The second annual festival held by the Mormon Arts Center will take place June 28-30 at Columbia University in New York City. The festival will help fulfill the Mormon Arts Center’s mission to display, perform and promote Mormon art. More than two dozen events will be featured, including a keynote address by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. BYU faculty and staff presenting at the festival include Christian Asplund from the School of Music, Amy Easton Flake from the College of Religious Education, associate librarian Trevor Alvord, Marin Leggat Roper from the Department of Dance, Lance Larsen from the Department of English, Jeff Parkin and Kelly Loosli from the Department of Theatre and Media Arts. The presenters will be joined by fellow Mormon artists from “Angola, Argentina, Canada, China, Kuwait, Spain, and across the United States,” according to Mormon Arts Center co-director Glen Nelson. A full list of events can be found here. A highlight of the festival will be a piano recital by professor Scott Holden from the School of Music. The performance, titled “A Century of Mormon Music,” will be held at the new recital space Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall. Holden will also perform a recital on BYU’s campus on June 26. Visit the Mormon Arts Center for more information.

Theatre and Media Arts professor Scott Christopherson’s documentary film, “The Insufferable Groo,” premiered at the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival which took place June 7-12 in Sheffield, England. The documentary focuses on Provo independent filmmaker Stephen Groo, who is known for his eccentric and passionate approach to making movies. Groo’s films, though small in scale and budget, have gained fans from industry professionals including Jared Hess, Jermaine Clement and Jack Black, the latter of which starred in Groo’s film “The Unexpected Race.” Read more about “The Insufferable Groo” in The Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Herald and Deadline.

For the second consecutive year, students from BYU’s AdLab have won best in show at the country's largest advertising competition.

The BYU AdLab team has been recognized by the One Club for Creativity, the 2018 Telly Awards and the American Advertising (ADDY) Awards. “The AdLab has won an unprecedented number of awards and continues to represent the best of BYU’s advertising program,” said Jeff Sheets, faculty advisor for the AdLab. The One Club for Creativity is a non-profit organization that promotes excellence in advertising. The One Club holds an annual conference called the Young Ones, which judges submissions from art and design schools and programs from around the world. The four categories are the Art Directors Club (ADC), One Show, Young Ones Portfolio and Client Pitch Competition. BYU won three gold, three silver and five bronze Young Ones Cubes as well as two merits from the Art Directors Club, which judges open briefs for Best Creative Work in Advertising. BYU won one silver and one bronze Young Ones Pencils and five merits for brief-based assignments for a client and social cause. BYU also won First Place in the Client Brief competition. BYU performed especially well in the Young Ones Portfolio competition, winning three Advertising portfolio awards and one Film/Television/Video portfolio award. The BYU AdLab was the only school awarded in each of these two categories and was ranked as the number one school for portfolio work. Overall, BYU was ranked as the second best program in the world. To see BYU’s award-winning work, visit the One Club website. The BYU AdLab also did well at the 2018 Telly Awards, which honors the best in commercial advertising for television and web. The AdLab won two Gold and one Bronze awards in the General-Student category for Online Commercials. The winning commercials were “Ooh La La” for La Croix, “One More Giant Leap” for GE and “Earth Day” Vivint Solar, all of which can be seen on the Telly Award website. Most recently, the American Advertising Federation recognized the BYU AdLab’s work at the American Advertising Awards, often called the ADDY Awards. The ADDY Awards are the largest advertising competition in the U.S. and aim to recognize the creative spirit of excellence in advertising. “One More Giant Leap” won Best of Show for Cinematography. The BYU AdLab also won five Student Gold and two Student Silver Awards. The full list of winners can be found here.

Combine elements from classic video games like Mortal Kombat and Guitar Hero, and you will see the recipe for success behind the new game developed by animation students called “Beat Boxers.” The project, which recently took home the top prize at the E3 College Game Competition, follows on the successes of past projects like Nokbak, Vanguards and Relic Hunter. The competition is held annually and students from the BYU Center for Animation are not strangers to the event. “This project was a massive undertaking,” said Vanessa Palmer, a recently graduated illustration student and art director over the game. “If our team wasn’t so supportive of each other, there is no way I could have balanced working on the game with classwork and graduation.” “Beat Boxers,” was a combined effort from students in the Department of Design, Department of Theater and Media Arts, and Department of Computer Science. Read more about this story on news.byu.edu.

Y Digital, a student-run digital- and social-media agency, opened a year ago, with the goal of preparing BYU communications majors and minors for a digital-first professional world. And over the past year, more than 60 students have done social-media analytics, social-media listening, digital-media production, content creation and search-engine marketing for such real-world clients as Pepsi Co., Marriott International, Subaru and the NBA. 'The more society turns to the internet, the more we need people who are savvy with the internet and technology to produce work for companies,' said Adam Durfee, public relations instructor and the lab’s director. And he’s passionate about helping students become savvy. “We have a whole range of skills — advertising, strategic messaging, writing, pitching, design and video — we help students put together to coexist online. That great writing is nothing without great visual. That great video is nothing without great targeting. Those are the connections we want them leaving with.” Read the rest of the story on news.byu.edu.

BYU's new digitial and social media agency has students completing real-world work for such clients as Pepsi Co. and Subaru.

The all-female a cappella group released a music video of their new arrangement of “You’ll Be in My Heart” to pay tribute to maternal love.

BYU illustration professor Robert Barrett spoke at the BYU Devotional on Tuesday, May 8. He focused on the importance of preparation, not just in art, but in all aspects of life. “The Lord expects His children to do their homework on a problem, consider the options, and then make a decision,” said Barrett. “Then, and only then, are they able to take their decisions to the Lord and ask Him if what they have decided to do is right.” Visit BYU News to read more about Robert Barrett and the May 8 devotional.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performed with Chick Corea at BYU

Advanced theatre students attended a workshop taught by Shakespearean actor Chris Donnelly focusing on character motivations and acting from moment to moment

Visiting artists included LDS portrait painter Casey Childs and graphic designer Brian Collins