November 3, 2017
IEric Bloomquist, CFA Career Coach at the Career and Professional Development Center moderated a panel of young professionals who shared their experiences and advice in preparing for the transition out of college, networking, and strengthening one’s online and professional artist profile.  This interactive workshop taught students how to first plan out their goals, and then turn them into realities.

October 20, 2017
In partnership with the Career and Professional Development Center, ArtsForce led students through a discussion about artist personas in networking online and in-person. They developed skills such as making elevator pitches, maintaining professional connections, and fostering an artistic community.  This event was led by Career Coach Eric Bloomquist.

September 26, 2017 - UMFA
The ArtsForce Kick-Off was an event that allowed students to meet 2017 College of Fine Arts Distinguished Alumni, as well as distinguished professionals in the field. These professionals gave valuable advice to students about how to articulate the knowledge and skills they’ve been learning in their degrees.

September 15, 2017
Social media is turning into a unique opportunity for artists to market themselves and their art. At this interactive workshop, we analyzed online artists’ profiles from the lens of employers and clients, as well as compared uses of your professional and personal profiles. This campus wide event was partnership with the Career and Professional Development Center led by Career Coach Eric Bloomquist.

The University of Utah College of Fine Arts is pleased to welcome two new members to its leadership team on July 1, 2018. Melonie B. Murray, Associate Professor in the School of Dance, will be joining the Dean’s Cabinet as the new Associate Dean for Faculty & Academic Affairs, a position vacated by Sarah Projansky, who after five years of service, is returning to the faculty in the Department of Film & Media Arts. Joining from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is Harris Smith, who will be taking over for Gage Williams as the new chair of the Department of Theatre.  

“This is an exciting time in the college’s momentous history, and we’re thrilled to welcome these two most qualified and talented administrators to our leadership ranks,” said Dean John W. Scheib. “Their histories and expertise will bring new perspectives, new energy, and new skills to our already incredible team.” 

Murray previously has been serving the School of Dance as the ballet program coordinator and director of graduate studies, and she implemented the new (and the nation’s only) Master of Fine Arts in Ballet at the U. Prior to her arrival at the U, she was the dance program director at Colorado Mesa University and has worked extensively in curricular development. 

“I am honored to serve our vibrant, innovative College of Fine Arts community in this capacity,” Murray said. “I look forward to working closely with Dean Scheib and his team to further the mission of the CFA.” 

Smith is coming from the University of University Nebraska-Lincoln, as the director for the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. He is the former head of the Professional Actor Training Program there, and his research and creative work focus on psycho-physical character development for the actor and choreographing violence for stage and film. 

“I’m enthusiastic about joining the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah” Smith said. “As an alum of the PAC 12, I’m excited to return to this excellent conference. I look forward to building upon the excellence of the department and commitment of the faculty toward its students.  It is my hope to deepen our relationships with communities in the Greater Salt Lake area and the state of Utah, as we continue to grow our national and international impact.”   

For more information on the College of Fine Arts, visit finearts.utah.edu.

Development Officer

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Development Officer

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The University of Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble will perform Candide on Friday and Saturday, April 20 and 21 at 7:30 at Kingsbury Hall. They will be accompanied by the University of Utah Philharmonia under the direction of Dr. Robert Baldwin. Tickets can be purchased here.

The University of Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble is pleased to welcome guest director Brian Deedrick for the upcoming production of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta, Candide. Deedrick was raised in both Canada and Germany. Ever since he was a child, he always wanted to be a stage director. As early as Grade 3, he wrote, starred in, and directed his own version of Romeo and Juliet in the back of his classroom. In Grade 6, he started a class theatre company, where they put on shows every second Friday for the rest of the class, “this time, in the FRONT of the room,” he clarified. He initially planned to grow up to be a pediatrician, before he realized that he could make a living as a theatre and opera director.

As a director, Deedrick’s ultimate goal is to try to tell the story he’s been given, to interpret the words of the playwright or composer, and to fully respect and honor their words or music.

“Ideally, there needs to be a sense of joy in the rehearsal hall; a place where everyone involved feels simultaneously safe enough to take chances and risks, and yet challenged to make ongoing discoveries about themselves as characters and about the piece itself.”

He begins his process with his own “map” of how the show could run, then collaborates with the actors to improve that “map.”

“Nothing is more exciting in rehearsal than when someone - anyone - comes up with a great idea, from which all of us can collectively riff and come up with something new or better.”

Bernstein’s Candide is based off of the novella of the same name by Voltaire, originally published in 1759. The story is highly satirical and chaotic, which gives Deedrick the unique task of examining the plot in its most raw form and interpreting it to the audience as such.

“Candide and Co. just keep going from one destination to the next, and I think that’s central to the theme: If you’re not looking for the right things, you’re almost condemned to continue the search...” he said. “The seemingly endless travels – and travails – of Candide only come to an end when they realize they must stop and learn to LIVE.”

Deedrick believes that amidst the chaos and confusion of Candide, it is ultimately a very moral work.

“Candide is repeatedly exposed to the immorality, the hypocrisy, the horrors, the dark side, and the worst that humanity has to offer, and he finally discovers that he must take responsibility for himself and those around him,” he explained. “The genius of Voltaire’s ironic masterpiece is that the trials and tribulations of Candide are often sublimely funny. This is absolutely not a dark or heavy piece!”

GET TICKETS

Below is a call for participants from our prestigious Department of Art & Art History's  Warnock Artists in Residence, Eva and Franco Mattes. This “hactivist” duo, who are originally from Italy but who are working now in New York, are considered pioneers of Net Art and their work investigates the ethics and politics of the Internet and online behavior. 

Hi! 

This is Eva and Franco Mattes, Warnock artists in residence at the University of Utah. We’re looking for participants for our next performance. It’s going to be this Friday, April 20!  

We will all gather in a computer lab on campus, connect to an online videogame, and will have the most amazing discussion you ever had about the “representation of violence”. Occasionally we may all get killed by other gamers, unaware of our ongoing experiment, but this won’t demoralize us, and we will keep going back to chat, again and again and again. NOTE: No technical skills required, you don’t need to be a gamer, it’s more about chatting. And we will have food and beverages. 

SIGN UP TO PARTICIPATE

WHEN: Friday April 20, Noon to 5pm (You can come in and leave whenever you want) 
WHERE: ART Building, Owen Reading Room #365 
QUESTIONS? Contact Natalie Oliver (785-220-4463)

Schedule At-a-Glance

• 9:00-10 :10 am- Welcome and Working Artists/CFA Faculty Panel
• 10:10-10:20 am- Break
• 10:20-11:30 am- Recently Graduated CFA Alumni
• 11:30-1:00 pm- Lunch and Networking Activity
• 1:00-2:00 pm- ArtsForce Women in the Arts panel

Faculty Bios

Cynthia Fleming (Theatre) 
Cynthia Fleming has been in the world of dance and theatre professionally since she was 18 years old, during which time she performed in the Broadway, National and International companies with A CHORUS LINE. Currently, Cynthia serves as the Executive Artistic Director of Salt Lake Acting Company, but she has also been the Choreographer, Director, Box Office Manager, and Director of Audience Services within the organization. Cynthia recently directed at the MFA Playwrights' Workshop at the Kennedy Center and is currently a visiting professor in the Musical Theatre Department here at the U.

Stefanie Doktor (Music)
Stephanie Doktor graduated from the University of Virginia in 2016 with a Ph.D. in Critical and Comparative Studies in Musicology. She holds an M.A. in Musicology and Master's Certificate in Women's Studies from the University of Georgia and she currently teaches a range of classes through the Department of Music here at the U. Her research focuses on U.S. twentieth century music and covers repertoire from jazz and concert traditions to popular and folk music. Stephanie presents regularly at national conferences for the Society for American Music and the American Musicological Society.

Xi Zhang (Art & Art History)
Xi Zhang completed his studies in painting at China's Beijing Institute of Art and Design and moved to the United States where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and his MFA in painting from CU Boulder. In 2008, he was recognized as the "Emerging Artist of the Year" and in 2012, Zhang received his US Permanent Residence as an "Artist of extraordinary ability." He teaches painting and drawing courses through the Department of Art and Art History.
Visit his website here: http://xizhang.org/home.html

Sonia Albert-Sobrino (Film) 
Sonia Albert-Sobrino didn't start making films until 2009 when she switched from the nursing career path to filmmaking. Since then, she and her sister Miriam have been able to produce film work that have been screened in first level film festivals, such as Raindance, Edinburgh, IFFLA, Cans and Cinespaña, among many others. On top of their work as programmers in several film festivals, Sonia and Miriam are currently pre-producing their second feature film, "Melita", while working on the distribution of their first feature film: "The Story of a Satellite". They teach a wide variety of film classes, from history of film to color grading here at the U.
Visit their website here: http://www.alsosisters.com

Michael Wall (Dance)
Michael Wall is an internationally recognized composer, performer and educator who collaborates with dancers, choreographers and filmmakers around the world. He composes original music, accompanies dance classes, and teaches sound design for dance and performance with Ableton Live. Michael has worked at Rutgers University, Princeton University, NYU, The Ohio State University, The Bates Dance Festival, The American Dance Festival and is currently on faculty at The University of Utah, School of Dance. He's supported independent artists in digital music distribution for the last ten years and offers a comprehensive online library of music for dance students, teachers and choreographers.
Listen to his music here: www.soundFORMovement.com

Women in the Arts Panelists

Whitney Tassie
Whitney Tassie holds a master's degree in modern art history, theory, and criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a bachelor's degree in art history and archaeology from Cornell. Whitney worked as the director of the Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago and later as an exhibitions and curatorial assistant at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art in Ithaca, New York. In 2011, she co-founded Gallery Weekend Chicago, a groundbreaking annual weekend focused on promoting and enhancing Chicago's contemporary art scene to collectors and curators. Whitney is the current curator of modern and contemporary art at our very own Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

Brooke Horejsi
Brooke Horejsi, the Assistant Dean for Art & Creative Engagement in the College of Fine Arts and Executive Director of UtahPresents, has more than 20 years of experience in the field of creativity. In her role, Horejsi oversees a non-profit, campus based arts presenter, is a member of the leadership team at the University of Utah College of Fine Arts, and focuses on embedding the arts and creativity broadly across campus and the region. Her passion for the role creativity plays in building and sustaining community is apparent in her daily work and also in her participation in research cohorts and funding programs supported by organizations such the American Express Foundation, the Wallace Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Miriam Albert-Sobrino
Miriam Albert-Sobrino didn't start making films until 2009 when she switched from the nursing career path to filmmaking. Since then, she and her sister Sonia have been able to produce film works that have been screened in first level film festivals, such as Raindance, Edinburgh, IFFLA, Cans and Cinespaña, among many others. On top of their work as programmers in several film festivals, Miriam and Sonia are currently pre-producing their second feature film, "Melita", while working on the distribution of their first feature film: "The Story of a Satellite". They teach a wide variety of film classes, from history of film to color grading here at the U.

Elizabeth Craft
Elizabeth Titrington Craft is a musicologist whose scholarship crosses disciplinary boundaries to examine the music and culture of the United States. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and also holds degrees from the College of William and Mary and the University of Maryland. An experienced and dedicated teacher, Craft has taught courses on music pedagogy, classical music history, and American popular music at Harvard, Northeastern University, and Wellesley College. In her research, Craft explores how music conveys sociopolitical values and constructs national identity, focusing especially on musical theater from its inception through the present. Her article, "Headfirst into an Abyss: The Politics and Political Reception of Hamilton" is forthcoming in the journal American Music.

Jaimee Christensen
Jaimee Christensen is an art director at WildWorks, a local Salt Lake videogame company who produces works such as “Animal Jam”, and an adjunct instructor of motion graphics here at the University of Utah. During her career as an artist, Jaimee also worked as an illustrator, designer, concept artist, and environment art lead. Before entering the workforce, Jaimee was a student at the University of Utah where she graduated with a BFA in Graphic Art and Illustration.

Alumni Bios

Alyssa Bertelsen graduated from the University of Utah in 2017 with a degree in Ballet and an emphasis in Teaching. During her time at the U, Alyssa performed in 9 productions, choreographed her own work, and in 2015 started Kids' Community Ballet (KCB). Upon graduating, Alyssa started her own nonprofit ballet school, Rise Up which offers classes to children of all levels of incomes through sliding-scale tuition.

Cindy Chen is a Development Associate at Spy Hop, a youth media arts education non-profit in downtown Salt Lake City. In 2016, she graduated from the University of Utah with an Honors Bachelor of Music in flute performance and a minor in political science. While at the U, Cindy was an ArtsForce intern, received the award for Undergraduate Researcher of the Year, and performed with the Utah Philharmonia.

David "HABBENINK" Habben is an artist, illustrator, and educator, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received his BFA in Illustration from Brigham Young Universityin 2006 and became a Children's Book Design Fellow at Chronicle Books in 2008. In 2017, he earned his MFA in Studio Art, with a Graphic Design emphasis, from The University of Utah. His work can be found in a wide variety of media, including children's books, magazines, advertising campaigns, theatre posters, and even snowboards.

Patrick W. Newman is currently a Director of Photography, Producer, and Filmmaker living in Salt Lake City, UT. While concentrating on documentary series filmmaking, he is an accomplished commercial producer and director of photography. He graduated from the University of Utah in Film & Media Arts in 2016.

Samantha Matsukawa graduated in 2014 from the University of Utah with a B.F.A. in Modern Dance and a B.A. in Art History. As a dancer, choreographer, and movement artist her work has been shown at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts, Sugar Space, and at the University of Utah. Samantha has a depth of experience in Arts Administration and served as the Communications and Audience Development Manager at Salt Lake Acting Company for several years and currently works as the Marketing and Communications Coordinator in the College of Fine Arts.

Daniel Mont-Eton graduated from the College of Fine Arts with a BFA in Modern Dance in 2012. Since graduating, Dan has performed professionally for five years across Colorado, New York, and now Utah. He is currently dancing in his second season with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, and loves being back in Salt Lake City.

Karem Orrego is an independent filmmaker and the Festival Coordinator for the Theatre Box Offices at Sundance Institute. She graduated in 2016 from the University of Utah with a B.F.A. in Film and Media Arts and Technology. While at the U, Karem was a Student Advisory Committee Rep for Film and served on the Emerging Leaders Council.

Amber Mott graduated in 2016 from the University of Utah with a degree in Graphic Design. She has worked as a Graphic Designer and Marketing Intern at the Mundi Project and a Freelance Designer at Struck. Currently Amber is a Graphic Designer at Westminster College.

Paul Leland Hill graduated in 2016 with a bachelor's in music with an emphasis in piano performance. Paul currently works at Utah Opera in the education department and sings in the opera chorus. He also freelances as a pianist, piano teacher, singer, and occasionally as a composer.

Alex Coltrin graduated in 2017 from the University of Utah with a B.A. in Theatre Studies. During his time at the U, he performed with Good Kids and served on Fine Arts Fee Grants Committee to distribute $100,000 of funding for student led projects in the College of Fine Arts. Upon graduating, Coltrin directed Trash! a play by Mark Macey at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival.