Fall 2023-Spring 2024 Faculty Achievements

During the 2023-24 FY, Professor Behbahani participated in Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present, conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor and curated by the Foundation’s Director Hoor Al Qasimi, Sharjah, UAE. At the biennial, she exhibited the large-scale installation Garden of Desire. 

During spring 2024, the Hudson River Museum exhibited her large video installation Mother River. You can see an online video series of this work here.

Professor Botz participated in a series of art exhibitions and a film production. Here are the highlights:

 -Her film Milk Factory won for the Best Short film category at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival
 -Solo exhibition: The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death at the Panoràmic Granollers Festival in Barcelona, Spain
 -Group exhibition: Some Bodies: Subject, Object and Identity in Nursing, Medicine and Art at the Opalka Gallery, Albany, NY
 -Artists Talks: Skidmore College, East Tennessee State University, Southern Illinois University, Foley Gallery
 -YoungArts Microgrant
 -Publications: Eye Mama: The Poetic Truths of Home and Motherhood, Disc Journal Issue 2.0 Intimacy, Eight-page spread of her film Milk Factory (images  and text)

In spring 2024, Professor Botz was promoted to the rank of full adjunct professor.

Chair of the Department of Art and Music, Professor Calirman was recently promoted to the rank of full professor. 

Professor Calirman was also the recipient of the Scholarly Excellence Award in spring 2024. 

In spring 2024, Professor Dinnerstein was promoted to the rank of adjunct associate professor. He is currently working on a book for future publication -- an ethnography and anthology of recordings, placing the traditional song repertoires of the former Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh in both their historical and modern contexts. Although the book will have a scholarly bent, it is aimed at a broad general audience, such people interested in Tibet, Buddhism, the Silk Road, or Central and South Asia. 

Many songs contain texts that evoke Buddhist meditative visualization practices. At the same time, Muslims, both Sunni and Shia makeup half the population and were prominent in Silk Road caravans that enriched the Buddhist aristocracy.  Songs from these Muslim traders often mention important religious sites in Kashmir, while having nostalgia for the sights of the Ladakhi capital, Leh. As comedian Martin Mull is said to have noted, “writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” With that in mind, this volume is accompanied by almost fifty recordings of songs with full translations.

As a singer and percussionist for an all-female salsa orchestra known as Lulada Club, Professor Drake traveled to Puerto Rico to play for the Somos Inc. Conference. Somos is a conference that unites the Latinx community and advocates for effective public policy in collaboration with the New York State Senate Puerto Rican and Hispanic task force to work to ensure the upward mobility of Latinx youth. She and her fellow musicians shared the stage with Fat Joe and Grandmaster Flash. Professor Drake is also pleased to announce that the Lulada Club ensemble has signed a deal to put out their first original songs onto vinyl in collaboration with Nutone records. Additionally, she hosted an End of Year Concert with the band she leads at the Shrine World Music Lounge, NY. 

Among the bands with whom she plays congas and sings with, Lulada Club released a vinyl record which she co-wrote. The ensemble had an epic performance at Brooklyn Bowl called "Women in Salsa and Brass" on March 24^th, where they performed with Brass Queens, La Lupe's daughter La Yoli and others to a packed house which included curation by The International Salsa Museum and Brooklyn Brujeria. They have a full summer of performances coming up.

As a professional music performer, Professor Kerr performed at the Norwich Arts Center (Norwich, CT); The Wang Pavilion, Lerner Hall at Columbia University (NYC); Best Video Film and Cultural Center (Hamden, CT); Riverside Park as part of the Overlook Concert Series (NYC); Neighborhood Music School (New Haven, CT) during the spring 2024 semester.    

In spring 2024, Professor Kerr was promoted to the rank of adjunct associate professor.  

Professor Lapidus engaged in the following activities during Fall 2023-Spring 2024: 

Conference Presentations:
-“Latin Music Education,” AFAR Music Conference, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C., April 12, 2024.
-“Entre dos aguas: An Examination of Paco de Lucía’s musical connections to the Americas,” Paco de Lucía and the Americas: An International Symposium, The Foundation for Iberian Music and The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation, The Graduate Center, CUNY, March 7, 2024
-“La Habana es un vacilón, como Miami noy hay na’: Recent musical exchanges between Florida, Cuba, and Beyond”
-Latinization of Florida: Economic, Political, and Cultural Repercussions, Fourteenth Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, Cuban Research Institute, Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, Florida International University, February 15, 2024.
-“Representations of El Monte and the Afrocuban Religious Experience in Contemporary Cuban Music,” El Monte: Narratives, Aesthetics, and Afrodiasporic Spirituality in the Contemporary Caribbean, Rutgers University, Friday, November 10, 2023.

In 2023, Professor  Lopes exhibited at ARCOMadrid, the venerable art fair in Europe. His collaborative show of two duos won an award by the jury. He also exhibited his work in galleries such as Satchel Projects in Chelsea, NYC, Tapetto Volante in Brooklyn, and at The Liminal in Valencia, Spain. His collaborative performance art pieces with poet Terri Witek were seen at Versal, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and at the National Center for Culture in Lisbon, Portugal.

Professor Maldonado conducted a lecture/performance on March 8, 2024 at John Jay College that revolved around guitar music of Puerto Rico, as one half of the Duo Copla. (Guitar duo).

In spring of 2024, Professor Maldonado was promoted to the rank of adjunct associate professor.

Professor Musasama was the recipient of the 2023 Tree of Life Individual Artist Grant. Tree of Life fulfills the founder’s dream of giving meaningful financial support to senior visual artists. Her ceramic work, “Tuscarora” (House Series #4), was also exhibited at the Firestone Gallery on Great Jones Street in Lower Manhattan. Professor Musasama was also awarded the Pollack Krasner Grant. 

Among a bevy of activities and achievements during spring of 2024 for Professor Musasama were the following:   

-Featured in a one Woman show of her Ceramic works at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse NY that ran until April 28, 2024.
-Received an Honorary Membership to the National Conference for the Ceramic Arts.
-Took part and was featured in seven group shows.
-Nominated for USA Artist and the Hanarana Award.
-Recently granted six residencies that will take Professor Musasama to Japan, China, Holland, Nevada, Montana and North Carolina.

Professor Nicolaou was a consultant to the CUNY Gen Ed Pathway, SPS/CUNY Online Campus during fall 2023. She developed one and two credit internship Gen Ed CUNY Pathway course templates. The courses may be taken as a free elective or replace a capstone in certain programs. It is based on the National Association of Colleges Competencies and Employers (NACE) and the Kolb Reflective Experiential Learning Cycle. The one and two credit courses are a follow-up to consultant work, Fall 21, SPS/CUNY; developed a three credit internship Gen Ed CUNY Pathways course template. 

During the fall of 2023, Professor Pereira-Olson was awarded an Adjunct/CET Professional Development Fund grant for $3,000 towards her artwork over the course of a year. She also exhibited during the 2023 A.I.M. Biennial at Miami Art Week.

During the spring of 2024, Professor Pereira-Olson was promoted to the rank of adjunct associate.

Professor Popov’s video artwork “Solution-Dissolution” was published in Unpsychology 9.2: Imaginings, Issue 9.2 in the Autumn 2023 edition, Raw Mixture Publishing, UK, www.unpsychology.org, p. 27. 

During the spring of 2024, Professor Popov engaged in the following activities: 
-January 2024, hosted an intellectual salon titled “A.I. Generated Art and Design: Sovereignty and Justice, Possibilities and Limitations.” 
-February 2024, curated Central Park student ecovention (for my Eco Art and Design class)
-March 2024, Cultural Center Zrenjanin showcased my video artwork “Four Seasons” in the Cultural Center of Serbia 2025 competition, and won the competition.
-April 2024, curated workshop and one-day art installation of renowned artist Elizabeth Demaray on Jay Walk (as part of my Eco Art and Design course)
-May 2024, article “Digital Eco Fashion: Student Showcase”.

Professor Sheppard is always busy engaged in music performance activity, be it through his own professional endeavors as an artist or with students comprising his MUS courses and John Jay Singers choir. Among professor Sheppard’s activities during the 2023-2024 fiscal year were the following:

Invited Lecturer:
-History of Gospel Music, Syracuse International Jazz Festival, Syracuse, NY, June 30, 2024

Music Performance Featured as a Soloist or Conductor:
-A Gospel Retrospective, Festival of Music, Syracuse, NY, July 7, 2023
-Soloist, Bach Magnificat, Festival of Music. Syracuse, NY, December 3, 2023
-Soloist, Palmetto Opera, Columbia, SC, January 21, 2024
-Soloist, The Barber of Seville, Daytona Symphony, Daytona, FL,  January 28, 2024
-Soloist, The Barber of Seville Jacksonville Symphony, Jacksonville, FL, January 29, 2024
-Soloist, New Jersey Verismo Opera, Engleweeod, NJ, February 8, 2024
-Soloist, The Barber of Seville, New Jersey Light Opera,  Rahway, NJ, February 2024
-Soloist, Celebrating American Composers/African American Art Songs, Society New Music, January 21, 2024
-Soloist, Music of Civil Rights, Century Club, Syracuse, NY, March 1, 2024
-Soloist, Il Barbiere, Opera New Hampshire, Portsmouth, NH, April 6, 2024
-Soloist, Jupiter's Journey to the Earth, little OPERA theater new york, NYC April 10, 11, 12, 2024

In spring 2024, Professor Thomas was promoted to the rank of adjunct associate professor.  
 

Professor Thompson had several speaking engagements throughout the fall 2023 & spring 2024 semesters. Here are the highlights:

-Panelist for “Archives of Nostalgia: Exploring America’s Many Pasts,” during the 2023-24 Harriet & Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center and National Endowment for the Humanities Colloquium on “Weaponizing the Past: Art, History, and the Rhetoric of National Greatness,” November 1, 2023 (over Zoom).
-“Stella Kramrisch and the Creation of an American Market for The Art of Nepal” (with Alisha Sijapati), for the symposium, “The Provenance of Asian Art,” convened by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation’s Museum of Asian Art and Central Archives, November 2, 2023.
-Talk on Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments at Assumption University, Worcester, MA, November 6, 2023.
-Talk at the University of Maryland as part of the choice of Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments as the 2023-2024 First Year Book, November 7, 2023
-Book talk on Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments, John Jay College, December 7, 2023.

Professor Ting participated in the group exhibition Eternal Paper at the Univ. of Maryland Global Campus. The exhibition was on view until May 19, 2024, followed by a traveling version. A print and virtual catalog was made available.

Her work was also featured in a group show at the Eric Firestone Gallery, NYC in January 2024.

Professor Visani was commissioned to take part in several exhibitions during the spring of 2024 including:

-Reap the Wild Wind; Image courtesy of Roberto Visani
-Solo exhibition entitled Reap the Wild Wind, TW Fine Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, 4/18-5/18 2024 https://tw-fineart.com/
-14C Art Fair, CRRNJ Terminal Building in Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ
-Gallery Voyage 1,  78 John Miller Way, Kearny, NJ
-Artist in Residence, The Swimming Hole Foundation, Bearsville, NY

Professor Vrachopoulos was busy throughout FY 2023-2024 writing scholarly articles and curating multiple art exhibitions both domestically and internationally. Among her work are the following:

Journal Articles:
-“Ran Hwang: From Blossoms to Spiders”. Exhibition Review. Tussle Magazine
-“Mikyoung Woo’s Embodiment of Korean Painting.
-“Jongsook Kang: Dreaming Desire.”
-“Despo Magoni: Life and Works”. Interview

Art Exhibition, Curator:
-Space SV, San Vidal, Venice, Italy. Sobin Park: Enter the Dragon.
-Paris Koh Fine Arts, Ft. Lee, N.J., Verba Volant, Scripta Manent: Artist Books
-Paris Koh Fine Arts, Ft. Lee, N.J., Intermedia Arts.
-Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, CUNY. No Trespassing: Artists Comment on the Migrant Crisis.
-Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, CUNY. Artful Partners
-Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, CUNY. Animating Hero
-Asian Artworks, Busan, South Korea. Maelee Lee: Genesis
-Paris Koh Fine Arts, Fort Lee, N.J., The Power of the Gaze: Eli Chrysidou and Heejung Kim
-Back to Athens Festival, Athens, Greece. Transplants
-Tenri Cultural Institute, Costas Picadas: Biomes
-Wook-Lattuada Gallery, N.Y., Costas Picadas: Biomorphs
-Tenri Cultural Institute N.Y., Sobin Park
-Paris Koh Fine Arts, Fort Lee, N.J., Challenging the “Women’s Work” Stereotype