Five Artists with Ties to Purchase College Exhibiting in New York’s International Print Center

Work by the following five artists with ties to Purchase College will be on view at the International Print Center in Manhattan through March.

Tom Burckhardt, alumnus and adjunct lecturer
Stella Ebner, Assistant Professor of Art+Design
Christina Healy MFA ’14
Rob Swainston, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art+Design
Matt van Asselt BFA ’13

International Print Center New York presents New Prints 2014/Winter, on view from January 22–March 12, 2014.

The exhibition consists of over fifty projects and was selected from more than 3,000 prints. New Prints 2014/Winter is the forty-seventh presentation of IPCNY’s New Prints Program, a series of juried exhibitions organized by IPCNY several times each year, featuring prints made within the past twelve months.

Click here for an illustrated checklist for the exhibition.

ICPNY is located at 508 West 26th St, 5th Floor.

Click here for more information about Purchase College School of Art+Design

Purchase College Student Shai Schechter ’15 Designs a More Affordable and Efficient 3D Printer

Graphic design major/arts management minor Shai Schechter ’15 has taken the Purchase motto Think Wide Open to a whole new level. He’s found an innovative way to simplify and minimalize emerging 3D printing technology to render it more affordable. His Kickstarter campaign to raise capital for the Deltaprintr surpassed his original goal of $195,000 by over $36,000.

Like any entrepreneur, when faced with a problem, he envisioned a solution.

Enrolled in an introductory sculpture course two years ago, Schechter was frustrated that Art+Design’s 3D laser printer was unavailable for budgetary reasons—a $500 bucket of powder could produce no more than two prints.

Always a tinkerer, he already had a prototype in mind for a more affordable version. He proposed to instructor Eric Wildrick that his version would afford all students access. It would not only cost less to use, but would be more efficient as well.

Wildrick, assistant professor of Art+Design, encouraged him to submit a proposal, for which School of the Arts Dean Ravi Rajan granted him $1,000. He built the printer during an independent study with Wildrick as his sponsor. For Schechter, the experience demonstrated the potential for 3D printing in the educational environment, prompting him to launch the Kickstarter campaign to bring the Deltaprintr to market.

“I think the best thing about Purchase is how supportive the staff is of the students,” says Schechter. “Providing a $1,000 fund to a student is a lot of money and especially a lot of risk in terms of what I was doing. This wasn’t an art piece, but rather a complicated product. Without that support, we probably wouldn’t have made it this far to launch our Kickstarter in the first place.”

The process has taught him much about entrepreneurship. “Launching a Kickstarter is no easy task and takes months of preparation. We put in almost two years of work before launching. Most people think you put up some cool idea and get rich overnight. You’re also legally liable for delivering the end product and you’re putting your reputation on the line,” he explains.

Schechter considers himself a designer first and an entrepreneur second. “One of the great benefits of being an artist is you get to look at the world from a different angle. It’s that angle that has helped us launch this business with a creative spin on it—from designing the product, to marketing it,” he says.

Purchase College: 2013 YEAR IN REVIEW

As 2013 draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on the people and events that made this a banner year at Purchase College. Cheers to everyone in the Purchase community who helped make this happen, and may 2014 bring everyone joy, peace, and happiness.

 

Purchase College Alum Dan Romer Produces Platinum Single

When Chad Vaccarino and Ian Axel—the pop music duo also known as A Great Big World—were searching for just the right person to produce their six-song EP, they turned to Purchase College alum Dan Romer, MusB ’04/ MMus ’07.

An accomplished producer, composer, and arranger, Romer has successfully produced records for a number of indie artists—Jennie Owen Youngs ’04, Ingrid Michaelson, Bess Rogers, and Lelia Broussard, to name a few—gaining a reputation along the way.

Romer recorded, mixed, and produced A Great Big World’s EP in 2011, including the haunting and melancholy, yet mesmerizing song “Say Something.” The pair harnessed the non-traditional channels ubiquitous in the music scene today and pursued television licensing. As a result, the reality show So You Think You Can Dance featured “Say Something” earlier in 2013. Pop megastar Christina Aguilera was watching.

She reached out to A Great Big World, re-recorded the song with the duo, and appeared with them on an episode of her own hit show The Voice in early November. The song then flew up the charts; it became the top download on iTunes, topped Billboard Magazine’s Digital Songs chart, and turned platinum this week.

“Dan Romer has always been able to present the music of willfully eccentric singer-songwriters in a manner that makes it palatable to mainstream listeners,” writes The Star Ledger’s Tris McCall.

Romer wrote all the string arrangements on the recording and tapped into Purchase College’s talented alumni pool: Chris Anderson, MMus ’06 plays the bass.

Epic Records signed the band and will release A Great Big World’s album, produced by Romer, in January 2014.

In 2012, Romer drew much critical acclaim for the film score he co-wrote for the indie breakout hit, Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Has Named Purchase College a Best Value

Purchase College has once again been named one of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance’s 100 Best Values in Public Colleges. The 2014 list recognizes four-year schools that deliver a quality education at an affordable price.

Purchase College ranked #89 thanks to its high four-year graduation rate, low average student debt at graduation, abundant financial aid, low sticker price, and overall great value.

“SUNY is proud to once again see so many of its campuses ranked favorably by Kiplinger’s Magazine for the top educational value they offer students in New York and around the globe,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher.

“Congratulations to Purchase College on this much-deserved recognition, which is a reflection of our commitments to access, quality, and affordability.”

Purchase College Panthers Basketball Team Leaps to Top 25 in Division III

The Purchase Purchase Panthers men’s basketball team is rising in D3Hoops.com Poll. In fact, for the first time in the history of the team, the Panthers are ranked in the top 25 (out of more than 425 NCAA Division III colleges).

The Panthers opened the season by capturing the 33rd annual Eastern Connecticut State Tip-Off Tournament (Nov. 15-16) with victories over Becker (58-45) and Eastern Connecticut State (68-62).

Later in November, the Panthers edged Brockport State in double-overtime (98-90), as head coach Jeff Charney earned his 100th career victory. Charney has guided the program to the NCAA Tournament in three of the past four seasons.

Leading the Panthers so far this season is senior guard Andre Nixon, who is averaging 23.2 points and has knocked down 14 field goals from beyond the arc. In addition, senior forward David Haughton is averaging 9.2 points and 13.4 rebounds per game.

December 7, Purchase hosted Farmingdale State. After a tightly contested opening half, the Panthers skated to a 77-57 drumming of the Rams to improve to 7-0 overall and 2-0 in league play. Playing in their conference home opener, the Panthers went into the half up 37-31, but opened things up over the final 20 minutes, led by four double-figure scorers, and head coach Jeff Charney’s swarming match-up zone defense.

The team will travel to Yeshiva University Tuesday (Dec. 10) to close the first half of the season before the holiday break. A win over the Macabees would improve Purchase College to 8-0, its best start in the Charney era, since the Panthers started 7-0 in 2010-11 and went on to win the conference championship and play in their second NCAA Tournament.

Purchase College Saves A Life

Last April, the Purchase College Conservatory of Music’s jazz studies program, led by its head Pete Malinverni, co-sponsored a screening of the documentary film More to Live For with an accompanying bone marrow donor registry drive. The event synthesized two hallmarks of Purchase—performing arts and community activism.

We’re thrilled to learn today from the film’s producer, Susan Brecker, that the event yielded a match. The Purchase effort has indeed saved a life. Sincere thanks to all who participated in the event and drive.

Read excerpts from Brecker’s letter below.

It’s my pleasure to inform you that today we learned that the showing of my film, More to Live For, and the donor drive organized last March by Director of Jazz Studies, Professor Pete Malinverni has yielded a match. That means that the Jazz Studies program and Purchase College has saved a life!

On behalf of the recipient of this beautiful gift of life, who must remain anonymous, I thank you for this miracle, wrought of the generosity of spirit and tenacity of purpose I saw on your campus.  As it is written in the Talmud: if you save one life, you save the world. Thank you for helping me in this effort; I am deeply grateful.

Purchase College Opera Receives Two National Opera Association Awards for 2012-13

Congratulations to the Purchase Opera for its dual win in the 2012-13 National Opera Association (NOA) Opera Production competition.

The production of Die Fledermaus last spring won first place in Division II while the fall 2012 production of Hansel and Gretel won second place in Division III.

The Conservatory of Music’s Voice and Opera Studies program is widely acclaimed for its instruction of vocal technique and musical styles with a strong emphasis on languages studies, stage technique, and movement. According to Jacques Trussel, head of the department, “Our unique and groundbreaking program is virtually the only one on the eastern seaboard that offers opera productions performed predominantly by undergraduates.”

The NOA’s competition serves to encourage and reward creative, high-quality opera productions in small professional companies and opera training programs, according to their website.

Click here for a complete list of winners.

Click here for more information about the Purchase College Conservatory of Music Voice and Opera Studies

Purchase College Alum Camille Seaman ’92 Captures Earth’s Beauty and Fury in Stunning Photographs

Purchase College alum Camille Seaman ’92 has gained widespread recognition for her photographs of the environment—of icebergs at the ends of the Earth and super storm cells in the U.S. Midwest’s Tornado Alley. She was both a TED fellow in 2011 and a TED senior fellow in 2013. (TED is a renowned nonprofit organization whose mission is to spread the ideas of “the world’s most inspired thinkers.”) Seaman was recently awarded a prestigious John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University for 2013–14. Amazingly, she didn’t start taking pictures seriously, with intent, until she was 32 years old.

Seaman answered an internal call to action. She describes an overwhelming feeling inside her akin to turning on a light switch. Without any real plan in mind, she decided to document her experience on Earth. She began making pictures during tourist trips on icebreaker ships in the Arctic, and photographed her first iceberg near Antarctica in 2003.

Recalling her time at Purchase College in class with the late Jan Groover, a renowned photographer, Seaman explains, “I sat in her class and didn’t understand a word of what she was trying to communicate about photography. And I swear it wasn’t until ten years later that one day it hit me: ‘That’s what that was!'” She laughs, grateful that she stuck it out. She also credits John Cohen, professor emeritus of visual arts, with teaching her social responsibility— how it’s a gift if people allow you to photograph them. She paraphrases, “They’re giving you something. Don’t feel that you have the right to take anything.” To this day, she never speaks of “taking” or “shooting,” preferring instead the expression “making” pictures or photographs.

At first, magazine editors considered her work fine art and referred her to galleries, yet gallery directors felt it was too photojournalistic. Unwilling to compromise, she vowed to remain true to herself and continued to make pictures her way. It wasn’t long before both the magazines and the galleries started to call her. Demand for her work exploded in 2007 once the United Nations declared climate change to be real. Unwittingly and in breathtaking fashion, she had created archival images against which an iceberg’s demise could be compared.

Now she’s storm-chasing in the Midwest, documenting super cells in formation with awe-inspiring results. “The storms are part of our landscape, and as harsh as this might seem, I want people to understand that we’re really blessed; we wouldn’t have the fertile Great Plains without these storms. There’s beauty in this. There’s something much bigger happening and we’re part of it.”

See more work by Purchase College alumni photographers in the Fall/Winter 2013 issue of PURCHASE Magazine.

CAPTCHA by Olivia Fox on View in the Purchase College Library

Purchase College alum Olivia Fox ’13 is this year’s winner of the President’s Award for Public Art. Her installation, CAPTCHA, is on view adhered to the Library lobby’s upper windows, where it will remain for one year.

Fox graduated last May with a major in printmaking and a minor in art history and refers to herself as a digital printmaker. With an interest in art historical figures like Andy Warhol and John Baldessari, both of whom subverted commercial printing methods into fine art, she’s drawn to large-scale advertising installations in attempt to determine how they’re printed.

For example, the appliques found on the windows of Grand Central Station during its centennial celebration not only caught her attention, but also left her wondering what she would do on that scale if she had enough money.

The Rhinebeck native worked at both her hometown library and in the library on campus digitally cataloguing books and digitizing images and documents. She often thought how, despite technology, users still had this personal, human experience of searching the shelves for a book. “What stuck with me most was the act of digitally filing books for people to find, but then thinking about how people discover the information they want. Nestled around that book on the shelf are others related to what they’re looking for, so there’s a physical space for their brains to think about what they need,” she recalls.

A web design class led Fox to develop a fascination with the groundbreaking work and tragic story of the renowned mathematician Alan Turing—commonly referred to as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence—which left her to contemplate further how people use technology and how information is spread.

For Fox, CAPTCHA* falls at the intersection of these ideas: large-scale, advertising-like prints; the spread of information; and technology. She plays with the notion that her piece is a virtual check to ensure that those who enter the library are humans with good intentions and not malicious bots seeking to misuse the information inside. “I wanted to treat the library as this bastion of physical data that is protected and here for everybody,” she explains.

Furthermore, she hopes viewers will not only decipher the codes, but actually follow the trail to where they lead and discover the secrets therein.

Since graduation, Fox has been freelancing as an artist’s consultant specializing in digital printing techniques. The organizer of last year’s Zine Feast on campus, she hopes to present more events for artists in the future as well as pursue additional opportunities for public art pieces of her own.

(*CAPTCHA is an acronym that stands for Completely Automatic Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.)

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Created four years ago, the Purchase College President’s Award for Public Art is an annual competition open to all majors and provides students with the means and support to display their art on campus. The project selected remains on view for one year.