Fourteen awarded fellowships to further artistic development

The Office for the Arts (OfA) at Harvard and the Office of Career Services (OCS) recently announced the 2007-08 recipients of the Artist Development Fellowship. This program supports the artistic development of students demonstrating unusual accomplishment and/or evidence of significant artistic promise.

The Council on the Arts, a standing committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, awarded 14 fellowships for the 2007-08 academic year. Council on the Arts members at the time of selection were Julie Buckler (chair), professor of Slavic languages and literatures and director of graduate studies; Elizabeth Bergmann, director, OfA dance program; S. Allen Counter, director, Harvard Foundation; Deborah Foster, senior lecturer in folklore and mythology; Jorie Graham, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory; Cathleen McCormick, program director, OfA; Jack Megan, director, OfA; Nancy Mitchnick, Rudolf Arnheim Lecturer on Studio Arts, Visual and Environmental Studies; Robb Moss, Rudolf Arnheim Lecturer on Filmmaking and director of undergraduate studies; Robert J. Orchard, managing director, Loeb Drama Center, and the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.); Carol Oja, William Powell Mason Lecturer on Music; Marcus Stern, associate director, A.R.T. and the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training; and John Stewart, senior preceptor in music.
THE 2007-08 ARTIST DEVELOPMENT FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS

Alexander Berman ’10 has been awarded a fellowship for a documentary of the Kamchatka peninsula in Siberia from the perspective of the rangers of Kronotsky Park. Berman, a Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) concentrator, has worked on several documentaries, including “Russians,” in which he followed experimental director Arkady Prauding and his production of the play “Russians in Chicago,” in St. Petersburg. Berman plans to pursue a career in filmmaking.

Malcolm Campbell ’10 has been awarded a fellowship to study jazz piano with legendary faculty and world-class musicians at the Aspen Jazz Snowmass Summer Workshop in Aspen, Colo., and the Stanford Jazz Residency in California. Campbell is a chemistry and physics concentrator. He is a 2006 recipient of an Outstanding Musicianship Award from New York City’s Essentially Ellington Festival, as well as a 2005 and 2006 Outstanding Soloist Award recipient from Boston’s Berklee Jazz Festival. Campbell plans to pursue a career in jazz performance and composition upon graduation.

Kristy Carpenter ’10 has been awarded a fellowship for the creation of a photography book depicting Bronson, Mich. Through this project, Carpenter aims to capture the essence of rural life in the Midwest and preserve the changing aspects of the particular town in which she grew up. Carpenter, a VES concentrator, is currently photo editor for Harvard Yearbook Publications. She hopes to purse a career in photography and design.

Lisandra (Lia) Costiner ’08 has been awarded a fellowship for the full-time pursuit and development of a painting practice, in addition to the continuation of her senior art project, in which she explores the subject of animal hybrids through the use of traditional painting media. A VES concentrator, Costiner (who is fluent in Romanian and French) founded an international volunteer program through the United Planet Organization in Boston to assist a Romanian orphanage. She plans to pursue a career in painting or art conservation.

Giancarlo Garcia ’08 has been awarded a fellowship to study clarinet performance with Sabine Meyer in Lubeck, Germany. A physics concentrator and principal clarinetist of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra since 2004, Garcia has performed in esteemed summer music festivals such as Banff Music Centre, Brevard Music Center, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He hopes to attend graduate school at a major conservatory, audition for orchestral positions, and pursue a career as a freelance clarinetist upon graduating from Harvard.

Emily Kaplan ’08-09 has been awarded a fellowship to write and illustrate a book for children. As part of this endeavor, Kaplan plans to take a course on illustrating children’s books at the Rhode Island School of Design. A social anthropology concentrator, Kaplan has taken several courses in the VES and English departments, including courses in hybrid drawing, figure drawing, and fiction writing. After graduation, Kaplan hopes to become a first-grade teacher and professor of early childhood education, as well as a writer and illustrator.

Roland Lamb ’08 has been awarded a fellowship to create an installation that will deconstruct and suspend a working automobile and render its parts into texts. A self-published jazz musician and the founder and director of Art Night: A Forum for Art and Ideas, Lamb was awarded several grants for his research project “Imprisoned by Nothing: Binary Technologies of Representation and Comparative Philosophy,” including an Asia Center Summer Research Grant, a Center for European Studies Summer Research Grant, and a Dean’s Research Award. A comparative literature concentrator, Lamb plans to study cross-cultural comparative philosophy upon graduation, as well as continue his practice as an artist.

Eden McDowell ’08, a VES concentrator, has been awarded a fellowship to continue her study and exploration of two series of paintings, one of which she hopes to expand into a public art installation. McDowell will travel to various states to follow large planned protests as part of her project. She has taken courses on learned drafting, traditional modeling, and 3-D computer modeling, and her artwork was selected for student shows at the Carpenter Center in 2007 and 2004. McDowell hopes to pursue a career in visual arts, and is also interested in teaching environmental art.

Merritt Moore ’10 has been awarded a fellowship to spend a year studying dance with the Zurich Ballet Co. A physics concentrator, Moore performs with the Harvard Ballet Company and has performed principal roles in “Apollo” by Balanchine and “Sinatra Suites” by Twyla Tharp, as well as a solo by Trey MacIntyre. Moore plans to incorporate her dance experiences with research in physics.

Daniel Pecci ’09 has been awarded a fellowship for attendance at three major international theater festivals, including Avignon in France, Holland Festival in the Netherlands, and Edinburgh in Scotland, under the guidance of Gideon Lester and the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.). An English and American literature and language concentrator, Pecci has acted in, written, and directed several plays during his time at Harvard. He serves on the board of President Drew Faust’s Task Force on the Arts as well as on the executive board of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club. A winner of the 2006 Phyllis Anderson Prize for Playwrighting, Pecci plans to pursue a career in theater as an actor, writer, and director.

James Powers ’08 has been awarded a fellowship to continue a series of paintings of industrial scenes in Boston and agricultural landscapes in Minnesota. Powers is the current vice president of the Harvard Lampoon and has illustrated covers and contents for such on-campus publications as the Harvard Lampoon, Harvard Cinematic Review, Harvard Salient, and The Harvard Crimson. A government concentrator with a secondary field in VES, Powers also received a commission to execute three paintings of Longfellow Bridge in 2007.

Timothy Reckart ’09 has been awarded a fellowship to participate in a summer internship at a commercial stop-motion animation studio. A history and literature concentrator, Reckart has written, directed, and animated several short films, and has interned with Aardman Animations in Bristol, United Kingdom. Reckart is an editor and writer for Harvard Cinematic Review, and plans to pursue work in stop-motion animation after graduation.

David Rice ’10 has been awarded a fellowship for the development of a Web-based multimedia project called The Gloaming, which seeks to combine writing, animation, music, and computer programming to artfully represent and explore a brain’s thought processes. Rice has worked in Tokyo with Oscar-nominated animator Koji Yamamura, and Rice’s animated film, “Nettalk,” was an official selection at the Sitges International Film Festival in Sitges, Spain, in the summer of 2007. This film will be shown at both the Melbourne and Auckland film festivals this spring. At Harvard Rice is pursuing a special concentration. After graduation, he hopes to work for a magazine or small film studio while continuing his own creative writing and filmmaking.

Mimi Yu ’08 has been awarded a fellowship to participate in two major string competitions — the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Competition and the Naumberg Foundation International Violoncello Competition in memory of Mstislav Rostropovich. Yu was the winner of the Taiwan National Cello Competition and performed the Schumann cello concerto in Kaohsiung Concert Hall at the age of 14. In 2005, Yu was selected by Yo-Yo Ma to perform with the Silk Road Project Ensemble at Sanders Theatre. An economics concentrator, member of the Brattle Street Chamber Players, and director for Winthrop Music Society, Yu plans to perform cello professionally after graduation.

The OfA supports student engagement in the arts and serves the University in its commitment to the arts. Through its programs and services, the OfA fosters student art-making, connects students with accomplished artists, integrates the arts into University life, and partners with local, national, and international constituencies. By supporting the development of students as artists and cultural stewards, the OfA works to enrich society and shape communities in which the arts are a vital part of life. The OCS supports all students and alumni of Harvard College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in exploring and making effective career and educational choices. OCS also supports a limited number of Division of Continuing Education students.