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U-Create!
Since 2015, U-Create! has been an annual signature event for the College of Arts & Letters. Each April, the event celebrates the research and creative activities by our faculty and students.
We don't get to celebrate in person this year, but we very much congratulate these student-faculty teams for the projects they accomplished this spring, and during a pandemic nonetheless!
The Talk
D’Adonis Moquette filmed prominent, local African American artists to discuss “The Talk”. According to D’Adonis, the talk is “an aspect of life that most African American families go through where they sit their children down and explain how they will have to face adversity throughout their life.” This is the subject matter he explored in his senior thesis short film, also titled “The Talk”. D’Adonis uses this opportunity to utilize the interview space as a mentorship opportunity for Black and Underrepresented students by having them work on the film with him.
- Faculty: S. Brett Williams, Department of English
- Student: D’Adonis Moquette
Art & Sustainability
In this project, art studio major Denise Benitez-Gonzalez documents her creation of a sculpture using sustainable art strategies. Using recyclable and recycled materials in the creation of her artwork, Benitez-Gonzalez will explain her material choices and how they contribute to the formal and conceptual construction of the sculpture. The video is recorded by Kristen Wonder from Sac State Sustainability. Kelly Lindner will provide support for the structure of the video and content editing.
- Staff: Kelly Lindner, Curator, University Galleries
- Student: Denise Benitez-Gonzalez
Calaveras Station
Students will work on the selection process of including work in a literary journal. This project most directly touches on two of our Creative Writing Program learning outcomes: Communication and Professionalism. Calaveras Station provides students with the opportunity to learn about publishing and learn about the different stages of editing.
- Faculty: Torsa Ghosal and S. Brett Williams, Department of English
- Students: Darrick Kuykendall and Melina Naicker
Visual Narratives as Pedagogical Theories
Developing Dimension in Theories through the Funds of Knowledge
Students of Art 130: Theories in Art Education will develop a series of visual narratives based on their familial and cultural experiences. The visual narratives that will take the forms of interviews, poems, painting, drawings, performance, and video productions will be used to develop a visual representation of a number of educational theories as they relate to their developing teaching practice of an artist or arts educator.
- Faculty: Luis Garcia, Department of Art
- Students: Emily Hernandez, James Perego, Anna Gong, Morgan Buttram, Carmen Avila
An Evening with Clio
In this project, undergraduate and graduate students create a publication that reflects our diverse campus community students.Clio is Sacramento State's student-run history journal. In 2020, Clio won 2nd place in the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society competition for student history journals, in 2019 2nd place, in 2018 1st place, and in 2016 honorable mention.
- Faculty: Aaron Cohen, Department of History
- Students: Karly Alcantara, Jonathan Brimer, John Fedorko, Tyrell Frederick, Matt Griffith, Kerida Moates, Preston Moore, Dawson Nichols, Sarah Oslick, X Pasha, Mallory Potter, Elvy Seyman, Michelle Spremich, Shelby Stepper, Hunter Witt
Emerging Artists at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center
Planning a National Juried Student Exhibition
The Print Club has been invited by the board of Northern California Arts to plan an exhibition to be held in Nov. 2021 at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center.
Students are creating and publicizing the call for entries. Leading up to the exhibition, the students will curate student work for the student show and assist faculty member Summer Ventis in selecting the works for the national juried exhibition. They will also assist with hanging the show at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center, as COVID guidelines allow.
In the fall, Sacramento Fine Arts Center juror, local artist Sheila Jacobs, will award prizes to works in both exhibitions.
- Faculty: Summer Ventis, Department of Art
- Students: Sage Stanley, Genesis Torres, Elizabeth Kellogg, Cecilia Lopez
Ephemera of a Virtual Campus
Students in Summer Ventis’s Advanced Printmaking class and students in Mya Dosch’s Latin American/Latinx Art History class are collaborating to create an exhibition inspired by the Royal Chicano Air Force’s activist ephemera.
Reflecting on the history of art and activism at Sacramento State, the art history students researched current student activities on our “virtual campus,” collecting the ephemera of our digital era and imagining fantastical events that could happen on a virtual campus. They shared this research with the studio students, who used the findings as a jumping-off point to make ephemera-based artworks. The artworks, and participating students’ responses to them, will also be exhibited in person in Fall 2021.
- Faculty: Mya Dosch and Summer Ventis, Department of Art
- Students: Elizabeth Hall, Margaret Kuzela, Sage Stanley, Genesis Torres
Finishing Touches, Professional Flare
In this project students will make their own picture books, with a mentorship opportunity with Deborah Underwood, a famous children’s book author. Students will also learn how to write a novel from start to finish, and our two lead students will have the additional task of writing a query letter to be submitted to New York Editor, Cheryl Klein.
- Faculty: Kim Zarins, Department of English
- Students: Megan Vistica and Nick Stockman