A WSU alumna and rising-star in higher education student services, Ciera Graham will be honored at the University of Cincinnati during the UC College of Arts and Sciences’ annual alumni recognition event Oct. 20.
Graham earned her PhD in sociology at UC in 2015. She earned her undergraduate degree in sociology and master’s degree in psychology at WSU, where she now works as the associate director of student services and Title IX coordinator.
Paul Johnsgard, an ornithologist, artist and emeritus professor at the University of Nebraska, was honored July 12 with the Washington State University Alumni Association Alumni Achievement Award in recognition of writing and teaching that has expanded public understanding of natural history, conservation and pressing environmental issues.
Johnsgard studied waterfowl ecology and earned a master’s of science degree in wildlife management from WSU in 1955.
The Art Blog has been running a regular series in collaboration with the National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where the interns working alongside the UAE team regularly file first-hand reports from the ground. » More …
WSU fine arts alumnus Harold Balazs stepped onto the Northwest art scene in the 1950s with his painting, welding, enameling, and concrete artwork. Known for his collaboration with architects, particularly on liturgical commissions, he easily shifts shapes and styles to suit his projects. But with 65 highly productive years as a professional artist, there is still much more to tell.
And, as with Balazs himself, there is a trick to finding his creations. Though he is one of the most prolific public artists in the Northwest, we have lived with his works for so long, we may not even recognize them.
His touch is in the molded brickwork of a bank tower on Spokane’s Second Street. It is in the doors and altars of churches all around the Northwest. And his art is in, yes IN, the Spokane River, a rippling stainless steel sculpture floating on the water. Once you start looking, you find Balazs everywhere.
The exhibition State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now opening Sept. 13 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., will feature work by 102 artists from all over the country, including WSU fine arts alum (2001) Joel S. Allen.
The president and curator of Crystal Bridges interviewed Allen earlier this year as part of their search for the most compelling American art being created today.
Five of Allen’s sculptures from his ongoing series Hooked on Svelte will be included in State of the Art. He works with twine, yarn, wine corks, pill bottles, wood, copper, irrigation tubing, acrylic sheeting, paper pulp and rubber to create large-scale hanging fiber sculptures.
Allen works full-time as a practicing artist while also teaching part time at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, and credits much of his success to the extraordinary faculty within the Department of Fine Arts, especially Professor Emeritus Jack Dollhausen.
