FALL 2017 Between Fire and Water Making a Monster The Balance of Sound Commuter Marriages The magazine of Lehigh University’s College of Arts and Sciences ZOELLNER ARTS CENTER: Still Groundbreaking COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES Contents Message from the Dean 16 when many pundits to impact their respective fields. CONTRIBUTORS expound the virtues Ricardo Viera, director and curator of technical training, of Lehigh University Art Galleries, yet an arts education has grown a teaching collection from EDITOR is critical in fostering 2,500 pieces to 15,000 and created Robert Nichols the abilities required a renowned hands-on learning CAS ADVISORY BOARD of graduates as they environment for Lehigh students. Donald E. Hall, dean enter careers. Students Stephanie Watts, associate professor Diane Hyland, Jackie Krasas, Dominic Packer, 20 who perform on stage, of English, is receiving well-deserved Cameron Wesson, associate deans scotch roman work backstage, create national and international acclaim GRAPHIC DESIGNER in the studio, or find for her ground-breaking new novel. 12 Kayley LeFaiver a voice through the During my tenure as dean, I CONTRIBUTING WRITERS written word, develop have had many opportunities to Violet Baron skills such as innovation, creativity, meet with alumni who speak of the Leslie Feldman critical thinking, communication, enduring mark that Lehigh’s arts Lori Friedman collaboration, and self-direction. programs left on them. If you haven’t Geoff Gehman ’89 M.A. Teaching the arts is, at its most been to campus in a while, I invite ON THE COVER: Jennifer Marangos In a State of basic element, teaching experi- you to come back and attend a Robert Nichols Rejuvenescence mentation, risk-taking, and new performance or spend time in one Kurt Pfitzer by David Cerulli at knowledge generation. Americans of our galleries. Lehigh’s reputation Zoellner Arts Center 22 05 Christopher Quirk Weld Royal ’88 for the Arts argues: “teaching is due to the energetic people who creativity develops critical thinking, form the heart of an educational PHOTOGRAPHERS engages students and fosters institution and the soul of students’ Daria Amato innovation.” Lehigh promotes its educational experience. A university’s UP FRONT FEATURES Douglas Benedict Christa Neu ability to develop leadership and reputation is also strengthened MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN LIKE A GREAT COMET Nathalie Schueller innovative skills in our students by the support of its alumni. 01 Fostering a Creative Campus 10 Actor, singer, composer Gelsey Bell ’04 and these talents come to the I welcome comments from pushes artistic boundaries with her Acumen is published twice a year fore in the College of Arts and alumni and look forward to the multi-dimensional career by the College of Arts and Sciences Sciences. When exposed to the feedback I receive with each THE ARTS at Lehigh University. arts, students learn to approach issue. If you know of someone Between Fire and Water … Haunted … STILL GROUNDBREAKING 02 COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES challenges as opportunities. Closer Than They Appear Zoellner Arts Center builds on a rich cultural 12 Lehigh University Working with their professors, heritage as it shapes a creative campus Fostering a 9 West Packer Avenue their fellow musicians, artists, AN ADVOCATE FOR THE ARTS Bethlehem, PA 18015 actors, and technical staff, THE HUMANITIES www.cas.lehigh.edu As head of Lehigh University Art Galleries, Creative Campus they learn to collaborate and Harraga … Making a Monster … 16 04 Ricardo Viera has assembled a world-class READER FEEDBACK: problem solve. Their critical The Whole Person art collection that provides students with Please send comments to: thinking skills improve and This issue explores the important impact of the arts at Lehigh hands-on experiences found nowhere else [email protected] they learn valuable perspec- THE NATURAL SCIENCES © 2017 Lehigh University. tives in dialogue with others. MAKING MUSIC, WRITING CODE AND The Balance of Sound … The College is home to an 06 CREATING A PORTFOLIO CAREER Weakly Coordinating Anions … 18 The fall 2017 issue of Acumen amazing community of faculty How a software entrepreneur builds a facebook.com/CAS_Lehigh The Foundation of Everything marks the five-year anniversary of and students. In this issue, music publishing business twitter.com/Lehigh_CAS the College of Arts and Sciences you will meet Gelsey Bell ’04 NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US producing a magazine about and who is finding success as THE SOCIAL SCIENCES Stephanie Powell Watts re-envisions for its alumni. Since 2012, I’ve a singer, composer, and actress. who will make a good story, send War and Democratic Transitions … 20 08 The Great Gatsby in her new novel enjoyed discovering wonderful You will discover Casey Rule ’11, us a note at acumen@lehigh. Historicist Narratives … stories about CAS alumni making who has founded an online choral edu. Please enjoy this issue of Commuter Marriages A LEGACY OF LEARNING a difference in many ways. publishing company, as well as Acumen. I look forward to hearing Lewis Baer ’72 is proud of his family’s INSERT FSC 22 This issue thematically explores theatre major and Horger Scholar your thoughts and comments. connection to Lehigh LOGO HERE. the importance of the arts at Lehigh Kalyani Singh. Lewis Baer ’72 talks STANDING AT THE INTERSECTION and the impact they make on many about his lifelong connections Donald E. Hall OF ART AND POLITICS of our students. We live in a time to Lehigh. Our faculty continue Herbert and Ann Siegel Dean 24 Acumen is printed using vegetable-based inks. NEU CHRISTA IMAGE: COVER DOUGLAS BENEDICT THEISPOT.COM, TSONG / JING Kalyani Singh ’18 prepares for a future of theatre and social justice LEHIGH UNIVERSITY • COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 1 The Arts ART by New Orleans Voodoo Priestess were open and all of the Italian MUSIC Dance Company. Salerni’s 2012 THEATRE disorienting to not have a horizon Miriam Williams. Chupa’s work was homes that had an altar opened ballet FABLES was written for line. If you alter the horizon line, the Between Fire and Water on display as part of a summerlong their homes to the public. The idea Haunted RIOULT. Supported by a grant Closer Than audience is more willing to accept Each March 19, residents of New exhibition at Bethlehem’s Banana was to open your home to strangers Haunted, a dance opera for bari- from Lehigh’s Humanities Center, They Appear where they are, which, in this case, Orleans celebrate the Catholic feast Factory. The collection of 33 and feed the poor. At some point, tone, three dancers, string quartet Salerni performed three scenes Closer Than They Appear is a play is a simultaneous imagined and real of St. Joseph. The feast of St. Joseph photographs chronicles the Mardi Gras Indians and percussion, is the latest from Haunted in a workshop this that tells the story of an encounter space. It’s virtual. The objective is to was brought to New Orleans by Williams’ altar room started celebrating on collaboration between California’s spring at Zoellner Arts Center. between an American soldier and an thousands of Sicilians who came between Hurricane St. Joseph’s Day. The poet laureate Dana Gioia and “We got some good feedback Iraqi girl in Fallujah in 2003. Scenic to the city in the late 1800s. On Katrina and a fire assumption is before Lehigh composer Paul Salerni. from the performance, and I subse- design for this new play is a current Anna Chupa’s altar, on display at a that destroyed I-10 went in, there Haunted is a 200-line poem quently went out to California to project of Melpomene Katakalos. recent exhibition, Sicilian traditions Williams’ temple wasn’t a sharp divi- that is a first-person tale of a young work on the piece with Dana,” Written by Christine Evans, Closer merge with New Orleans Voodoo in 2016. sion between neigh- man who feels out of place in his Salerni says. “Given what we learned Than They Appear is a ghost story influences to honor the patron saint. Long interested borhoods that the wealthy lover’s family mansion from the workshop, we revamped for the digital war age. Written for The story goes that Sicily was in Vodun, Chupa interstate imposed.” one weekend. He sees the ghost the structure of the piece, cutting multimedia performance, it incorpo- ravaged by drought and famine has for decades As part of the of a beautiful woman who tells much of the spoken narration and rates projections from Virtual Iraq, centuries ago. The people prayed been attracted to the St. Joseph Day tradi- him, “You don’t belong here.” The re-imagining the final moments an immersive virtual reality program to their patron, St. Joseph, for connections between tion, families take pride poem is part of Gioia’s latest book, of the piece. We also watched a used in veterans’ Post-Traumatic deliverance from these trials. The spiritual altars, the Mardi Gras in setting up an altar in the 99 Poems: New and Selected. video of Michael’s choreography Stress Disorder therapy. It tracks the rains came, the crops grew, and Indians’ appearance on St. Joseph’s living room—or perhaps taking over Salerni, the NEH Distinguished for the third scene, a dance twin fates of Michael, an African- the people of Sicily never forgot feast day and the importance of an entire garage. Many families Chair in the Humanities and of seduction and betrayal. The American veteran, and Zaynab, their promises to honor St. Joseph. Black Hawk in New Orleans. Black contribute either baked items or professor of music, thought it beauty of that dance confirmed an Iraqi teenager who is video Sicilian families would lay out Hawk was a Native American Sauk cash to the cause.