Breeding

The University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design has long gotten kudos for certain programs, such as the painting and drawing program and the metals program.

For the past several years, the school’s fashion design program has stepped it up. In 2006, the program hosted  “Art of Fashion,” a major event that put prize-winning student de­signs on the runway in Denton — as well as designs by the up-and-coming French designer Julien Dossena.

Over the past three years or so, UNT student designers have earned accolades in stateside and overseas contests. Earlier this month, six UNT fashion design students nabbed more than $12,000 in prizes at the 40th annual Fashion Group International of Dallas Career Day.

Khanh Nguyen, a senior from Flower Mound, won the Top Achievement Award. It includes a one-month, all expenses paid scholarship valued at $5,000 to the Paris American Academy.

Shirin Askari, a senior from Garland, cleaned up at the event. Askari won Best of Show, first place in suiting, and first place in wool.

Debra Baker, a senior from St. Charles, Mo., won first place in the sportswear category.

Whitney Autry, a senior from Jacksonville, won second place in theater/costume.

Ashley Clement, a senior from Richardson, won third place in the theater/costume.

Holden Bucy, a junior from Lubbock, won second place in cotton.

This event is the biggest of its kind in the United States. It was held at the World Trade Center in Dallas.

Baroque Ensemble performs in Bolivia

While a host of musicians at the UNT College of Music will perform here in Denton during the Denton Arts & Jazz Fes­ti­val, which ends this evening, another ensemble from the college performs out of the country in another festival.

The UNT Baroque En­semble has earned an invitation to perform at the biennial international “Misiones de Chi­quitos” festival in Bolivia. The musicians performed Sat­ur­day in Santa Cruz, and then perform today at the Con­cepcion mission church in Bolivia. On Monday, they return to Santa Cruz to perform once more.

The baroque ensemble in­cludes students and faculty. The ensemble has gained  popularity over the past few years, attracting students with its inventory of historic instruments and the teaching of program director Lyle Nordstrom.

In years past, only four other American groups have performed at the prestigious festival, which takes place in Jesuit missions in Bolivia. This year, the UNT Baroque Ensemble will join two others — one group and one soloist — from the United States. The group also has a date in Cusco, Peru, where much of the music to be performed was composed in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Nordstrom said the invitation means the college’s program is accelerating  both technically and artistically.

“You have to submit a CD and be chosen to perform at this festival, and being the only student-oriented group from the U.S. to be chosen is quite an honor,” Nord­strom said in a statement. “Attending this festival tells us that the early music program at UNT has risen to national and even international prominence.”

An ensemble comprised of early music faculty at UNT, called Armonia Extravagante, will perform at the festival, as will the ensemble.

The festival is a tribute to the musical history of several churches founded by the Jesuits in the 1600s. When some of the churches were under restoration, a body of music was unearthed. The discovery is said to have sparked a revival of baroque music.

Singers and instrumentalists of the ensemble will perform music found in the lands of the Incas, now modern-day Peru and Boli­via, particularly sacred music of churches and cathedral in Cusco. UNT faculty musicologist Ber­nar­do Illari, a leading expert in early Latin American music, has newly edited all of the colonial music for the concert. The group has performed portions of the concert in Mount Vernon, Texas, and in a tour to Shreveport, La., and New Orleans.

Faculty, students in running for Hunting Art Prize

Earlier this month, three UNT design faculty members and four students were selected as finalists for the Hunting Art Prize. The contest awards $50,000 to the first-prize winner.

Amie Adelman, Susan Cheal and Robert Jessup are associate professors of visual arts who were selected as finalists. The contest’s purse is one of the most generous in North America. Mariko Frost and Carita Huckaby, both graduate students, and undergraduate students Michael Bales and Arthur Pena are also among the 128 finalists being considered for the prize. Each of the 128 finalists will display a piece in the May 3 gala at the Decorative Center in Houston, where the winner of $50,000 will be announced.

Adelman, a fibers faculty member, has earned grants to research textiles in Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Guatemala, Norway and Scotland. She has exhibited at the U.S. Embassy in Almaty Kazakh­stan and had a solo exhibition at Risor Kunstforening (Gallery) in Norway. 

Cheal, a UNT drawing and painting faculty member since 2000, has exhibited her paintings and multimedia installations throughout the United States since 1990, including “Texas Rising,” a survey exhibition of sculptors at San Antonio venues in 2007.

Jessup, a UNT faculty member since 1991, has works in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Dallas Museum of Art, among other private, public and corporate collections.