URSCA: Creating public art in Danville

Bloomsburg University student Jo Thomson Pennypacker is creating a vast mural in Danville to celebrate that town's heritage as an iron producer.

Public organizations will be involved in the project at these times:

Wednesday, July 10, 3 to 7 pm 
Danville Area School District students and parents paint day with assistance of art teachers Jessica Noel (Lower Elementary Art Teacher) and Megan Heistand (Danville Middle School Art teacher). Rain date July 17.

Sat, July 13, 10 am to 2 pm
Open to the Public Paint Day *(alternate location in case of rain)

During Iron Heritage Festival Days: Thursday, July 18, 3 to 6 pm.
Open to the Public Paint Day (no alternate rain date)

Saturday, July 27, 10 am to 2 pm.Open to the Public Paint Day*(alternate location in case of rain)

The location will be the mural paint shed and tent on the north side of the Cole's Hardware in Danville.
*Alternate rain location for the two Saturday paint days will be inside the warehouse at Henry Voelcker Inc at 346-352 Ferry Steet or other specified location if necessary.

Volunteers will also be needed for the installation of the mural at the end of July to early August.

Project Sponsors: Danville Business Alliance, Henry Voelcker Inc (location for painting inside).
Location for mural paint days and project materials provided by Cole's Hardware of Danville,
Shed provided by Rocky Mountain Structures LLC www.rockymtnsheds.com,
Mural site at Route 11 and Mill Street by Royal Nails Salon, wall prep provided by Miller Bros Construction. Mural funding by Service First Bank, Merck, Bloomsburg University URSCA program.

A sneak peek at 'The Underpants'

BU photo intern Katelin Bolig went behind the scenes at rehearsal for the Bloomsburg University Players production of The Underpants and captured some images of the makeup and costume as well as the rehearsal.

Details of the comedy adapted by Steve Martin from Carl Sternheim’s play. Showtimes are Wednesday, April 17, to Saturday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 21, at 3 p.m. at the Alvina Krause Theater, 226 Center St., Bloomsburg.

Admission is free with BU ID, $6 for adults and $4 for students and seniors.

Directed by David A. Miller, assistant professor of theatre, The Underpants tells the tale of Theobald Maske and his unusual problem: his wife’s underpants won’t stay on.

Advance tickets are available at Haas Center Box Office at (570) 389-4340. For more information, visit buplayers.org.

In a jazz mood

Every spring (this year, Friday, April 12), hundreds of high school and middle school students come to campus for BU's Jazz Festival.

BU has become a jazz destination in several senses of the word.

The festival offers the high school students the opportunity to hone their skills with guest artists and clinicians.

BU's own ensemble, directed by music professor and department chair Stephen Clickard, has been earning a higher profile in the jazz world. The ensemble was invited to New Orleans this March to participate in the Crescent City Jazz Festival.

Clickard — a player, composer and arranger — has been playing professionally since high school when he was invited to join a college band.

These shots were taken during a rehearsal before the New Orleans trip.

The first shot on the right shows Christian Smith on percussion. A multi-instrumentalist, Smith was first in the rehearsal room that day and promptly sat down at the piano and played very beautifully. The center photo shows saxophonists Brittany Baselice and Beth Meyers and the last shot is guitarist Matt Leese warming up before rehearsal.

Below is a short video interview with Clickard about what makes jazz special. (Editing for this one was done by me, so the edges are a little rougher than normal. —EGF.)

Talking about TV

Campbell is interviewed by BU student Joe Fisher.

Not all television stars spend most of their time in front of the camera.

Television executive and Bloomsburg alumna Rebecca Campbell returned to campus in February to share her insights into the future of her industry.

Campbell, president of the ABC-Owned Television Stations Group, is responsible for the company’s local TV stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno. Based in Burbank, Calif., she also oversees other businesses within the group, including ABC National Television Sales, The Live Well Network and the syndicated series, “Live with Kelly and Michael.”

She gave an evening lecture and met with mass communication students and did a television interview the next morning. Her insights include: 

• The local TV market is relevant. For example, in some markets, local morning shows are competitive with network offerings.
• It's all about the content. Television was once largely  dependent on ad revenue. Today, the revenue streams are more disparate with licensing fees coming from outlets such as Netflix and Hulu.
• A bit of advice for ambitious students: Love the job you have — opportunity will follow.
• The most important qualities for success: intelligence, passion and integrity. And "without integrity, the other two don't matter."

A 1983 BU graduate with a dual major in journalism and political science, Campbell began her broadcasting career as a college student working on a local teen magazine show at KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh. Campbell previously served as president and general manager of WABC-TV, New York, and president and general manager of WPVI-TV, Philadelphia. She joined WPVI-TV as program director and also held programming and production positions at WFMZ-TV, Allentown, and WGAL-TV, Lancaster.

How big did you want that playground?

Mat Parsons, a freshmen psychology major at Bloomsburg University, asks children what they'd like at Kidsburg.

Nearly 20 Bloomsburg students spent a morning with children at Central Columbia Elementary School to ask what features they'd like to see in the new Kidsburg at Bloomsburg Town Park. The Bloomsburg University students became involved through the Center for Community Research and Consulting and education professor Michael Patte.

The original Kidsburg was ruined in the 2011 flood. The new Kidsburg will be located on higher ground at the park. Volunteers steering the construction of the new park hope to start building in June. Learn more about the park at www.facebook.com/groups/kidsburg or www.kidsburg.org.

Hands say so much

If you take Wikipedia's word for it, 93 percent of how we communicate comes from our body language, our expressions, and our tone of voice. Seven percent comes from the words themselves. From what I've seen, that's especially true in the classroom, where professors communicate so much through movement, intonation and particularly, gestures.

In the top photo French professor Nathalie Cornelius brings her hands to her ears, telling the students something very specific ... she's listening and it's their turn to talk. (I've frozen the moment here, but the consistency of this gesture and it's specific meaning makes the back and forth interaction both fun and fast.)

In the second photo management professor John Okpara's hands literally grab student's attention. (We recently had videographers on campus and they did a shoot in Okpara's class. Afterwords one of them said he would have liked to just sit and join the class.)

In the third photo exceptionalities professor Deborah Stryker naturally uses her hands to communicate in a sign language class ... but in this discipline, facial expressions take on great importance as well.

Even in traditional classrooms ... even without high-tech aids ... great professors engage students' senses. They use sight as well as sound. And gestures as well as words. The hands have a lot to say.
—EGF.

Fold your own Husky

Anh Tran — international student from Vietnam, business major, and student worker in the College of Liberal Arts —is skilled in origami. After the tsunami struck Japan a year and a half ago, she led a fundraiser to benefit relief efforts. We featured her in the Bloomsburg magazine and in a video.

Last spring, I asked her if it was possible to make an origami husky. Drawing upon this pattern, she came up with a cool husky. It's challenging piece —at least for me — but very cool on your desk.

Stage ready

We've got a guest photographer for the semester, Lee Patton, a senior photo student who is interning with the marketing and communications office. Patton shot this series of the BU Players' dress rehearsal of Jack and Jill. Theatre is interesting, but a little abstract to shoot because you've got these slices of life that have been lifted out of life.

Stage craft

From flats of plywood and lumber to assembled back porch takes about half an hour.

The Bloomsburg University Players were invited to perform “Proof” at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region II Festival this January — the fourth Bloomsburg University production to be invited to the festival since 2006 and the second year in a row Bloomsburg was invited to present a main-stage show.

In addition to judging the performance, the festival also looks at the entire production. Load-in, set-up, load-out, are all timed. The lesson ... a theatre production is a team effort and everything counts. This year, the team won the Golden Hand Truck for a great setup.

While the top photo shows the rehearsal before the show was packed up for the festival in Indiana, Pa., the photos to the side show the stage and set being constructed. Director Kaitlyn Ide, a senior Kaitlyn from Nescopeck, as well as the actors, role up their sleeves to help the construction. Ide is shown in the set in the bottom photo.


This production was designed by theatre faculty members Ethan Krupp and Karen Anselm. BU Players’ participation in the festival is sponsored by the BU Foundation, the College of Liberal Arts, Community Government Association and BU’s Division of Theatre and Dance.


Students involved in the production and their hometowns are: Courtney Costello and Adam Wilson, both of Pittston; Megan Combs, Nescopeck; Philip Czekner, Harleysville; Destiny Deater, Berwick; Rachel DelVecchio, Bethlehem; Rebecca Kestel, Abington; Donovan Krebs, Coal Township; Deanna Kremer, Northumberland; Emily Miller, Mercer; Grace Nugent, Blue Bell; Robert Pellechio, East Norriton; Anthony Roslevich, Hazleton; and Lauren Shover; Camp Hill.

Technical notes: All photos with the Canon 7D and Tokina 11-16 f/2.8. Apertures and shutter speeds vary. ISO is at 1250. I typically shoot up the ISO 800 without giving it any thought unless it's a very particular photo that requires the absolute best rendering of fine detail. I'll go above 800 knowing that some detail and texture will be lost ... but that's not important for every photo in any event.


Click on any photo to see it larger.

Learning languages

Bloomsburg University's department of languages and cultures and the Bloomsburg Area School District have formed an interesting partnership. University students studying foreign languages host clubs at the two elementary and the middle school each semester.

The program has been running for a couple of years, with about ten university students hosting clubs for about 100 elementary and middle school students each semester.

The children get exposure to another language, French, Spanish, or even Chinese, while the university students, many of whom (but not all) are planning to become teachers, get experience in front of a real classroom.

Click on either photo to see it larger.

Technical Notes: The lens I'd normally use here, a really sharp Tokina 16-50 f2.8, is in for servicing. So an older Canon 28-105 (f3.5/4.5) USM was pressed into service. The 28-105 is light and portable ... focus is fast and slightly quieter than the Tokina ... though this lens seemed to front focus some. Sharpness, color and contrast are okay ... but it doesn't pop either. The Tokina (out of production in Canon mount and overpriced now) is missed. Top photo: Canon 7D, ISO 800, 1/100th. Lens: Canon 28-105 USM at f4 and 30mm.

Guitar talk

This is a photo I took last spring while walking from one place to another after work and it stuck in my head. The guitar player on the far right is Kurt Smith, a philosophy professor, who was talking some time (between day and evening classes perhaps) to do some playing.

One guitar seems to attract another, and pretty soon there was another student and his friend in the McCormick Center lobby to trading lick. Besides playing, Smith gave the students a miniature lesson in the origins of the traditional Spanish classical guitar oeuvre and how it shows both Islamic and Catholic cultural influences. It was an interesting example of how seemingly separate disciplines relate to one another.

Bloomsburg seems to have a growing guitar culture on campus with a classical guitar specialization and a very nice Guitar Ensemble as one of the music department's featured ensembles. Several of my favorite photos from the past couple years feature classical players.

Technical Notes: The top shot was done with the Canon 7D at ISO 1600 and set to aperture priority and with a shutter speed of 1/400. The lens is a Tokina 16-50 f2.8 at 23 mm and f3.5 .  Click on any of the photos to make them larger.