Wire:
news from the Columbia community
Kwang-Wu Kim Named New President
“Dr. Kim’s campus tours and open forum presentations generated an overwhelmingly positive response. The campus is truly energized.”
On February 26, the Board of Trustees approved Kwang-Wu Kim, DMA, as president-elect of Columbia College Chicago. Kim will become the 10th president in Columbia College’s 123-year history.
Kim, who begins his contract in July, has more than 30 years of experience in performance, teaching, and administration. He is currently dean and director of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and professor of music at Arizona State University. In addition to his presidential role, Kim will receive a faculty appointment in the college’s Music Department.
“Dr. Kim’s campus tours and open forum presentations generated an overwhelmingly positive response from the Columbia College community as a whole,” said Allen M. Turner of the Columbia College Board of Trustees. “That type of consensus is extremely rare in higher education, and it was a key indicator that he was the ideal person for the presidency. The campus is truly energized.”
A native Chicagoan, Kim holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Yale University and a doctorate in music from Johns Hopkins University. Kim will succeed Warrick L. Carter, PhD, who announced his retirement last year and will remain in office until the transition this summer. Carter has been president of the college since 2000. During his tenure, enrollment increased by almost 25 percent to more than 11,000 graduate and undergraduate students. The size of the 2012 graduating class of more than 2,000 students almost doubled the number of graduates who walked the stage a decade ago. The urban campus footprint has doubled to 2.5 million square feet of occupied classroom, office, exhibit, performance, and residence hall spaces, making the college the largest single presence in the downtown South Loop area.
To learn more about Dr. Kim, go to colum.edu/drkim.
Alumni, Students Win Prestigious Awards
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| Paul Garnes |
Some winners:
NAACP Image Awards
Paul Garnes (BA ’96) is the line producer for The Game, which won for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Golden Globes
Everett Downing Jr. (’00) and Aaron J. Hartline (’98) were animators on the film Brave, which won for Best Animated Feature.
Len Amato (BA ’75), president of HBO Films, produced Game Change, which won for Best Mini Series or TV Movie as well as awards for supporting actor and actress.
Academy Awards
Everett Downing Jr. (’00) and Aaron J. Hartline (’98) were animators on the film Brave, which won for Best Animated Feature.
Independent Spirit Awards
Paul Garnes (BA ’96) and his team won the John Cassavetes Award for their film Middle of Nowhere.
Regional Crystal Pillar Award (Student Emmys)
Eileen Sears won best sports feature for her piece on sled hockey for the Multimedia Sports Reporting class’ television show Beyond the Game. Jade Lagestee took home the best arts and entertainment award for her feature about AKIRA, the fashion centered Chicago-based chain of clothing stores that aired on Metro Minutes.
Alumni of the Year, Commencement Honorees Announced
At this year’s commencement ceremonies, taking place May 18 and 19 at the historic Chicago Theatre, Columbia College Chicago will recognize the 2013 Alumni of the Year and honorary degree recipients.
Columbia recognizes alumni who have made outstanding contributions to their fields and embody the mission of the institution as Alumni of the Year. This year, the college honors DJ Len Ellis (BA ’52), cinematographer Michael Goi (BA ’80), and journalist Mary Mitchell (BA ’91).
Honorary degree recipients are outstanding individuals in the arts, education, politics, and public information. This year, the college honors: Jane Hamilton, award-winning novelist; Herbie Hancock, legendary keyboardist and composer; Rennie Harris, pioneering hip-hop dancer; Martha Nussbaum, award-winning author and philosopher; Joe Shanahan, owner of influential music clubs Metro Chicago and Smart Bar; Jessica Stockholder, internationally acclaimed sculptor /installation artist; and celebrated filmmakers Robert Teitel (BA ’90) and George Tillman Jr. (BA ’91).
Debbie Allen and Robert Zemeckis Visit Campus
Debbie Allen—dancer, choreographer, actor, director, and ambassador for arts education—spoke to the college community on February 27 for Conversations in the Arts. She shared childhood stories, discussed career-defining moments, and offered advice on persevering in the arts.
Robert Zemeckis, famed film director (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) and Chicago native, visited Columbia on October 25 to discuss his latest movie, Flight. Zemeckis spoke about his films’ focus on human drama and flawed main characters.
Study Funny
Columbia, Second City to Launch Groundbreaking Comedy Degree
Columbia College Chicago and The Second City have collaborated to offer a bachelor of arts degree in theatre with a concentration in comedy writing and performance. When the new academic program launches in fall 2013, Columbia will be the only college in the United States to offer such a degree.
This interdisciplinary program will provide the cross training necessary for graduates to build successful careers in professional comedy as performers, writers, directors, and producers. Writers will learn to perform and pitch their own work, and to understand how to write for performers. Comedic performers will create material that showcases their specific persona and skills, and develop an understanding of the writing process.
The existing semester-long Comedy Studies program at Second City, open to all college students as a collaboration between the two institutions, is now in its fourth year.
For more information, go to colum.edu/comedy
Give & Take
Grease Co-author Jim Jacobs Establishes Theatre Scholarship
Jim Jacobs is co-author of the hit musical Grease, one of the most popular and influential works in the
history of American musicals. In 2012, Jacobs established a scholarship for continuing musical theatre majors demonstrating financial need who are entering their sophomore year at Columbia. The inaugural Jim Jacobs Musical Theatre Scholarship will be awarded for fall 2013. DEMO editor Kristi Turnbaugh interviewed Jacobs during a campus visit.
Q: Why did you establish this scholarship at Columbia?
JIM JACOBS: In 1981, Columbia was the first place to take an interest in the show that my late partner, Warren Casey, and I wrote after Grease, which was Island of Lost Coeds. As I understand from Sheldon Patinkin [then theatre department chair], it was the first production done in what was then the 11th Street Theater, now the Getz. I got to know Sheldon really well and kids that were in the cast—several of them I still know to this day. As the years went on, every time I would come back to Chicago, the school was getting bigger and bigger and more well known, and more things were happening. When my stepdaughter [Janissa Saracino (’13)] started attending Columbia, it brought me back here more to visit. Starting a scholarship seemed like the right thing to do.
Q: Characters in Grease are based on people you knew in high school. Which character was most like you?
JJ: I would say somewhere between Doody and Roger because I was sort of the smallest guy, I played a guitar, but I loved being the guy who pulled the pranks and made the other guys laugh. My cousin was Danny Zuko, and the title, of course, refers to guys like Kenickie who were just devoted to their car, always under the hood of the car and greasy. And of course, all of our food was as greasy as could be.
Q: Grease is a great title.
JJ: It’s funny—after the show had been running for five years, in the late ’70s, Barbara Walters asked us about the title Grease, and we explained it to her. Then Warren says, “I’ve never told this to Jim, but I never did like the title. But I guess it’s too late to change it now.”
More info about the Jim Jacobs Musical Theatre Scholarship.
Meet & Greet
Manifest 2013 Creative Director: Thumy Phan
Thumy Phan (’13) is this year’s creative director for Manifest, the college’s annual urban arts festival. The creative director is in charge of designing all the promotional materials for the event, which is free and open to the public. Her concept for Manifest involves layering different media, including photography and graphic design.
“I’m really excited about how different it will be,” Phan said. “I know we’ve used photography and illustration in the past, but never together, layering it. Even the T-shirt design has a layering of shapes. It’s a star, but shapes make up the star. The whole concept was layering: bringing together all the elements of different students, their different skills and experiences.”
Manifest itself will be just as multifaceted, featuring a colorful array of artistic expression, including the Tic Toc Performing Artists, a bicycle-drawn “mobile gallery” carting first-year students’ work around campus, and a vintage Manifest T-shirt contest the week prior. Manifest is Friday, May 17.
For more information, go to colum.edu/manifest.
Open Doors Gala Raises $800,000
The 2012 Open Doors Gala on December 7 raised a record $800,000 for the Open Doors Scholarship, which helps Chicago Public Schools’ graduates to attend Columbia College Chicago. Funds also went to new scholarships that honor the memory of John H. and Eunice W. Johnson of the Johnson Publishing Company. Student performers provided entertainment for the 300 guests at the black-tie dinner at the Media Production Center.
Find More News Online
Read these stories and more at colum.edu/news.
Columbia Chronicle receives 22 Awards
The Columbia Chronicle, Columbia’s student newspaper, won 22 Awards for Excellence in Illinois College Newspapers at the February 22-23 Illinois College Press Association Convention.
Film Critics Honor Columbia
In February, the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) presented Columbia College Chicago with its 2013 Big Shoulders Award, an honor bestowed to an institution that provides out-standing support for the arts. This is the first time the award has been presented to a college or university, according to the CFCA.
Fiction Writing Student Magazine Nets Top Award
Fictionary, the annual magazine produced by the Student Board of the Fiction Writing Department, received a Gold Medalist Award from the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association.
Mayor Supports Wabash Arts Corridor
Columbia College Chicago and Mayor Rahm Emanuel are working together to create the Wabash Arts Corridor, a stretch of public art on Wabash that will include large-scale photographs, an aerosol mural, and more.
