Interior Design major Brittany Bellam was the winner of the Fort Wayne Artists Guild's Logo Design Challenge. For the winning design, Brittney will receive a one-year free membership to the Fort Wayne Artists Guild and a $200 prize. 

Melissa Dowty Hines ('04, B.A., theatre ) is the new marketing manager at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Prior to accepting the position in Kentucky, she served as a vice president for BroadwayGPS, a Broadway ticket group sales company located in New York City.

Morgan McClarnon ('14, B.A., art education) in her first year teaching art has been voted Teacher of the Year by her peers at North Side Elementary in Kendallville, Ind. "Morgan shows up with a smile every day, is eager to learn, and eager to help on top of being a fantastic educator," explained Principal Mickey Wagner. "Morgan has done a fantastic job here at North Side both in her classroom and beyond!"

Five undergraduate music students received $250 Louisa Panou Scholarships and were awarded roles in Suor Angelica and Le Nozze di Figaro at the prestigious Operafestival di Roma at the University of Florida School of Music in Gainesville, Florida. The students include:

* De'Andre Martin (sophomore, music and an outside field)

* Jonathan Casey (junior, vocal performance)

* Josiah Hawkins (freshman, music therapy)

* Brandon Melia (freshman, music education)

The winners are from the studios of Sam Savage, assistant professor and coordinator of studio voice, and associate faculty member Mark Stachofsky.

For those of you who were not able to join us in the audience, The Flowering Tree will be broadcast Sunday, May 3, 2015, at 3:30 p.m. on PBS39-4.  

The Flowering Tree, an Indian dance performance presented by the Natya Dance Theatre, was a collaborative presentation by the IPFW College of Visual and Performing Arts and Shruti Cultural Society of Fort Wayne performed live at IPFW on Nov. 8, 2014, as part of the Indian Performance Series.

John Ilang-Ilang ('13, B.F.A., graphic design) is now a graphic designer with Borschoff, an advertising, branding and public relations agency headquartered in Indianapolis.

Associate Professor of Interior Design Suining Ding presented a paper entitled "A Qualitative Inquiry of the Impact of Hospital Lobby Design on Wayfinding Performance" at the 2015 Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Annual Conference held in Fort Worth, Texas, from March 11-14, 2015. The paper presents a study that examines how physical environment design impacts the wayfinding performance in hospital lobbies through comparative studies. At each year's IDEC conference, submissions go through a double-blind peer review process. This year there were 147 total presentation submissions, in which 68 were accepted.

Jeremy Stroup ('13) was chosen as one of three winners in the Artlink 10th Regional Exhibition. This juried show selects artists from a 100-mile radius of Fort Wayne and as one of three award winners, Stroup will be part of a three-person exhibition at Artlink during the 2015-16 season. Work by Fine Arts major Andrew Dubach also was selected for exhibition.

Blane Pressler

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