University of North Texas 
Welcome, Friends, to your CVAD Update!
Message from Dean Hutzel
April 19, 2022
Dear Friends,
Hello and welcome to the first edition of the quarterly e-newsletter from the College
of Visual Arts and Design! Since arriving at UNT as the dean of CVAD in July 2021,
it has been my honor to join the faculty, staff and student community. And now, I
am delighted to extend a virtual handshake to you — our alumni and other special friends!
Through this publication, you will have an online look at the college today — the people, our 238,000-square-foot, four-story Art Building and our new annex. As our banner states, we will report news, celebrate achievements, inform on changes, share successes, illuminate with art and design, and apprise you of upcoming events and exhibitions! We aim to be distinctive, inclusive and purposeful in our programming and practices.
If you haven't been to campus lately, please come see us — you may request a tour by replying to this email. We also invite you to let us know about you and your successes so we can share your stories with our current students and the public. Please visit the Alumni Update webform to let us know how you're doing. I look forward to sharing more news from alumni and all corners of our college.
Finally, be sure to follow us on social media! We are active on Facebook and Instagram and maintain updated information on our news website.
Warmly,
Karen Hutzel, Ph.D.
Dean and Professor
College of Visual Arts and Design
#UNTCVAD Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Guggenheim Fellow Appointee
Kelli Connell
1997, B.F.A., Studio Art: Photography
Please join us in celebrating some inspiring news about alumna Kelli Connell, a photographer and professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago, who was selected as a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow!
Guggenheim Fellowships are highly acclaimed grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts."
As you may be aware, this is a very prestigious honor - out of nearly 2,500 applicants, Professor Connell was one of only 180 selected to receive this fellowship. If you are not familiar with Kelli Connell's work, we encourage you to read all about it in the CVAD News and Views article to find her website, see her work, and where to follow her on social media!
What an outstanding accomplishment for Professor Connell — one that also reflects great credit upon our Department of Studio Art and our college!
Alumni in Touch
We would love to hear from you! Send pictures, of course! Please keep in touch with the Alumni Update webform to show off your upcoming exhibitions and latest creative efforts so we may feature you and your work on CVAD's social media! (Have you checked out our Facebook and Instagram pages — links are in Dean Hutzel's signature block? Let us follow you!) Following are a few alumni we have caught up with recently.
Amanda B. Blake, 2006
M.A., Art History, Director of Education and Library Services, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
Angel Cabrales, 2009
M.F.A., Studio Art: Sculpture
Assistant Professor, University of Texas at El Paso
Instagram
Our New Annex!
Photos by Associate Dean Eric Ligon
Peering through the chainlink fence at what is still a construction site, the new annex to the Art Building is east and just across Welch Street — and will be ready to move into next month! Home to 40 studios for M.F.A. students and the Studio Art Ceramics program, the 25,242-square-foot building includes three beautiful entrance surrounds that are the effort of Brooks Oliver, assistant professor, and his 2020-2021 ceramics students, who glazed and fired each of those green tiles.
Looking toward the west on the north side of the new Art Annex designed by Machado Silvetti, you can see the roofline of our main Art Building designed by the same firm.
Inside this new state-of-the-art facility, you will find a kiln yard with 11 electric kilns, six gas kilns, three atmospheric kilns, two raku kilns, and two Blaauw kilns. The administrative and other teaching spaces include two offices for our ceramics faculty, Brooks Oliver and Eliza Au, an office for our visual arts technician Valerie Hancock, plus classrooms for wheel-throwing and hand-building. The ceramics fabrication lab will include a 3D printer, plaster room, dry and wet-glazing labs, two project spaces, and a lecture-and-critique space. There's also a substantial industrial dust-collection system installed to protect the health and welfare of people in the building.
How about a Ceramics video? "Ceramics: Breakaway Molds" with Assistant Professor Brooks Oliver, M.F.A., courtesy of the Onstead Institute.
Listen Up for Podcasts!
Inside the Texas Fashion Collection with TFC Director Annette Becker, 2015, M.A., Art History
Infamous Art Heists with Associate Professor Laura Evans, Ph.D., CVAD Department of Art Education
Hybridity and Heritage with alumna Letitia Huckaby, 2010, M.F.A., Studio Art: Photography
Curiosity in the Digital Age with Associate Professor Cassini Nazir, Interaction Design, New College, UNT at Frisco
The History of Photography and Typography with UNT alumnus John Neal, Ph.D.
Documenting Iraq's Missing Modern Art with Professor Nada Shabout, Ph.D., Art History
Faculty Updates
Despite the challenges of the last couple of years, our faculty members continue to be active in various areas. We are very excited about CVAD's newly revised and highly innovative art foundations experience that transcends the traditional Drawing 1 and 2 and Design 1 and 2 sequence — and it's producing remarkable results. CVAD Foundations Director Binod Shrestha, pictured here, led the college through a curriculum rewrite process that honors the breadth of the college's degree offerings and prepares students to move into Art Education, Design, Interdisciplinary Art and Design Studies and Studio Art programs. It's our new way for students to get their foundations as first- and second-year students.
Also in the news…
- Erica Holeman earned a Certificate of Typographic Excellence from the Type Directors Club.
- Laura Evans, associate professor, Art Education, was selected as a 2022 University Distinguished Teaching Professor.
- Regents Professor Nada Shabout was awarded the Kuwait Prize and UNT President's Citation for her work on contemporary Arab art.
- Liss LaFleur (2011, B.A., Art History, B.F.A., Photography) was selected as a Kennedy Center of the Arts Citizen Artist Fellow for 2020-2022.
- Michael Gibson and Keith Owens saw the return of their AIGA publication Dialectic by the American Institute of Graphic Arts; this faculty duo with collaborators Peter Hyland (2002, B.F.A., Studio Art) and doctoral candidate Christina Donaldson received the first place award for the Best Research Case Study at the Design Research Society's Learn X International Conference in China.
- In June, Phillip Park, associate professor, Interior Design, will be presenting a paper at EDRA 53, the annual conference of the Environmental Design Research Association in Gainesville, S.C., titled the “Systematic Review on Color Research and Design Implications for Interior Spaces.”
- Liss LaFleur and Lauren Cross were selected as 2022 fellows of the UNT Initiative for the Advancement of the Arts.
- Christopher Meerdo, assistant professor of Photography and New Media Art, has been named a winner of a 2022 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in recognition of his computational sculptural work investigating hidden data systems within surveillance capitalism.
- Karen Dorff, Allyson Packer and Nada Shabout recently were selected to receive UNT Faculty Excellence Awards.
- Professor Ruth West, director, xRez + Science Lab, successfully defended her dissertation for her doctoral degree! Her dissertation is titled "Dataremix: Aesthetic Experiences of Big Data and Data Abstraction."
- Stephen Zhang, (1994, M.F.A., Communication Design) associate professor in Communication Design, his work recently was selected for the juried "American Illustration 41" publication. He also placed second in the Splash 23 International Competition. Follow Stephen on Instagram.
- Eric Ligon, a 2011 distinguished teaching professor and our associate dean of administration, was recognized for 30 years of service at UNT, and, yes, he's still teaching too!
Faculty Retirements
Li-Fen Anny Chang
Associate Professor, Fashion Design
Since arriving at UNT in Fall 2000, with 12 years of professional experience in the apparel industry, couture training, and teaching, Associate Professor Li-Fen Anny Chang worked to build a more comprehensive fashion design curriculum. She improved teaching through research and created new projects for students to prepare them with up-to-date knowledge and needed skills in the industry. Chang helped students explore the relationships between art and fashion. Through hands-on demonstrations and project critiques, she encouraged students to integrate conceptual and analytical thinking with the technical skills of fashion design. Read more.
Karen Dorff
Principal Lecturer, Communication Design: Graphic Design
Principal Lecturer Karen Dorff began teaching in the Communication Design program
in Fall 2000. Before teaching, she worked as a professional designer with extensive
corporate and studio experience. Her work has been recognized by The Black Book AR
100 Competition, CASE Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Dallas Society
of Visual Communicators, IABC International Association of Business Communicators,
MarCom Creative Awards, Neenah Paper Collateral Promotions, and Print Magazine. Read more.
Recruiting and Career Coaching Highlight
Kevin Contreras, 2016
CVAD Recruiter
If you're from the CVAD class of 2016, our new college recruiter may look familiar!
Kevin Contreras, 2016, B.F.A., Studio Art: Printmaking, completed an M.Ed. in Higher Education and served students for four years in CVAD's office of Undergraduate Academic Advising. Kevin's advising and higher education background provides an ideal combination to support students.
Feel free to put prospective CVAD students you may know in touch with Kevin!
Marcy Bishop-Lilley, 2016
CVAD Career Coach
Marcy Bishop-Lilley, 2016, M.F.A., Studio Art: Drawing and Painting, After earning a B.A. in Art Education from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Marcy completed her Studio Art M.F.A. in CVAD. With an undergraduate background in teaching, she likes helping students by facilitating an environment where students can find and acknowledge their strengths to pursue their dreams.
To support career readiness for CVAD graduates, we will be adding another career coach soon. We hope you will share this job opportunity, CVAD Career Coach position, to help us find the perfect candidate!
Continuing-Student Scholarships & Fellowships
The scholarship of our students is a top priority! The CVAD Continuing Scholarships and Fellowships Program makes it possible for 125 undergraduate and graduate students representing all programs of the college. Thanks to the generosity of the donors who established these scholarships, approximately $270,000 for the coming academic year will be awarded so that many students can pursue their creative dreams without the onerous undertaking of more student loans. Visit our Scholarships web page to read this year's list of donors and recipients.
Felicia Lewis
Senior Director, Development and Fundraising
Felicia is devoted to student success as she engages with CVAD's external constituents and Advancement Board members, who generously support students and the college's mission.
In the Galleries
Alumni may be familiar with the Cora Stafford and Paul Voertman galleries, but the CVAD Gallery is a new addition since the Art Building was renovated and expanded in 2018-2019. The three galleries support the educational mission of the college and university, enrich the aesthetic environment and serve as a cultural resource for the public. Keep up with the exhibitions in all three galleries on the Galleries' Exhibitions web page or through CVAD News and Views announcements and highlights.
Visitors to the CVAD Gallery enjoy the wonder and whimsy sparked by the spring exhibition “Delight: Selections from the Texas Fashion Collection.” The show is open until May 21 and features more than 35 unique examples of garments and accessories usually accessible only to academic researchers.
New York City-based interdisciplinary artist Matthew Ritchie's "Florilegium" exhibition drew many new visitors to the CVAD Gallery during the fall exhibition.
"Infinite Movement" was a spectacular live musical performance and the culmination of Matthew Ritchie's collaboration in Fall 2021 with vocalist and alumna Shara Nova, CVAD and the College of Music in the Art Building Courtyard.
On the Calendar
Through April 30: Exhibition by Angel Cabrales, ('09, MFA, Studio Art), “Uncolonized: A Vision in the Parallel," The MAC, Dallas
and
Exhibition by Brooks Oliver, assistant professor, Studio Art: Ceramics, “Twists and Turns," Ro2 Art Gallery,
Dallas
May 14-15: Commencement — always an exciting time of year in the Coliseum!
May 13-Aug. 7: “Sanctuary” exhibition by Eliza Au, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Ariz.
May 17-20: Annual Denton Independent School District Art Show, Cora Stafford Gallery, Art Building
Through May 15: “Hats: Humor and High Design” Texas Fashion Collection Exhibition, NorthPark Center, Dallas
Through May 20: “Delight: Selections from the Texas Fashion Collection” Exhibition, CVAD Gallery, Art Building
May 30: Memorial Day, university closed
Through July 2: Dean Emeritus Robert Milnes at the Dallas PDNB Gallery “Sea What I Think” Exhibition: details on Instagram; and through April 30 at Mars Landing Galleries, Mars Hill, N.C.
June-Aug. 3: Kongo Astronauts, CVAD Gallery, UNT Art Building
Aug. 16: Next edition of News and Views Friends of CVAD newsletter
Aug. 22-Sept. 16: “Emergence” exhibition by the CVAD Foundations Program, Paul Voertman Gallery
Gif courtesy of alumna Megan Lockhart, 2010
CVAD News and Views
A publication of the CVAD Marketing Office, Administrative Affairs, Office of the
Dean
Questions, comments or suggestions? Contact us.
Email: cvad.Information@unt.edu | 940-369-5249
Mailing address: 1155 Union Circle #305100, Denton, TX 76201
Physical address: 1201 W. Mulberry St., UNT Art Building, Room 101, Denton, TX 76203-5017