Crafting Tutus

Utah State students learn the art of tutu making

By Ford Rasmussen

It’s not a common skill, but costume design students at the Cain College of the Arts are learning to make tutus from a visiting professional designer this week.

Travis Halsey is a professional designer who has designed and created costumes for television, film, ballet and other forms of live performance. Halsey said he is teaching the costume design students how to make tutus because it’s a craft “that’s not as accessible” these days.

“It’s something that a lot of people knew how to do,” Halsey said. “But now those people are in their 80s.”

Halsey said although the tutu “doesn’t look like much,” there’s a lot that goes into it “to make it look good on stage.”

Cortney Millecam and Daniel Carter are two of the students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in theater with an emphasis in costume design. They said the amount of fabric they need to make one tutu totals more than 100 feet.

“It’s not really hard,” Millecam said. “It’s just time-consuming.”

The students began making the tutus on Wednesday and are on schedule to finish them Saturday.

Learning to make tutus “was definitely worth the time,” Carter said. He said Halsey had passed "very valuable information, so willingly.”

Art Gallery Closed

Utah State art galleries are closed this week
By Ford Rasmussen

Utah State University art galleries remained closed due to a scheduling error when the campus reopened after the holiday weekend.

The Cain College of the Arts had on its calendars a photography exhibit to be on display Feb. 20 through 24. The gallery doors were supposed to be opened at 11 a.m. today, but they never were.

Staff assistant Becky Winstead, who coordinates the galleries, said it was “just a miscommunication.” The galleries are reserved far in advance, but Winstead never heard back from whoever made the reservation. There was no exhibit produced for this week.

Winstead said that the Projects Gallery was repainted after the previous exhibit was taken down. The galleries are usually fixed up between shows, but now there is extra time to clean up any remaining nail marks or scuffs on the walls.

Both the Projects Gallery and the Readymade Gallery will remain closed until Monday. Both galleries will reopen next week as scheduled displaying a senior exhibition by Janet Hancock entitled “All Sixes.”

Nicholas Kristof

A man speaks on women's issues at Utah State
By Ford Rasmussen

A man addressed gender equality to a packed auditorium at 7 p.m. today in the Edith Bowen Laboratory School auditorium.

Nicholas Kristof is a New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. According to his biography, Kristof has traveled to more than 140 countries and lived on four continents. Today he came to Utah State to discuss gender equality.

Kristof said to his audience that his interest in women's issues began when he was in China. In reference to gender equality, he said it "will be the central moral challenge" going into the future.

Kristof's presentation was sponsored by the Center for Women and Gender at the Cain College of the Arts. Jerra Fowers is one of the two student office aides at the center. She said that according to her knowledge this is the first time a male speaker has addressed women's rights at Utah State.

"A lot of our audience has been women," Fowers said. She said that the word feminism has "kind of a bad stigma," but the center is about more than that.

"We say women's rights, but we're really gender equality," Fowers said.

Justin Wheeler is the other office aid at the center. Wheeler said that he used to be the only guy in the school's Perspectives club, a student run organization that is part of the Center for Women and Gender. The Perspectives club seeks to foment discussion on many human rights issues including gender equality, political participation, property rights and more.

Wheeler says he's seen more men get involved with the club recently. On Jan. 24 the club presented a documentary film called "The Empathy Gap." Wheeler estimated there were about 50 people who showed up to see the film. Half of them, he said, were guys.

"There are a lot of problems that are hard to talk about," Kristoff said to his audience today. "And if we don't talk about it, we can't make progress."

Three Sisters

Chekhov fills seats at Utah State

By Ford Rasmussen

Getting there wasn't easy but Utah State's theater department performed Anton Chekhov‘s “Three Sisters” to a packed house each day of its showing last week.

Rebecca Swan was one of the lead performers in the play. She said that this is the first time the school has done a performance by Chekhov.

According to Swan, Chekhov's work is very difficult. "It's the most human play I've ever done," she said. " It pushes us. Teaches us to grow."

The play was performed in the school’s Black Box Theatre, which is the size of a classroom. Leslie Brott, the director, said the cast of 16 posed a “very large staging challenge” for being performed in “so small a space.” 

For Swan, performing in a black box "took a little adjusting." As the actors came within close proximity to those in the audience "people would move their feet," Swan said.

Brott said the play fulfilled its mission to give the theater students an opportunity to work on translated text by an early theatrical modernist. Students also developed skills for playing in a large ensemble as the focus "rapidly shifted from one group to the next."

According to Ben LeVere, the manager of the Cain College of Arts Box Office, the play sold out every day except for three tickets Thursday.

Women's March Readymade Gallery

Women’s march builds momentum at Utah State

By Ford Rasmussen

The energy of the women’s march movement is drawing visitors to the Readymade Gallery at the Cain College of the Arts.

Madeline Walker, a third-year graduate student in sculpture at Utah State, was the lead curator for the new installation. Walker said that she wanted to “continue the momentum of the protests through participant signs, postcards, photos, and clothing.”

“We wanted to give people the opportunity to engage with these topics and take action here in Logan,” Walker said.

According to one of the gallery monitors, Esther Oluwalana, about 60 or 70 people have already been in to see the gallery. Oluwalana still had more posters to put around campus to let people know about it.

Those involved with the project had two weeks to curate the show between the time of the Women’s March on the Utah State Capitol and the opening of the gallery. Putting together a show in such short amount of time is uncommon, but Walker described it as a “great collaboration and process.”

Becky Winstead, a staff assistant at the college, is one of the many people who worked to prepare the gallery. The gallery has been open for only a few days, but Winstead said it has already received a lot more engagement than she expected.

“It’s a very difficult time for a lot of people,” she said. “I think they want to express that.”

There are two portions of the gallery that are interactive: Handmade postcards for Utah residents to get in touch with their congressional representative, and a display where visitors may write down their thoughts about the recent presidential election.

“We want to share this for students to feel empowered and part of the community,” Walker said. “This is intended for people to share the experiences they have had at recent protests to reflect a more common and collective experience.”

The installation is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Friday, Feb. 10.

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     -Ford Rasmussen

Jazz Nights Funding

USU Jazz Nights to raise funds for Elite Hall

By Ford Rasmussen

A portion of the proceeds raised from Utah State’s Jazz Nights this year will go toward the Elite Hall restoration project.

Elite Hall was built in 1916 to serve as a dance hall for the residents of Hyrum, Utah.

Sean Anderson is a member of the Elite Hall Restoration Committee. According to him, the committee has been raising money for about a year, but “they still need a lot more money,” he said. Anderson hopes that enough funds can be raised within a year.

Anderson speculated that Jazz Nights will attract around 200 people to Elite Hall.
Elite Hall is recently gaining popularity in the public’s eye according to Anderson. “The community is using it more,” Anderson said. “In December it was booked every weekend.”

Jazz Nights runs Feb. 9 to 11. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online or in person at the Caine College of the Arts Box Office.