by Sandra Huffman ’86
From mid-June through mid-July, the Wilson campus hosted 15 of Wilson’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students in residence for their annual summer intensive session. This time spent on campus provided the students with opportunities to create new friendships as they shared their artistry and passions.
Angelina Ponzio Labate ’24 M.F.A.
During the summer intensive, all MFA participants work on creative endeavors during individual studio time with faculty mentoring and critiquing. They also complete coursework in seminars meant to foster in-depth exploration of major concerns across the disciplines. For example, this year’s Interdisciplinary Collaboration seminar focused on the concept of spaciousness and its effects on audience perception and their reactions to alterations in location, duration, and other adjustable variables. Guest speakers also joined several courses for further exploration of topics. Douglas Bertram, founder of Structural Elements Orthopedic Wellness Clinic in Hagerstown, Md., spoke about body mindfulness. Essayist and educator Manuel Iris, Cincinnati’s former Poet Laureate 2018-2020, discussed how artists summon the mystery of creating art through the guiding principle of intuition.
Candis Taylor ’24 M.F.A.
Students in the Curation and Dramaturgy course hosted a showing of thesis work by four artists who are completing the MFA this summer. The showings consisted of recorded versions of their thesis projects captured from live performances held during the spring semester.
Daniel Pettrow ’24 M.F.A.
Two of the projects dealt with the common theme of identity, but from very different perspectives and experiences. Angelina Ponzio Labate ’24 M.F.A. presented “Whaddayadoin: An Italian American Story,” a performance piece on her Italian American heritage which she expressed through gestures and movement, word pronunciations, tone of voice, and the location where the performance took place. Her work has inspired her to broaden this idea and include people from different racial backgrounds by creating a platform for them to tell their exploration stories. In “Your Roots Hold on to You,” Candis Taylor ’24 M.F.A. expressed the cycle and pattern of generational secrets and curses, things that kept happening in her family, primarily to women. She wanted her performance to spark conversation about trauma, personal issues, and mental health awareness. She said, “I never thought I was going to do a show talking about emotional issues and trauma, but I feel like there are so many things within my community that need to be talked about that aren’t, and I wanted to share that.”
Lydia Young-Green ’24 M.F.A
The other two projects addressed different kinds of relationships from public and private perspectives. Lydia Young-Green’s choreographic work “More Than Expected” grew out of her relationship with her children and how she needs to understand the technology-filled world in which they are being raised. She tried to portray technology through the eyes of a parent and an educator by showing its effect on social and motor skills in today’s children. On an even more personal level, Daniel Pettrow ’24 M.F.A. shared his presentation titled “A Respectable Death” in which he showcased a ritual dance-theater performance that he referred to as the “last collaboration” with his brother David, a visual artist who committed suicide in 2000. Pettrow was a former model for his brother’s paintings, and by using the memories of those experiences along with details of his brother’s life and death, he presented the solitary journey one takes to find a new place in the world after experiencing tragic loss.
Sara Swacina ’25 M.F.A
Besides focusing on their own work, all the students in the program engaged in a curatorial project featuring new work by Philip Lindsey, M.F.A., professor of fine arts, which he created during his spring 2024 sabbatical. Led by Joshua Legg, M.F.A., dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies and former MFA Program Director, this team of students met with Lindsey several times to discuss his sabbatical research and developed a common thread between his works in order to select pieces for the show. They then studied the works selected, wrote about them, either creatively or descriptively, put together the information in a gallery catalog, and participated in a Q&A session during the show opening on July 20. The exhibition titled “Passages: New Work” by Philip Lindsey will be on exhibit in the Cooley Gallery through January 31, 2025. (Look for more information on Lindsey and the exhibition in the next issue of Wilson Magazine)
Jeannine Dabb ’25 M.F.A.
