On January 21, the Augsburg Art Galleries will open a new exhibition featuring nine local, Black women and femme designers. TO ILLUMINATE ABUNDANCE, curated by Olivia House ’20 and Silent Fox ’18 of 13.4 Collective, explores what it means to live a life full of love, freedom, and light.

TO ILLUMINATE ABUNDANCE brings together nine Black designers at various stages in their careers. House and Fox invited contributing graphic designers to reflect on and illuminate a text, quote, or lyric that helps imagine what it could look like to move forward and towards more; to help envision what life is like when it feels full. The exhibition features work by Ashley Koudou, Kelsi Sharp, Leeya Rose Jackson, Marcia Rowe ’22, Olivia Anizor, Sabrina Peitz, and Terresa Moses, as well as House and Fox.

“This show is meant to express what our world should be: a world in which Black femmes are able to live a life without pain or suffering; a life full of light,” said House.

An opening reception for TO ILLUMINATE ABUNDANCE will take place on Saturday, January 21. The curators and artists of the show will gather for an artist talk on Thursday, February 2 at the Hagfors Center to contextualize their work and their view of the exhibition within a broader landscape of making, community, politics, and futurism. This event is featured as part of The Great Northern festival, happening January 25–February 5 around the Twin Cities metro area. The Great Northern celebrates Minnesota’s cold, creative winters through 10 days of diverse programming that invigorate mind and body.

The exhibition runs through March 24 in Augsburg’s Gage and Christensen galleries.

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Towering over Hennepin Avenue, the black-and-white photograph of a journalist with fist raised stops people in their tracks.��

The artist behind this complex, arresting image? Reggie Agyen-Boateng ’21.

Agyen-Boateng majored in sociology at Augsburg and now works professionally under the name Kusi Photography. He is one of seven artists featured in “It’s the People,” a public art installation in downtown Minneapolis coordinated by the Hennepin Theatre Trust. His portrait of independent journalist King Demetrius Pendleton was chosen to anchor the project with a multi-story billboard on 900 Hennepin Avenue for the next year.��

“My participation in “It’s the People” is my way of honoring the countless victims who have lost their lives to police violence,” said Agyen-Boateng in his artist statement. “It also allows me to give back to my community in a meaningful way after the suffering that Minnesota has endured over the years.��

“Working with King Demetrius Pendleton to capture his lived history in a single portrait challenged me to think about the complex layers and intersectionality of Black identities and lived experiences. This way of examining identity moved my work as an artist forward into new territory. It also became a way to document and truth-tell through images.”

Now in its fourth year, the 2022 project also features large-scale photos of theatre artists, arts leaders creating programming with youth experiencing homelessness, concert venue staff, Indigenous restauranteurs, student artists, and queer leaders. Learn more about “It’s the People” from Hennepin Theatre Trust.��

Congratulations, Reggie!��

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Murphy Square

You can submit to the 2012 edition of Murphy Square through Friday, Feb. 3. Email murphysquare@augsburg.edu with your art or written work attached as a document. Your name should not be on the file. Put your name and the title of the work in the body of the email. Email olsoncar@augsburg.edu with questions.

Pictured here is the Murphy Square editorial staff.

Murphy Square has been a part of the Augsburg Community for over 35 years. This literary and art journal has provided hundreds of students the opportunity not only to share their writing and art, but also to experience work as editors. Many professional writers had their first editing experience and publication in a student magazine. Murphy Square is a fine example of the power of a liberal arts education!

Cary Waterman, Professor of English

Murphy Square is the greatest opportunity a writer or artist has to begin their career, because submitting to galleries, contests, newspapers, publishing companies and other literary journals is what a working writer or artist has to do in life. Why not start now?”

Brianna Olson-Carr, Theater and English, Senior

Writing helps the writer see their own thinking. This is what I love best about writing.”

Nou Yang, English, Senior

Art is so important to us as human beings. There is no better way to communicate emotion than through the reading of others’ writing and the expression of visual art, and Murphy Square brings our entire Augsburg community together to express and feel and share with each other.

Will Trembley, English, Senior

Art brings us entertainment, passion and clarity by imitating our lives. Murphy Square brings these snippets of our lives into a collection of what it means to be an Augsburg Student living in thriving city.

Josh Jones, Theatre, First-year

As college students, a lot of us are still unsure about where exactly life is going to take us. However, the opportunity to see our name in print on something that we are proud of can provide the motivation we need to push through the hardships and self-doubt and allow ourselves to be who we really are.

Laura Morales, Spanish and English, Senior

Murphy Square is not only a place where anyone can get his or her work published and read by the entire Augsburg community, but it is a highly valuable learning experience for students who want to learn the process of editing, putting together, and publishing a professional quality journal. Being on the editorial board of Murphy Square is like participating in a year-long publishing and editing course during which the board members gain leadership, management, and marketing skills that will be applicable to any future real world situation.

Dalia Teodonno, English, Sophomore

Writing is not just some hobby I enjoy doing in my spare time, it is something that is a part of me as an individual and “what I bring to the table.” It is something that allows any one of us to express what we are truly thinking and feeling at any given time and then gives us a chance to share those ideas and understandings with the rest of the world. Murphy Square is imperative to Augsburg because it is a collection of publications which tell a story of that year, years prior, and many years to come, and is the means for many students who want to leave their footprint for the rest of the years to come.

Bryan Rassat, English, Senior

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By Wendi Wheeler ’06

By his own admission, David Wilson was not born an artist. In fact, it was only after failing at college and going out into the working world that he began to discover a love of creating art. “I didn’t come to art early or naturally,” the artist and professor now says. “Everybody has a different timer connecting to what they really want to do in life.”

Wilson, an associate professor of art at the University of Tennessee, is the creator of ��“Ocotillo,” the newest installation in the Christensen Center gallery.

In a talk he presented on Nov. 3, Wilson told students how he was actually asked to leave college after his first attempt. He left school and held down a variety of jobs from construction worker to custodian before he decided to give education another try. At age 25, he enrolled in a “second chance” program at a California community college and worked his way through school.

Wilson said his schooling in art was broad, including not only formal education but also personal contact with artists. He made items for artists and said he would go to the Los Angeles studios of well-known artists to talk with them and learn about what they were doing. “At that time, you could do that kind of thing,” he said. “Artists would invite you in and talk with you.”

Since that time, Wilson has taught and also created art as an artist-in-residence in Switzerland, Slovakia, Finland, Australia, Iceland, and India. “On residency, I look for materials that are local and try to find something I can use,” he said. His media have included chickens, rope, rubber bands, billboard paper, doors, and tape.

Wilson’s recent installation at Augsburg uses orange air compressor hose that is typically used in nail guns—an element he discovered on a trip to a hardware store. Ocotillo’s broad, sweeping forms are meant to convey the concept of endless drawing.

“I like to use the space as it is and create a form that exists only in that space,” Wilson said, adding that he often discards the media used in his work once the installation has ended. He said he was not sure what would come of the 1,350 feet of hose now installed in Christensen Center.

“Ocotillo” will continue through December 16.

See Augsburg photographer Stephen Geffre’s of the installation.

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Actually, they were in the City of Light to experience the art and music. In this course, professors Merilee Klemp of the music department and Tara Sweeney of the art department worked together to develop a program that would help students understand and appreciate the intersections between the disciplines.

The result was a two-week itinerary filled with excursions to churches, museums, concert halls, opera houses, artisan studios, even a cruise on the Seine.

Throughout the course, all students recorded thoughts about their experiences in a journal. This is a common practice for study abroad participants, but keeping a sketchbook is not. Art majors and non-art majors alike created sketches at every site the group visited.

Klemp and Sweeney say the combination of writing and sketching was meant to teach students to see and listen more deeply and to begin to appreciate art and music as interrelated.

For first-year art major Melissa Herrick, sketching helped her experience the art and music more intensely. “It gets etched in your brain and helps you identify what speaks to you.”

Colby Reineke, a senior computer science major, said he didn’t want to sketch and journal on his first trip to Paris. “I don’t think I draw very well, but if I really like something then I put a lot of focus into it,” he says.

Reineke was especially taken with the Opera Garnir and did what he calls the best drawing of his life in the space. Though he says he was not very interested in art and architecture, experiencing the detail of the opera house was “information overload” for Reineke. “The color, the statues, the staircase, the marble, the velvet, the chandeliers. Every experience topped the one before.”

Sketching and journaling helped Reineke see art differently. “I used to just look at art and go ‘Wow! Cool!’ but now I can look at a painting and describe what I feel.”

For Courtnie deGrand, a senior music therapy major and a pianist, the program was a chance to hear the music she loves in the place where it was created. “I’ve always been fascinated by French music, especially Debussy,” she says. She even plans to incorporate some of the art she saw and sketched with the music she will be playing at her senior recital this March.

In addition to their scheduled excursions, students had four opportunities to plan activities using Pariscope, a popular weekly events publication. With a small budget, students chose events or venues to explore in small groups. These activities helped the students meet local people, speak a little French, develop travel smarts, and make informed and independent programming choices.

This exercise allowed the students to see an ice sculpture garden at the Champs-Élysées, visit the Museum of Natural History, learn about the Gobelins Tapestry Museum, and hear a Chopin piano recital at the Church of St. Julien le Pauvre.

deGrand especially enjoyed the Chopin and Beethoven recital. “It was amazing to hear his music in a venue where he might have been,” she says. She was also surprised by the influence of American music in Paris, particularly jazz. On their last evening in the city, deGrand and some friends went to a club and heard the music of Louis Armstrong. “Jazz is my first love, and that was a great synthesis for me to have my experience in Paris end that way.

The students said the program changed them in ways they hadn’t anticipated. “Even if you think you won’t come back a different person, you do,” says Herrick. “An experience like this broadens your view and gives you a deeper understanding of the world.”

Photo top: students with Sweeney and Klemp on the stairs of the Rodin museum

Photo middle by Nora Dahlberg

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The 2008-2009 Vocatio Chapel Series, “Faith and the Imagination: The Call to the Arts” continues on Oct. 15 with pastor and potter David Greenlund of Peace Lutheran Church in Lauderdale, Minn. He has started an arts ministry at his congregation called the Artists Way.

The Artist’s Way is a gathering of people from the neighborhood, the University and the church itself. Their desire is to support, challenge, and artistically work together for the sake of consciously catching glimpses of the Spirit for each other and those in their lives. The result has been seen and heard in the creation of labyrinths, paintings, drawings, writing, storytelling, and music for the liturgy and worship space.

David is himself an accomplished potter, designer, and ceramic artist. Some of his work will be on display in the chapel while he is visiting.

The vocatio service is held at 10:20 a.m., during the daily chapel time. Students, faculty, and staff are invited to join Pastor Greenlund for lunch following chapel at 11 a.m. in the Riverside Room. To RSVP, email murray@augsburg.edu.

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Art history professor Kristin Anderson’s Designed Environment course uses art and architecture to study the history of Minneapolis and St. Paul. On weekly outdoor excursions, students explore buildings, parks, churches, and museums to learn about architecture, landscape design, and urban design and their evolution throughout history. Anderson teaches the course because she wants students to experience some of the beauty and positivity of the Twin Cities.

On a breezy summer afternoon, Anderson and Fannie, her 8-week old Goldendoodle, began class at the Lakewood Cemetery near Lake Calhoun. Built in 1872 in response to the rapidly growing city’s need to deal with its deceased citizens, Lakewood was modeled after Mt. Auburn Park in Cambridge, Mass. As such, the cemetery was not only to serve as a burial site but also fulfill the public’s need for green space and provide a respite from the noise and pollution of the city.

The design features curving lanes, emphasizes and augments existing topography, and utilizes species of trees and plants not found elsewhere in the state. The cemetery also includes beautiful architectural features — each a work of art in itself — such as mausolea, monuments, and a chapel designed by Minneapolis architect Harry Wild Jones based on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The inside of the chapel treats the visitor to a breathtaking mosaic designed by New York designer Charles Lamb.

The class is typically taught each summer, but site visits can change from year to year. This session, the class visited downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, the St. Anthony Main neighborhood, the Hiawatha Corridor, Summit and Selby Avenues in St. Paul, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnehaha Falls, the state capitol building, James J. Hill house, and the Basilica of Mary. Following the site visits, students are asked to analyze an element of the designed environment and evaluate its style, historical and architectural functions, and the element’s overall success in the environment.

Senior Robert Rivera took Anderson’s course to fulfill his final requirement for graduation. Though he has lived in the Twin Cities for 6 years, Rivera said he never ventured out of his suburban neighborhood. “I thought since I’m going to be a teacher here, I should learn more about Minnesota history,” he said.

Nicole Coutris, a senior studio art and art history major, has enjoyed hearing Anderson talk with enthusiasm and in great detail about the sites they visit. A Cleveland native, Coutris said she has learned a lot about Minnesota culture and history from the class.

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Zac discovered his passion for art on a study abroad trip in Italy. There, he learned how art plays a significant role in everyday life in Italy. After returning to Augsburg as a theater major, Zac took a class with art history professor Kristen Anderson on the historical aspects of art. In a subsequent course, Kerry Morgan, Augsburg’s art gallery coordinator, noticed Zac’s passion for art. “He would attend art shows and stay after to ask questions,” she remembers. “Zac had above and beyond an interest in the art brought to campus.” He was interested in making art accessible to others.

Zac began an internship with Morgan installing and de-installing art exhibits, a position where his theater background proved helpful. “Putting on an art show is like a mini theater show,” she noted. Zac’s first art show had 35 to 40 pieces, and he didn’t know where to begin. But with Morgan’s help, he turned the blank space into a gallery. Art galleries bring “education and communities together,” according to Zac. He calls himself a facilitator of the arts, building bridges that bring the art world to everyone else.

“I want to instill in young people that owning original artwork is important socially. Art you connect with has an emotional investment in another human being,” said Zac. As a patron of the arts himself, Zac wants younger generations to partake in the importance of art and owning original artwork.

With the help of Augsburg faculty, Zac applied to and was accepted to NYU. English professor John Harkness was particularly impressed with Zac. When asked why, Harkness replied, “He struck me as having a different kind of maturity and as someone who would fit well with the New York culture.”

In the NYU program, Zac will have access to high-profile internships and will assist both corporate and private act accounts to help in art buying and art collecting. He will learn management and practice entrepreneurship by working with auction houses in New York.

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