Category: Art

Rozsa 2018-2019 Season Tickets on Sale

Published May 1, 2018

The Rozsa Center announces its 2018-19 season ticket sale. Season ticket packages are on sale early this year, in fact starting today, with the best discounts available on all the season has to offer.

There are four season ticket package options this year, offering savings of 18 to 37 percent off single-ticket prices. A full season ticket package—a pass to all the arts at Michigan Tech—gives you the biggest discount available off the single-ticket price on all Rozsa and VPA events. The popular “Pick 6” Season Ticket Package has returned and is an even better value this year.

We continue to offer the “Pick 3” option, and we have brought back the very popular “Family Pack” option that will let you bring the whole family to a big show at an affordable price.

We hope there is a package that works for you. To all of our long-time season-ticket holders, we’re holding your seats, now through Aug. 1. For new season ticket buyers, we look forward to seeing you this season.

Featured this year are 12 Rozsa Presenting Series events, including five distinguished lecturers and more than 33 Visual and Performing Arts events including music, theater and visual arts events, and the ever-popular 41 North Film festival. Visit our Calendar of Events for a complete list of all our 2018-19 season events!

Not interested in a season ticket package? Single ticket sales also begin early this year, on Aug. 1. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Michigan Tech Ticketing Services at the Central Ticket Office (SDC), call 7-2073 or go online.

Research Excellence Fund (REF) Awards Announced

Published April 30, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Vice President for Research Office announced the 2018 Research Excellence Fund (REF) awards and thanked the volunteer review committees, as well as the deans and department chairs, for their time spent on this important internal research award process.

This year we congratulate, Lisa Johnson de Gordillo, Ann Beffel, Libby Meyer, and Patricia Helsel for receiving Scholarship and Creativity Grants (SCG).

The REF Scholarship and Creativity Grant (SCG) provides support to encourage faculty to engage in scholarly research, learning, and creative activities to enhance professional development.

“From There to Here” Student Art Exhibit

Published April 13, 2018

By Heather Powers

The Rozsa Center and the Department of Visual and Performing Arts present “From There to Here,” featuring works of art created by Michigan Tech students participating in Project Learning Lab, an innovative arts classroom based inside of Rozsa gallery b.

Work on display was created by students in Lisa Gordillo’s Traditional Sculpture, Advanced Sculpture and 3-D Design classes. Students from many campus disciplines are represented, including Materials Sciences, English and Theatre Arts.

Students in Traditional Sculpture study traditional ways of making art around the globe, including Guatemalan kites, Zimbabwe-Shona carving and metal casting, with help from Michigan Tech’s department of Materials Science.

Students in Advanced Sculpture are encouraged to work with the gallery’s architecture and to create large-scale installations in the gallery.

Students designed and built a tree house for a local, three-year old client in the in 3-D Design class.

The exhibition runs April 18-20. A reception will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 20, at the gallery. The reception is free and all are welcome.

Student artists represented: Shane Arnold, Rebecca Barkdoll, Jalen Beck, Jessica Boelcke, Alyssa Cinder, Scott Davison, Holly Eyrich, Charlie Heckel, Mads Howard, Aaron Kruzel, Alex Kuehn, Haylee Lakenen, Miles Lefevre, Dakota Lowrance, Michael Miller, Adam Mitchell, Evan Monko, Zack Nelson, Neal Nordstrom, Via Ouellette Ballas, Justin Pearl, Ted Smith, Matt Tascarella, Gabe Toczynski, Makenzi Wentela, Kitty Williams and Amanda Wils.

VPA and Omega House Team Up

Published April 13, 2018

By Heather Powers

A team including Michigan Tech student co-curators Mads Howard and John Hughes, Omega House Marketing Coordinator Carol Pfefferkorn and Anne Beffel (VPA) are creating an exhibition of mindfulness-based photographs. The Omega House Hospice of Houghton will host a series of images by students of Beffel’s Art and Nature studio course now through May 2.

A series of 32 photographs taken almost exclusively with cell phones, utilizing no zoom or editing, demonstrate the power of simply slowing down and paying attention to life as it unfolds from one moment to the next.

Students mindfully framed the experience, working independently and intuitively in the field to make the images. In tandem, they participated in rigorous critiques in the studio classroom, applying theories of visual art and culture to understand why some photographs resonated more so than others.

The result is a thoughtful and inspiring exhibition including both photographs and written statements by the artists. The exhibition is open to the public 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Studio for Here and Now, where the exhibition was designed, is a studio space in Wadsworth Hall where students are free to drop in and join conversations and projects about putting art in spaces frequented by the public for the purpose of supporting a more empathetic and inclusive environment, and experience mindfulness-based art practices. The Studio for Here and Now makes art for the social good.

Student artists represented: Liz Adams, Bernie Alkire, Maria Corona, Jake DeVries, Dusty Haxton, Mads Howard, Brett Howland, John Hughes, Gabriel Lamer, Alex Osterholzer, Jake Peterson, Alex Pohl, Julia Smit, Maddie Steger, Paul Vogt, Anrea Zubke.

Rozsa Center Listed Among Best in US

Published April 4, 2018

By Heather Powers

Michigan Tech’s Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts has been named one of the best university performing arts centers in America.

The 1,067-seat venue was among “The 35 Best University Performing Arts Centers in the US” as chosen by the website ClickitTicket.com.

The centers were listed alphabetically and not ranked in any particular order.

In listing the Rozsa, the website said, “This awe-inspiring facility schedules performances by both national and University performers in the mediums of dance, theatre, music and film.“

The venue’s ability to withstand harsh Keweenaw winters did not escape notice. “This 80,000 square-foot facility might be the toughest building on our list. Its roof can hold 450 pounds of snow per square foot.”

The listing also includes a photograph of a “Backstage at the Rozsa” performance. The Rozsa Center was the only university performing arts center in Michigan to make the ClickitTicket list.

Rozsa gallery b Presents “Come In We’re Open” and Alvizures Residency

Published March 7, 2018

By Heather Powers

Announcements

The Rozsa Center and Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) presents the Rozsa gallery b show “Come In We’re Open,” an open-house exhibition of student sculptors’ work in progress, as a part of the Project Learning Lab alternative classroom project.

The show opened Monday and runs until Saturday (March 10). There will be a public reception at 5-6:30 p.m. tomorrow (March 8), is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday – Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. Saturday.

Also ongoing is the Rozsa Gallery A-Space exhibition “Always Room for Rain,” presenting the work of artists Raquel Alvizures and Ross Chaney. The public is welcome to experience the progress of visiting artist-in-residence Alvizures, who is painting a mural for the Rozsa Center during the week in the Rozsa North Mezzanine.

Visiting hours to see Alvizures at work are 1-6 p.m. today and tomorrow (March 7/8), and 1-4 p.m. Friday (March 9).

For more information, contact Lisa Gordillo (7-3096).

“Always Room For Rain” Exhibit Opens Friday

Published February 13, 2018

By Heather Powers

Announcements

The Rozsa Center Gallery presents the exhibit “Always Room for Rain,” opening Friday (Feb. 16) and running through Mar. 30.

This exhibit features paintings by artists Raquel Alvizures (Guatemala) and Ross Chaney (Cherokee and Osage Nations / New Mexico). Both artists combine colors and textures to develop paintings that express their ties to their cultures and to the stories that shaped them.

The artists will be on campus for lectures and community events, supported in part by a grant from the Michigan Tech Visiting Women and Minority Lecture Series. The exhibit is curated by Lisa Gordillo.

There will be an opening reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 2. The reception will feature a conversation with the artists at 5:30 p.m.

This lecture is partially sponsored/funded by the Visiting Women & Minority Lecturer/Scholar Series (VWMLSS) which is funded by a grant to the Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion from the State of Michigan’s King-Chavez-Parks Initiative.

Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday – Friday, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.

Work of Katie Hargrave in Rozsa Gallery

Published September 13, 2017

By Heather Powers

Who owns the wind? The leaves on the trees? When a paper company cuts down a 75-year-old tree, or a landowner clears brush for a better view of the lake, how is an entire ecosystem affected? What ethical, cultural and social questions are raised?

Artist Katie Hargrave, a professor of art at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, explores these questions in her exhibition, “It’s nothing personal (space).”

The exhibition opens at the Rozsa Center’s gallery A-Space, on Friday, Sept. 22. “It’s nothing personal (space)” is an exploration of the competing ideas of ownership and stewardship as they relate to public and private land, trees and deserts, and individual and corporate voices.

Inspired by a road trip to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, the site of militia protests during the winter of 2016, the exhibition includes fiber, audio, video and drawings.

A reception which features a discussion of her work by the artist will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. The show will remain open through Nov. 11. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. Saturdays.

Rozsa Calendars for 2017-18 Season Now Available

Published September 11, 2017

By Heather Powers

Rozsa Center calendars for the 2017-2018 season are now available — both full-size wall calendars and the handy pocket/desk calendars!

Featured this year are 12 Rozsa Presenting Series events, more than 33 Visual and Performing Arts events including music, theater and visual arts and the ever-popular 41 North Film festival.

Season Ticket Packages are on sale now, with the best discounts available on all the season has to offer! There are four Season Ticket Package options this year, offering savings of 18 to 37 percent off single-ticket prices.

Single-ticket sales begin Sept. 1. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Michigan Tech Ticketing Services at the Central Ticket Office (SDC), at 7-2073, or visit our website.

You can pick up one of each or both at the Rozsa Center or at any of the more than 120 local Houghton and Hancock businesses who display and distribute them each year.

For Michigan Tech faculty and staff, we would like to make it easy for you to get your copies of the calendars. If you would like a calendar delivered directly to your campus mailbox, please click on this link and fill out the google form. We will gladly send a calendar to you in inter-campus mail.

Corn Husks in the Rio San Juan

Published August 21, 2017

Recent Michigan Tech Grad Joins Visual Art Faculty as Artist in Residence in Guatemala

Gordillo and Fisher installing a sculpture in the Rio San Juan (San Juan River).

Rio San Juan Dia 2 — Gordillo and Fisher preparing to install sculpture in the Rio San Juan.

Lisa Gordillo, assistant professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Michigan Tech, traveled to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala for her recent exhibition at the Centro Cultural Efrain Recinos from July 15-Aug. 1, and also worked on an installation for Tierra Adentro, the International Poetry Festival of Aguacatan, where she created a sculpture in the Rio San Juan (San Juan River). Hannah Fisher, ‘17, who graduated with a minor in Visual Art, joined Gordillo to help with the river sculpture (which involved sewing corn husks together in the water!), and to join the Aguacatan Poetry Festival also as an artist in residence. The river sculpture, called Chuchos del Rio, was created to be part of a conversation about immigration, as part of the poetry festival.

The exhibit in Quetzaltenango, titled “Prohibido Orinar Aqui,” was developed from Gordillo’s spring exhibit, “ChickenBus,” in the Rozsa Gallery, and as Gordillo reports, was very well attended and received. She thanks all of the Michigan Tech students who both helped with the development of the work in the spring, related to Chicken Bus, and the outcome of that work which traveled with her as a part of the “Prohibido Orinar Aqui” exhibit.

Fisher was interviewed about her sculpture work, which appeared in the Equal and Opposite Show, in the Rozsa Gallery “gallery b” in 2016, and talks about her other art projects. She says “I was really influenced by Andy Goldsworthy. I really appreciated how he uses materials found in nature and manipulates them in ways not seen in nature. Nature is a big influence in my life.” Listen to the interview on SoundCloud. It is 06:28 minutes in length.

According to Gordillo, “[Hannah and I] laughed a lot (and caused a lot of laughter) making our installation in the river. That work included filling our hotel showers with corn husks, then transporting them all to the river, then transporting them back, and finally (!) sitting in the river to sew them all together, with lots of onlookers asking an even larger batch of questions.”

Gordillo was also sculptor-in-residence at Tierra Adentro, the International Poetry Festival of Aguacatan, Guatemala. This year’s festival was dedicated to immigrants and displaced people. Gordillo and Fisher also created a migrating book as part of the festival.

First

Last