From crystal-clear shots of the Milky Way above the Andes in Peru and the surreal pink-and-green glow of the Aurora Borealis at Shenandoah National Park, to a humpback whale breaching the surface of Monterey Bay and a hummingbird frozen mid-flight, the collection of photos in Fleeting offers a glimpse into the 91����Ƶ grad’s adventures around the world.

“I hope that when you look at these photos, you get to feel the same excitement that I felt to be in those places and experience those moments,” said McGuigan, who graduated from the Visual And Communication Arts program with a BA in digital media and environmental sustainability. “I think it’s natural for all of us to want to capture those fleeting, beautiful moments in our lives, and I hope that’s what I’ve done here.”

The exhibition, which opened on Sept. 12, will remain on display until Oct. 3. The gallery is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Sunday.

Heim’s work focuses on the ways human-influenced environmental change impacts wildlife. Her series of photographs capturing the struggle between two rival owl species earned her last fall. She was named a this year.

She will present at a Suter Science Seminar on Friday from 10:15-11:15 a.m. in Suter Science Center 106. Her presentation, “Wild Heart: Bringing Empathy and Grace to Environmental Storytelling,” will teach audience members how to tap into their curiosity and creative processes and unlock new ways of seeing the world.

Later that day, at 4 p.m., Heim will host an opening reception for an exhibition featuring her photography at the Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery. The exhibition will run through Friday, Oct. 4.

Both events are free to attend and open to the public. Please see the campus map for parking information.

Heim used infrared techniques to photograph at night and limit disturbing the nocturnal owls. Her evocative images capture the last-ditch efforts being made by conservationists to try to save the northern spotted owl from extinction. One of those efforts includes the , which are outcompeting the spotted owl for habitat and resources. 

“This story poses a question with no easy answer: When is it acceptable to kill one wild species to try to save another?” Heim asks in her portfolio, “An Owl for an Owl.”

This won’t be the first time that students in 91����Ƶ’s Visual And Communication Arts (VACA) program have seen Heim’s photography.

VACA Professor Steven Johnson has known Heim for nearly a decade and frequently showcases her work as an example of powerful environmental storytelling.

“Morgan’s photography is authentic, compassionate and engaging,” Johnson said. “She’s really at the top of her game, and her work aligns perfectly with 91����Ƶ’s commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability.”

Heim, who lives in Astoria, Oregon, is the founder of , a storytelling and strategy platform for conservation. In 2020, she co-launched , which is aimed at raising the voices of diverse women in the craft of conservation visual storytelling. She is a Senior Fellow with the , and her work has appeared in National Geographic, Audubon, Smithsonian and The New York Times. She has been recognized in Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Siena International Photo Awards and the Big Picture Natural World Photo Competitions.

A black mass appears to swallow up one corner of the gallery, surrounded by a galaxy of orbs the color of coal. Each of these orbs is covered in a unique texture. Some of them resemble cells in the midst of splitting apart. A few look like sunflower heads, pieces of coral or jellyfish. Others take on the appearance of an alien lifeform, covered in lumps and bumps or dimples and craters.

The orbs snake their way along the walls of the gallery and stretch out across its floor, inviting visitors to step through the installation and examine it from every angle. An array of lights bathes the ceramic art pieces in red, orange, yellow and green hues.

The mixed-media installation, titled In Entropy, is the work of Anna Westfall, associate professor of visual and communication arts (VaCA) at 91����Ƶ. She created the pieces mostly from clay and bicycle tires to “provide the viewer with a multisensory experience through an altered space,” an artist statement reads.

Westfall hosted an opening reception for her exhibition at the gallery at 4 p.m. on Friday. 91����Ƶ 50 people braved that morning’s snowfall to attend the reception, which included an introduction from her about the installation and the process in creating it.

She said she was inspired by looking at images of cells. As the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and cast the world into uncertainty, she wanted to explore the feelings of disorder and distress that many people felt.

Her statement reads: “The instinct to find order and stability in chaos, as an attempt to gain a sense of peace and control, often brings conflicting outcomes of serenity and anxiety. This installation explores how these experiences influence perceptions of life and challenges found in the mutable nature of existence.”  

In Entropy will be available to view at the Margaret Martin Gehman gallery until Friday, Feb. 16. Westfall will present a university colloquium about her installation and the process in creating it on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 4 p.m. in Suter Science Center 106.

Westfall received her bachelor’s of fine arts from James Madison University and her master’s of fine arts from the University of New Mexico, both of which were in ceramic and sculpture.

***

Nourah Alhasawi invites viewers to confront their preconceived notions about face-veiled Muslim women. Not as an American, or a Christian, or a member of any demographic – but as one person to another.

Alhasawi is a professor of Islamic Studies at Princess Nourah University in her home country of Saudi Arabia. She also wears a face veil.

For her capstone project to earn a master’s degree in conflict transformation at 91����Ƶ’s , Alhasawi gathered 20 women and interviewed them on their feelings about face veils. Then, each participant was photographed in various stages of the veiling process – unveiled, partially covering the hair, fully covering the hair, wearing a colorful face veil, and wearing a plain black face veil. Each participant was again interviewed about their experience, and some met for group discussion.

The Margaret Martin Gehman Art Gallery was filled to capacity for Alhasawi’s presentation.

“These women are not terrorists … they are not even Muslim,” she told the crowd.

For the presentation, Alhasawi hung twenty hinged portraits in the gallery – the viewer first encountered a fully veiled woman, eyes appearing somber or powerful, a few mischievous – then “opened” the portrait to reveal the subject with only partially covered hair.

In America, Alhasawi says, “The more visible my face-veil is, the more invisible I become.” In light of the invisibility, harassment  and oppression she endured as a face-veiled Muslim woman in America, she created this project with the hope that viewers would set down their cultural baggage and encounter the portrait subjects as individuals.

“It’s not about systems, it’s not about ideology, it’s about you and me,” says Alhasawi. She explained the various “problematic responses to difference” that people exhibit: acting as if the “other” has no personhood, demonizing and dominating the “other,” and portraying the “other” as exotic and therefore not dignified. Alhasawi also pointed out a problematic response that can stem from a desire for equality: minimizing the other’s differences.

“If you don’t see my difference, then you don’t see me. Or you don’t see me fully,” says Alhasawi. She pointed out that unveiled faces are not a universal norm: she had to become accustomed to seeing American clothing (and lack thereof).

Alhasawi also explained the danger of moral overcorrection: according to a Pew Research Center , only 12 countries in the world legally require some form of religious garb for women, while 39 countries legally prohibit some form of the same. “They have this assumption that women would only wear this by force, so they force them not to wear it.”

“Nourah is a social entrepreneur, willing to take risks and cross her comfort zones,” says Professor Carl Stauffer, her practicum and academic advisor. She also enlisted the help of Howard Zehr, Soula Pefkaros, and Adriana Hammond to photograph the subjects of this social experiment.

“We overcame so many things in less than an hour,” says Alhasawi. One participant first described women in black face veils as “scary,” but closed their last interview by presenting Alhasawi with a gift of a black scarf.

“It made me think much more about myself than it did face-veiled Muslim women,” says participant Frances Flannery, director of the at James Madison University. The project made Flannery reflect on society’s “claims” on women – such as how they should appear and express themselves – characteristics which are covered by a face veil.

Alhasawi hopes there will be other opportunities to display the photographs in the United States, and intends to write further about the project’s implications. She has returned to Saudi Arabia to teach two graduate classes and continue research projects on women’s rights and English-language representations of the prophet of Islam.

In March 2017, Huxman was — thus, a fitting representative to welcome more than 240 scholars, historians and participants from 19 states and 10 countries to a conference highlighting Anabaptist women who have not just encountered borders and barriers, but crossed them as well.

Click here for .

***

I am delighted to welcome you to 91����Ƶ, a vibrant “Christian university like no other.” We are committed in word and deed to a noble mission: “to prepare our nearly 2,000 students to serve and lead in a global context in the spirit of the Scriptures: to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.” That mission is palpable every day inside and outside the classroom, and at our other instructional sites — in Washington D.C. and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and around the world in our extensive cross-cultural engagement semester required of all students.

You arrive on our campus as we are poised to celebrate our centennial! In 1917, as America was entering the Great War, Mennonites in Virginia hatched a plan to open “a Mennonite school in the East.” Yes, I know Virginia is in the South, and 91����Ƶ is located in the western part of the state, but 91����Ƶ is east of Eden … I mean Goshen … and that’s what mattered to some Mennonites in 1917. What an amazing trajectory we’ve been on from our humble Bible and agricultural school roots.

I am delighted to welcome you to Harrisonburg — a city of about 58,000 — with three universities. Harrisonburg is known as “the Friendly City.” I hope you find this to be true.  As importantly, Harrisonburg is a diverse city — a dozen major languages are spoken here. Some of you may be familiar with the sign: “Wherever you are from, we are glad you are our neighbor.” That sign was created as a response to the chilly immigration climate that began up the road in our nation’s capital. That sign was started right here in Harrisonburg at Immanuel Mennonite Church.

I am delighted to welcome you to the Shenandoah Valley. We are nestled in and around three mountain ranges: the Blue Ridge, the Alleghenies and the Appalachians — stunning vistas in every direction.

And, finally, I am delighted to welcome you to the “Crossing the Line” conference. We are all looking forward to your spirited conversations, cutting-edge research, and inspirational creative activity — taken together — all bent on exploring the intersectionality of feminism and Anabaptism; gendered identities and faith identities.

From time immemorial, women have encountered borders and boundaries, spheres and silos, restrictions and reprimands for “crossing the line,” for “breaking the glass ceiling,” and even more recently for just wanting to “lean in!”

Contemporary and ordinary examples of women “crossing boundaries” continue to abound. Just this month, I was visiting with two women leaders. We were comparing stories about being our institution’s first woman president. Inevitably, the conversation turned to stories of how we navigate “the dance” between our feminism and femininity, our sense of command and compassion — and even the challenges of what to wear with which groups! And then there is the whole subtopic of shoes!

I want to leave you with two brief stories that capture the larger theme of this conference: How Anabaptist women have inventively navigated barriers arising from their gender and religious beliefs. I’ll call it the “Tale of Two Margarets.”

Tale #1: Margaret Hellwart

Here’s the first story. This one is from Switzerland in the 1600s, and it features an Anabaptist woman named Margaret Hellwart.

My colleagues at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario — Arnold Snyder and Linda Hecht Huber (Linda is here at the conference) — neatly retell Margaret’s story in their book, Profiles of Anabaptist Women.

Margaret Hellwart was an unusual, persecuted Anabaptist hero. Her story begins in 1608 in Beutelsbach, Switzerland. She was one of several energetic, recently converted Anabaptist women. Her husband was not. When state authorities discovered her proselytizing, they devised a method that they were sure would stop her ministry: They chained Margaret to her home. Thus, the reasoning went, she could prepare food and look after her children, but could not leave the house.

Believe it or not, this chaining was carried out no fewer than 21 times over the course of 11 years between 1610 and 1621. Margaret, you see, was the original escape artist. Because no sooner had the chains been put on her ankle and fastened to the floor, she was free again. The authorities suspected that her husband or a sympathetic neighbor woman helped her. She disregarded the order to receive no visitors to her home. She continued to win female converts to the Anabaptist movement, sneaking out when she was less likely to be spotted.

Surprisingly, Margaret did not leave for Moravia to escape the constant harassment, like most of the other Anabaptists in the area did during this time. She stayed, not to renounce her faith but to face down her persecutors, cheerfully, with a smile on her face, the records indicate, year after year after year. After 1621, the records on Margaret Hellwart fall silent. She was then 53 and by the standards of the time, old. There seems no doubt she got her wish to die as an Anabaptist.

In what disarming and brazen ways this Margaret “crossed the line” to defend her faith. She risked everything, giving new meaning to the expression: “Nevertheless, she persisted!”

#2: Margaret (‘Speedy’) Martin Gehman

This second story is about a remarkable Anabaptist woman right here at 91����Ƶ. Since you will be spending some time at this conference in an and since you will be spending time in and out of many buildings on this campus that Margaret helped finance or gifted us, I thought you might be interested in the ways this Margaret has and continues to cross all kinds of barriers — with great speed!

Margaret grew up in a very conservative Mennonite home. From early on, she loved her faith and she loved to run! She wore out so many girls’ shoes — they were flimsy “slippers,” she said, so finally her dad bought her boys’ shoes — high tops. She loved them — she could run faster! But she made them more feminine-looking by cutting them down to look more graceful. And she kept running.

In 1944, plain dress, stockings, covering and all, Margaret was hired as the Eastern Mennonite School physical education teacher for boys and girls. She introduced tennis, volleyball, ping pong, basketball, tumbling and a game called speed ball — a hybrid soccer and basketball game. Margaret modeled these athletic activities with speed, finesse and fierce competitiveness to the delight and shock of her many students over the years.

Margaret developed a reputation for dashing up and down the courts, and across campus, and was called “the queen of the tennis court” — dispensing with both male and female opponents in quick order. It was her students who nick-named her “Speedy.” She did devise a less restrictive “dress” to play basketball and tennis in — a “coolot” — she called it. And she said: “No one told me I couldn’t wear it.” Margaret became a dramatic example of the old adage: “Do not be deceived by appearances!”

In 1962, Margaret left for Vanderbilt University to earn her doctorate in physical education. She was the only woman in the class and, as she said, “I must have looked a sight to these mostly Southern gentlemen — who at that time relaxed by smoking and drinking while I — the most wicked thing I did was drink milk from a straw.” While at Vanderbilt, she also earned a minor in art — with a specialty in water colors. And so she taught art here at 91����Ƶ too.

In 1967, unbeknownst to colleagues, Margaret married E. G. Gehman, who taught German at 91����Ƶ. They were married during Mennonite World Conference in Amsterdam. (She was speedy in courtship, too, I guess.)

Modeling the most frugal of lifestyles, Margaret developed another superb skill set: wealth management and generous philanthropy to 91����Ƶ. In 2005, Margaret was honored with the Philanthropist of the Year award for her “full court” investment in 91����Ƶ: giving generously to the University fund, multiple capital campaigns and student scholarships.

Today, at age 95, Margaret lives at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. She is still witty, quick with a smile and while she uses a walker — don’t be deceived: She is still speedy! Ask some of her friends and they will tell you, “Margaret will mow you down if you don’t get out of the way!”

In an era when there were still questions about women and exertion, and perspiration, and varsity level competition, and whether women and men should play sports together, Margaret “Speedy” Martin Gehman did it her way. She “crossed the line” to live her faith, her passion for athletics and art, and her extraordinary first-fruits-giving to 91����Ƶ’s mission and people.

I hope you take sustenance from the tale of these two Margarets!

I hope you enjoy learning from each other this weekend.

I hope you find “shalom” in the Shenandoah.

The Last Glacier is a collaboration started by Anderson, with photographer Ian van Coller and painter Bruce Crownover, in 2010 to record the Glacier National Park in Montana. At the park’s opening in 1910, it held 150 glaciers; now, there are fewer than 25, which are expected to be gone by 2020.

When he heard about this decline, Anderson says, “my first thought was, I wonder which artists are documenting these glaciers.” The answer was none. So in 2010, Anderson began a 500-mile journey hiking and climbing through the park to preserve the landscape through his art.

“My core belief is that these types of places, wilderness, they need to be creatively seen and they need to be documented,” said Anderson at the Feb. 3 gallery opening. 91����Ƶ 70 people clustered around his woodcut reductions, which are made by a repetitive process of carving, inking and printing. The corresponding wooden block hangs by each piece. Each print took anywhere from four to thirteen “runs” to produce the final multi-layered image.

Anderson’s carving evokes the textures of rock, vegetation, ice and snow. His color palettes vary from subtle, otherworldly and nearly monochromatic to 10-color ranges reminiscent of early color photography.

His purpose overlaps with photojournalism as well. “We look at [photos] and we say, this is real, this is true, because they are. My hope is that you can go to this actual location and look down on this particular glacier,” he says, pointing to a print. Each of the works have corresponding GPS coordinates. “I’m really trying to create that experience where, the longer you look, you see more and more.”

Professor , who curates the gallery, is responsible for Anderson’s visit. Both she and Anderson earned MFA degrees at the University of New Mexico, though several years apart. A mutual acquaintance pointed Westfall to his work, which she thought would be of interest to the 91����Ƶ community.

Gallery assistant Hannah Eve, a senior at 91����Ƶ, helped hang the show. “The shows that come in, they’re all different, but this one has a special feel about it,” she said.

Anderson and his collaborators are currently wrapping up projects in the Rocky Mountain National Park and at Mt. Kilimanjaro. The National Endowment for the Arts and South Carolina Arts Commission have helped fund their work, but Anderson says the collaborations are ultimately dependent on print and art book sales. Funding pending, Anderson’s next artistic sojourn will take him to Antarctica.

Each selected artist will create, over the coming months, relating to the Centennial theme of “,” the history of 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ)/Eastern Mennonite School (EMS), or a depiction of 91����Ƶ’s vision for the future.

“I’m really pleased with these artists, which include two stylistically different acrylic painters, a mixed-media artist, a stained glass artist and a photographer,” Miller said.

The following selected artists, who join Miller in the undertaking, are already hard at work on their projects:

• Barbara Gautcher, art teacher for 32 years at EMS and 91����Ƶ.
• Rachel Herr ‘04, Harrisonburg, Va.;
• Zachary Nafziger ‘01, Weyers Cave, Va.;
• Melinda Steffy ‘03, Philadelphia, Pa.

The committee also invited Esther Augsburger ‘72, of Harrisonburg, Va., to participate in the project.

“Esther Augsburger’s participation in developing the art program at Eastern Mennonite School and 91����Ƶ continues to be an inspiration to our academic community,” said Louise Otto Hostetter ’79, chair of the Centennial committee. “She has a lifelong commitment of honoring God through her gift of artistry. Esther also played a significant role of supporting art on the global level by organizing Christian artists’ conferences in Asia, Indonesia and Eastern Europe.’

The “10x10x100 Project” culminates in an exhibition in the Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery of University Commons during the , Oct. 13-15, 2017.

 Esther Augsburger: Honored artist

Esther Augsburger’s Love Essence, a sculpture depicting the reverential act of footwashing, graces the hillside beside the seminary building. She and her husband, President Emeritus Myron Augsburger (1965-1980), played a pivotal role in the acceptance and eventual flourishing of the arts at 91����Ƶ. During Myron Augsburger’s tenure, the campus experienced the first instrumental music, drama courses, faculty-mentored theater productions and a new art major.

Esther Augsburger was, fittingly, the program’s first graduate in 1971, though she took all of her art courses at Madison College (now James Madison University). “At the time, only art for elementary school teachers was offered at EMC,” she said.

Augsburger founded the arts program at the high school that same year and taught for the next nine years, while earning a master’s in sculpture from JMU in 1979.

She holds three honorary doctorates, has organized art conferences and displayed her artwork in nine countries.

“I am so honored to participate in this exhibition for the Centennial of the university where I got my start in art,” she said. “Having been the first student to graduate in the major, I feel especially honored.”

Barbara Gautcher

Gautcher, an art teacher, has a long association with both the high school and the university. “I have spent 32 years teaching art to high school students at Eastern Mennonite School, many of whom went on to 91����Ƶ,” she says, adding that 32 years is “nearly one-third of the Centennial.”

Her project title, “Through the Window,” references the many windows at both schools:

What does one see when looking out a window?  For 100 years students, teachers, professors, and future doctors, missionaries, pastors, scientists, businessmen, artists, musicians, etc. have looked out the windows of 91����Ƶ and EMS while studying, writing, praying and daydreaming. Windows give us a view into the landscape, a vicarious peek at people passing by, and a vision into the future. I am using my sketches and photos of the views outside the windows of 91����Ƶ and EMS to explore abstract acrylic paintings.

Rachel Herr

Rachel Herr ’04 has created a project that explores “the way women’s roles have changed and continue to change, in the Mennonite church.” She plans to photograph a female friend who embodies “today’s deeply Mennonite, modern woman,” and then grid the black and white portrait onto 100 small squares.

Herr, who majored in art and minored in business, is also a culinary artist. She works as a pastry chef and chocolatier.

A fond memory of her time at 91����Ƶ was the cross cultural semester in South Africa. “I think of that semester often, enjoy keeping up with others who were on the trip and still wrestle with issues we studied and witnessed firsthand there such as choice and inequality.

 Zachary Nafziger

Zachary Nafziger ’01 is a full-time stained glass artist and owner of . His working studios are located in Spitzer Art Center in Harrisonburg.

“I’m excited to be an artist in the Centennial project, not only for the scale of the project, approximately 70 square feet per artist, but for the caliber of participating artists as well,” he says. “I’m truly honored to be a part of this group, each depicting 100 years of awareness, care and service that this institution has stood for.”

His project of Tiffany-style stained glass “attempts to depict the light and love of culture and humanity that can be found as the basis for 91����Ƶ’s core values and ethics … the hand-cut glass will use color, texture, shape and light to portray the connectivity of the university to the world around us.”

Melinda Steffy

Philadelphia artist ’03 re-interprets music as color patterns. Her work explores ideas of translation, converting the time-based format of music into a static visual snapshot.

“When I saw 91����Ƶ’s call for artists, I immediately knew I wanted to tackle four-part harmony,” said Steffy, a former Chamber Singer. “I’m thrilled to have a chance to dig deeper into my own creative ideas, while also celebrating 91����Ƶ’s Centennial.”

Her project will translate Hymn 606, known after its number in the Mennonite hymnal and often called the “Mennonite anthem,” into a series of 100 ten-inch-square paintings.

 The artwork will capture the spirit of Mennonites’ traditional four-part a cappella singing. Collectively, the paintings will represent the entire hymn, displaying the interweaving of the four voice parts; individually, the paintings will stand alone as studies of color and texture. The project metaphorically speaks to a worldview in which distinct voices following different lines of music create a powerful and inspiring whole. This “four-part worldview” embraces diversity, listens to and draws out marginalized voices, and acknowledges that no single part holds all the answers.

Ashley Sauder Miller: Project curator

Miller, a who directs the , plans to continue thematic development of chair imagery and interiors, referencing chairs on the 91����Ƶ and EMS campuses as well as those in historic photos.

Over the past few years, I’ve become conscious of the importance I attached to the chair imagery – as a treasured heirloom, as a place of expectancy, as a reference of history. I will continue to use a wide range of media in my work, from traditional painting and drawing materials – acrylic and oil paint, oil bar, graphite, oil pastel, watercolor, ink – to non-traditional materials – string, embroidery floss, vintage rugs and quilts, found fabric, and discarded and collected materials on both the 91����Ƶ and EMS campuses.

The six friends (see photo below at right) were among nearly 600 alumni who came to the Harrisonburg campus to reunite, make new friends, enjoy arts and athletics events, and revisit favorite places on campus.

Alumni who registered for the weekend came from 20 states and two countries, representing classes from 1956 to the most recent graduating class of 2016.

“We were thrilled by the attendance and support for the weekend,” said Director of Alumni and Parent Engagement . “What was so special was seeing our community come together around its love for 91����Ƶ, the positive influence and lifetime impact of the education we offer.”

Shank said the weekend’s new events, such as the Friday night a cappella concert and Saturday’s Fall Festival on the lawn, provided students, alumni and parents more opportunities to gather and interact.

“For me, the weekend is really about creating ways in which all of the people impacted by this place can be together and celebrate the joy and the legacy of 91����Ƶ,” Shank said. “The 91����Ƶ community is far more than current students and alumni. It includes parents of current students, spouses and family members of alumni, faculty and staff, even community members who are influenced and impacted by 91����Ƶ folks doing good works in the area. Homecoming and Family Weekend is a time when we can celebrate that multi-generational impact and influence of this unique place and the people who shape it.”

The new “” with its tagline Impact. Influence. Inspire. highlighted this legacy. Based on the popular TED Talks, the event featured Shirley Showalter ’70, author and president emeritus of Goshen College; Leonard Dow ’87, lead pastor at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia and board vice-chair of Mennonite Central Committee; and Erik Kratz ‘02, professional baseball player.

91����Ƶ 50 people gathered at the Chamber Singers reunion Saturday afternoon to honor Professor Ken J. Nafziger, retiring at the end of this year. Many returned the next morning to provide the final selection of Sunday’s worship service, singing “Dona nobis pacem” [Grant us peace], a canon by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The celebrated the contributions of Alumnus of the Year Harvey Yoder ’64, Distinguished Service Award recipients Donna ’69 and Wayne ’67 Burkhart, and Outstanding Young Alumna Grace Praseyto ’10.

In athletics action, 91����Ƶ field hockey Virginia Wesleyan, women’s soccer to Roanoke College, and men’s soccer with Guilford in the final game of the day.

At the field hockey game, Hall of Honor inductee (2002-05) was honored in a halftime ceremony. An All-American in 2004, Denlinger was a four-time All-ODAC First Team and NFHCA All-Region honoree. She was inducted into 91����Ƶ’s Hall of Honor earlier in the day, along with track All-American (2004-06).

In September 2016, five selected artists will join project curator Ashley Sauder Miller ’03 in a year-long undertaking of creating 100 10-inch x 10-inch new art works. Each artist’s 100 pieces will relate to the Centennial theme: “91����Ƶ 1917-2017: Serving, Leading, Transforming,” the history of 91����Ƶ/Eastern Mennonite School, or a depiction of 91����Ƶ’s vision for the future.

The “10x10x100 Project” culminates in an exhibition in the Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery of University Commons during the , Oct. 13-15, 2017.

600 ‘different ways to explore 91����Ƶ’

The 10x10x100 Project is one of two arts initiatives derived from a call for proposals by the for artistic works to mark 91����Ƶ’s 100th anniversary, said Alyshia Zimmerman ’13 Kauffman. She is chair of the Centennial Visual and Performing Arts Subcommittee and oversees the university’s permanent art collection.

Miller’s “10x10x100 Project” appealed to the committee “because it brings many artists together who have a connection to 91����Ƶ,” Kauffman said. “The volume of what is created also promises to showcase many different ways to explore the history of 91����Ƶ and EMS.”

Miller, a mixed media artist who directs the in Harrisonburg, Virginia, is a 2003 graduate of 91����Ƶ and a 1999 graduate of Eastern Mennonite School. She has facilitated similar projects twice on a different scale: 30 6-inch x 6-inch pieces made over 30 consecutive days) with groups of 27 and 47 artists.

“Both of these projects resulted in community building experiences, where both artists and the public came together to gain a greater understanding of the creative process and to celebrate the accomplishment of completing the artmaking challenge,” she said. “As an alumnus, I’m pleased to facilitate this same experience for a group of artists connected to 91����Ƶ’s past, present and future.”

One goal is create a sense of community and unity between artists, she said. “On the flip side, I like that the people who view the work have a sense of the time frame and an idea about what you set out to do and how things ended up.”

A theater piece, to be written and performed by Ingrid DeSanctis ’88 and Ted Swartz ’89, has also been commissioned by the subcommittee, which also includes Gretchen Maust, administrative assistant for the theater and visual and communications arts departments, as well as student representative Michaela Mast and a second student representative to be named (former student representative Londen Wheeler has graduated).

Proposals due July 1

Proposals should include bio, resume, 15-20 images of work completed in the past year, and links to a website or another site where additional work can be viewed. Include the media (be as specific as possible, i.e. mixed media on paper, acrylic on canvas), describe the proposed project’s connection to 91����Ƶ, and include how the work will be displayed (i.e. framed and hung from a nail, sculpture on the floor or installed at another location, ceramics on a pedestal).

Proposals are due July 1 and can be emailed to ashley_sauder_miller@yahoo.com. Selected artists will be notified during the first two weeks of July.

Each participating artist will receive a stipend of $1,200. The artist will retain ownership of the work with the option of listing it for sale during the exhibition with a 20% commission on sales to be retained for the Centennial Fund.

Holsopple, professor of at 91����Ƶ, heard about the Luce Center’s Artist-in-Residence Program from a friend. It fit what Holsopple was looking for: a place where he could just focus on art, away from research and syllabi. The program provided a small stipend and an apartment on campus near a large and quiet studio space.

“Why don’t you apply?” his friend asked. And so he did.

Best known as a videographer and photographer, Holsopple instead spent his fall semester sabbatical in Washington D.C. engaging in a newer pursuit: painting. He says he “took the risk to learn how to paint” during his , a 2009-2010 Fulbright trip to Lithuania.

On that sabbatical, he learned the art of creating or “writing” icons in the Orthodox tradition. This time, he explored some darker places: stories of sexual abuse and the culpability of the church in some of those stories, particularly the revelations of sexual abuse by Mennonite theologian and church leader John Howard Yoder.

Holsopple explored this topic through a process of photo transfer. He began with thick, broad splashes of paint on each panel, then transferred inks from his photographs onto the paint. Using pallet knives, sandpaper and other tools, he added different textures to each piece, revealing or hiding various parts to create the desired effects.

“I began to think about how paint might change things,” Holsopple says. “With the influences of color and texture, it can be very abstract.” The very act of ripping and tearing into the paint with the sandpaper and knives was a metaphor in itself, he says, noting that it can be painful to get underneath the stories and reveal truth.

The subjects of the photos in about 75 percent of the panels are students or staff members from , who interacted with Holsopple during his work.

“They said, ‘I’d be happy to be part of this project,’ ” Holsopple says. “That’s remarkable considering the project is not a real happy topic.”

The various stages and layers of the paintings could take up to two days to dry, so Holsopple would have as many as 15 panels in process at any given time. In all, he created nearly 60 panels, most of which are part of an exhibit at 91����Ƶ that debuted Feb. 12 in the . Titled “7 x 7 Laments: For An Age of Sexualized Power,” the exhibit drew a large crowd to the opening.

Holsopple says in the 52-page artist’s statement that the title is a deliberate reference to the “classical biblical text about forgiveness (70 times seven),” but with a “twist of numbers … to suggest that I and the church need to enter the depths of lament before forgiveness is even broached.”

“I started the first panel or two more timidly, then wondered what might happen, so I tried different things,” Holsopple says. “I wanted to create discord and chaos—the emotional space this is in—a dark and painful place, but maybe with some rays of hope coming through. I hope it changes what people experience.”

He says the act of painting itself was a way for him to deal with the difficult emotions brought up by the topic. He left some panels with no images, only the abstract swaths of paint, to describe his own journey through the process. The centerpiece of the show, he says, is “Shattered Trinity,” which features three women and considers the ways that sexual abuse breaks trust and destroys safe spaces.

“It’s part of my lifelong commitment to truth-telling as an artist, a commitment to relationships and people,” Holsopple says. “I’m not good at doing art that’s just beautiful. It’s mostly dark.”

In turn, he hopes that others will begin thinking and talking about these topics in meaningful ways. And he hopes his art students might gain some lessons not easily grasped from textbooks.

“When my students walk in there, I hope they’re challenged—aesthetically, and in what they do and how they create art,” Holsopple says. “I want them to realize that experimenting and taking risks is part of what it means to be an artist.”

Past visiting artists at 91����Ƶ have included New York City-based filmmaker and cinematographer Jun Oshima, documentary filmmaker Lisa Madison, Student Academy Award winner Tal Shamir, and photojournalists Susan Sterner and Tyrone Turner.

“All of these artists have an interest in culture and the way that media affects us,” said associate professor of media arts and peacebuilding , who also serves as art galleries director. “Being able to host visiting artists is rewarding both for our campus community and the wider community, but also for the artists themselves who are working on these issues of social justice.”

Thirteen pieces of art for sale were donated by 91����Ƶ professors , , , and ; current student Katherine Burling; alumnus Frank Ameka; and other artists who are appreciative of 91����Ƶ’s vision, including Winslow McCagg, Eric Kniss, Floyd Merrell Savage, Thomas Zummer, and Leslie Thornton.

Sterner and Turner have also donated two images from a February 2014 exhibit at 91����Ƶ titled “Sonhos e Saudades.” The couple spent two years documenting issues in northeastern Brazil, including land rights, literacy, public health and women’s lives. Many of those photos are now being compiled into a book.

Turner says their donation is one way of supporting 91����Ƶ’s message of initiating positive societal change. 

“When we had our opening photo exhibition last February, it was such an amazing experience and such a wonderful community that is attuned to issues of social justice,” Turner said. “Bringing working artists to interact and exchange ideas with students, and to exhibit art with important social justice themes is really important. I love that we can be part of and support that kind of work at 91����Ƶ.”

Bidding began Nov. 7, at the Darrin-McHone Gallery, owned by the , at 311 South Main St. in Harrisonburg. The exhibition is part of the First Fridays Downtown event.

Photos of artwork with artist biographies is available online at

The auction culminates with a reception and final bids at the Darrin-McHone Gallery Saturday, Nov. 22, from 2-5 p.m.

“The Arts Council of the Valley is happy to collaborate with 91����Ƶ in order to provide gallery space for the artists,” said Lindsay Denny, marketing manager. “As part of its mission, the Arts Council of the Valley provides memorable arts experiences for individuals in the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County through our visual, literary, and performing arts programs. The partnership with 91����Ƶ affords us another opportunity to support art and artists in our community.”

“Brazilians are big dreamers, incredibly optimistic,” Sterner explained in a recent telephone interview, reflecting on the time, 1998-’00, when she and Turner, her professional partner and husband, worked in Northeastern Brazil. A two-year fellowship with the Institute of Current World Affairs Time enabled them to document, in still photography, the human side of issues there, including land rights, literacy, public health and women’s lives.

An exhibit of this work opens Feb. 14 in 91����Ƶ’s Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery in the University Commons.

, associate professor in , characterizes the couple as “some of my oldest and dearest friends,” whom she met when they were neighbors in Northern Virginia.

“It’s been amazing for me to watch them grow and change,” Moore adds. “Everything they do has a deeply human element.” She views their creativity as never “merely aesthetic. They’re deeply concerned with every story. They are not patronizing, but walk with the people they photograph.”

The couple will speak at both the exhibit opening and a performance of the play Time Stands Still on the evening of Feb. 14.

Sterner was touched by the Brazilians’ “optimism and ingenuity – how they went about solving problems. It’s a country of survivors.” Northeastern Brazil’s �������ã�� (backcountry) is a semi-arid, often-mythologized area that entails “hard lives.” Droughts and famines require frequent migrations, reminiscent of America’s Depression-era Dust Bowl, Sterner explained. She and Turner primarily worked in the provinces Bahia and Pernambuco and the city Recife.

Sterner is director of photojournalism programs at D.C.’s Corcoran College of Art and Design. Prior to the Brazil project, she documented immigration and poverty in the United States and life in Haiti for the Associated Press. From 2001 to 2006, she was a White House photographer.

Sterner’s work was previously featured in a 2011 exhibit at 91����Ƶ, titled “Women’s Apron Stories,” which centered on women in El Salvador.

Turner, a New Orleans native and adjunct professor at the Corcoran, has worked with the Times Picayune and Los Angeles Times newspapers. His work has appeared in National Geographic on subjects including Katrina, the Gulf Oil Spill and quilombos (descendants of runaway slaves who settled on the Brazilian frontier).

The couple will speak at 4 p.m. at the Feb. 14 opening of “Sonhos e Saudades: Tracing Northeastern Brazil.” That evening they will participate in a talk-back following a production of Time Stands Still,  a Tony nominated play written by Pulitzer Prize winning Donald Margulies, at 7:30 pm in the Eshleman Studio Theater. The play is about a photojournalist who has returned home from covering war-torn Iraq, where she was injured; she must deal with personal issues, including her relationship to her reporter-boyfriend,  a fellow war correspondent.

Kraybill traveled around campus and Harrisonburg taking photos of women in dorm rooms, nurseries and nursing homes. She gathered quotes from each participant, asking what they valued most about being at their age.

“Friends and church connections were the biggest help in finding participants,” said Kraybill. “I also resorted to emailing a neighborhood group to find women in the 60-70 age range.”

Kraybill noticed several themes develop as she went through the decades of women.

“Girls in the first decade of life were excited about simple joys, like writing their name, while women in their 20s and 30s talked about entering the real world and its possibilities,” said Kraybill. “What was interesting to me were the women in their 60s and 70s who felt they had more freedom and time for hobbies and family, something we don’t necessarily think of as we age.”

Brandy Clark, a junior from Woodstock, Va., said “As a college student finding my own way, it was interesting to see how people feel as they get older and further ‘find themselves’ and go through the stages of life,” in an interview with 91����Ƶ’s student newspaper, The Weathervane, after viewing Kraybill’s project.

For Kraybill, talking with the participants shed new light on aging.

“They made me realize that I shouldn’t be scared of the future,” said Kraybill. “It makes me appreciate living in the moment.”

“I’m excited to age.”

Kraybill’s project will be in the 91����Ƶ library for , April 27-28. The library is open from noon – 2:30 p.m., on Saturday, April 27, and noon till one hour after graduation on Sunday, April 28 (if graduation is outside).

The installation will include raw footage from Shamir’s 2011 Academy Award winning film, “The Vermeers.” Shamir proposes to exhibit Jan Vermeer’s paintings in a digital environment, surrounding the audience with a digitalized, fragmented and moving version of Vermeer’s images.

“Tal has been inspiring and sharing his experience in creating his film with visual and communication arts students,” said , professor of media arts and peacebuilding. “It’s exciting that he’s chosen 91����Ƶ as a venue to take his film to the next level by projecting it on multiple screens in our gallery.”

Admission to the event is free and open to the public. The gallery is located in 91����Ƶ’s University Commons.

For more information, contact Paulette Moore at 703-597-7766 or email paulette.moore@emu.edu.