SOTA Highlights

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Art History Department and Historic Preservation & Community Planning Program Highlights

College of Charleston Art Historian Inducted Into Society of Antiquaries of London and Received $80,000 Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies

College of Charleston’s School of the Arts is proud to announce that Matthew Canepa, assistant professor of Art History, was inducted into the Society of Antiquaries of London, in March 2009. In company with the Royal Academy, the Linnean Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Geological Society of London and the Royal Astronomical Society, the Society of Antiquaries of London is the world’s premier learned society for heritage.
 
The Society’s 2,500 Fellows include many distinguished archaeologists and art and architectural historians holding positions of responsibility across the cultural heritage. Fellows gain membership through nomination and election by current fellows. International in its reach, fellowship is regarded as recognition of significant achievement in the heritage field.
 
In addition, Canepa was awarded the Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for 2009/2010. The Fellowship is one of the ACLS’ most prestigious awards and also one of the most competitive, with nearly 200 applications for the twelve awards. The Fellowships, generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in honor of Charles A. Ryskamp, literary scholar, distinguished library and museum director, and long-serving trustee of the Foundation, support advanced assistant professors and un-tenured associate professors in the humanities and related social sciences whose scholarly contributions have advanced their fields and who have well-designed and carefully developed plans for new research.
 
Canepa will take a leave to use the fellowship ($80,000 salary and research funds) to research and write a book entitled "Iran between Alexander and Islam," which explores the global idea of Iranian Kingship in the Hellenized and Iranian Near East, South and Central Asia. University of Oxford's Merton College will host Canepa for the summer and fall semesters, where he will be a visiting research professor. He will conduct field research in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and work in several research libraries and libraries in the U.S. and Europe for the rest of the award period.

Professor Canepa earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. A specialist in the art and cultures of the late Roman/early Byzantine Empire and Pre-Islamic Iran, Canepa’s research focuses on cross-cultural interaction in the pre-modern world. His forthcoming book entitled “The Two Eyes of the Earth” (University of California Press) will be the first to analyze the artistic, ritual and ideological interactions between the Roman and Sasanian empires in a comprehensive and theoretically rigorous manner. His current projects include an exploration of Middle Iranian art and the global idea of Iranian Kingship and an edited volume that studies the phenomena of cross-cultural interaction between the Mediterranean, Iran, and China. He has been the recipient of numerous research grants including the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (2002-2003), the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (2007), and the Archaeological Institute of America (2008).  He has taught in College’s Department of Art History since 2005 and is currently serving as the president of the South Carolina Society of Archaeological Institute of America.

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Arts Management Program Highlights

SCOTT SHANKLIN-PETERSON RECEIVES THE MEDAL OF HONOR IN THE ARTS

Congratulations Scott Shanklin-Peterson for receiving the Medal of Honor in the Arts by Winthrop University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. The Winthrop University Medal of Honor in the Arts recognizes those who have made significant contributions to the arts, as well as those who have positively affected the quality of cultural life in South Carolina communities. Established in 2001, this award honors those who have encouraged the arts and inspired others through their distinguished achievements, artistic excellence, patronage, or support.

Scott Shanklin-Peterson is the former Senior Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, former Executive Director of the South Carolina Arts Commission, and current College of Charleston Arts Management Program Director.

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Music Department Highlights

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CHARLESTON VIOLINIST LAUNCHES DEBUT ALBUM AND PAYS TRIBUTE TO ‘A COUNTRY THAT HAS GIVEN ME SO MUCH’

Critically-acclaimed violinist Lee-Chin Siow, Director of the Strings Program and Professor of Violin at the College of Charleston, will launch her debut album Songs My Father Taught Me at the opening recital of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival’s Spotlight Concert Series on Friday, May 22, 2009, 3 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the College of Charleston’s Simons Center for the Arts. Enrique Graf, award-winning pianist and Artist-in-Residence also at the College, will join her in the performance.

Gold medal winner of the 1994 Henryk Szerying International Violin Competition who has performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras and conductors as well as in music festivals in over 20 countries on five continents, Siow has made the United States her adopted homeland since she was 15, after she was talent-spotted by one of the world’s most famous violinists, Aaron Rosand, and offered a scholarship to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Siow won six top prizes in international competitions and national awards over four years from 1992 to 1996, and over the course of her career has performed at some of the world’s most acclaimed concert venues including Carnegie Hall, Vienna KonzertHaus, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she went on to graduate school at New York’s Mannes College of Music, where she won the “Most Outstanding Graduating Student” award, and also obtained her Artist Diploma at Oberlin Conservatory, where she was subsequently appointed a Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin.

Siow’s debut album of classic melodies and violin showpieces features three works from the American continent and is dedicated to her father, Hee-Shun Siow, a pioneer violinist in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, who is one of her most important mentors and her first violin teacher.

“My father has a Chinese saying which resonates deeply within me, ‘Remember the source that quenches your thirst.’ I decided to include three signature pieces from the American continent in my debut album because this was where I had the opportunity to study with some of the world’s best violinists and where I built my career. I want to give back to a country that has given me so much,” said Siow.
Siow will perform two of the three works on the album, African-American William Grant Still’s jazzy Gamin from the Suite for Violin and Piano and Amy Beach’s lyrical Romance, in her recital on May 22, which will be the platform for the US launch of the album. In addition, the program will include Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata in D major for violin and piano, Opus 12, No. 1and Henryk Wieniawski’s Polonaise de concert, Op. 4. This recital-launch in Charleston follows immediately after the album’s international launch in Siow’s native Singapore on April 27, where she will perform a charity concert graced by the country’s Head of State at the 1,600-seat Esplanade Concert Hall, one of Asia’s most sought-after concert venues.

Siow, who is also co-founder and co-director of the Charleston Music Fest and has been a Charleston resident and a pillar of Charleston’s cultural scene for the past eight years said, “Launching the album in Charleston and Singapore is so meaningful for me personally, because these are two communities where I have spent the longest periods of my life and of which I feel most passionately.”

Concert tickets at $10, may be purchased by calling the Piccolo Spoleto ticket hotline
at 888-374-2656, or online at www.TicketMaster.com. Tickets may also be
purchased at the Piccolo Spoleto box office, located in the Gaillard
Municipal Auditorium at 77 Calhoun St., with no service charges, or at
area Publix Super Markets. For a ticket brochure and information on
Piccolo Spoleto, call the Office of Cultural Affairs at (843) 724-7305
or visit www.PiccoloSpoleto.com.

Produced and directed by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural
Affairs since 1979, Piccolo Spoleto is the official outreach program of
Spoleto Festival USA. Piccolo's mission is to provide access to the
Spoleto Festival USA experience for everyone, regardless of their
economic, social or physical circumstances and to provide the
opportunity for excellent local and regional artists, writers and
performers to be showcased in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival venues.

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COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON PIANIST WINS INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Sean Kennard, an Artist Certificate student of Enrique Graf at the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts, won First Prize in the XXXIV “Dr. Luis Sigall” International Piano Competition. The event took place in Viña del Mar, Chile, November 3-10, 2007. The competition is the only one in Latin America that is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions. Kennard received $10,000, a medal and 2008 engagements with the National Symphony of Chile in Santiago and at the Frutillar Summer Festival, plus recitals in several cities throughout Chile. He was also awarded the prize for “Best Interpretation of the Required Piece” written by Chilean composer Jorge Pepi.

Nineteen pianists from fourteen countries had been pre-selected to participate in the three-round competition, which culminated on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2007 at the Municipal Theatre of Viña del Mar. On that occasion three finalists performed one of two concertos for piano and orchestra selected by the contestants and the jury two days prior.

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Studio Art Department Highlights

MICHAEL TYZACK’S WORKS FEATURED IN SOLO EXHIBITION

The late Michael Tyzack, whose dynamic work and engaging personality enlivened the Charleston art scene for decades, was a leading British-born abstract painter. He did much to push boundaries in the 1960s and early 1970s alongside names such as Bridget Riley, John Hoyland and Michael Kidner. Moving to the United States in 1971, he relinquished a measure of renown fashioned in England to forge a fresh and equally daring reputation in America.

Now he's "going home."

London's Portland Gallery, recently selected to represent his estate, is holding the first solo exhibition of Tyzack's works in Great Britain in 38 years. Having opened Wednesday, the show runs through June 12 with the aim of restoring Tyzack to his rightful place in the history of late-20th-century British art.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/may/31/artists_image_gets_lift84266/?print

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COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON STUDIO ART PROFESSOR CLIFFTON PEACOCK RECEIVES $25,000 GOTTLIEB GRANT

Cliffton Peacock, studio art professor at the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts, was awarded a $25,000 Individual Support Grant from the prestigious Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Inc. Of 462 grant applications, Peacock was one of twelve recipients selected, based on the quality of work and dedication to painting, sculpting and/or printmaking.

Artist Adolph Gottlieb began his artistic career in New York City in the 1920s and became known as a prosperous Abstract Expressionist. Upon his death in 1974, he left instructions in his will that a foundation be created to benefit “mature, creative painters and sculptors.” His widow Esther, having helped to conceive the idea, saw to the fruition of the endeavor and bequeathed the major part of her estate to the Foundation when she died in 1988. Each year the Foundation selects a group of five artists and other art professionals, who are not affiliated with the Foundation, to serve as advisers to the Foundation and also select the grant recipients.

Cliffton Peacock received his M.F.A. degree from Boston University in 1977. His teachers there included James Weeks, John Wilson and Philip Guston. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including three National Endowment for the Arts grants, three Massachusetts Artist Fellowship awards, an Englehard Foundation grant, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Fellowship, and Awards in the Visual Arts grants, sponsored by the Equitable Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Prix de Rome from the American Academy in Rome, a South Carolina Individual Artist Fellowship, and most recently, a 2001 fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.

Peacock has exhibited his paintings nationally many times since 1980 and has had one-person exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, SC, and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC.
His work is in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Hood Museum of Art, among others. He has been an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at the College of Charleston since 1996.

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SOUTH CAROLINA ARTS COMMISSION AWARDS $5,000 VISUAL ARTS FELLOWSHIP TO COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON PROFESSOR HERB PARKER

The South Carolina Arts Commission has announced its 2008 Individual Artist Fellowship awards. College of Charleston studio art professor Herb Parker will receive one of two fellowships in the Visual Arts category. Each Fellow will be given $5,000 in recognition of his or her superior artistic merit. Fellows and alternates are selected through a competitive, anonymous application process based solely on a review of work samples.

Currently teaching sculpture at the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts, Parker was born in Elizabeth City, N.C. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from East Carolina University in 1983. Parker served a tour in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam conflict and two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. He also served as a visiting artist and/or instructor at universities in both the U.S. and abroad.

 Parker has created more than 40 site-related installations in the environment since the early 1980s, and his work has been commissioned throughout the United States and in Canada, Italy, Japan and Sweden. He has received several honors, including being a recipient of the “Awards in the Visual Arts XI,” which was hosted by the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. He was also named a South Carolina Arts Commission Artist Fellow in 1993.

The South Carolina Arts Commission is the state agency charged with creating a thriving arts environment that benefits all South Carolinians, regardless of their location or circumstances. Created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the Arts Commission focuses on increasing public participation in the arts by providing services, grants and leadership initiatives in three areas: arts education, community arts development and artist development. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the Arts Commission is funded by the state of South Carolina and by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Theatre Department Highlights

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COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON THEATRE STUDENTS ADVANCE IN PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL FESTIVAL

The Department of Theatre at the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts distinguished itself with two regional awards at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Region IV, Feb. 6-10 held in Americus, Georgia. Michael Smallwood won first prize for his short play “Talk” and Linda McClenaghan won first prize for The Critics Institute. Smallwood will also have a reading of his play at the Kennedy Center, and McClenaghan will be given an intensive experience in play criticism at the same venue. “Talk” was written in Dr. Franklin Ashley's Playwriting II class and will be performed at the College next January and will then open next year's KCACTF festival to be held at Clemson in 2008.
 
The KCACTF is a national theatre program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide. The Kennedy Center’s founding chairman Roger L. Stevens started it in 1969 in order to encourage, to recognize and to celebrate college theater. The program takes place year-round in eight geographical regions throughout the United States. Several productions are chosen from each region to compete at their regional festivals for the opportunity of a final showcase at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Works by student designers, student critics and student playwrights are also selected for presentation at the regional and national festivals. There is no other national forum that highlights student theatre works.
 
The KC/ACTF honors excellence of overall production and offers student artists individual recognition through awards and scholarships in playwriting, acting, criticism, directing and design. The College of Charleston’s School of the Arts extends its congratulations to the honored faculty and students of the Department of Theatre.

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Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art Highlights

General SOTA Highlights

College of Charleston to Present Third Annual Spoleto Sneak Preview

The College of Charleston Friends of the Library and Friends of the School of the Arts will present a sneak preview of the Spoleto USA and Piccolo Spoleto Festivals. This annual, hour-long event will be presented by music professors Edward Hart and Robert Taylor, theatre professor Todd McNerney, artist-in-residence (in dance) Robert Ivey, and director of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art Mark Sloan. The lecture will highlight various, must-see arts events, as well as give a brief history of both Festivals. The presentation will take place Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 6 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Simons Center for the Arts, 54 St. Philip Street. Admission is free and seating is limited.

Both the School of the Arts and the College of Charleston Library have a long-standing relationship with the Spoleto USA and Piccolo Spoleto Festivals. For more than ten years, School of the Arts faculty have taught specialized Spoleto classes at the College of Charleston, introducing the arts to students in conjunction with the Festivals’ performances. Hart and Taylor have performed, or had their original compositions performed, for Piccolo Spoleto on numerous occasions. McNerney has served as Theatre Coordinator for Piccolo Spoleto for over a decade and currently coordinates the Stelle di Domani Series. The Halsey Institute coordinates exhibitions with Piccolo Spoleto. Robert Ivey Ballet is featured in Piccolo Spoleto’s Dance at Noon Series.

Additionally, School of the Arts faculty, students and alumni perform in Festival concerts and productions every year, including the Department of Music’s own Young Artists Series and the Department of Theatre’s Stelle di Domani Series, both of which involve award-winning students performing alongside well-established guests and alumni.

The College of Charleston Library serves as the repository for the Spoleto Festival USA archives. Performance programs, records and financial documents, as well as audio and videotapes of actual performances, of the Festival since its inception in 1977 are housed in Special Collections at the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library.

Special Collections is also facilitating the Spoleto Festival USA Oral History Project, bringing valuable collections into the library and recording narratives and points of view that would otherwise be lost. The project, which includes interviews with artists long associated with Spoleto, new artists just participating in Spoleto, political figures, board leaders, volunteers and production staff members, will be stored in Special Collections and used as research material for generations to come. Stephen G. Hoffius is the Spoleto Festival Oral History Project Coordinator for Special Collections.

The Friends of the School of the Arts promotes and supports the School of the Arts’ departments and programs, and also strengthens the relationships amongst the School, the College, the community, and other academic and cultural groups.

The Friends of the Library at the College of Charleston supports and advances the interests of the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library as the leading intellectual and cultural force in the community.

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THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON ANNOUNCES ITS NEW MASTERS OF ARTS IN TEACHING IN PERFORMING ARTS

The Graduate School of the College of Charleston is pleased to announce its new Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) in Performing Arts offered jointly by its School of the Arts and the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance. This is a degree designed to meet a critical need in the South Carolina Lowcountry schools which are experiencing significant shortages in teachers qualified to teach choral music, dance and theatre.

The M.A.T. in Performing Arts offers three concentrations: choral music, theatre and dance. Applications for the Choral Music concentration are currently being accepted for degree seekers beginning January 2008. The Theatre concentration is scheduled to begin in Summer 2009, followed by the Dance concentration. Specialty coursework required for degree completion in each concentration relates directly to the requirements of the State Department of Education for teacher certification as well as the respective specialty professional association and the national accrediting body, the National Association for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.

“For many years, we have been asked why we don’t have a program in performing arts education because there is such a critical need for teachers in the arts, and because we have strong programs in arts and education at the College of Charleston,” said Frances Welch, Dean of the School of Education, Health and Human Performance. “I am thrilled that working collaboratively, we have designed an outstanding program.”

Bonnie McCarty, one of two Program Directors for the MAT in Performing Arts explains, “this degree offers the opportunity for accomplished performing artists to become highly qualified teachers. The Schools of the Arts and of Education, Health and Human Performance are excited to provide such a program which will directly enhance the educational opportunities for Pk-12 students in South Carolina.”

Information regarding the Graduate School of College of Charleston can be accessed online at www.cofc.edu/gradschool. Further information on The School of the Arts can be found at http://www.cofc.edu/sota/, and the School of Education, Health and Human Performance can be accessed at http://www.cofc.edu/SchoolofEducation.

College of Charleston has long been dedicated to providing a high quality, rigorous education with strong emphasis on the liberal and fine arts to students enrolled in both its undergraduate and graduate programs. Its School of Education, Health and Human Performance was reaccredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education in 2005. In addition the music programs in the School of the Arts are fully accredited by the National Association for Schools of Music.

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WAYLAND HENRY CATO JR. GIVES $1.5 MILLION GIFT TO THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON

The College of Charleston is proud to announce that Wayland Henry Cato, Jr. has given, on behalf of himself and his wife, Marion Rivers Cato, the College’s School of the Arts a $ 1.5 million gift. The amount is the largest single gift ever given to the College of Charleston School of the Arts.

The announcement comes less than a month before the School of the Arts begins construction on a new state-of-the art facility next to the current Simons Center for the Arts building on St. Philip Street. In appreciation of their support of the School of the Arts, the College of Charleston will name the new arts center the “Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts.”

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new facility are scheduled for June 3 at 9:30 AM.
"For many years, Wayland and Marion have contributed significantly to the education and development of South Carolina’s students. Their efforts on behalf of the College of Charleston alone have impacted our state in ways we could not have anticipated, and many of the recipients of their generosity have become outstanding public servants themselves,” says College of Charleston President Lee Higdon. "In their tireless dedication to the arts, Wayland and Marion have demonstrated their recognition of the link between the development of the individual and the stimulation of creative thought in all disciplines. Above everything else, however, Wayland and Marion have shown what it means to be true public servants."

Wayland Henry Cato, Jr. is a distinguished business leader, family man and philanthropist whose generous support of higher education, here at the College of Charleston and elsewhere in the Carolinas, has enhanced educational opportunities for hundreds of students. He is the Chairman Emeritus of The Cato Corporation, a chain of women’s apparel stores. . Since 1997 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the College of Charleston Foundation. Both personally and corporately, he has generously endowed scholarship programs at the College of Charleston.

Marion Rivers Cato is a talented author, dedicated community volunteer and devoted citizen of Charleston. In 1991 Marion Rivers Ravenel published Marie Ravenel: From Childhood to China, an account of a medical missionary in revolutionary China in the 1920s. She authored a biography of her father, Rivers Delivers: The Story of L. Mendel Rivers, which was published in 1995. Marion Rivers Cato is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Historic Charleston Foundation and South Carolina Educational Television, and a member of the Board of Visitors of Converse College. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of Charleston Ballet Theatre and Huguenot Society of South Carolina.

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