F&PA Dean Jeni Mokren and Tara Boettger ’02 (Theatre Arts) at the White House
Dean Jeni Mokren helps decorate White House for the holidays
Jeni Mokren, dean of the School of Fine & Performing Arts, spent her Thanksgiving break in Washington, D.C., as part of "Team Donner," making and hanging holiday decorations in the State Dining Room of the White House. While there, she had the opportunity work with Tara Boettger ’02 (Theatre Arts), who was one of 300 people (out of thousands of applicants) selected to be a White House holiday volunteer decorator.
MFA welcomes largest cohort to date
Tong Kong's pipa and hulusi workshop on Sept. 24. Photo provided.
Music hosts members of Chinese Music Ensemble of New York
As part of professors Phyllis Chen and Jingwen Zhang's RCA grant, the Department of Music has been hosting musicians from the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York. The musicians have been collaborating with music composition and music therapy students on new works for Chinese and western instruments. The project focuses on intercultural music-making and how this affects our sense of cultural humility. Events included a pipa workshop with Tong Kong, an erhu workshop with Zhang, a Chinese bamboo flute workshop with Xiaroan Liu, and a yang qin workshop with Chengjin Koh. Participants learned about the Chinese musical style and heard original student works for Chinese instruments played at each of the workshops.
A culminating performance will take place Feb. 4, 2025, featuring the Chinese Musicians of New York alongside New Paltz composition students. The program will also include a unique arrangement of "Fanatic Snake Dance," a traditional Chinese folk song set for Chinese and western instruments, arranged by composition students and led by Chen.
From sites.newpaltz.edu/news
Eco art class to design outdoor living-learning laboratory
The Sculpture Program’s Eco Art class are working to design a vibrant, outdoor living-learning space to be planted between Parker Theater and the Fine Arts Building, known as the Eco Art Lab.
“As co-designers of this space, we welcome voices across campus to help design a space that promotes collaboration, biodiversity and interconnection,” says Puthoff.
“It is crucial to us that the campus community is deeply involved in shaping this project,” says Ripley Butterfield ‘26 (Contract).
SUNY NP MFA featured in Hyperallergic
Richard Mosse, "Slaughterhouse, Rondônia," 2021, archival pigment print, courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery.
Dorsky to open "Landmines" in 2025
On Feb. 8, 2025, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art opens "Landmines," an exhibition of camera-based work by artists exploring the role landscape plays in burying or exhuming social history.
From newpaltz.edu
Anna Conlan participates in F&PA panel at Women's Leadership Summit
Anna Conlan, the Neil C. Trager Director of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, participated in the Fine & Performing Arts career panel at the SUNY New Paltz Women's Leadership Summit in 2024. Conlan is a museum worker and art historian who has worked in museums and the arts for more than 20 years, including the Royal Academy of Art in London and the Museum for African Art in New York. During her time as Curator and Exhibitions Manager at the Dorsky, Conlan curated several exhibitions, including “Life After The Revolution: Kate Millett’s Art Colony for Women,” “Totally Dedicated: Leonard Contino, 1940-2016,” and “New Folk: Hudson Valley Artists 2020.” She was a curatorial consultant and catalog author for the award-winning “Art After Stonewall: 1969-89” exhibition that toured nationwide. Conlan’s research on queer feminist cultural history is published in Feminist Theory Journal and Gender, Sexuality, and Museums: A Routledge Reader. She holds a Master of Arts in Feminism and the Visual Arts from the University of Leeds, UK, and a Master of Arts in Museum Anthropology from Columbia University.
