Visual and Performing Arts Archives | College of Sciences and Arts Newsblog

VPA Student’s Interactive Mural Asks Who We Carry With Us

Published February 11, 2025

Two people stand writing on a large mural in black permanent marker. The mural has a bright yellow background, with a desaturated painting of a woman’s shoulders and face. Red lipstick, pink earrings, white pearls and a blue shirt stand out brightly against her grayscale skin tones and hair. There are many other writings visible on the yellow background surrounding the painted woman.
Allison Lewis and Terri Frew. — Theatre and entertainment technology major Allison Lewis ’26 invited her fellow Huskies to share personal stories by sharing her own as part of an interactive mural of her mother. (Images courtesy Allison Lewis and Terri Frew)

Michigan Tech visual and performing arts students explore big questions through art. Allison Lewis ’26, a theatre and entertainment technology major and art minor, approached the final project for her art and design class by inviting others to share their experiences. The project prompt, “the human condition,” inspired Lewis’ interactive mural of her mother.

The size of the project is deliberate.“My mom is a really large influence in my life and I feel like I carry her with me the most,” said Lewis, “I wanted to not only celebrate her but let people celebrate the people in their lives who influenced them and who they are made up of.”

Audio Engineering Society’s Snow Speakers are the Bass-Thumping Heartbeat of Winter Carnival

Published January 28, 2025

By Windy Veker

Audio Engineering Society continues their long-standing tradition of providing the soundtrack to Winter Carnival, this year with a feat of engineering that carnival-goers will feel as well as hear.
(All images courtesy of Michigan Tech’s Audio Engineering Society)

Every year students come together to turn Michigan Tech’s snowy campus into a wonderland of snow statues during Winter Carnival. For many years, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) has provided the soundtrack for the traditional All-nighter, bringing the energy with their signature snow speakers and a rotating cast of volunteer DJs.

Built in the center of the action on Walker Lawn between broomball courts and Husky Plaza, the snow speakers spread music across campus, livening the spirits of statue builders, volunteers, and visitors.

Tech Students Explore Art through Inks, Chemistry, and Sun Prints

Published January 15, 2025

By Windy Veker

ultiple Cyanotypes stained and painted with natural inks hand together on a white wall. Four on the right depict variations of a woman’s face with leaf patterns. Several on the left depict leaf and flower patterns on their own. — Finished works from a visual arts course available to students across campus show the breadth of experimentation possible in combined mediums.

For some students pursuing technological careers, the world of art might feel foreign and intimidating. In her Art and Flora course, Visual and Performing Arts Professor Anne Beffel encourages students to be as comfortable experimenting in the studio as they are in the lab.

“Setting the stage for students to know their own sense of aesthetic is one of the most important things I can do so that when they leave this class they are making work that is relevant to them and how they view the world rather than following a prescribed path,” said Beffel.

Sound Girls Student Org Creates Spooky Short Film Based on Silent Found Footage

Published December 3, 2024

By Windy Veker

Black and white. Sound Girls student members run down a hallway chasing fellow student Jos Olson towards the camera in this still from the groups’ short film. — Sound Girls members get involved on both sides of the camera for their spooky short film *Creeping Up with the Sound Ghouls*

CAUTION: The following content contains the actual, unedited transcript of the Michigan Tech’s Sound Girls chapter executive board meeting recorded in October 2024.

Vice President Jos Olson: “Do you want to pull up the found footage?”

President Vanessa Dulong: “Yes.”

Olson: “I love how we say ‘found footage’ as if it is real found ghost footage.”

Secretary Jack Summers: “It’s not?”

Dulong: “Well, it’s found in our Google Drive.”

Summers: “Are you telling me it’s not real?”

Olson: “No, it’s very real, you’re right.”

Tech’s Workshop Brass Band Gets a Musical Education in New Orleans and on the Road

Published August 5, 2024

By Jenni Nance

Earlier this year, members of Michigan Tech’s Workshop Brass Band got a taste of the jazz musician’s life on the road.

Preston Dibean performs a solo, showcasing musical education with MTU’s Workshop Brass Band at the Broadway Oyster Bar in Saint Louis. — Preston Dibean blows a solo in front of MTU’s Workshop Brass Band at the Broadway Oyster Bar in Saint Louis. *(All photos courtesy of Michigan Tech’s Workshop Brass Band)*

Huskies tested their mettle by embarking on a five-day road trip to New Orleans. Even more than that, they discovered — through practice, through performance, through instruction — how to be a musician’s musician by being faithful to the original music, open to learning and willing to make mistakes.

Adam Meckler, associate professor and director of jazz studies, and visiting instructor Drew Kilpela led 16 jazz students on a 2,000-mile odyssey that began on New Year’s Day 2024. Meckler coordinated gigs, workshops with jazz legends and opportunities for Tech students to teach high school band students. The journey began with a rehearsal before the musicians set out. What they learned on the road can’t be taught in a classroom.

Springtime Greetings from the College of Sciences and Arts at Michigan Tech!

Published May 2, 2023

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The calendar shows May, but schools are closed today as a late-season snowstorm hits the Upper Peninsula. Fortunately, it held off long enough to not affect travel for our graduates and their families this past weekend. Our growing enrollment meant that, for the first time ever, we held a separate commencement ceremony for our graduate students on Friday afternoon, followed by an undergraduate ceremony Saturday morning. More than 170 College of Sciences and Arts students walked across the stage, earning bachelors, masters, and PhD degrees from our more than three dozen degree programs. It was a truly joyous occasion and, with the hockey arena packed, I expect we will continue with the separate undergraduate ceremony each spring going forward.

Michigan Tech graduate shakes Rick Koubek's hand during springtime commencement 2023 — One of the 170 Science and Arts grads receiving a degree

Friday evening was the emotional commissioning ceremony for our Army and Air Force ROTC program, where we celebrated our nation’s newest second lieutenants. Celebrating our students’ accomplishments is one of my favorite jobs as dean.

Graduation also means the final Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting of the year. While we are all saddened by the recent closure of Finlandia University, we are excited that we have managed to, on very short notice, essentially move their nursing program into our Department of Biological Sciences. With the BOT approving this last week, we look forward to welcoming students in the Fall. Also at the BOT meeting, ten CSA faculty received final approval for granting of tenure or promotion to full professor!

Medical Lab Science graduates at Spring Commencement

Of course, summer means travel, and faculty in CSA are the campus leaders in leading students on study abroad and study away experiences. Three of our Visual and Performing Arts faculty, Lisa Gordillo and Mary and Kent Cyr, are leading students to Vienna, Prague and Dresden, including an opportunity to attend the famous “Prague Quadrennial,” one of the largest international festivals of theatre, design, and architecture in the world. Other students will travel to Germany, including Dresden and Leipzig, under the direction of our Humanities Assistant Teaching Professor Stephanie Rowe.

Social Sciences faculty Kat Hannum and Mark Rhodes will lead students on a 20-day Amtrak adventure across the United States, studying sustainable tourism. Finally, Social Sciences faculty Dan Trepal will lead students to study history and archaeology in Cumbria in the United Kingdom.

ROTC graduate raises right hand to take the oath — A new second lieutenant takes the oath

Critical to everything we do are our alumni and friend donors. All your donations to our departments, scholarships, and the general fund are vitally important to our success. In particular, support to defray the additional costs of studying abroad is much needed. Thank you so much for supporting Michigan Tech! For CSA giving opportunities please visit: https://www.mtu.edu/sciences-arts/giving/

If you are ever back in town I hope you will stop by, say hello, and share with me your MTU story. Please do not hesitate to email me any time at djhemmer@mtu.edu to share your MTU experience or offer suggestions.

Best wishes,
David Hemmer
Dean- College of Sciences and Arts

Thanksgiving Message

Published November 23, 2022

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Quincy Mine with colorful fall foliage — Spectacular fall colors!

Hello Again from the Copper Country!

Its been an interesting fall in the Copper Country. November only added to it. Election Day. My birthday: my new age is the smallest number with 10 distinct divisors, which makes it what mathematicians (like myself) call a “highly composite number”! Blood moon and lunar eclipse (the last for a few years). The first prolonged snowfall (thankfully not as significant as Buffalo’s). And now the mass exodus as students, faculty, and staff leave campus to spend Thanksgiving Day with family and friends.

It has been a magnificent Fall season in Houghton, with an epic leaf-peeping season and beautiful weather, sunny and not too cold, and barely any snow to be seen up until last week. Nevertheless, the crews on the lawn outside my Walker office were busy setting up three broomball courts for the upcoming season! You can view them in real-time on one of our many webcams live streaming from campus, like this one from Walker. Drop me a note. I’d love to hear about your favorite broomball memory.

Our CSA students and faculty continue to excel in the classroom and beyond. Dr. Sarah Green, our chemistry department chair, led a dozen Huskies to the 2022 United Nations climate change summit. Held November 6-18, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, these Huskies joined more than 35,000 participants at the 27th Conference of the Parties United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27). Based on their work in previous summits, they have secured badges granting them insider access to the “blue zone.” Our Visual and Performing Arts faculty are involved as well. Delegates in the VIP lounge listened to a piece, Melusina Calls to the Loon, written by our own composer and Teaching Professor Libby Meyer, with an additional soundscape from MTU Distinguished Professor Christopher Plummer! You can follow their adventures on the Huskies at the Climate Conference blog. We’ll be adding more stories in the coming weeks.

Kathy Huerta Sanchez stands in front of the COP27 sign in Sharm El-Sheik. — Environmental and Energy Policy graduate student Kathy Huerta Sanchez at the COP 27 UN climate conference.

Earlier my wife and I were honored to be formal “guests of the mess” at the Air Force ROTC Dining Out. The event gives the cadets an opportunity to experience a formal dinner but with a twist. The different groups of cadets combined to create a “grog” in a large punch bowl. Ingredients included spicy V8, pickle juice, sardine juice, crunchy peanut butter powder, etc… Throughout the night violations of the elaborate “rules of the mess” were punished by trips to drink from the grog. By the end of the evening, just about every cadet had imbibed at least once!

Dean Hemmer and Lieutenant Colonel Zuniga stand at attention at Michigan Tech's Air Force ROTC Dining Out celebration. — Lt.Col. Benjamin Zuniga (left) hosts Dean Hemmer at Air Force ROTC’s Dining Out.

At this time of year, I am grateful for many things: family and friends; the hard work our faculty and staff put in throughout the year to educate our students and help them to create a future for themselves; the support from our alumni funding facilities, scholarships, fellowships, professorships, and more; the beauty of the Copper Country.

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Spring (Finally!) Arrives at Michigan Tech

Published May 20, 2022

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Greetings from the College of Sciences and Arts at Michigan Tech!

Spring arrived in the Copper Country with sunshine and 70+ degree temperatures last week melting away most of the remaining snow. Alas, Spring also brings construction season as the second half of the two-year project on route 41 through town is underway just west of campus, requiring southbound traffic to detour all the way up to Sharon Avenue and down Macinnes Drive.

Spring also brings exciting construction to campus! On April 29 we broke ground on our new $50+ million H-STEM building. This magnificent structure will lie just to the east of the ChemSci building and will host our departments of Biomedical Engineering and Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology as well as the offices of our Health Research Institute. Large numbers of CSA faculty do human health research, and we are all looking forward to the building opening in 2024. You can watch the construction on a live webcam here.

Image of Michigan Tech students sitting on an Amtrak train studying, working and chatting. — Michigan Tech students aboard the rolling Amtrak classroom heading into Glacier National Park.

CSA also leads the way on campus in providing summer study abroad and study away opportunities for our students. Social Sciences faculty member Dr. Mark Rhodes is leading a three-week Amtrak tour of the western U.S. titled “Amtrak Tourism: Trains, Cities, & Sustainability”. See our students experiencing this terrific learning opportunity. Another Social Sciences faculty member, Dr. Richelle Winkler, is taking students to Costa Rica to study global sustainability, Costa Rican culture, and the Spanish language.

Image of Joel Nieves, music director of the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra. — Joel Nieves Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra Music Director

The end of the semester brought our Spring Board of Trustees meeting and final approval for a dozen faculty promotions in CSA. This year’s batch of dossiers was particularly impressive; our faculty are exceptional in the classroom, in the laboratories, and in performance venues! Indeed, we have three new full professors in Visual and Performing Arts! One of them, Dr. Joel Neves, led the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra as it celebrated 50 years with a performance of Carmina Burana on April 23. Another, Dr. Jared Anderson, led our choirs during the same performance.

Critical to everything we do are our alumni and friend donors. All your donations to our departments, scholarships, and the general fund are vitally important to our success. Thank you so much for supporting Michigan Tech! Learn more about CSA giving opportunities.

If you are ever back in town I hope you will stop by, say hello, and share with me your MTU story. Please do not hesitate to email me any time at djhemmer@mtu.edu to share your MTU experience or offer suggestions.

A busy season for Visual and Performing Arts

Published April 6, 2017

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Perhaps it is because I share a building with the Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA), but it is interesting that VPA activities have figured several times in my blog comments this spring. Whatever the reason, I am impressed by the diversity and scope of their recent and upcoming activities. Those events show the full artistic talents of our faculty and students, and enrich us all.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated 50 years of jazz on campus. Don Keranan was the legendary faculty member who launched that effort, which Mike Irish has now guided for a long time! A good group of alumni journeyed back to campus to mark this grand occasion, and joined the current students players. Quite the event, as the image of the alumni jazz players shows!!

don keranen EDS

Photo by Hannah Kowalewski

Last week two other notable events occurred. The first was the VPA faculty and staff art exhibition, which opened with a reception on Friday afternoon. Labeled Amusement Park Avenue, just about every person in the department contributed to the show. These ranged from M.C. Friedrich’s historically accurate doll costumes to images and sound resulting from the Listening to the Parks soundscape project that showcases the Lake Superior National Parks (Kent Cyr, Christopher Plummer and Libby Meyer). Anne Beffel’s Every Color of Eyes project (mentioned in my previous blog) also was displayed along with 13 other faculty and staff works, several in mixed media. The exhibit can be seen in the Rozsa Gallery until April 28, and for the last few days, student art produced this year will be displayed in an adjoining section of the gallery.

The second activity on Saturday April 1, was a very different kind of presentation. Musical performers from Vancouver, the Orchid Ensemble, offered their unique fusion/world music selections using traditional Chinese and other instruments. They were joined for the second half of their program by conScience, the Michigan Tech Chamber Singers. The results proofed very interesting for most of us. For example, in the second combined number, Orchid Ensemble accompanied the Chamber Singers, while in the final number the singers served as vocal instruments accompanying the Ensemble. As always, considering there are no art or music majors on campus, both events were superb. And a significant part of the success of the gallery exhibit and the musical performance goes back to the students responsible for the technical presentation, lighting, and sound. These students had an special learning experience with Orchid Ensemble

Amusement Park 2 orchidensembleposter

And there is still more to look forward to, as the department is presenting its version of West Side Story, famous for Leonard Bernstein’s music and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics. There will be three presentations from April 13 to 15. And that will not exhaust the end of the semester schedule, so check out the VPA calendar of events. We are lucky to have such great opportunities to experience the arts in all of their forms.

west side story EDS

Jazz Musicians on tour!

Published February 8, 2017

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Every January, jazz musicians from the Department of Visual and Performing Arts visit schools around the upper Midwest to carry the word about the importance of music, while at the same time giving many people another important reason to know about Michigan Tech. Mike Irish, director of the jazz programs and the key inspiration to the jazz musicians here, has coordinated the January tours for many, many years. This 2017 tour spanned January 3-6 and included concerts at Munising, Newberry, Roscommon, the State Theater in Bay City, Bay City Central and Bay City Western high schools, and Harrison. Just for good measure, the Jaztec group played an evening gig in a restaurant in Bay City.

I have had several students ask about the programs that your school has to offer outside of music clubs since this event.

The music directors and principals of the schools where our students play often tell me they were blown away by these performances. Predictably, they are impressed by the quality of music from performers not pursuing music degrees. Mike has this special knack for cultivating and guiding student musicians for whom jazz becomes a passion. Putting this outcome on display helps the local music educators make the case for the value of music in small and sometimes cash-strapped schools. The high school students see the passion and commitment of jazz musicians drawn from every major on Tech’s campus, conveying the powerful message that it is possible to be both a musician AND a great student in the demanding fields of study offered at MTU. Michigan Tech appears in an amazingly good light by showing our commitment to educate the whole person and our effort to integrate all areas of knowledge and learning.

The director of bands at Harrison captured the full impact of these visits. He told me he was “delighted at how excited [Tech’s students] were to perform, being that our show was the last one on their tour and it was awfully early in the morning! What a special group of musicians they all are to perform so amazingly well before 9:00am! …The entire group stayed for awhile after the performance to talk to our band students, who were so very grateful for the time with them. They answered all of the students’ questions and were very patient with students who have never been enrolled in a music course. Not one performer rushed to pack up their materials. They showed our students so much respect by carving out a great deal of time to educate them. I have had several students ask about the programs that your school has to offer outside of music clubs since this event…. Please keep these types of programs a possibility for our area high school students! Your school has gained many fans through this wonderful experience that you have generously provided to us.”

For a long time we have known that students are Tech’s best ambassadors, but the jazz players are the best. Their dedication is outstanding, as shown by their schedule on just the first day. They departed the SDC at 6:30AM, played a concert in Munising at 10:00, another at Newberry that afternoon, and then rode the bus south of the bridge to their overnight stay near Roscommon. It certainly helps to be young and energetic! And that energy explains why we these tours will continue. But we should remember that the players gain as much from the visit as their audiences. So we owe the students and Mike a big thanks for their continued excellence and commitment. They represent Michigan Tech and the college very well. Well done!

Bruce Seely

February 8, 2017

Photos below are courtesy of Michael Robb (Ohno Design in Bay City), father of bass player, Tristan Robb.

Jazz lab band at the Historic State Theater in Bay City. Originally constructed in 1908 and remodeled most recently in the early 2000s, the acoustics are exquisite, as the audience of 600 discovered.

Mike Irish in “full teacher mode” at the State Theater, Bay City. “I love sharing stories about the band, MTU, and the pieces that we are playing! I guess it shows.”

The drummer is Libby Welton, a December 2016 MTU grad in Mechanical Engineering. She started her first job in Wausau, WI immediately after the tour was over.

Photos from Bay City Public Schools SPOTLIGHT, January 13, 2017.

Category: Visual and Performing Arts

Earlier this year, members of Michigan Tech’s Workshop Brass Band got a taste of the jazz musician’s life on the road.