BYU media arts student Aurelia Berryhill filmed a music video, “Chronophobia,” after receiving TMA student grant funding. While Aurelia Berryhill was applying for the media arts major at BYU in Winter 2016, she was surrounded by questions and uncertainty in her life. She felt that the fear the questions had caused was holding her back from many opportunities. Berryhill envisioned creating a video about these inner monologues for her media arts application but quickly realized she did not yet have the skills or resources for this project. Nearly three years later, the video she dreamed of creating came to life because of the TMA student grant program. This program — hosted by the Department of Theatre and Media Arts and funded by Mary Lou Fulton — sponsors student projects to help them gain experience outside the classroom in their craft. “I knew that this opportunity was the only way I could make this dance video that had been in my head for two years come to life,” said Berryhill. While Berryhill had a theme in mind but no specific vision, she left a lot of the elements of the music video up for interpretation by the dancers, director of photography and composer. “Their unique voices came through and were seen in the video. I loved the collaboration aspect of this program,” said Berryhill. “I learned a lot through the process of making this project. I learned that collaboration will make one’s vision come to life more than trying to do it all alone.” Read the full story at tma.byu.edu.

BYU art professor Mark Graham was named a Fulbright Scholar, which has allowed him to work with faculty and students from Kathmandu University (KU) in Nepal Department of Art professor Mark Graham was placed on the Fulbright Specialist Roster for a tenure of three years. Currently, Graham has a Fulbright scholarship to travel to Kathmandu, Nepal to help implement STEAM education in conjunction with efforts from students and faculty from Kathmandu University (KU). “STEAM combines art with math, engineering, science and design,” said Graham. “It provides advocacy for the arts, access to STEM subjects, new approaches to teaching, curriculum and opportunities for underserved populations.” While STEM education is more widely known, STEAM education takes the previous education system focusing on science, technology, engineering and math and adds art to the equation. Many educators see STEAM education as an exciting opportunity to more fully engage their students in interdisciplinary topics in a hands-on experience. Graham has already traveled to Nepal once for the STEAM project but will return on various trips for the next two years. His purpose is to help math and science teachers in Nepal understand how they can more fully integrate the arts into the curriculum, learn about art education trends in Nepal, develop a long-term collaborative research relationship with faculty at KU and open the door for future educational exchanges between BYU and KU students. “Being a Fulbright Scholar has given me the tremendous opportunity to work with scholars and students from Nepal,” said Graham. “We will hopefully involve BYU students in a project that will have a lasting impact for teachers and children in Nepal. This is the culmination of over five years of planning.” Graham was nominated as a Fulbright Scholar by the Peer Review Panel and was awarded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and World Learning. The Fulbright Program, established by Congress in 1946, gives grants to U.S. citizens for the purpose of studying, teaching and doing research abroad. Since its creation, more than 390,000 students and teachers of art and science have been able to participate in international education exchange programs in over 150 countries worldwide. His roster tenure as a Fulbright Scholar began on October 12, 2018 and will end on October 12, 2021. In addition to his trips to Nepal as a Fulbright Scholar, Graham is working on another STEAM education project in collaboration with the BYU McKay School of Education. Through this project, Graham and the McKay School of Education hope Utah elementary schools will embrace integrated arts learning. The three-year project consists of Graham visiting local schools and helping teachers properly implement the curriculum. This project has been funded by the BYU Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education & Schooling (CITES).

BYU Department of Theatre and Media Arts grad Jared Jakins and his wife Carly win Best of Show and Utah Short Film of the Year for “El Desierto”

Art education grad devotes career to serving the most underserved students

Heidi Somsen grew up in British Columbia, where she played regularly in the ocean and gathered items from along the coast. Her innate interest in the earth and materiality drove Somsen to become an artist, but it wasn’t until she took her first foundations class at BYU that she recognized her love for 3D mediums. When Somsen graduated with her BFA in 1995, her oldest child was three years old. Determined to keep making art in the midst of raising young children, Somsen created wherever she found space—“whether the kitchen table or my little basement studio”—and continued to participate in one or two shows each year. Years later, Somsen said her artwork is a form of spiritual practice, as well as a way for her to process life “and all the big ideas in our human existence.” Read the full story at art.byu.edu.

The devotional will take place at 11 a.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall of the Harris Fine Arts Center.

Students from the College of Fine Arts and Communications travel internationally to gain real-world experience and share their talents while studying abroad, competing, performing and interning

Professor Jason Bergman and student Neal Hillam hope that others in the brass community benefit from their experience with Hillam’s metal allergy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I2koKZUFRk BYU students from the School of Communications and the Department of Design came together to create ‘Handimojis’ — an ASL-friendly version of Apple’s ‘Animoji’ BYU students Sam Carlson, Amanda Rasmussen and Coni Ramirez were given an assignment in their advertising class — create an idea that uses technology to connect customers to a brand. The result of this project extended beyond the classroom walls and has encouraged a wider conversation about inclusivity and diversity. Carlson knew he wanted this project to focus on the deaf community because of his deep admiration of American Sign Language and deaf culture — a respect he gained while serving an ASL mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and working as an ASL teaching assistant for BYU. During the brainstorming phase, Carlson proposed to Rasmussen and Ramierez that they use the idea of Apple’s Animoji technology and add the ability to depict hand movement. This would allow users who couldn’t previously use the feature to have access to Animoji technology in a new, exciting and personalized way. In addition to using this for their class project, the team decided to enter ‘Handimojis’ into the Future Lions advertising competition. The challenge for the competition was to “connect an audience of your choosing to a product or service from a global brand in a way that wasn’t possible three years ago.” ‘Handimojis’ fit the goal of the competition, so they decided to make the April 15 deadline. When the team presented the idea of ‘Handimojis’ to their BYU class, they were met with hesitation as many people were under the assumption that it would be impossible for deaf users to be able to hold their phone and use ‘Handimojis’ at the same time. However, the team explained that deaf people already use just one hand when video chatting on the phone. The new feature could be easily integrated into the existing culture. The team enlisted the help of Britta Schwall, a member of the Salt Lake Deaf Community, to sign in the one minute and 15 second video clip. After they finished shooting the footage of Schwall and others from the Salt Lake Deaf Community, there was still an integral part missing — the animation for the ‘Handimojis’ hands. This task proved to be the most challenging aspect of bringing ‘Handimojis’ to life. The three advertising students knew what they wanted but didn’t have the skills themselves to execute the 3D graphics for ‘Handimojis.’ As the team hurried to find someone to do the animation before the upcoming competition deadline, they turned to the Department of Design and its animation students. They eventually got in contact with Emily Ellis, who had just learned in her animation class the exact skills and techniques that would be required to complete the ‘Handimojis’ idea. “Emily was the answer to our prayers,” said Carlson. “With four days until the deadline, she pulled off some kind of magic. Seeing her animation was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen — it was exactly how we imagined it.” Rassmussen took Ellis’ animations and added them into the video only hours before the Future Lions competition deadline. Although the team’s idea didn’t advance in the competition, the team felt proud of their work and commitment to include a group of people that had previously been excluded from using Animojis. Schwall asked the team for permission to share their video on her Facebook to show what she had helped with. While the post was initially intended for Schwall’s immediate family and friends, the post now has over 48k views and 800 shares. Many of the comments on the post ask if ‘Handimojis’ is available for download or mention they weren’t able to find it in the App Store. While this app hasn’t been picked up by Apple, these comments show high interest and appreciation for this idea created by BYU students. “Seeing how the Deaf community reacted to it was more fulfilling than winning any award,” said Carlson. “It was a reminder to me why I first got involved with advertising — there's so much good and positive change we can be a part of.” Read additional coverage at ABC4.

BYU professor Diane Reich accompanied three students to a national vocal competition Members of the BYU School of Music made a favorable impression on and off the stage at the annual Classical Singer National Convention Competition, which took place in Chicago at the end of May this year. The Classical Singer National Convention Competition is a multi-round elimination contest for both students and non-students. BYU students Josie Larsen, Abigail Yingling Ketch and Courtney Lawson competed in this year’s convention. All three passed the preliminary round, qualifying them to continue to the national round. “Any opportunity to perform, get feedback and experience the discipline of the profession is very valuable,” said vocal performance professor Diane Reich. “Classical Singer Music (CSMUSIC) is one of the prominent organizations for rising singers in our country. Our students were seen by numerous universities and vocal programs — exposure which could be beneficial after their studies at BYU.” Reich and fellow BYU vocal performance professor Darrell Babidge mentored the three students and supported them as they competed against some of the top classical singers in the country. “I know how hard these students work all year long, so it was wonderful to see them apply their training in a competitive situation — and do well,” said Reich. Read the rest of the story at music.byu.edu.

Assistant stage manager Susan Kupferer discusses lessons learned on tour

Students from the BYU School of Communications and the Department of Design competed in an event hosted by one of the most prestigious graphic design and advertising organizations in the world BYU design and advertising students dominated at The One Club for Creativity competition held each year in New York City — considered to be one of the top international award competitions for advertising and graphic design students. While the categories for these awards are vast, recognition in even one category showcases excellence in creativity and is a high honor. Collectively, BYU took home a new school record of awards during this year’s One Club for Creativity competition. Six advertising students and one graphic design student received gold for their portfolio submissions — more than any other university. To win a portfolio award, students must submit their best pieces in a portfolio as a single unit, which the judges — approximately 10 industry leaders from various artistic specialities — will look at collectively. This year, The One Club for Creativity reported that there were 8,751 portfolios submitted from designers in 45 different countries. From these submissions, the judges chose 14 gold winners from diverse disciplines, half of which were BYU students. “The portfolio competition in particular is held in such high esteem because they are not just recognizing one piece in your portfolio, but your entire body of work,” said Alexa Spiroff, an advertising student. “To be a portfolio winner means the judges are acknowledging that every piece of work in your book is award-winning.” Cam Tribe and Sara McLaws won for advertising. Connor Dean, Jedediah Thunell, Bentley Rawle and Alexa Spiroff won for film and TV commercials. Laura McNeill won for graphic design. In addition to the seven golds won by BYU students for portfolios, four individual advertising projects won gold, three won silver and one won bronze. They also won five gold cubes, two silver cubes and one bronze cube in the ADC Awards category. In the One Show category, BYU advertising students won one gold pencil, one silver pencil and three merit awards. McCall Keller, another BYU graphic design student, won a bronze cube for his redesign of King Kong Magazine. Nineteen advertising and graphic design projects were merit winners — all contributing to the competition’s ultimate ranking of BYU as the #2 program in the world. BYU advertising professor Jeff Sheets, who is a board member and judge for the One Club for Creativity, was asked to present the portfolio awards and give students their awards on stage. “It was a very fulfilling moment for me personally to be able to present so many awards to our very own BYU students,” said Sheets. “I had witnessed first-hand all of their hard work and creative determination.” Winning such a prestigious award can help students put their names out there and launch their professional careers after they leave BYU. “The One Club is really well known across the graphic design and advertising communities, so to be able to have that on my resume would really help with validating my work,” said McNeill. “I think even the networking that can happen from it is valuable.”