Photo Spotlights

“Spirits Within,” a collaboration among Eastman School of Music professor Stephen Kennedy, dancers from FuturPointe Dance Company and RIT professor Marla Schweppe’s 3-D Digital Design students, was performed during the Rochester Fringe Festival on Sept. 21.

RIT’s state-of-the-art “green” facility, Golisano Institute for Sustainability, will serve as a center for sustainability research, technology transfer, education and outreach and will provide a showcase for green construction and design.

Isaiah Thomas himself made a surprise appearance at the 2012 Isaiah Thomas Awards honoring the American Antiquarian Society, a national research library that Thomas founded. He gave an impassioned history lesson on his life during the colonial period. He said: “It was in Nova Scotia that I first began fighting for the rights each American holds as inalienable. First I rallied against the Stamp Act and then later back in Boston for independency from Great Britain. My printing establishment was called the “sedition foundry.” In 1770, I began publishing a new newspaper for the middling class, entitled the Massachusetts Spy. It soon became the most widely read paper in all the colonies! In it I published the first eyewitness accounts of the battles of Lexington and Concord. I have always believed in a free and unfettered press. Should the liberty of the press be once destroyed, farewell the remainder of our invaluable rights and privileges!”

The Little Theatre (240 East Ave.) is the home venue for RIT during the inaugural First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival Sept. 19-23. Theatre, film, dance, music and art are among the offerings by RIT students and faculty. Gallery r, Christ Church and The Little Theater will feature presentations. For a complete list of RIT performances, go to www.rit.edu/fringefest. For more on the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, go to www.rochesterfringe.com.

RIT Provost Jeremy Haefner presented Ellen Dunlap, president of the American Antiquarian Society, with the 2012 Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing during a ceremony Sept. 20 in Worcester, Mass. The award is given annually to a person or an organization for outstanding contributions to the industry. Currently celebrating the 200th anniversary of its founding by the patriot printer and publisher Isaiah Thomas himself, the American Antiquarian Society is dedicated to preserving the legacy and advancing the mission of its founder. Its vast and highly accessible collection of history, literature and cultural documents spans the life of America’s people from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Thomas (in back) made an appearance at the event.

The Fall Community Service Fair took place on Sept. 19 in the Student Alumni Union lobby. Nonprofit agencies from the Rochester area provided students, faculty and staff with information on the types of services they provide and the volunteer opportunities available. Here, Emma Griffith, a fourth-year marketing student, learns about Foodlink from volunteer coordinator Tim Scott.

RIT students have partnered with residents in Rochester’s Marketview Heights neighborhood to create several gardens throughout the community. Through the University/Community Partnerships program in the College of Liberal Arts, RIT students educate neighborhood children about proper nutrition, where their food comes from, the benefits of growing their own food, and musical and artistic expression in the garden. In addition, all of the food cultivated in the garden is free to community residents. Here, RIT alumnus Cameron Hebda ’12 takes pride in educating youngsters about healthy eating. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=49344.

Taylor Deer, a fourth-year management student from Williamsville, N.Y., will lead the student community as the newly elected RIT Student Government President.

Among RIT’s contributions to the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival is AstroDance, a series of pieces related to astrophysics and the phenomenon of black holes. From left are Joseph Fox; Thomas Warfield, director of the NTID Dance Ensemble; and Nicholas Shaw. The festival runs Sept. 19-23 with AstroDance performing at 6 p.m. Sept. 22 at The Little Theatre. For more information on the festival, go to www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=49378.

The College of Liberal Arts’ Kern Lecture Series presented a talk on Sept. 13 by Jonathan Clancy, program director and American fine and decorative art faculty member at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Clancy presented “Crafting Modernism(s): American Studio Ceramics in the Post-War Period” in recognition of the Frans Wildenhain exhibit, running through Oct. 2 at Bevier Gallery and the Dyer Arts Center. Jonathan Schroeder, the Kern Professor of Communication at RIT, sponsored the talk.

RIT kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month on Sept. 13 with food, music, poetry and dance in the Fireside Lounge. Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Monica Kempsell Sears knew early on that she wanted to be an engineer and work in the field of nanolithography. The microsystems engineering doctoral student has taken that interest, first discovered in high school, into the research area of manipulating wavelengths of light. This focus area is one of the innovative ways being sought to integrate more transistors onto computer chips to meet the demand for increased storage, power and speed for today’s sophisticated technology. Read more at www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=49346.