From a young age Shawna Calder Tenney (BFA ’04) has given life to her imagination through art—be it drawing, ballet, or music. Ample library time, her mother reading to her, and a love of fairy tales turned her interest particularly toward picture-book illustration. Today, as a BYU illustration grad, Tenney is telling stories of her own, like Brunhilda’s Backwards Day. a children’s book published by Sky Pony Press in 2016. The story, about a witch who learns that being kind can be more fun than being mean, “came from a game called Opposite Witches I’d play with my friend , where everything we did was opposite,” says Tenney. Read more at magazine.byu.edu

A new building will soon make its campus debut, starring BYU’s globally acclaimed School of Music. The BYU Board of Trustees approved the construction of a 170,000-square-foot building in the south end of the parking lot east of the J. Reuben Clark Law School. The new building will house the university’s music programs. The School of Music is currently located in the Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center (HFAC), which is also home to four other departments—and is the most-used academic building on campus. The new Music Building will free up space and bring music students above ground, out of the HFAC basement labyrinth of music classrooms and practice rooms. See the full article by Erin Johnston at magazine.byu.edu.

A solo exhibition in a reputable museum is something that few artists ever achieve, usually only after years of work. But for BYU art student Rachel A. Henriksen (’20), the opportunity found her. The offer came from Jared Steffensen, director of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), after he saw one of her drawings in the Bountiful Davis Art Show. “It was a huge honor,” says Henriksen. “That doesn’t happen; you usually have to apply. I was on cloud nine.” Henriksen’s show Knew/New recently closed after several months on display in the UMOCA.Read the full article by Erin Johnston at magazine.byu.edu.

Each year for the past five years, students at BYU’s Center for Animation have been tasked with creating an entire video game from concept to finished product. This spring, the latest team made history by creating the first game to win first place in two different categories at the Intel University Games Showcase.

BYU Art alumni Jane Christensen and Bryan Hutchison have been named by the Utah Division of Arts & Museums as visual arts fellows for 2020. As two of four Utah artists awarded this recognition, Christensen and Hutchison each received $5,000 to support their careers. “These fellowships are intensely competitive,” said Art Department Chair Gary Barton. “Jane and Bryan represent a long list of BYU alumni who have received this prestigious award over the years.” For Hutchison (BFA ’13), whose work spans various mediums and formats— including photography, installation, sculpture, sound and video — the fellowship feels like a stamp of approval. Read the full article by Abby Weidmer at art.byu.edu.

TMA student Sophia Acedo shares how an experiential learning opportunity has enhanced her time at BYU

Tessa Ostivig, who graduated in April 2020, reflects on her time at BYU

“There were puffins flying off the edge of the cliff,” says photography major Sylvia Busteed Magleby (BFA ’20), who worked feverishly to capture Múlafossur Waterfall and the Faroe Islands village of Gásadalur behind it, bathed in fading golden-hour sunlight. She carefully balanced her camera on the wooden stem of a fence to take the snap, bracing against the chilly seaside winds. “This image captures the magic of the Faroe Islands,” says Magleby. “I did not know such a beautiful place existed.” Read more at magazine.byu.edu

How campus went quiet, yet BYU continued on, during the coronavirus pandemic Day by day—and sometimes hour by hour—elements of the BYU experience were suddenly shifting, disrupting everything from budding relationships to Sunday meetings to major university events, including BYU Women’s Conference and April graduation ceremonies—both canceled. All NCAA competition was suspended. Meanwhile professors and campus IT personnel scrambled to take BYU entirely online by Wednesday, March 18. Many faculty turned to the video program Zoom to stream or record instruction, innovating new ways to teach hands-on subjects like dance, music, and nursing or to simulate lab research remotely. Read the full article by Michael R. Walker at magazine.byu.edu.

Lexi Nilson and two others created the book “Jane Was Here” using funds received from a Laycock Grant while students at BYU

Shreenan’s project was inspired by a 2019 visit to the Color Factory Interactive Museum in New York City

As a senior graduating in design with an emphasis in photography, Mario Alcauter knows that a great photo is all about perspective. For his senior capstone project, Alcauter created a photography exhibit titled “La Línea” or “The Line” when translated from Spanish to English. Alcauter’s photos, taken at the international border between San Ysidro, California and Tijuana, Mexico, capture the humanizing details of the immigration progress. Alcauter hoped the exhibit would spark discussion on how borders can divide us. “People were becoming very polarized on the subject of immigration,” said Alcauter. “Either you loved it or hated it, and I wanted to give it a different perspective. It’s about trying to empathize and humanize people instead of making them into numbers and statistics.” This project is especially personal to Alcauter. At the tender age of six, he immigrated to the United States from Mexico, and because of his experience, Alcauter understands the unique struggles with immigration. Alcauter grew up in Visalia, California. As a teenager, he was introduced to Brigham Young University through the Summer of Academic Refinement (SOAR) program–a five-day college preparation program for multicultural students. Alcauter enjoyed the campus environment so much that he decided he wanted to study at BYU. Read the full article by Brenna Seeman at news.byu.edu.