• Strike a Pose Artist-in-residence Darrell Jones takes cultural studies to the dance floor with choreography that explores the social, racial, and gender roots of voguing. more...
• (Not-so-secret) Success Columbia's 2008 Alumni of the Year—Len Amato, Tonya Pinkins, and Eduardo Vilaro—bring exceptional creativity to their fields, and exemplify the spirit of the college. more...
• Dear Readers, Letter from Ann Wiens, Editor of Demo. more...
• Portfolio: Book & Paper Arts A collection of works by eight alumni of Columbia's M.F.A. in Book and Paper Arts program. more...
• Circle of Contributors Installation Recognizes Major Donors In March, a festive gathering of college trustees, administrators, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends filled the lobby of the Alexandroff Campus Center (600 S. Michigan Ave.) and the adjacent Museum of Contemporary Photography for the unveiling of the Circle of Contributors monument, a wall installation recognizing the lifetime contributions of the college’s most generous donors. more...
• Media Production Center Moves Toward Groundbreaking Columbia’s plans to build its first new-construction academic building have moved closer to reality recently, with the approval of funding by the board of trustees and agreement by the city to recommend the necessary land sale. more...
• Students of John H. White Show Their "PJ Love" About 150 photojournalists attended the annual “PJ Love” photojournalism symposium, which was held on April 12, 2008 at Columbia’s Film Row Cinema. more...
• Board of Trustees Elects Officers, Three New Members Columbia’s board of trustees has added three new members to its ranks, and has announced its leadership for the coming year. more...
• Audio Arts & Acoustics Student Wins Grammy By the time he picked up his diploma in May, Nelson Robinson, a 2008 graduate of the Audio Arts and Acoustics department, had already picked up another impressive token of accomplishment: a 2008 Grammy Award for his work as co-engineer on the Clark Sisters live gospel album, One Last Time. The album, which won Best Traditional Gospel Album, was recorded live in Houston in the spring of 2006, when Robinson was a junior at Columbia. Robinson described the honor as “shocking … I didn’t expect it at all.” more...
• Students Reach Out to New Orleans For the third year running, Columbia students, faculty, and staff used their spring break to help rebuild New Orleans, where vast sections of the city remain devastated even though nearly three years have passed since Hurricane Katrina struck. The student-run organization Reach Out works all year to raise funds in order to travel to poverty- or disaster-stricken communities and contribute. Any Columbia student willing to work hard can be a member. more...
• Center for Arts Policy Closed Columbia College Chicago closed its Center for Arts Policy (CAP) on August 31, the end of the 2008 fiscal year. The decision reflects a need to focus resources at a time of growing financial challenges to higher education. more...
• Rather, Iturbide, and Earth, Wind & Fire Accept Honorary Degrees Nearly 2,000 graduates participated in Columbia’s three (yes, three!) commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18—and there were a few very distinguished honorary-degree recipients among them. Each year Columbia honors outstanding individuals in the arts, education, politics, and public information whose work embodies the ideals and spirit of the college. more...
• A + D Gallery Rededicated The Wabash Avenue exhibition space of the Department of Art and Design was rededicated this spring, becoming the Averill and Bernard Leviton A + D Gallery. The renaming, which honors the Levitons’ long service and generous support of the college, was marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 8. more...
• Public Programming Preview for 2008-09 Columbia has several programming series in the works for the coming year. For detailed and up-to-date information throughout the year, visit www.colum.edu/events. more...
• Columbia's Pride Has a Retro-Kitsch Flair For the third consecutive year, Columbia’s float entry in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade won an award. Following on the heels of its last two musically themed floats—inspired by The Sound of Music and Nancy Sinatra, each of which won Best Organization Float in its respective year­—this year’s ABBA Dancing Queen-inspired entry snagged an honorable mention. more...
• Columbia Joins Green Building Council As part of its commitment to reduce energy consumption and increase sustainable practices, Columbia has become a member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). more...
• Semester in L.A. Goes to Hollywood Semester in L.A., Columbia’s signature entertainment-industry immersion program, moved to a new home on Raleigh Studios’ 11-acre Hollywood complex on May 12, 2008. The 2,000-square-foot space is in the historic Bronson building on Melrose Avenue. The program had previously occupied a bungalow on the CBS lot in Studio City. more...
• Demo, other Publications Win Design Awards Demo magazine was among several Columbia publications honored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) with Circle of Excellence Awards, among the most prestigious honors in the field of college and university publications. more...
• Dear Alumni, Letter from Josh Culley-Foster, National Director of Alumni Relations. more...
• Dear Friends, Letter from Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D., President, Columbia College Chicago more...
• What I Liked About Chris' First Apartment
  Still Life on Avenue Z Poems read by Jennifer Watman and Rachel Finkelstein more...
• Local International A Columbia Theater professor and his family immerse themselves in life in London, and bring that city a little closer to Chicago in the process. more...
• We've Got Your Back: Demo's guide to off-site data storage This year, 43 percent of people who own computers will lose important files. Most will be because of hard-drive crashes, but some will involve situations in which backing up to an external hard drive isn’t enough. more...
• Joan Hammel / Joanland The Sound: Easy Listening more...
• Able Baker Fox / Voices The Sound: Post-punk/rock more...
• Scotland Yard Gospel Choir / Scotland Yard Gospel Choir The Sound: Indie more...
• Neon Boneyard By Judy Natal. Reviewed by James Kinser. more...
• Writer Mama By Christina Katz. Reviewed by Christine Simokaitis. more...
• At the City’s Edge By Markus Sakey. Reviewed by Chay Lawrence. more...
• Visions and Divisions: American Immigration Literature, 1870-1930 Edited by Tim Prchal and Tony Trigilio. Reviewed by Con Buckley. more...
• Creating Great Visitor Experiences By Stephanie Weaver. Reviewed by Chap Freeman. more...