helped me realize my interest in taking a tethered to the old ways,” and she readily Lab are the people. We are a tight group and Beth Ladd, the company’s Analytics user-centered approach. I had a wonderful notes that “increasingly, the students’ with varied backgrounds. This brings Research and Development Manager, as experience, for example, traveling to a job generation will be in the ones sitting in new and constant ideas to the table and well as the Innovation Center’s Executive site in Texas to do observational research Caterpillar’s machines.” elevates your thinking. It’s like bouncing Director, Peter Pfanner; CADA faculty and user testing with fuel truck drivers the ball in the air and making sure it never member Don Bergh from the School of we have been developing an optimization Bridget Mroczkowski (MDes 2019), an- touches the floor; someone else picks up Design; and Computer Science Professor solution for. Seeing the difference between other CAT Lab student, did exactly that. from where you left off.” Ugo Buy, from the College of Engineering. the needs we had assumed and been told “For part of our research, we visited the Karan Patel (MS MIS ’17) about, and what we actually saw when Caterpillar offices in Aurora and were lucky Caterpillar has already moved well beyond we got there, was extremely telling, and enough to drive and operate front loaders,” Today’s college students are launching their the opening gambit — What about a con- it affirmed the need for a real, practical she recalls, adding, “I would highly rec- professional lives amid the realities of the struction site could be construed as digital? understanding to design responsibly.” ommend this to anyone who needs some Data Economy — a dynamic environment — and is imagining what the connected stress relief!” Mroczkowski also credits of ongoing information, innovation, and worker looks like 10 years from now — that In the process of overseeing the students, the lab with solidifying her interest in iteration. They will be working for orga- worker being part of a broad ecosystem Bergh is continually amazed at the spirit user-centered research: “Before this I had nizations that have a constant stream of in which machines, people, workflows, of the work: “Caterpillar brings us open- taken design research classes under Robert data, but doing so amid the age-old reality materials, and the weather conditions are ended problems they are interested in Zolna and Susan Stirling at UIC. Being able that data doesn’t solve problems or seize all ingredients to making a safer and more solving, and lets the students put their spin to apply the methodology and seeing how opportunities; people do. productive worksite. Once you start asking on them. The students aren’t professionals it worked was exciting and mind-open- questions about big machines, construction within the industry, but they do have a ing. Working closely with the computer So given the pace of launching new prod- sites, efficiency, and a multitude of other fresh, probably naïve, take, and Caterpillar science students who are on our team has ucts and services in the digital age, what factors present, you begin to understand values it. We guide the lab, but the stu- also heightened my awareness of how fast kinds of educational experiences are going why you need a lot of different minds in dents are doing everything. It’s immersive, the fields of CS and design are converging. to best prepare UIC students? And how the room. with lots of opportunity to do new things, I see a lot of opportunity in this experience might businesses benefit from the relative including failing.” for future professional goals.” ease of the students’ negotiations in the Now entering its second year, the lab grew digital world sooner, rather than later? out of an interdisciplinary product devel- As a representative of Caterpillar, Ladd opment course CAT launched with UIC two shares Bergh’s enthusiasm for the benefits CHI To the benefit of both these sides of the years ago as a way of taking students from to both the students and the company: knowledge exchange, Caterpillar has asking open-ended questions to identifying “The lab gives students the opportunity staffed a research laboratory on campus, the real problems to solve, to rapid proto- to face key questions such as ‘How many Image (above left): Student in the UIC Innovation Center. A multidisci- typing, testing, and reiteration. resources do I have? How much time?’” Andrew Kunk (BDes ’18) learning plinary team of students — graphic and Ladd says the students also experience how to operate a front loader Image (right): Still from Jennifer Reeder's Signature Move, 2017.

LA Of note at the College

also known for several buildings on the who we are and who we will become. The from Chicago: UIC’s Instagrammable 1. School of Architecture and University of Chicago Campus. A long-time festivities will include a launch rally and Moment” by Zach Mortice discusses the Art & Art History: In memoriam resident of Evanston, Macsai also designed after-party on UIC’s campus. compelling ideas, work, and influence of the twin apartment building on the east the school in the digital age. Mortice notes, side of Chicago Avenue between Church “The school has emerged as a hotbed for D. Ross Edman, 1936–2017 and Clark Streets, Evanston. exploring how the rise of the internet and Assistant Professor Emeritus in Asian Art, 3. Theatre & Music: Latin American rapidly shifting visual media are shaping Department of Art History Louis Rocah, 1926–2017 music course now online ideas about buildings.” Associate Professor Emeritus, School of Ross Edman taught at UIC from 1965 to Architecture Penelope Dean, Associate Professor, is 1995, and then became an esteemed emer- As of the current academic year, CADA’s Scholar-in-Residence at Chicago’s Newber- itus faculty member. Edman was also an A prizewinning architect who taught in most popular general education class, ry Library for the 2017–18 academic year. Honors College fellow from 1995 to 1998. the School of Architecture for five decades, “Latin American Music,” is offered as an Dean will be consulting the Edith Farns- Although he was especially valued for his Lou Rocah had a profound impact on his online course. This pioneering test offering worth Papers and the Robert Hunter expertise in Asian art, he taught courses fellow faculty and students alike. One of will help the College in its ongoing effort Middleton Archive as part of her on-going across the curriculum, including survey and his former students, James Gwinner (BA to leverage technology to increase avenues project “So Different, So Appealing: Clients, introductory courses. During his time at ’00 and MArch ’04), delivered a heartfelt to higher education. The course lecturer is Objects, Architectures.” Also currently UIC, Edman was a much beloved teacher eulogy to Rocah, recalling, “He was a nat- Elbio Barilari, co-founder and co-director on sabbatical for the Fall semester, Asso- and mentor to undergraduate students, ural teacher who taught for 50 years — of the Chicago Latino Music Festival. ciate Professor Paul Preissner is examining winning the coveted Silver Circle Award for 50 years — for the simplest reason of all: a selection of strangely organized small Excellence in Teaching in 1988. In recogni- he loved it. He loved sharing what he knew American cities for a treatise on alternative tion for his engagement with his students, and what he had learned from his many forms of cities and their spaces. the Department of Art History established years of practice, he loved getting to know 4. Art & Art History: Signature Move CHI the Ross Edman Fund to support under- his students and hearing what they had to graduate students in art history through say and what their experiences were, and 6. Design: Entrepreneurs in training scholarships and travel for undergraduate he loved seeing them progress and succeed, In July, the Los Angeles–based nonprofit research. which is what kept him teaching well past Outfest awarded its US Grand Jury Prize the point when many would have traded in to the 2017 film Signature Move, directed The course “Entrepreneurial Product Devel- The College also mourns the loss of two their slides and laser pointer for golf clubs by Jennifer Reeder, Associate Professor, opment,” led by School of Design faculty members of the emeritus faculty of the or a fishing pole.” Department of Art. Screenings of the film members Ted Burdett and Craighton Ber- School of Architecture: John Macsai and are taking place throughout the country, man guided students through the creation Louis Rocah. including a preview in September at the and marketing of new products, including Music Box Theatre, Chicago. Signature advice on how to use crowdfunding John Macsai, 1926–2017 2. UIC: IGNITE capital campaign launch Move is a story of love and some of its through kickstarter. Particularly successful Professor Emeritus, School of Architecture modern-day corollaries, combining a new products included the Iron Apron, created romance between Zaynab (Fawzia Mirza), by Brennan Murphy Gudmundson (BDes John Macsai, a renowned Chicago archi- On October 28, UIC will launch the IGNITE a Muslim lesbian lawyer, and Alma (Sari ’17); Sindr: The Strike-Anywhere Candle tect who spent more than 20 years on the Campaign and UIC Alumni Association Sanchez), a confident Mexican-American Holder by Ariel Lynne (BDes ‘16); and Finch: faculty of the School of Architecture and (UICAA). These initiatives will benefit UIC’s woman, with a look at Zaynab’s compli- The Ceramic Carry Flask, by Michael Regan served as the school’s head of housing students, faculty, and community, and re- cated relationship with her new roommate (BDes ’17). See the “Always Be Hustlng” design, passed away on August 9. Mac- new the University’s commitment to alum- Parveen (Shabana Azmi), who is also her blog on Tumblr for more information about sai also team taught with an attorney a ni. UIC’s unique position at the intersec- recently widowed mother. Zaynab’s new- all the products developed and marketed course in architectural practice and was tion of research and urban life has led our found interest in wrestling and her fascin- through the course. the principal author of the book Housing institution to become one of the premier ation with Alma’s mother add to the (John Wiley & Sons), used nationally as a urban research universities in the nation comedy — and to the drama. textbook for many years. Known for his and a model for diversity and public service design of the famous, much-loved “Purple in the 21st century. Honoring UIC’s legacy Hotel,” originally the Hyatt Lincolnwood, and promise of unwavering commitment CHI Macsai made an indelible contribution to to public education, IGNITE will take on the 5. Architecture: Architect magazine, Chicago’s skyline, from 21 East Chestnut challenges of our time: personalizing med- sabbaticals Street and 1400 North State Parkway, to icine; improving the urban infrastructure; several prominent buildings on Lake Shore reducing community disparities and social Drive, including 1100 North, 1240 North, inequality; unraveling the mysteries of the The August issue of Architect, the journal and the Harbor House at 3200 North. His human brain; harnessing the power of big of the American Institute of Architects firm won the AIA Award for the curved 1150 data; and curing devastating diseases — all features an extensive article on the School North Lake Shore Drive building and was pursued with the goal of understanding of Architecture and its faculty. “Letter

1 John Mascai, 1926–2017 2 IGNITE Campaign 6 Finch by Michael Regan, 2017 6 Sindr by Ariel Lynne, 2017 Recent Faculty Publications Dunn, Sarah. Urbanlab: Bowling. San Harmanşah, Ömür. “Graffiti or Monument? Tsachor, Rachelle. “Acting with Bartenieff Francisco: Applied Research and Design, Inscription of Place at Anatolian Rock Fundamentals: A Somatic, Developmental 2016. Reliefs.” In Scribbling through History: Movement Training for Presence and Bair, Kelly. “Low Volume.” Art Papers, 2016. Eisenschmidt, Alexander. Companions Graffiti, Places and People from Antiquity Physical Characterization” in Movement for Becker, Catherine. “Mahinda’s Visit of to the History of Architecture Volume IV: to Modernity. Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. Actors. New York: Allworth Press, 2017. Amaravati? Narrative Connections between Anticipating Modern Worlds. New Jersey: Higgins, Hannah. The Eyes Have Ears: Tsoupikova, Daria. “The Battle for Hearts Buddhist Communities in Andhra and Sri Wiley-Blackwell, 2017. Sound in W.J.T. Mitchells Pictures, in W.J.T. and Minds: Interrogation and Torture in the Lanka Supplementary Remarks.” London: Everett, Yayoi Uno. “Opera as Film: Mitchell’s Image Theory: Living Pictures. Age of War: An Adaptation for Oculus Rift.” The British Museum, 2017. Multimodal Narrative and Embodiment” Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2017. ACM New York, 2016. Berbić, Amir. “Sahara: Branding a Refugee in Oxford Handbook on Music and the Body, Lyster, Clare. “Storage Flows: Logistics as Camp.” In Visual Communication Journal, edited by Youn Kim and Sander Gilman. Urban Choreography.” Cambridge, MA: Vol. 16.1, 75–84. London: SAGE, 2017. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017. Harvard Design Magazine 43, 2016. De Jong, Judith. “The Edge City is Dead.” Finegold, Andrew. “Atlatls and the Marullo, Francesco, et al. Tehran Life Within Monu 26, 2017. Metaphysics of Violence in Central Mexico” Walls. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2016. Dean, Penelope. Flat Out 2. Chicago: Class in Visual Culture of the Ancient Americas: Preissner, Paul. “Shiny Things” in Beyond Color, 2017. Contemporary Perspectives. Norman, OK: Critique. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. Dunn, Sarah. Bowling: Water, Architecture, University of Oklahoma Press, 2017. Tot, Zvonimir. Jazz Guitar Harmony: The Urbanism. Chicago: Graham Foundation, Fisher, Jack. “A Conditional Conjugation: Melodic Approach. Jamey Aebersold, 2016. 2017. Towards the Book,” Counter-Signals 1, 2017.

© 2017 by UIC’s College Newsletter committee: University of Illinois Non-Profit Org. of Architecture, Design, Amir Berbić, Annabelle Clarke, at Chicago U.S. Postage and the Arts. Steve Everett, Jessica Cybulski, Julia Di Castri, College of Architecture, PAID Dean. Oliver Ionita, Assistant Conrad Merced, Helen Rashad, Design, and the Arts Chicago, Illinois Dean for Advancement Jen Delos Reyes , Sarah Ritch, Permit No. 4860 929 West Harrison Street cada.uic.edu Amy Teschner, writer/editor Carlos Sadovi, Chevonne 303 Jefferson Hall [email protected] Totten-Garner, Cheryl Towler Chicago, Illinois 60607 Weese

A monumental move

CHI Art & Art History

Artist and Professor Emeritus Tony Tasset’s Images (left, right, below): Photo- public artwork Artists Monument moved graphs of the unveiling of Tony Tasset's Artists Monument, August 2017. to its permanent UIC campus home on Au- gust 30. First exhibited at the 2014 Whitney Biennial in New York, the work has also been displayed in Chicago’s Grant Park. It measures 80 × 8 × 8 feet and bears the names of 392,486 artists on brightly colored acrylic panels. The artists mentioned range from Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, to emerging artists, some with only a single exhibition to their credit — all drawn from an existing database that Tasset has not disclosed.

Artists Monument serves as a welcoming entryway to the UIC campus. As Dean Everett explains, “It lists artists more dem- ocratically by listing their names alphabet- ically, rather than by fame.… We thought in some ways the idea of this piece cap- tured a lot of what UIC endeavors to do for the city. It strives to be a unifying, leveling opportunity for students of all economic and social demographics to be able to come to a public, urban university.”