State of the Arts

Dance

The legacy of pioneering choreographer Paul Taylor lives on in the Taylor 2 Dance Company, a troupe of six rising young dancers brought to Tyler Hall’s Waterman Theatre in February by Artswego. The troupe offered two master classes on campus—one of them open to local dance classes and both open to SUNY Oswego students enrolled in classes of the college’s new minor in dance—and provided the community a free behind-the-scenes look at how the troupe stages its performances.

Fine Arts

SUNY Oswego’s Tyler Art Gallery hosted this spring’s Art Faculty Exhibition with a concurrent display, A Tribute to Richard Zakin. Zakin, the late emeritus professor of art who dedicated himself to sharing his journey with Alzheimer’s disease following his diagnosis in 2015, was noted for his scholarship and artwork in ceramics during a 40-year career at SUNY Oswego and beyond.

A memorial scholarship has been established in Richard’s memory by his wife, Emerita Professor of Art Helen Zakin. Learn more at 315-312-3003 or email develop@oswego.edu. READ MORE

Music

SUNY Oswego music faculty member Paul Leary’s composition, “Larger Than Us,” premiered in March at the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) in Syracuse, N.Y.

The Society of New Music performance paired Leary’s original compositional tribute to space missions with Charles Fussell’s The Astronaut’s Tale, a staged chamber opera modeled after Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. Leary’s composition meshes music and science, computer programming and artistic skills. The composition featured electronic instruments that Leary built and a seven-piece chamber ensemble that performed live on stage.

The society and the MOST presented the concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of America’s Apollo 8 manned mission to lunar orbit, which served as a precursor to the mission that gave the world the first man on the moon. READ MORE

Theatre

Web Design

Five SUNY Oswego students, under the mentorship of graphic design faculty member Rebecca Mushtare ’03 won the national AIR-U (University Accessibility Internet Rally) competition for accessibility in web design for the team’s work on the VoteOswego.com website. As mentor and instructor Mushtare leans on the desk, clockwise from front left are students Kimberly Grunden ’19, Mariana Diaz ’16 M’19, Heng-Hao Pu M’19, Nick Long ’19 and Nicole Lightfoot ’18. Knowbility, an Austin-based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the independence in technology of children and adults with disabilities, sponsored the event to encourage students to work toward a more inclusive digital web for all. The team won $5,000, plus a trip to attend the South by Southwest Conference 2019 in Austin, Texas. READ MORE