Photo Spotlights

RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences is hosting the Rochester-Finger Lakes Middle and High School Community Exhibit at Bevier Gallery through Feb. 29. The exhibition features 232 student art submissions—chosen for display by 120 teachers in 40 area schools across the Rochester-Finger Lakes region—from Webster Schroeder to Rush-Henrietta to Wayland-Cohocton.

Members of the RIT/NTID Dance Company perform “Off the Wall” Feb. 9-12 in the Robert F. Panara Theatre at NTID. Tickets for the show, directed by Thomas Warfield, are $5 to $7 and are available at the NTID box office.

More than 40 paintings by Francis Marion Tuttle (1839-1910), a 19th century deaf artist from Geneva, N.Y., are on view at the Dyer Arts Center through March 2. A reception and talk by Diane Gutierrez is 3:30-5:30 p.m. Feb. 8. Interpreters provided.

RIT’s Freeze Fest weekend Feb. 3–5 featured comedian Donald Glover, best known for his role as Troy Barnes on the NBC sitcom Community.

The Center for Campus Life helped bring the mountain to RIT this winter during the annual Freeze Fest. Students enjoyed Snowzilla, an 80-foot-high inflatable tubing slide, complete with a bounce house underneath.

The cultural organizations of RIT educate and entertain audience members through dance, fashion shows and singing at Global Union’s Unification. As main event at Freeze Fest 2012, Unification allows students and the public to learn more about RIT’s cultural diversity through performances. Global Union is a major student organization that represents international students and cultural organizations at RIT.

Lorraine Justice, dean of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, at “A Celebration of Innovation” Feb. 3 in the Vignelli Center for Design Studies’ University Gallery. The event was part of the Office of the Vice President for Research’s monthly celebration of scholarship conducted by RIT faculty and students. The event included exhibits highlighting innovative work by sculptors, craft makers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers and sign language performers, and it featured the work of world-renowned arts alumni, including the seven graduates who have received Pulitzer Prizes for photography.

Scottsville Veterinary Adoptions brought puppies to campus for a Freeze Fest event on Feb. 3. Paulina Evoy, left, director of College Activities Board, and CAB member Avis Lyons, right, hold two of the shelter dogs. CAB member Rachael Bisbo and student Wade Fuller look on. For more information on pet adoption and volunteer opportunities, go to www.petadoption.cc/index.htm.

The annual Freeze Fest celebration on campus is Feb. 3-5. Photo ice crystals and hot chocolate were offered in the Student Alumni Union. Here, Phoenix Walter, a fourth-year student in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, shows off her likeness in a cube.

Sebastian Seung, professor of computational neuroscience and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, captivated a standing-room-only crowd in RIT’s Webb Auditorium Feb. 2 as the featured speaker for the Caroline Werner Gannett Project’s “Visionaries in Motion” series. Seung’s research has spanned the fields of neuroscience, physics and bioinformatics and he is currently mapping out a new model of the brain that focuses on the connections between each neuron that he calls our “connectomes.” Guests were able to “connect” with Seung one-on-one after the talk during a book-signing event and reception.

Scott Franklin, RIT professor of physics, co-wrote Explorations in Physics: An activity-based approach to understanding the world. The class won an award for Inquiry Based Instruction from Science Magazine.

RIT students had the opportunity to speak with Søren Stærmose Feb. 1 when he visited Michael Sarnowski’s “Worlds of Writing” class in Liberal Arts Hall. Stærmose was the producer of the film adaption of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” based on the Swedish novels written by the late Stieg Larsson. As part of a whirlwind tour of the United States, Stærmose addressed the university and Rochester communities at a talk in Carlson Auditorium.