Senior’s documentary ‘brings Tucson’s water story to life’

When Tia Stephens needed a local issue to explore for her honors capstone documentary film project, the School of Art graduating senior picked a topic we sometimes take for granted in the desert.

Water.

“Every day I interact with water in the most intimate of ways and yet I had no idea where this water came from and how it was managed,” Stephens said. “This disconnect from our most precious resource is something that I’ve noticed all around me, and so I want this film to serve as a way to reconnect people with water.”

“Every Last Drop,” Stephens’ feature-length documentary, explores Southern Arizona’s water practices and policy. A free screening of the film will be held Tuesday, May 2, at 7 p.m. at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.

Stephens blended her skills as a Studio Art student in Photography, Video and Imaging along with her multimedia journalistic skills gained as an editor at the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

For the past 18 months, Stephens collaborated with film students, obtained grants, consulted water and hydrology experts, and executed a data research project to bring “Tucson’s water story to life,” she said. In the film, experts include a faculty and student, and officials from Tucson Water, the Senora Project and the Apache Nation.

“Water must be priority number one for us in Arizona,” Stephens said, “and currently it’s clearly not. I think most people are aware of how important water conservation is, but … we need to bridge the separation that exists between us and the planet and stop seeing it as merely a resource to use.”

Stephens grew up in Flagstaff, speaking out on climate issues at the Arizona Capitol as a senior in high school.

It also helps that Stephens has a keen sense of how government works as a Political Science double-major in International Relations in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences.

“With her high quality of work, a 4.0 GPA and her leadership across activities, Tia is doing exceptional community-engaged research on environmental issues,” said Marcos Serafim, her capstone project adviser and a School of Art assistant professor.

“Tia’s exceptional creative practice is informed by her journalistic agency and her knowledge of world politics,” he said, “frequently employing investigative strategies to generate poetics and artwork about relevant social issues.”

Serafim “guided me every step of the way,” said Stephens, who will graduate Summa Cum Laude with honors with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

“He gave me the space to dream big and be ambitious and connected me with the resources I needed to get the project running,” she said. “I have learned so much under his mentorship and am forever changed as an artist because of it.”

After graduation, Stephens has a summer internship with AmeriCorps as a videographer.

“My immediate plans are to stay in town, take a much-needed rest, and do some self-discovery in order to figure out my next steps as an artist,” she said. “Eventually, I plan to pursue an MFA, but first want to gain some work and life experience.”

UArizona honors Jeehey Kim with Early Career Scholar Award

Art History Assistant Professor Jeehey Kim, whose groundbreaking research in Asian photography has earned her international recognition, has been named a 2023 Early Career Scholar Award recipient by the University of Arizona.

Kim joins five other assistant professors being honored with the award, which recognizes outstanding early career faculty who are at the forefront of their disciplines and make valued contributions to the teaching, creative activity and service priorities.

Assistant Prof. Jeehey Kim

“Dr. Kim’s research, teaching and service intersect in important ways, and she has contributed to defining the University of Arizona as a center for the research and teaching of photography,” the School of Art’s nominating letter said, “complementing the international reputation of the Center for Creative Photography and the School of Art’s top-ranked studio art program in Photography, Video and Imaging.”

Kim earned her Ph.D. in Art History from the City University of New York Graduate Center in 2015. She taught at several universities in New York, New Jersey and Korea, then held a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago before coming to the University of Arizona in 2019.

Dr. Kim’s research and publications encompass the history of photography, visual culture and film studies in East Asia and Southeast Asia. They touch on issues of colonialism, images of “the other,” identity politics and international relations in the 19th to 21st centuries.

As a scholar of East Asian visual culture, Dr. Kim’s interest in the politics of memory has led to an exploration through the medium of photography of the ethics of representation and the ways in which colonial legacies have structured trans-Asian modernity. Her recent research on vernacular photographic practices, documentary films, and visual culture in relation to the Cold War and gender politics in East Asia, has been published in international journals.

“In summing up this incredible list of accomplishments (for someone in their third year at the university!), the word that comes to my mind — besides sheer industriousness — is generosity,” wrote Professor Larry Busbea, who chairs the school’s Art History program.

“There is something in Dr. Kim’s work and general demeanor,” he continued, “that gives a clear indication that she is as concerned about the success of our program, of our students, affiliated institutions like the Center (for Creative Photography), as well as an international network of photo professionals, as she about that of her own research program.”

Since coming to the University of Arizona, Kim has developed nine courses in Art History at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, challenging students with content that incorporates her deep knowledge of the history of photography and her specialized subject of Asian photography.

In response to the “Black Lives Matter” movement, in Fall 2020 Dr. Kim designed an innovative and timely 400/500 class, “History of Photography: Black Lives Matter,” examining images by Black photographers and about Black lives since the mid-19th century.

She has also created two other advanced courses that reflect on postcolonialism through contemporary art in East Asia and on global indigenous photography, “demonstrating her versatility and ability to engage with cutting-edge intellectual topics in the classroom,” according to her faculty colleagues — Martina M. Shenal, James Cook, Irene Bald Romano and Carissa DiCindio — who nominated Kim for the early career award along with Busbea.

“Singapore Sikh Police Officer, 1941,” part of Carl Mydans collection at the CCP, which was part of the Nov. 18, 2022, virtual symposium organized by Dr. Kim.

Kim’s first book, “Imagining Korea through Photography,” London: Reaktion Books/Chicago: University of Chicago Press,” is forthcoming in June 2023. Her second, “Photography and Death: Funerary Photo-Portraiture in East Asia,” Leiden: Brill, is currently under review. Her article on “Contagious disease and visual media in Colonial Korea” will appear in a forthcoming 2023 book to be published by the Hong Kong University Press.

In addition, Kim has organized eight scholarly panels or symposia and presented more than 10 papers between 2019 and 2022. On Nov. 18, 2022, she organized a day-long, virtual symposium on “Photography and Southeast Asia: History and Practice,” co-sponsored by the School of Art, Arizona Arts and the Center for Creative Photography. The event included presentations by colleagues in CCP, from other institutions in the U.S., as well as in Canada, Australia, Sweden, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Earlier in November 2022 she was the moderator of a panel jointly organized by Dartmouth College and Harvard University on “Korean Art since the 1980s: Dynamism and Expansion.” She was a discussant on a College Art Association panel in Chicago in February 2020 on “The Cold War in the North-South Axis: Asian Art Beyond the U.S.-Soviet Dichotomy.” And, in March 2019 she gave an invited lecture at the University of Chicago on “Commemorating the Dead through Photography in East Asia.”

“The many ways Dr. Kim shares her research with scholarly and public audiences are impressive,” her nominating letter said. “She has built bridges and networks across disciplines, within local communities, and across international boundaries, significantly increasing the impact of her work and bringing major attention to the University of Arizona’s School of Art.”

Kim also has been an active contributor to improving equity, diversity and inclusion at all levels through her affiliation with the Faculty of Color in the School of Art and with Faculty of Color in the College of Fine Arts.

She received an M.A. of Philosophy in Art History from the City University of New York Graduate Center in 2010, and a B.A. in English Literature from Duksung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea.

“I really appreciate all the support from my program, the School of Art and the College of Fine Arts,” Kim said in a note to faculty. “This is the award for all of us.”

2023 UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA EARLY CAREER SCHOLAR AWARD RECIPIENTS

  • Alex Craig, Assistant Professor, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
  • Andrew Curley, Assistant Professor, School of Geography, Development and Environment, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • Yuanyuan (Kay) He, Assistant Professor, Fred Fox School of Music, College of Fine Arts
  • Anna Josephson, Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
  • Jeehey Kim, Assistant Professor, School of Art, College of Fine Arts
  • Andrew Paek, Assistant Professor, Molecular & Cellular Biology, College of Science

Panama inspires grad student Arias in her art, filmmaking

Born in Costa Rica, Jacqueline Arias was adopted by American parents and moved to the Panama Canal Zone at age 4. While she only spent three years there before moving to rural Ohio, the experience made a profound impression on the artist, independent filmmaker and educator.

Now a University of Arizona School of Art graduate student, Arias is working with artisan women from Panama — the Guna people — to make traditional mola quilts that incorporate her personal designs and reference borders, military presence and the canal infrastructure.

Jacqueline Arias

Arias held her first solo exhibition, “Mola: Truth Maps,” at Nogales’ Hilltop Gallery in March 2023. Through videos, prints and VR, she activated the molas as visual and aural maps — lived maps — that collect and narrate the lived experiences of the people of Panama.

In September 2022, her video “Panama Narratives,” which incorporates the mola mythology, was shown at the Arizona Underground Film Festival in downtown Tucson. The short documentary coincided with National Hispanic Heritage Month, which also celebrates Latin America heritage.

Arias’ video explores her childhood experience, the U.S. intervention in the Canal Zone area and the relationship between its residents and the Panamanian and indigenous Guna people.

“I’m drawn to the Guna matriarchal society, where the molas are worn by women as protection, a tradition drawn from the story of a young woman who finds enlightenment through overcoming obstacles,” Arias said. “Through enlightenment, she shares the gift of protection and knowledge with other women of her tribe.

“In exploring how this mythology speaks to my personal experience — I am returning to my indigenous roots to find healing and knowledge and re-examining my Latinx experience of dislocation.”

The Guna people are autonomous from Panama and have fought to maintain their land, heritage and governance. Arias’ designs deviate from traditional mola subject matter, which is usually apolitical, she said.

“I’m interested in the mola because the materiality represents a material embodiment of indigenous cosmology,” Arias said. “They use reverse applique technique with fine needlework that stitches together multiple layers and colors of fabric. These layers represent a spiritual labyrinth, which can trap evil spirits within their patterns.”

Arias said she’s begun to incorporate her mola panels into printmaking to “talk about invisible labor, constructed borders and U.S. occupation.”

A second-year MFA candidate in the interdisciplinary program, Arias was selected for the Border Lab Graduate Fellowship program by the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, a $10,000 award possible with funding from the Office of the Provost and University of Arizona HSI Initiatives.

She studied photography at Parsons School of Design, experimenting with video art and performance work. Her work addresses the invisible social barriers in society and the feelings of cultural detachment they cause, she said.

Arias is enjoying her classes and hopes to graduate in 2024.

“I’ve learned so much in the short time I’ve been here,” Arias said. “I The instructors are just as nurturing as they are challenging. My goal is to soak up as much knowledge as I can while I’m here.”

• Jacqueline Arias’ website

Doctoral candidate Chavez named Tyson Scholar

Ricardo Chavez, a University of Arizona School of Art doctoral candidate in Art History and Education, has been named a prestigious Tyson Scholar in American Art for the fall 2023 semester at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Chavez will spend the 15-week residential fellowship doing research for his dissertation, “The Lost Utopian Classroom: Radical Pedagogies in American Art.” The project involves the intersections of art, education, and activism in American art and the legacies of the social movements of the 1960s as they impact artistic practice today.

Ricardo Chavez

“The biggest thing for me is the feeling of reaffirmation for both myself as a scholar and for the value of the research I am conducting,” Chavez said. “The whole experience of being a visiting scholar at such a well-renowned American art institution feels incredible to me.”

Established in 2012, the Tyson Scholars Program in American Art​ has supported more than 70 scholars, attracting national and international academic professionals. Crystal Bridges, founded in 2005 by the Walton Family Foundation, has a collection that spans five centuries of American art with 3,000 paintings, works on paper, sculpture, photography and new media.

“We believe your proposed project has the potential to advance the understanding of American art, and we look forward to welcoming you to the fellowship program,” Cyrstal Bridges executive Mindy N. Besaw told Chavez in his invitation letter.

For his “Lost Utopian Classroom” dissertation, Chavez plans to use his residency “as an opportunity to immerse myself in the museum’s social and community engagement programs that demonstrate the kinds of pedagogical and socially engaged art practices that are central to my dissertation work.”

Chavez grew up in Merced, California, in the heart of the state’s rural Central Valley.

“My location, coupled with being the son of immigrant parents who never entered into higher education, meant I had little exposure to art until I entered college,” Chavez said. “After taking some introductory courses, I really got into the subject when I took a course on contemporary art history and became fascinated with the diverse artistic voices and their creativity in expanding the definition of art in the present.”

Chavez earned his B.A. in Art History from California State University-Sacramento in 2011 and his M.A. in Art History and Visual Culture from San Jose State University in 2018.

He chose the University of Arizona School of Art to pursue his doctoral degree to work with Professor Larry Busbea, his adviser who specializes in design and art of post-war United States and Europe.

“I also was drawn in to earn my minor with the Art & Visual Culture Education program, due to its strong focus on using art education for social engagement,” Chavez said.

“My studies have thus pushed me to find ways to bridge the gap between what the fields of art history and art education have to offer one another,” he added. “Doing so while finding my own voice as a scholar and educator have been both the most challenging and rewarding aspects of my time here.”

Chavez, a graduate teaching assistant for the School of Art, said students interested in Art History and Art & Visual Culture Education should “expand the field.”

“Push it beyond its disciplinary boundaries,” he said. “That is what art history needs the most. It is not just a matter of studying creativity, it is also about being creative while doing so.

“Begin by identifying what interests you the most within the field, whether it is a movement, a time period, a medium, or a theme, and then try to build on that,” Chavez continued. “Try to build on the way art history perceives it, and eventually you might find a new and unique way of doing so that the field has yet to consider.”

Prof Saracino receives fellowship from prestigious Huntington Library

Jennifer Saracino, an assistant professor of Art History at the University of Arizona School of Art, has received a Barbara Thom postdoctoral fellowship from the prestigious Huntington Library near Los Angeles for the 2023-24 school year.

The fellowship will allow Saracino to revise her dissertation on the Uppsala Map of Mexico-Tenochtitlan into her first book manuscript. Uppsala is the earliest known map of Mexico City, painted by indigenous Nahua artists after the Spanish Conquest (c. 1540).

Jennifer Saracino, assistant professor, School of Art

“I’m so honored that they’ve recognized the significance of my project,” Saracino said. “The Huntington Library has always been an institution of which I’m dreamed of becoming a fellow. The strengths of their collections include the Hispanic Americas, Maps & Manuscripts and the history of science. These are all avid research interests of mine, so it is an ideal setting in which to carry out my research and manuscript revision.

“Not to mention, it’s absolutely stunning,” she said. “I’m really drawn to the fact that it has a research library, art museum and botanical gardens. It’s the perfect fit for an interdisciplinary art historian like myself.”

Saracino grew up in Western Pennsylvania but received her B.A. in Art History from the University of Southern California, not that far from the Huntington Library.

“I’m very excited to go back to my old stomping grounds and spend some time by the coast,” Saracino said. “Much of my Filipino family also lives in Los Angeles, so I’m excited to be able to spend more time with them.”

The Huntington complex, in San Marino, Caliornia, is one of the world’s top independent research libraries, with over 11 million items from the 11th to the 21st centuries. The Thom fellowships, lasting nine to 12 months, include a $50,000 stipend and are intended to support non-tenured faculty who are revising their dissertation for publication as their first monograph.

In the past, Saracino said art historical scholarship regarded the Uppsala Map of Mexico-Tenochtitlan as having a pronounced European influence compared to other Indigenous-made manuscripts of the same time period.

“I felt that a deeper analysis of the map was missing because of this,” she said. “These artists were extraordinary cultural brokers between the local European and Indigenous populations. They were fluent not only in multiple spoken and written languages but also visual languages.

Jennifer Saracino at the Newberry Library in Chicago

“As the daughter of an immigrant and someone with my own multicultural identity, I felt that these artists were owed more recognition in the scholarship as the extraordinary individuals that they were,” Saracino said. “I wanted to explore what it meant to hold multiple identities and how that is reflected in their representation of the dynamically changing world in which they were living.”

Last fall, Saracino presented a paper, “The Ayer Map of Teotihuacan as Embodied Action & Performance,” after being invited to the 21st Kenneth Nebenzahl, Jr. Lectures in the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

She also enjoyed participating in an interdisciplinary exhibition that saw University of Arizona professors across departments imagine how a Charles Dickens tale, “David Copperfield,” might find a homeland in the Sonoran Borderlands. From digital installation to performance, sonic experiments to film, cartography to micro-publication, the exhibition explored questions about the relationship between arts and public-engagement, literature and everyday places, and authors and readers.

“Art History is important because it allows us all to learn about different people, cultures, values and worldviews through the things they made,” Saracino said.

After earning her undergrad degree from USC, she received her master’s and Ph.D. in Art History from Tulane University in New Orleans. She was a junior fellow in Pre-Columbian Studies at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection in Washington, D.C., then taught at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, before coming to the University of Arizona in August 2021.

Saracino co-organized a panel, “Ecocritical Art Histories of Indigenous Latin America” on Feb. 18 at the College Art Association (CAA) conference in New York City.

“Art History has broadened my worldview and afforded me the opportunity and privilege to travel the world and meet so many different people,” she said. “I think that to learn about others and their artistic and cultural traditions instills in you a greater empathy and appreciation for difference and diversity.”

Alshaibi earns praise from Regents, has solo show in UAE

Just weeks after Sama Alshaibi was formally inducted as a Regents Professor, a mid-career solo exhibition of the Iraqi-born artist began in the United Arab Emirates.

The Arizona Board of Regents honored the School of Art professor during the University of Arizona’s Outstanding Faculty Awards Ceremony on Feb. 15 at Crowder Hall.

Regents Professor Sama Alshaibi

In large part to Alshaibi’s contributions, the school’s Photography, Video and Imaging program has grown substantially and is ranked No. 3 in the U.S. News & World Report’s list of best photography schools.

“We are in awe of your impact,” said John Milbauer, associate dean for Faculty Affairs for the College of Fine Arts, who introduced Alshaibi at the ceremony.

Tell it to the River,” a mid-career survey of Alshaibi’s work, started Feb. 27 at the Maraya Art Centre in Sharjah, UAE. The solo exhibition, which runs through June 30, 2023, brings together significant parts of her practice over the last two decades.

The exhibition debuts two commissions, one of them inaugurating Alshaibi’s 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship and the other marking the closing chapter of an eight-year long photographic series. The two new projects mark the return of Alshaibi to her homeland of southern Iraq following a 40-year displacement.

Alshaibi’s work “explores the notion of aftermath — the fragmentation and dispossession that violates the individual and a community following the destruction of their social, natural and built environments,” Milbauer told the audience on Feb. 15.

In her photographs and videos, Alshaibi often uses her own body as both subject and medium.

“Your work is exemplary, as your professional accolades demonstrate: an extensive list of fellowships, exhibitions, publications and awards on both national and international levels,” Milbauer said.

Among those accolades, in addition to the Guggenheim Fellowship, are an exhibition at the 2014 Venice Biennale, a monograph published by Aperture (“Sand Rushes In”), a 2014 Fulbright research fellowship to the West Bank city of Ramallah and a 2019 Artpace International Artist Residency in San Antonio.

Regent Larry Edward Penley formally inducted Alshaibi as a Regents Professor on Feb. 15.

Earlier Provost Liesel Folks, senior vice president for Academic Affairs, told the audience that the Regents Professor is “the highest honor the university system can bestow on a faculty member.” The honor is “reserved for faculty scholars with exceptional ability who have achieved national and international distinction while maintaining a robust portfolio of student-facing work,” Folks said.

Alshaibi joined the School of Art in 2006. In her field, she is among the most sought-after presenters, having given nearly 100 presentations, and among the most frequently cited visual artists, with more than 200 citations. Her work has also been featured in recent exhibitions such as “Women in the Face of History and Migration(s)” and “Meaning in Art.”

Four other University of Arizona faculty members were formally named 2022 Regents Professors: Jean-Luc Brédas (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Juanita L. Merchant (Gastroenterology and Hepatology), David Pietz (History) and Donata Vercelli (Cellular and Molecular Medicine).

Mosley showcases social justice storytelling

Before bringing her storytelling skills to the University of Arizona School of Art’s graduate program, Semoria Mosley found out just how impactful her photography could be during a social justice reporting project for the San Diego Union-Tribune called ­“____ while Black.”

Mosley amplified the voices of seven Black Americans who faced subtle and overt discrimination and exclusion in San Diego after interviewing more than 300 people. She told her editors, “I have hopes that the photographic art I create will give the invisible the superpower of being seen and probe the ones who never saw them to ask themselves, ‘How long have I ignored this voice?’”

Semoria Mosley’s project for the San Diego Union-Tribune

Her hopes were answered.

“When it was published online and in print, I started getting calls and emails from San Diegans who felt moved by the work — it caught me by surprise honestly,” Mosley said. The seven profiles online contained film and digital photography, along with audio clips from her interviews.

She was one of six young journalists from diverse backgrounds selected to participate in the 2019 project, which won national and local awards. She grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, which has a 40 percent Black population compared to 6 percent in San Diego.

Mosley, 26, is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Photography, Video and Imaging after earning her B.A. in Mass Communication and Media Studies from Claflin University in South Carolina. “While emphasizing the Black American experience, my work is a portal to multicultural understanding,” she writes on her LinkedIn page.

She answered questions for the School of Art during February’s Black History Month.

Q. How did your Southern roots help you become a better photographer and storyteller?

A. Being from the South taught me that there is a truth that’s subjective (and pretty objective in my opinion, but y’know) to my lineage and a truth that is subjective to their lineage. It inspired me to look beyond the normal bounds of truth and storytelling to see where the proof could exist; beyond devices like bondage, history, racism and representation.

Q. How important is authenticity and preserving cultural identities in your work?

A. Preserving cultural identities in my work is imperative because it assists me in being resistant to colonial constructs and more uplifting of the “discredited way of knowing that discredited people often have” (to quote Toni Morrison) — which I find in myself. It’s the permission I’ve given myself to fully immerse in the actuality of my experiences. With representation on everyone’s plate, at the dinner party where all men are created equal, I have hopes that outside the smoke and mirrors, my work can serve as reference to a life truly lived — in all of its subjectivity, nuance, and vision.

Q. You attended the same middle and high schools as Dylann Roof, convicted in the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. How does that reminder affect you and your work?

A. It reminds me that Black, Brown and other colored communities are in close proximity to racists whose ideals can manifest in extreme ways and not even know it. In creating work, I realize I have no time to be slight in my expression as an artist; nor do I have time to explain. Walking on eggshells is a disservice to the resilience of my people. I think we’ve been cornered into being submissive to the voice that is not ours for far too long. My voice is my gift, so I work it as such.

Q. How did your Social Justice reporting project with the San Diego newspaper come about? What was the experience like?

A. I applied after my photo editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune suggested it. Of course, there weren’t any guarantees, but I’d just done 10 portraits for their front-page Sunday story — about a week after George Floyd was murdered. The editor knew I was eager to do more print work and that I would deliver, so it was a good opportunity. Working on that project solidified the passions I have for documenting, community and creating. I worked on it for about six months.

While I was excited, I was hesitant to speak about a community I had only been in for a year. Careful not to impose my idea of Black, my identity politics on to them, I asked the Black community what they dealt with. I interviewed anybody who considered themselves Black and was a native of San Diego — making exceptions for individuals who migrated to San Diego and/or lived there 10-plus years.

After listening to 300-plus people’s experiences, I picked seven to express the recurring sentiments I heard of Growing up / Birthing / Speaking up / Identifying / Fostering / Parenting /  being Homeless … while Black. It was hard to meet the subjects because Covid was extremely new, we were about four months in. The subjects changed often due to feelings of health anxiety, targeting from the (police department) and not wanting to lose their jobs — I understood. I’d like to do a shout-out (to the subjects) — Mikey, James, Ms. Shelley, Eryn, Billy, Ms. Ebony, Diamondz and Ra — for lending their stories and voices. The community appreciated it. I appreciated it, much gratitude. …

I spoke on San Diego’s NPR about it which made more people engage with it. It made me more confident. Now, I have community in pockets across San Diego, that are just one call away if need be. I also keep up with what’s going on, always still there to lend a hand.

Q. What attracted you to attend the MFA Photography, Imaging and Video program at the School of Art?

A. friend of mine (alumna Nassem Navab, MFA, ’19) who I met in San Diego suggested it to me. She was a graduate of the PVI program and knew it’d benefit me. I had always wanted to go to art school and the opportunity presented itself as organically as it could. The care from the School of Art and PVI’s welcoming arms, it felt right — and you always do what feels right. I’d like to give a shout out to Nassem; you’re a real one!

Q. What project(s) are you working on now?

A. I’m working more with the moving image, making myself the subject, challenging my visual language. I’m definitely in an experimental phase, but I enjoy.

Q. What are your career goals after you graduate?

A. It’s too early to tell. Circle back in 2025!

Alumna Crabbe wins Eisner research runner-up award

Kendall Crabbe (Ph.D. ’22, Art and Visual Culture Education) has been selected by her peers to receive the Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Runner-Up Award in Art Education.

The National Art Education Association will honor the University of Arizona School of Art graduate April 13 in San Antonio.

Kendall Crabbe

“There is no greater testament of your exemplary contributions to the field of visual arts education than being chosen for this prestigious award,” said Mario R. Rossero, NAEA executive director.

Crabbe’s 2022 dissertation, “Intergenerational Counternarratives of Creative Agency: Reimagining Inclusive Practices Through Youth Participatory Action Research,” analyzed the effectiveness of programs aimed at increasing youth participation in the arts.

Associate Professor Amelia (Amy) Kraehe was Crabbe’s dissertation adviser.

“I wanted to share this exciting news and to thank each of you for supporting me. I appreciate you and your time,” Crabbe told Kraehe and fellow AVCE faculty members at the School of Art: gloria j. wilsonCarissa DiCindio and Ryan Shin.

Crabbe is a lecturer and director of the BFAAE Program at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and assistant editor of the Art Education journal.

Her research interests grew from her teaching practice within youth programs in art museums.

Crabbe received her M.A. in Art History in 2011 from the University of East Anglia (United Kingdom) and B.A. in Art History in 2008 from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where she also was a Division III national champion diver in 1- and 3-meter springboard.

“Your colleagues throughout the United States and abroad join the NAEA Board of Directors in applauding your leadership, commitment and service to the profession,” Rossero told Crabbe.

Elliot Eisner, who died in 2014, was a professor of Art and Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

Grad student Walter surprises Walton with repainted chair

Basketball television analyst Bill Walton is a huge Grateful Dead fan. As luck would have it, the University of Arizona School of Art graduate student tasked with repainting his special McKale Center chair also shares his love for the eclectic rock band.

“I’m a big fan, so I originally did a design where it was all Grateful Dead,” said Gabrielle Walter, an MFA candidate in Illustration and Design. “But then I did some research on Mr. Walton, and I realized he also loves the Sonoran Desert and Tucson.”

Gabrielle Walter chats with Bill Walton via Zoom. Photo by Mike Christy / Arizona Athletics

So Walter incorporated more desert artwork on the seat and a small university logo on the back, while still including two small skull and lightning bolts – the band’s iconic logo – on the front. The lettering on the back, with the band’s font, simply says “Bill’s Chair.”

“I wanted to make sure the design was a culmination of all the things near and dear to his heart,” Walter said.

The finished product left Walton almost speechless on Jan. 7, when Arizona Athletics presented the yellow chair to Walton before the men’s basketball game against Washington State. Walter, who goes by “Gabi,” attended via Zoom and chatted with Walton as School of Art Director Colin Blakely and Assistant Director Karen Zimmermann looked on along with University of Arizona President Robert Robbins and Director of Athletics Dave Heeke.

Walter’s design incorporates Grateful Dead logos and Sonoran Desert artwork.

“Oh, my. Look at this chair,” Walton said after it was unveiled at center court. “You’re incredible, Gabi. How did you know I like all this stuff?”

The new paint job idea came out of a meeting between College of Fine Arts Dean Andrew Schulz and Matt Ensor, assistant athletic director for communications.

“Obviously Bill is an iconic fixture in all walks of life and a champion of the University of Arizona,” Ensor said. “Once the idea came out in conversation with Andy, it was off and running.”

Walter ran her design ideas by Blakely, Zimmermann and Arizona Athletics. Walter sandblasted the chair to begin with, then had it finished with a protective coating afterward.

“When you get artists involved like Gabi, this is how cool you chair can look,” Blakely told Walton.

“Yes, I now have an ultimate destination (on press row),” said Walton, admiring the chair, which will stay in McKale.

“Bill’s Chair.” Photo by Mike Christy / Arizona Athletics

The tall chair makes the 7-foot Walton seem even more imposing. A member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, the center led UCLA to two NCAA titles and helped the Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics win NBA championships in a stellar professional career.

His career took a toll on his body — Walton has had nearly 40 orthopedic surgeries, including several on his back — so he asked the University of Arizona years ago to order him a plain gray metal chair that helped his posture during the games.

To spruce up the chair, the School of Art ordered some enamel paints, and “I was lucky enough to get to do all of the detail work by hand,” Walter said. “A lot of the imagery is inspired by the Saguaro National Forest and the plants found there.”

Walter grew up in Houston and listened to her family to stay in Texas for her undergraduate degree, which she earned at Texas Tech. She loved Lubbock, creating a mural there, but said she was “ecstatic” when she was accepted into the University of Arizona School of Art.

Gabi Walter designed the bandanas to welcome new art students last fall. 

Her partner, a graduate student in Omaha, Nebraska, also is a huge Grateful Dead fan. Walter plans to move to Omaha to be with him after graduation in May.

Walter is a graduate assistant for the School of Art, teaching studio art classes for First Year Experience students.

“I really love teaching,” Walter said. “I also worked with high school students as an undergrad at Texas Tech. I realized how much a difference you can make as a teacher.”

She certainly made an impression with Walton.

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he said. “Spectacular job, Gabi. Empty the Thesaurus. You did it right here.”

Walton added: “I need my chair, and now I have a special one, and I can beam ever more proudly.”

“I’m happy to do anything for a fellow Deadhead,” Walter said.

Alum of the Year Meyer excels in art and advertising

From his first job designing sofa ads for a small firm to developing a national advertising campaign for Walgreens, John Meyer has always understood the importance of making the right “pitch.”

It’s a skill he learned as an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona School of Art.

“The School of Art created a more focused foundation that helped bring out my talents to make myself more marketable,” Meyer said. “The U of A in general … also encouraged creativity and independent thought – while exposing me to other cultures and backgrounds.”

John Meyer listens to his introduction by Prof. Karen Zimmerman (top, left). (Photos by Jonalynne Bustamante)

Now an award-winning creative director, marketer, strategist and image maker, Meyer (BFA 1982, Studio Art) is being honored as the College of Fine Arts’ 2023 Alumnus of the Year — one of 15 alums being recognized by the university.

“I have developed campaigns from A to Z – Adobe to Zima. I would have to say that Walgreens, ‘At the Corner of Happy & Healthy,’ was my favorite because of the rebranding,” Meyer said. “I was responsible for the new creative campaign (in 2013), which affected over 100 million customers nationally.”

Meanwhile, Meyer and his former agency, Innerspin, squared off against another Los Angeles agency during the second season of the AMC television reality series “The Pitch.” The two firms battled to see who would help Bliss, a spa-inspired skincare company, launch its latest product, “Fuzz Off,” in the episode that aired in August 2013.

Innerspin won, led by Meyer, who devised an idea of a removable purple mustache sticker with the hashtag #fuzzyourself, which would be posted in various nighttime hotspots. “I love the stuff this guy does, I gotta tell you,” Meyer’s then-colleague, Elcid Choi, told Bliss executives during their pitch.

“It gave our whole agency an opportunity for exposure,” Meyer said. “We shot for 6 to 8 weeks in Los Angeles.”

John Meyer looked at student portfolios before his Alum of the Year ceremony. (Photo by Michael Chesnick)

Meyer had come a long way from his first job after graduation, working with a small design firm out of Huntington Beach, California. He rendered photos for Sunday newspaper print ads of sofas and chairs and worked on other local accounts, “which enabled me to create in several different categories – branding, retail and promotion.”

He secured his first big client, Burger King, during his next career move to JWT, a global advertising and branding agency.

“I didn’t give up,” Meyer said. “I kept improving my odds.”

Besides Walgreens, his other mega clients have included Apple, Taco Bell, Starbucks, Subway, Levi’s, McDonald’s, Chevron, Absolut Vodka, Pom Wonderful, TD Ameritrade and Virgin.

He’s now the chief creative officer of Absolutmeyer in Scottsdale, a firm he founded in 2015. “We’re finishing up a national rebranding effort for 3E Energy Drinks: ‘The Better for You Energy Drink,’” he said.

Meyer understands the importance of giving back, both to his alma mater and charities.

John Meyer helped students design these postcards when he taught a class for the School of Art in 2017.

“Teaching helped me understand the next wave of talent coming out of the university and gave me such a sense of pride,” said Meyer, who assisted students in getting internships with his firm and others across the country.

He also designed a series of Tucson-centric greeting cards, with a patriotic and western theme, while working with students in the Letterpress & Book Arts Lab run by Professor Karen Zimmermann, assistant director for the School of Art. “The cards are beautiful,” she said. 

A few years ago, he taught an Illustration and Design capstone class at the School of Art that focused on portfolios, branding, promotion, ethics and financial issues.

It’s been the best part of my career to give back to the school,” Meyer said. “It’s been very rewarding to have the ability to help mentor such deserving and talented students.”

Meyer has volunteered creative support for several non-profit groups, including the L.A. Epilepsy Foundation and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. “We’re on this planet to serve others,” said Meyer, who is grateful to doctors who helped one of his three children with epilepsy treatments.

“Hopefully, my career path and highlights will inspire others to achieve more than they dreamed,” Meyer said.

His advice to students?

“Give more than you’re paid to do ­– money will follow,” he said. “Visualize your future and stay positive. Keep pounding and don’t lose the faith.”

• John F. Meyer: 2023 CFA Alumnus of the Year

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