University Daily Kansan / Thursday, November 12, 1987
Arts/Entertainment
7
Shad Schoenke, St. Louis senior, rests for a few minutes.
Like all members of the Arts, Shad Schoenke, St. Louis senior, left, Kirk Payne, Bonner Springs junior, and Patrick Sheridan, Lawrence spend, long hours at their desks.
The Arts: Design students trade sleep for credit. portfolio material
By BRIAN BARESCH
Staff writer
P romoting the arts on campus is a tricky job, and for seven years it's been entrusted to a group of students in visual arts who design posters, programs, filers and even newspaper ads.
"That one project we worked on took four and a half hours," answered Kirk Payne, Bonner Springs junior.
Inrteen students are in The Arts, or Visual Communications 550, this semester, staying up into the wee hours and sometimes all night for no pay, six hours credit and plenty of examples for their portfolios.
Hake has been in The Arts for three semesters; Payne is in his first. Their water fight had left Hake wetter than Payne, but she was drying off well enough.
Loise Greene, director of The Arts and associate professor of art and design, said
Most of the students are there to get hands-on experience in visual communications and to grow as artists and designers, which their advisers say they do. Several clients have said that their work is among the best in the country.
Later, things calmed down and projects were resumed. Most of the posters are printed by the silk screen method, meaning the student has to take time preparing screens and pouring ink to be forced onto paper. Printing 200 posters can take an hour or more for each color involved.
In 324 Art and Design Building, where The Arts students spend most of their waking hours, creative energy flows like water, always producing the art demanded of the students, but it sometimes branches off Examples of this semester's projects line the walls, and an occasional tennis ball flies by.
The students, usually working on deadline, switch between intent concentration and hectic procrastination. One night a student got deposited in one of the large trash cans, and that eventually sparked a water fight that lasted nearly half an hour.
"How long does it take for a printing run, Kirk?" asked Kelly Hake, Tipton senior, in response to a visitor's question.
that being able to take a few instructions off of paper and turn them into a full-scale project was important experience for the students.
Greene, who has directed The Arts since 1985, works with the student coordinator, Jane McNeely, Kirkwood, Mo., senior, in assigning projects to designers and in solving problems. Greene is the liaison between designers and clients in case of problems, although she says that there have been few conflicts this semester.
"I like being around people that work hard and are devoted to their work," she said. "I like people that age who sort of get turned on by what they're doing."
Peggy Haslem, Chicago senior, found an unexpected fringe benefit to the job when she was asked to take on an emergency project earlier this semester. That turned out to be the ads for the Buddy award ceremony last month. She got to meet the guest of honor, actor Don Johnson, who signed one of her posters.
"It was exciting," she said. "He's very good-looking in person. He's a lot more good-looking in person than I've seen in any photograph."
"He was one of the most sincere, down-to-earth people I've met." she said.
Haslem also has worked on campaigns for the Inman Inge Memorial Theatre Series production "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" and a University Wind Ensemble performance, and will design the promotions for "Amahl and the Night Visitors," a Christmas opera scheduled for December.
The Arts was conceived in 1979, when a visual communications professor put some students taking independent study to work on a brochure for the performing arts department.
Charla Jenkins, director of public relations for the performing arts, said that at that time, the performing arts needed unifying, and The Arts was born the next year as the promotional agent for KU performing arts.
Students get up to six hours of credit in VISC 550 for taking part in The Arts. Competition for the positions is intense, said Jerry Moore, associate dean of fine arts and former director of The Arts.
Students have to submit portfolios, which are reviewed by Moore, Lois Greene and visual communications faculty. Students that have positions are allowed to return without further competition, and only a few spots open up each semester.
Projects are assigned by McNeely, the student coordinator. The student artists then work with the clients on creating the design for the campaign. The end results are programs, newsletters and those posters decorating walls and bulletin boards all over campus, advertising University Symphony Orchestra concerts, theater productions and visiting performers.
Keith Fletcher, Overland Park senior, is just finishing the programs for University Theatre's production of "Hamlet." Fletcher, who will graduate in December, said that he had done about 10 major projects in the two years he had been in The Arts and would probably put five of them in his portfolio.
Right now, he's taking time to design an annual shareholder's report for a camping organization. The hands-on experience in organizing a camp will be invaluable in findout a job, he said.
"I can't imagine graduating from the University of Kansas without being in The Arts." he said.
Jenkins said that the work done by The Arts was much better than what she had received from professional agencies in New York.
Poster display shows evolution in design
For example, the ads for the Guarneri String Quartet came from a New York agency, and Jenkins said she thought that they were "Borrinnng."
"I can understand why they have to put material like that out, because it has to be good for all sorts of uses," she said. "But I've been here for 10 years and we've had the Guarneri all but one or two years of that time, and they've used the same poster and graphics the entire time."
Jacqueline Davis, director of the Concert, Chamber Music and New Directions series, said some of the work The Arts did was some of the best in the country.
"I love working with them because they're willing to collaborate," she said. "And I love watching them grow as designers."
Staff writer
By BRIAN BARESCH
The display shows the evolution of the promotional design class's work, from early one- and two-color posters done on an offset press to the more colorful silk screens of recent years.
Posters and programs designed by The Arts since its birth in 1960 are on display in the Art and Design Building's art gallery through tomorrow.
Students in The Arts, also known as Visual Communications 550.
print promotional posters and programs, and sometimes design newspapers for fans of art or events such as theater productions, orchestra or choir concerts and other musical events.
Lois Greene,
associate professor of art and
design and director of The
Arts, said that
the class
originally had
Designer unknown, 1980
screen for promotional posters was relatively painless. Greene said that most of the colorful posters done today with silk screen would have cost two or three times as much if done in offset.
as printing done by University Printing Services on offset presses, which produce crisp, clear type. However, printing several colors on them is expensive. Most of the early posters on display are printed in only one or two colors.
In the mid-1980s, the class started using silk screens for the posters in order to gain flexibility in the colors it could use. Silk screens are inexpensive but take a lot of time and effort to print, Greene said.
be replaced by more than one.
"The work improves from the first project to the last project."
Jerry Moore, associate dean of fine arts and a former director for The Arts, said that the overall quality of the projects had remained constant as the years went by because students would enter the program, improve, graduate and be replaced by more new students.
So when the cost of offset printing began to outrun The Arts' budget, the conversion to silk
Students usually stay in the class for two or three semesters, Moore said.
last project, he said. "The majority of the work is very good."
Greene said that most of the posters on display were the best ones that The Arts still had available. She and Jane Mc Nelyl, Kirkwood, Mo.,
dent coordinator of The Arts, chose the best posters from each year that the program has operated.
"It's kind of ironic that the ones we like now frequently weren't very appreciated at the time," Greene said. For example, a poster for the play "The Suicide," performed in February 1886, wasn't much liked when it was produced, Greene said. But now it's among her favorites in this week's show, she said
Another was the poster for "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a University Theatre production of 1981.
Left, Keith Fletcher,
Overland Park senior,
and student coordinator
Jane McNeely.
Krirkwood, Mo., senior,
discuss approaches to
a project. Above: Patience and precision are exercised daily.
Photos by Lisa Jones
Arts Center offers KU dancers new performance outlet
Bv BEN JOHNSTON
Staff writer
University of Kansas dancers have a new opportunity to dance on stage. A KU faculty member and a KU student will choreograph four舞 number for the first in a series of Performance Nights at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Lawrence Arts Center, Ninth and Vermont streets.
Susan Grubb, KU visiting instructor of dance and ballet music, has choreographed a modern dance and a duet for the Performance Night. Kansas students graduate students choreograph the Willie Lennon Dancers in a duet, "Serenade," and a trio, "Corelli." Cindy Baker, performing arts coordinator at the Arts Center, said the event was unique because it was the first time that KU students had performed at the center.
"This is a new series and the idea is to help performing artists either get started or test new material," Baker said. "For the dancers it is an opportunity to perform without the expense and the incredible amount of work that goes into staging a performance," she said.
Baker said that anyone who paid $5 and filled out an application could perform at one of the Performance Nights. She said that the performances, which would be held the second Friday of each month through March, were open to any musician,
Grubb said that the modern dance number, titled "Out of Sync," would be performed by her and six student dancers from the University Dance Company. Grubb, who has performed with the Hartford Chamber Ballet Company in Hartford, Conn., and the State Theatre Ballet Company in Bonn, West Germany, said she would dance independently and between students forming a stationary row.
poet or dancer.
Grubb said that her part symbolized people who did not conform to social norms. "The dance shows a free spirit versus a rigid mentality," she said.
The other number Grubb choreo
graphed is a duet called "Ripple and Undertow." The dance is similar to the relationship between an undertow and a ripple in the ocean, she said.
"Patterns begin to shift as the dancers get closer together." Grubb
Although the two dances take only about 15 minutes to perform, they offer an excellent opportunity to interact with the community, she said
"The informal setting at the Arts Center is invaluable," Grubb said. "It is another opportunity to perform so we can improve and perform better in the future."
Katie Stolz, Lawrence junior and
Stolz said that she was excited about her performance and was concerned that she would not be able to
"I came into KU with very little dance experience." Stolz said. "This performance is a big benefit for me. It gives me the chance to perform."
president of the University Dance Company, is one of the six performers in "Out of Sync". She said that she had been rehearsing the dance since the middle of September. The performance will be her first in public, she said.
"What I am worried about is focus, keeping my focus on the dance and not being distracted by the audience."
Stolz said that the abstract theme
of the dance made performing it more difficult because the emotion of the dance affected how it was performed.
"It it is something where you have to deal with your feelings about the subject," Stolz said. "In this dance, it is hard to define what we're dancing about, so it is hard to dance it."
Deborah Bettinger, a former member of the Kaw Valley Dance Company, will perform a dance to music played by Lawrence musician Mel Smith. He will play classical Indian tablos, Tibetan singing bowls and an African percussion instrument.