This year’s recipient of the Great Lakes Showcase Community Choice Award goes to Ray Lahikainen for his painting “Destiny.” Ray Lahikainen has won the Community Choice Award for at least the last five years.
The runner up is Daniel Bennett for “Lighthouse at Sunset.”
Visit the Great Lakes Showcase for more Awards 2015.
Biological Sciences Seminar Friday
by Department of Biological Sciences
Lisa Johnson, assistant professor in Visual and Performing Arts, will present “Art in the Field: Reimagining environmental experiences as art, science and community” on Friday, March 27, 2015, at 4 p.m. in Dow 642.
Johnson will present selections of her work, the work of artists from the Lakeside Laboratory and hold a conversation about open collaboration in this talk.
For more information, visit the biological sciences website.
Michigan Tech Celebrates World Water Day
Water is a natural resource none of us can live without. Every year, in recognition of this vital resource and the challenges it presents to people all over the world, Michigan Tech celebrates World Water Day. This year a week of activities are scheduled from March 19-24, in observance of World Water Day on March 22.
The World Water Day events at Michigan Tech are sponsored by the Michigan Tech Center for Water and Society, the Great Lakes Research Center, Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative, Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Keweenaw Land Trust and Michigan Tech Department of Visual and Performing Arts.
Read more at Tech Today, by Monica Lester.
World Water Day will include the Art Exhibition:
Jamie Allen (painting), Tom Rudd (sculpture), Paul Rose (photography)
Introduction to the Art Exhibit
Monday, March 23 in GLRC 201 at 3:30 pm
Exhibit will run March 20 – April 24, 2015
Building Hours: 8 am – 8 pm, M-F
Awards for Best in Show, 2D, 3D, and Honorable Mention were revealed during the reception of the Great Lakes Showcase (GLS) on February 26, 2015, in the Rozsa Gallery. Award results are posted on the GLS website.
The showcase coordinator Sarah Fayen Scarlett was interviewed by Ashley Kirklen of TV6 and FOX UP.
The showcase continues until March 31, 2015, in the Rozsa Gallery. The gallery is open from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm on weekdays. The public is welcome to vote on the final award, that of Community Choice.
HOUGHTON — The Michigan Tech Department of Visual and Performing Arts and the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts are pleased to present the 2015 
Great Lakes Showcase (GLS), an annual month-long, juried exhibition of fine arts and crafts.
Opening on Thursday, Feb. 26, and continuing through March 31 in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, the Great Lakes Showcase is a celebration art that brings together both local artists and others from the around the upper Midwest region. The Showcase features paintings, photography, drawings, collage, ceramics, textiles, and works in wood by local and regional artists, juried by a group of professional artists. The show will feature 92 artworks in a range of media, including woven textiles, ceramic, paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media, wood-turning, bronze sculpture, and installation pieces.
Free and open to the public, the exhibit is located in the Rozsa Art Gallery, in the lower level of the Rozsa Center. Visitor parking is available at meters adjacent to the Rozsa Center. (NOTE: The gallery is closed on weekends.)
The opening will feature the announcement of awards for outstanding work in several categories. This year the reception will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015. In addition to beautiful artwork and a chance to meet the artists, the reception will feature appetizers and a cash bar, as well as live music provided by local folk band “What the Folk,” performing from 5:30 p.m.- 6:15 p.m.
Artworks are available for purchase; visitors are encouraged to support their favorite artist by making a Great Lakes Showcase artwork part of their home or office. Most of the pieces are for sale and can be purchased in person at the show or at the Central Ticketing Operations office in the Student Development Complex. 100 percent of proceeds go to the artists. A Ticket Office representative will be in the gallery on Opening Night to assist with sales, and purchases can be made through March 31. Artworks purchased will be available for pick up after March 31 at the conclusion of the exhibition.
According to show coordinator Sarah Fayen Scarlett, “This year, we received almost 190 entries from 65 artists — a 15 percent increase over 2014. Artists hail from throughout the UP as well as downstate and neighboring regions. Visitors will see returning artists as well as newcomers.”
The judge for the awards this year is Beth A. Zinsli. Dr. Zinsli is Curator and Director of the Galleries at the Wriston Art Center at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. The Best in Show carries a cash prize of $1000, supported by the MTU President’s Office. The Dean of the College of Sciences and Arts and the University Provost support the first place prizes in the 3D and 2D categories. 2nd place prizes and Honorable Mentions are also awarded. During the course of the show, visitors can vote for the Community Choice Award. The winner will be announced on the GLS website at the close of the show on March 31.
For more details, please contact Sarah Fayen-Scarlett, 906-487-2420, sfscarle@mtu.edu.
Sarah Fayen Scarlett (VPA) joined former colleagues from the Chipstone Foundation to receive the Wunsch Award for Excellence in American Arts.
Scarlett worked as a curator for Chipstone for seven years before joining Tech’s faculty in Visual and Performing Arts. Chipstone promotes original research and innovative education programs in material culture studies within universities and museums. The Wunsch Award is honoring Chipstone’s exhibition program at the Milwaukee Art Museum, scholarly publications, online initiatives with ArtBabble and immersive programming for college students interested in publicly-engaged scholarship about art and design.
AMERICANA WEEK 2015
MASTERPIECES OF RARITY AND HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE TO BE OFFERED ACROSS THE SALES OF IMPORTANT AMERICAN FURNITURE, OUTSIDER AND FOLK ART, SILVER AND CHINESE EXPORT ART
New York – Christie’s is pleased to announce that Americana Week 2015, a series of auctions, viewings and events, will be held from January 16-26. In all, Americana Week 2015 will offer over 520 lots and is expected to realize upwards of $6 million. In conjunction with the sales, Christie’s will also host the third annual Eric M. Wunsch Award for Excellence in the American Arts on January 21, honoring Arnold Lehman and The Chipstone Foundation.
Lisa Johnson, MFA
Lisa Johnson joins the Department of Visual and Performing Arts from the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory.
Johnson received an MFA and an MA with a focus in sculpture from the University of Iowa.
Johnson has been involved in projects like Place-Map-Place, Trench(era), The Eva Luna Project and Kotcich. She also has experience with digital, audio and video production; performance development; woodworking; figure modeling; plaster casting and mold making; and papermaking.
The Department of Visual and Performing Arts is pleased to present the results of the 2014 faculty-voted awards for students:
Art – Diana McNease
Music – Kevin Rocheleau
Sound – Tom Conran
Theatre – Paige Borel
All Arts – Kevin Gray
Women of Promise – Jamie Aneshansel and Renata Putzig
With the sun shining and the mounds of snow disappearing, it is starting to feel like spring–just in time for Earth Day. Today is Earth Day and Michigan Tech is celebrating with activities all week long, including a Lake Superior Celebration and a rainforest reptile show.
The Lake Superior Celebration, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Michigan Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center, will feature hands-on activities, a new PBS video on the Great lakes Stewardship Initiative, school-community projects, local foods, “Wildflowers of the UP” by Bob Wild and the “Water’s Edge Art Exhibit.”
A new PBS video will be aired at the celebration. It features local participants in the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. The event is free and open to the public and all are welcome. The Lake Superior Celebration is sponsored by the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative and Michigan Tech’s Western UP Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education.
A delicate balance
Pulitzer Prize winner visits Tech
Scientists, researchers and artists work daily at Michigan Technological University but do not often come together. In an effort to bridge the gap between two disciplines, faculty and staff gathered for a panel discussion Tuesday featuring composer John Luther Adams, who was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for music Monday.
“In a lot of his writing he talks about what art and science have to say to one another and I thought, since we are a school that has both, it would be an interesting topic for conversation,” said Libby Meyer, instructor of visual and performing arts at Tech.
That dialogue was facilitated by a panel including representatives from science and humanities disciplines, with John Vucetich, associate professor in the school of forest resources and environmental science; Amy Schrank, research assistant professor in the school of forest resources and environmental sciences; Chris Plummer, associate professor in visual and performing arts; M. Bartley Seigel, associate professor of creative writing and diverse literatures; and Evan McDonald, executive director of the Keweenaw Land Trust.
Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Meagan Stilp.
In the News
National Public Radio (NPR), Associated Press and Canadian Press wire services and other national and international media outlets reported that Alaska composer John Luther Adams was an artist in residency at Michigan Tech when he was notified that he had won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Music.
Alaskan Composer Wins Pulitzer For ‘Become Ocean’
By telephone Monday afternoon, I located John Luther Adams, 61, in Houghton, Mich. (in the state’s Upper Peninsula), where he is in residence at Michigan Tech. He said he was napping between classes when he got “a most welcome wakeup call” informing him he’d won the award.
Read more at Deceptive Cadence from NPR Classical, by Tom Huizenga.
Details on the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winners in journalism and arts, and reaction
MUSIC: John Luther Adams’ “Become Ocean” (Taiga Press/Theodore Front Musical Literature)
John Luther Adams knew he’d been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his composition “Become Ocean,” but he had no expectations of winning. He was so busy with classes as part of a residency at Michigan Tech University that he even forgot the day they’d be handed out.
“I was actually taking a quick power nap between classes and got a phone call. It was a quite a wake-up call,” Adams said with a chuckle. “It was pretty great.”
Though based temporarily in Michigan, Adams’ thoughts are never far from Alaska.