ISSUE 18 SPRING/SUMMER 2013 DEMOThe Alumni Magazine of Columbia College Chicago The avant-garde fashion designs of AGNES HAMERLIK Revitalizing Detroit with PHILLIP COOLEY Lessons learned on KICKSTARTER May 17, 2013 ALUMNI AT Want to perform? Volunteer? Or just come out and be a part of the awesome Manifest audience? If you are an alumnus and would like an application to perform on the Alumni Stage, contact Cyn Vargas at [email protected]. Stop by, sit back, and ALUMNI LOUNGE relax in our alumni ALUMNI & lounge! You'll enjoy your Noon – 7PM fellow alumni performers GRADUATION PARTY singing, reciting, dancing, 623 South Wabash and other cool stuff. 8PM – 11PM Quincy Wong Center Hilton Chicago for Artistic Expression 720 S. Michigan Ave. Grand Ballroom colum.edu/alumnimanifest Art: Thumy Phan, Manifest Creative Director Creative Phan, Manifest Art: Thumy ’12) Jacob Boll (BA Photos: CONTENTS DEMO ISSUE 18 SPRING/SUMMER 2013 18 11 FEATURES PORTFOLIO SPOT ON DEpaRTMENTS 8 22 30 Justin “Nordic Thunder” 03 Vision A question for Howard (BA ’07) reigns as President Carter KICKSTART MY ART LIFE DURING king in the competitive world Columbia alumni, students, WARTIME of air guitar. 04 Wire News from the and faculty share lessons Photographer Andrew Nelles Columbia community learned on their way to crowd- (BA ’08) recounts his days 32 Karine Saporta (BA ’72), funding success. covering American troops in knighted in France, 38 Alumni News & Notes By Stephanie Ewing (MA ’12) Afghanistan. As told to Andrew stays in demand as a Featuring class news, notes, Greiner (BA ’05) dancer, choreographer, and networking 14 and photographer. USED TO BE A GYPSY 26 46 Point & Shoot Caught on 33 G eling Yan (MFA ’99), camera around the country Musicians Nikola Dokic (BA DARK STAR novelist and screenwriter, ’08), Robert Palos (BA ’08), and Agnes Hamerlik (BFA ’12) draws inspiration from her 48 U pcoming Events What’s Adis Sirbubalo (BA ’07) found is a designer on the rise native China. happening on campus friendship and fulfillment by with a romantic, avant-garde embracing—instead of running aesthetic. By Audrey Michelle 34 John “J.C.” Peterson 49 Backstory Sam Weller from—their roots. Mast (BA ’00) (BA ’91), fundraiser by day (MFA ’01) shares a valuable life By Sean McEntee (’13) and screenwriter by night, lesson gleaned from his 12 years finds his voice with a winning as Ray Bradbury’s biographer. 18 feature film. MOTOR CITY MOGUL Model-turned-entrepreneur Phillip Cooley (BA ’00) intends to make ON THE COVER: Born and raised in Poland, Agnes Hamerlik (BFA ’12) over Detroit, one building at a time. is a designer on the rise with a darkly romantic, avant-garde aesthetic. By Sean McEntee (’13) Photo: Drew Reynolds (BA ’97) Art: Thumy Phan, Manifest Creative Director Creative Phan, Manifest Art: Thumy ’12) Jacob Boll (BA Photos: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR DEMO ISSUE 18 SPRING/SUMMER 2013 Welcome to your new DEMO magazine. We hope you noticed that it looks different—and in the best possible way. DEMO MAGAZINE Staff Since DEMO debuted in 2005, it hasn’t received a makeover. Executive Editor Eric V. A. Winston, PhD Over the past two years, we’ve tweaked the magazine’s look and Editor-in-Chief Kristi Turnbaugh feel as we moved away from being a publication about the college Editorial Assistants Megan Kirby in general and more toward a magazine about, for, and by alumni. Sean McEntee (’13) After conducting a 2012 reader survey with 1,000+ randomly selected alumni, we assessed what needed to change—and what Tim Shaunnessey (’13) shouldn’t—and we learned that you most like reading about Alumni Content Manager Michelle Passarelli (BA ’99) alumni work and professional accomplishments. As a result, Researcher Amy Wilson we’ve increased the number of alumni included throughout the Class Notes Editor Tyson Griffard (’14) magazine (more Class Notes, more alumni in features), we’ve Creative Director Ben Bilow beefed up our showcase of visual work by alumni (Portfolio), and Susannah Kim we’ve enhanced the alumni personality profiles (Spot On). Senior Designer Staff Photographer Jacob Boll (BA ’12) DEMO aims to COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHIcaGO keep you connected Chair, Board of Trustees Richard P. Kiphart President Warrick L. Carter, PhD to the college. Senior Vice President Warren K. Chapman, PhD Vice President for Eric V. A. Winston, PhD DEMO aims to keep you connected to the college, and Institutional Advancement survey results indicate that the majority of you believe we’re Associate Vice President of Diane Doyne succeeding. But we heard loud and clear that you would like Public Relations, Marketing more information about networking and career opportunities. and Advertising Therefore, we revamped our Alumni News & Notes section Mary Forde (previously called Out There). Now you’ll find a treasure trove Assistant Vice President for Creative Services of useful content—including a bigger alumni events calendar (see page 40) and more information on how to get involved with Associate Director of Michelle Passarelli (BA ’99) the Columbia Alumni Association & Network (CAAN) chapter Alumni Operations in your region (or if there isn’t one, how to start one). Look to Associate Director of Cynthia Vargas (BA ’01) this section every issue for what’s happening with alumni, and Alumni Events and Programs how you can take advantage of networking and professional Sarah Schroeder (BA ’00) development opportunities. Director of Alumni Relations, West Coast Finally, we hope you love the clean, modern, and highly readable new design, all thanks to our talented inhouse creative team. DEMO (volume 8, number 1) is published by Columbia College Chicago. DEMO is mailed free of charge to alumni and friends of the college two times per year. I hope you enjoy your new alumni magazine. Please let us know The ideas and opinions expressed are those of the writers alone and do not necessarily reflect those of Columbia College Chicago. © Columbia College Chicago 2013. what you think at [email protected]. Contact us: For address changes or deletions, email your first and last name, mailing address, city, state, zip code, and phone number to [email protected] and specify if your request is an address update or a request to stop receiving DEMO. For other inquiries, email [email protected], call 312.369.1000, or mail DEMO magazine, Columbia College Kristi Turnbaugh Chicago, 600 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60605. Editor-in-Chief ’97) Dufour (BA Erika Photo: Photo: Become a fan! DEMO colum.edu/demo magazine is on Facebook. 2 spring/summer 2013 DEMO VISION A QUESTION FOR PRESIDENT caRTER “I feel good about where we are. I couldn’t have done it alone.” DEMO: As you get set to retire after We’ve increased the number of nearly 13 years as president, what are you campus buildings. The building of the most proud of? Media Production Center probably will stand as one of the important activities DR. CARTER: It’s been an interesting, during this presidency. It ended up rewarding, and challenging 13 years. I being our first and, so far, only building hope that when people look at the college that was built from scratch. It works they think it’s a different-looking place. well for what it was designed to do. It is I know it’s a larger place in terms of a showpiece for us. We’re so proud of facilities and enrollment. I hope people the building. feel it’s a better place. But we’re proud of what we’ve done The student body population is differ- also in our old buildings. We have refur- ent. We were still a commuter institution bished them and changed them into some when I arrived. When we began to get a very, very effective teaching and learning sense that applications were coming from spaces. We’ve got a good brand that we’ve around the globe, we knew we had to be established here in the South Loop, and more residential. And the first important our buildings carry it well. move in that direction was the University The college wasn’t raising much money Center of Chicago. The year before we when I arrived. My predecessor [John opened the UCC, we were housing 500 Duff] was the first president to try to do students. We’re now close to 3,000 beds something in fundraising. We’ve been of students who stay in our facilities. able to move forward mainly in personal That really helped to change the mixture fundraising; we made some right deci- of our students. Our demographics sions in terms of leadership in that area. are completely different now in terms of I’m very, very pleased that our last gala where our students come from—nation- raised over $800,000. Our numbers have ally and internationally. grown in fundraising, specifically in board Growing new programs has been and alumni giving. important. We’ve identified and have I feel good about where we are. always tried to keep our eyes on new, I couldn’t have done it alone. Kudos go evolving fields of study. We’ve created a to all of the VPs and deans, department game design program. We’ve combined chairs and staff directors, and associate the fashion design and fashion business VPs—everybody in the college programs into a new fashion studies community who understood this vision program. We’ve added the new major and helped us to realize it. of scoring for film and television. Erika Dufour (BA ’97) Dufour (BA Erika Photo: Photo: DEMO spring/summer 2013 3 WIRE News from the Columbia community “Dr. Kim’s campus tours and open forum presentations generated an overwhelmingly positive response.