Visual Culture Lecture Series 2024 - 2025
All events are free and open to the public
Tuesday September 17, 2024 | Dawn Mikkelson | Film Maker | 6pm in Montague 80
3-time Emmy Award winning producer, and 2010 McKnight Filmmaking Fellow, Dawn Mikkelson’s work has broadcast and screened internationally. 2023/2024 American Film Diplomacy Program (US State Department & USC School of Cinematic Arts) participant and finalist of the Project Greenlight Digital Studios and Seed&Spark Untold Story Crowdfunding Rally, festival screenings of Mikkelson's films include: Doc Edge, Cinequest, DOC NYC, Cucalorus, Sound Unseen, Newport Beach Film Festival, and Mill Valley Film Festival. Broadcast includes PBS and the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Mikkelson has completed seven award-winning independent feature documentaries, Minnesota Mean (2023), Finding Her Beat (2022), Risking Light (2018), The Red Tail (2009), Green Green Water (2007), THIS obedience (2003), and Treading Water: a documentary (1999).
Tuesday October 1, 2024 | Adrien Segal | Sculptor | 6pm in Montague 80
Adrien Segal is an artist based in Oakland, California. Drawing from landscape, science, history, emotion, and perception, her interdisciplinary work bridges the gap between scientifi c rationality and the emotional nature of human experience. Her work has been exhibited internationally since 2007 and is published in several books and journals. She has been awarded Artist Residencies across the US, Canada, and Europe, and was the US-UK Fulbright Scholar at the University of Dundee in 2022. Adrien teaches art and design at the University of San Francisco and at California College of the Arts where she received her BFA, and she works out of a shared workshop in Alameda, California.
Tuesday October 15, 2024 | Alumni Panel | Art Education BFA Majors | 6pm in Montague 80
Rob Quisling
In the last 30 years as an artist I've created work around mental health issues, neighborhoods, sport, play, and knots with a continuous thread of exploring how people make and sustain connections.
My connections to our art community started with an exhibit at the Duluth Art Institute in 1997 called Neighborhoods. Since then, as I met and worked with more and more artists, I discovered that we are all trying to solve a riddle or process information by making images. Our museum directors, gallery owners, teachers, patrons, and artists have encouraged me to use this way of thinking for the good. Since then I have been supported to go back to school and become an art teacher myself. By using our shared language about images and symbols I have a great tool for overcoming hurdles. I can always count on reinforcement and developmental progress from my fellow artists and they also help change the way we see.
Christina Boynton
I teach elementary visual art in beautiful Duluth, Minnesota. I received my degree and teaching license from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and received my Masters in Art Education from Eastern Illinois University. Overall, I have over 10 years of experience teaching K-12th grade students. I had a 6 year pause from teaching to raise my two wonderful daughters who I stayed home with and I will always cherish that time I had with them during their early years. As an educator my goal is to inspire and nurture creative thinking in children. My students come to art class excited and ready to jump into projects because they know they will be able to experiment, get messy and use their creative energy. I believe art is an essential part of a child's education and I strive to provide a quality art education for all students.
Chrissy Valento
Chrissy Valento is from Blaine, MN, but attended the U of Minnesota-Duluth, and has now lived in Duluth for over 35 years. Chrissy has two grown children, both in college, and is married to Rick Valento, who is a mental health therapist. Chrissy has been teaching for over 30 years, and has taught all grades preK-12, adults via Community Education and the Duluth Folk School, special education at Woodland Hills Academy and preschool aged children at the Benedictine Development Preschool. Chrissy’s passions lie with children, the arts, and travel.
Lucas Anderson
Thursday November 21, 2024 | William Franklin | Art History | 6pm in Montague 80
William "Billy" Gustavo Franklin (he/him/his) is an educator and an independent art curator. Franklin has curated more than a dozen exhibits locally and served as panelist reviewing applications for grants and artist-in-residence programs. He earned a Master of Liberal Studies with a minor in Art History from the University of Minnesota, his thesis work focused on the international scope of Surrealism. He is co-curator of the upcoming exhibit Latina and Latinx Minnesota: Re/claiming Space in Times of Change which will take place at The Catherine G. Murphy Gallery at St. Catherine University from September 7 to December 8 2024. Franklin is a part-time Educator at the Walker Art Center. He also teaches History of Design, Critical Thinking and Creativity at Dunwoody College of Technology.