AA PUBLICATIONPUBLICATION OFOF THETHE COLLEGECOLLEGE OFOF COMMUNICATIONCOMMUNICATION ANDAND FINEFINE ARTSARTS ATAT THETHE UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OFOF MEMPHISMEMPHIS WINTERWINTER 20072007 II EDITIONEDITION 2626 COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION AND FINE ARTS A Message from the Dean Richard R. Ranta Dean s you will see in this issue of CCFA Voices, our first winter edi- th Moira Logan tion, we are reflecting upon and celebrating the College’s 30 Associate Dean Aanniversary. During the summer of 1977, shortly before Elvis’s death, the Tennessee Board of Regents gave official approval for the Laurie Snyder creation of the College of Communication and Fine Arts (CCFA). The Assistant to the Dean for Undergraduate Programs first full semester began about two months later for the Departments of Art, Journalism, Music, and Speech and Drama, now the separate Angie Hollis Departments of Theatre & Dance and Communication. Professors Academic Services Coordinator Dana Johnson, Lee Williams, William Gaver, and Jack Sloan led those Patty Bladon departments. College Development Director A lot has changed over thirty years, not only for those in CCFA, but also for the arts and the Tommy Towery communication related disciplines. On our campus, the arts have attained a new viability and Local Support Provider respect just as they have nationally. The Harvard Business Review indicated that “the hottest Simone Wilson credential in the world of business” might now be “an arts degree.” Public Relations and Outreach Coordinator On our campus, more than 1,200 of the College’s almost 2,000 majors are studying in one of the three primary fine arts units. The same is true for the majors in the fields of communication and journalism. Whether it is electronic journalism, digital video production or the combination of DIRECTORS AND CHAIRS rhetoric and applied communication in the health care industry, students in these areas are studying Richard Lou subjects and using equipment that none of us even dreamed of in 1977. Chair, Department of Art When the College began, there was an almost desperate need for space. Thus, one of the first Leslie Luebbers priorities was to build a new building for the College by the fall of 1981. With the addition of the Director, Art Museum of the University of Memphis Communication and Fine Arts Building, we were able to provide needed studio and office space for Michael Leff the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, as well as painting studios for art and an ahead of the curve Chair, Department of Communication television studio for students in journalism and communication. Additionally, the building had room for a soon developed dance program as part of the theatre department, recording studios and Jim Redmond offices for a new music industry program, office space for the dean’s staff, and significant space for Chair, Department of Journalism an art museum, AMUM as the Art Museum of the University of Memphis is known now. Patricia Hoy Director, Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music Over the years we have, with the help of many friends, alumni, and very hard working faculty and staff, added programs, such as the architecture BFA and just this year the professional Master of Bob Hetherington Architecture degree, which will admit its first students in 2008, and units such as the Art Museum Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance and the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology, a designated Tennessee Center of Excellence, as well as endowed chairs and professorships such as the Dorothy K. Hohenberg Chair of Excellence in NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTORS Art History, the Jabie and Helen Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism and the Benjamin Rawlins/ Union Planters Professorships. As we enter our fourth decade as a College, we are seeking funding Voices is produced by the office of the Dean, College of Communication and Fine Arts, University of Memphis again for a building to accommodate the students in the crowded Scheidt School of Music. The Department of Communication and at least part of the Department of Art will move into the space Editor: Richard R. Ranta currently occupied by the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. Plans are underway to create a new Assistant Editor: Simone Wilson Design: Gabriel D. Vaughn academic unit in the College and to increase the use of unique teaching methods in face-to-face Production Assistant: Susan Prater and Web-based instructional settings. In short, even though much has been accomplished over the Printing: Peerless Printing past three decades, there is even more to do. Photo Credits: Alice Berry, Michael Hagge, David Horan, Thank you for your support throughout the past 30 years and know that we look for you to continue Lindsey Lissau, Eric Wilson to help us bring the very best in arts and communication education to our students as we enter our Contributing writers: John Bakke, Alice Berry, Patty Bladon, fourth decade. Jeff Cline, Michael Hagge, David Horan, Lurene Kelley, Carol Morse Richard R. Ranta, Dean Please send address changes and copy corrections to: The College of Communications and Fine Arts Attn: Simone Wilson CFA Building, Room 232 Memphis, TN 38152 Richard R. Ranta Dean, College of Communication and Fine Arts Content A group picture of faculty members who have been with the College for 30 years, taken in front of the CFA building in early 2007. Pictured are: (from left) James Richens (MUS), Bruce Erskin (MUS), Konnie Saliba (MUS), John McFadden (THEA), Wayne Simpkins (ART), Carol Crown (ART), David Appleby (COMM), Dean Richard Ranta, Ron Spielberger (JOUR), Niles Wallace (ART), Gloria Baxter (THEA), Douglas Koertge (THEA), Joan Gilbert (MUS), Jim Gholson (MUS), Frank Shaffer (MUS). Not pictured are: David Acey (COMM), Walter Kirkpatrick (COMM), and Carol Purtle (ART) CCFA 2 15 AMUM Elvis Seminar Reprise Chakaia Booker to Judge 25th Annual Juried Student Exhibition Art 5 v Richard Lou Named 16 Jones Hall Gallery New Art Department Chair Tortilla Shells and Rumba Communication 8 16 CSD WMC-TV5 Launches New Sports Construction on “Green” House Starts in Program with U of M Students January Journalism 9 v 16 CMA 10th Anniversary of The Teen Appeal CMA Develops Multimedia Interventions Music 11 17 WUMR Exploring the Gamut with Middle School Memphis 18 Development Advancing the Creative Process Theatre & Dance 13 v Students Learn about Ancient Art 19 Honor Roll Form in Italy 22 Faculty Centers, Institutes, and Affiliates 15 24 Students 25 Alumni CCFA ADVISORY BOARD Ward Archer, Bob Chandler, Dean Deyo, Bob Eoff, Art Gilliam, Herman Markell, Judy McCown, Charlotte Neal, Michael Osborn, Mike Palazola, Steve Pacheco, James Patterson, Chris Peck, Knox Phillips, David Porter, Frank Ricks, Mickey Robinson, Beverly Ross, Rudi Scheidt, Jack Soden, Michael Wischmeyer Emeritus: Richard Lightman ccfa.memphis.edu I 1 CCFA of Elvis,” Hopkins said. “In part because of a growing body of Elvis scholarship and insightful memoirs like Jerry Schilling’s Me and a Guy named Elvis, there is a greater appreciation for Elvis as a person and performer.” Hopkins’ answer to the age-old questions How long will Elvis last?— “Presley’s legacy will extend beyond anyone’s ability to see the future.” Elvis was a flashpoint at the brink of a cultural divide, a symbol of freedom in a decade of conformity, and a historical change agent for music. “We shouldn’t forget that Elvis also had an unparalleled talent that still appeals to people across time and space, transcending cultures and narrow musical tastes,” Hopkins concludes. Recordings from all eight seminars can be found in the Mississippi Valley Collection of the University’s Ned R. McWherter (From left) Erin Hendershot (Hopkins’ daughter), Jerry Hopkins, George Klein, and John Bakke Library, along with the Jerry Hopkins’ work and taped interviews for his original Elvis biographies. “Hopkins’ collection as well Elvis Seminar Reprise: as Guralnick’s Night Train to Memphis and Jerry Hopkins Returns for 30th Careless Love and Bertrand’s Race, Rock, and Elvis have been a source of valuable Presley Anniversary scholarship,” said Richard Ranta, dean of Jerry Hopkins, who was featured in the In the 1979 program, Perspectives on the College of Communication and Fine Arts. University of Memphis’ first Elvis Seminar Elvis: His Life and His Times, Hopkins, who The Seminar was made possible in part by in 1979— an event that started what is now wrote the first serious biography of Elvis Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation, the internationally known as Elvis Week— Presley in 1971, as well as other participants University of Memphis Public Service Office, returned to the University of Memphis on made “radical predictions:” Elvis along and the College of Communication and Fine August 16, 2007 for The Once and Future with other icons of popular culture would Arts Dean’s Fund. Elvis: A Conversation with Jerry Hopkins, become subjects for scholarly study, and a seminar honoring the 30th anniversary of Memphis would become a worldwide tourist Elvis’ death. destination. Since 1979, the College of Communication Today, more than 500 books have been and Fine Arts (CCFA) has hosted eight written about Elvis and Memphis has become Elvis Seminars, which were organized the Home of the Blues and the Birthplace of by John Bakke, professor emeritus, Elvis Rock ‘n Roll. scholar, and former chair of the University’s “Writing about a pop or rock star at the communication department. Over time the time when I wrote my first Elvis biography seminars have featured renowned critics, was unheard of,” Hopkins said during