Celebrate creativity with .ART, the premier domain for the global art community, as it marks six years since its launch and approaches a significant milestone of 300,000 registrations. With an impressive roster of users from prestigious art institutions and renowned brands—such as The Louvre, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Ars Electronica Festival, Bank of America Art Fund, Porsche, and many more—the platform’s consistent growth highlights its undeniable impact on the art world. Individual artists, art enthusiasts, and creative minds also flock to .ART, with “NameSurname.art” being among the most sought-after standard format for domain names.

Elevate your online presence with a premium .ART domain that stands out as a unique and artistic identifier. Examples of projects embracing the power of thoughtfully chosen domains include OG.ART, a platform curating collections of dynamic generative art; C2.ART, a full-service firm specializing in investment-level art; and NORTH.ART, a regional online art gallery and art news source for the North of the UK.

Embrace the digital revolution with the platform’s compatibility with Web3 and blockchain technology. More than 3,000 recently purchased .ART domains are related to NFTs and Web3, reflecting the growing trend. The platform offers matching ENS and DNS domains, bridging Web2 and Web3 platforms seamlessly. At PROTOCOL.ART, users can register the ENS name to complement their existing .ART website, allowing it to function as a web address and email, and they can even link to a wallet, NFT, or digital asset on Ethereum and other blockchain networks. With exclusive registration rights for the matching ENS name, domain owners can ensure a consistent and clear digital identity across Web2 and Web3.

Martin Lukas Ostachowski (MLO.ART) is a Canadian new media and crypto artist and crypto art historian who explores geometric abstraction and minimalism through both physical and digital mediums, often integrating blockchain technology

Notable creatives like contemporary artist and designer Ali Sabet (SABET.ART), new media artist and crypto art historian Martin Lukas Ostachowski (MLO.ART), and photographer and digital creator Yakob (YAKOB.ART) have already capitalized on the benefits of ENS-DNS integration.

By choosing .ART, you also contribute to the Art Therapy Initiative, which promotes the therapeutic benefits of art. Through this initiative, the platform has funded a fellowship in Art Therapy at George Washington University.

Embrace the future of digital creativity.

Discover and secure your ideal domain at get.art. Use code “COLOSSAL23” for a 50 percent discount on any domain’s first-year registration fee.

Ali Sabet (SABET.ART) is an Iranian American contemporary artist and designer who founded his own branding agency

Yakob (YAKOB.ART) is a photographer and digital creator who uses the Ethereum blockchain to showcase his work, combining photography and glitch art to create distinct and engaging pieces

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Future-Proof Your Digital Identity With a .ART Domain appeared first on Colossal.

Blockchain company Cosmos Group Holdings and Philippines-based tech company Smart Citi Teknologi have teamed up for a strategic partnership to use Cosmos’ knowledge of Art & Cultural Digital Ownership Tokens (DOTs) to accelerate Smart Citi Teknologi’s transition to the field of smart city solutions.

Smart Citi Teknologi has long been working on developing smart city solutions. The company offers a wide variety of services that facilitate the growth of inclusive, sustainable, and smart cities. Leveraging on Cosmos’s expertise in DOTs, Cosmos Group Holdings will provide Smart Citi Teknologi with services related to the creation of Art & Cultural DOTs for all tangible and intangible assets, which Smart Citi Teknologi will use solely for its Smart Cities Solutions. In order to develop a new services for their markets, the parties will also contribute their individual patented technologies. 

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Cosmos Group in particular specialises in Art & Cultural DOTs, specifically non-fungible tokens created by utilising distributed ledger technologies and non-fungible tokens (“NFT”) technology with a unique identifier to reflect digital ownership titles to a tangible or an intangible asset. They do this by embedding legally binding ownership documentation into the metadata of the DOT and securing such metadata on a blockchain.

The company differentiates itself from other market players by using DOTs that address rights and the title of ownership to a physical art or collectible piece that is underpinned by smart contracts stored on the blockchain. This advanced technology provides a better tool for authentication and ownership tracking of the arts and collectibles.

According to a statement made by Cosmos Group in 2022, the company announced the broadened use of DOTs to include pictures, sculptures, paintings, and a variety of collectibles created by a variety of artists in various places.

“We are excited to partner with Smart Citi Teknologi to bring the benefits of Art & Cultural DOTs to Smart Cities Solutions,” said Terry Lee, chief executive officer of Coinllectibles, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cosmos Group Holdings. “This partnership will enable us to expand our reach into new markets and provide our unique and innovative art and blockchain services and solutions to Smart Citi Teknologi,” he added.

Commenting on the partnership, Mario Marcos, president and founder of Smart Citi Teknologi, added, “Our goal is to develop Smart Cities Solutions that will improve the quality of life of citizens. The partnership with Cosmos Group Holdings allows us to leverage their expertise in Art & Cultural DOTs to provide comprehensive and efficient solutions to our smart cities markets, while also enabling us to contribute to the promotion and preservation of art and culture.”

As an initiative to further expand its reach to other sectors and raise awareness of DOTs, Cosmos Group also partnered with Apollo Arts Auctions back in January to present 5 ancient art pieces with DOTs. During the same month, the company joined forces with ART SG, one of Singapore’s inaugural art fair, to showcase more than 20 traditional and digital artworks, including its 3D autostereoscopic tablets which contained a digital ownership token of a specified artwork alongside the original prints from the artists.

Meanwhile, Smart Citi Teknologi’s continuous effort in exploring Smart Cities Solutions started a while ago. The company joined hands with China Information Technology Development Limited (CITD) back in April to develop mutually beneficial Smart Cities Solutions for the Asia Pacific region. Throughout the collaboration, CITD will give Smart Citi Teknologi access to its cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and software solutions, enabling the creation of ground-breaking Smart Cities Solutions for regulating harsh weather, pedestrian traffic, and public transportation.   

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It happened quickly. Within days of the slow roll of lockdown ordinances, it seemed the entire world moved online. Universities, non-emergency healthcare practitioners and large corporations alike learned how to virtually host meetings in an attempt to continue business as usual. Classical music organizations were no different.

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the value added by web publishing and streaming in the U.S. jumped by 14.3% between 2019 and 2020. In terms of music performance, what was once an added perk became imperative.

In Boston, Boston Baroque and Guerilla Opera jumped into the digital sphere experimenting with live streams, archival performances and on-demand digital offerings. But now, a week out from the end of the COVID-19 state of emergency on May 11, questions remain about whether or not musical performance organizations will continue to embrace the digital world.

Boston Baroque finds a niche online

For Boston Baroque, that answer is clear. Founded in 1973 by Martin Pearlman, it was the first permanent period instrument orchestra in North America; fittingly, it started as an experiment. Pearlman studied period instruments in Europe and assembled a group of musicians in Boston who would play on old-world instruments, like trumpets without valves and violins with catgut strings.

“You could think that pure period performance must mean that we are only looking at the past, but that is not the case,” explained Emily Weddle, Boston Baroque’s director of marketing. The organization tries to approach its work with timelessness, recreating environments where music might have been originally performed and presenting it in a way that reaches modern audiences. Boston Baroque is a small organization with seven administrative full-time employees, allowing them to be quick moving in comparison to some national groups. Long ago, they began prioritizing video and audio recordings for the archive.

Although the organization was ahead of the curve with archival recordings, when the pandemic began, Weddle’s job shifted dramatically. “Instead of being a director of marketing that was trying to sell tickets and get people into the concert hall, I shifted into being an executive producer of full-length concerts and operas,” she said.

The pandemic was a shock to the system for all of the arts, but it also created an opportunity for the acceleration of digital performance. Boston Baroque took action to secure licensing rights for past performances and started distributing content on YouTube and Amazon Prime. But first, they offered full-length concerts for free on their website before transitioning viewers to a paid rental. What they found was something remarkable: widespread interest from audiences all over the state — and country.

“That there was demand from an audience larger than what we could offer in a physical concert hall was just groundbreaking and absolutely would have never happened without COVID,” said Weddle. At the end of Boston Baroque’s 2020 season, which was cut short, they performed for less than 5,000 people, which is striking when compared to the over 12,000 people they reached in 2021. Much of this had to do with the digital content Boston Baroque released.

Since then, Boston Baroque has cut ties with the traditional subscription model. Now, if someone wants to buy a subscription, the orchestra offers one package that is entirely virtual. From there, buyers can decide if they would like to attend any shows in person — 41% of the organization’s subscribers this season are only tuning in virtually.

But this decision is not without challenges. The threshold for quality in digital performance is high. Matthew Principe, Boston Baroque’s director of live streams and artistic planning, was hired during the pandemic alongside a team of camera operators. His job consists of carefully following the gestures and tempo of Pearlman, the conductor, to produce high-quality video recordings.

“When you’re watching football or baseball or soccer, you just follow the ball, and your eyes will adjust whenever they cut to a different angle,” said Principe. “But here, you can’t follow the intangible emotion of music making.” However, they get close to it.

Beyond streaming, the organization has formed a relationship with GBH, which provides technology to record high-quality digital content and an intimate performance space. That, Weddle said, has made all the difference. Because of its location, “We’re seeing a lot more young people come to the concerts that we stream live in person at GBH,” said Weddle. Between an influx of new listeners at GBH, classical music lovers at Jordan Hall, a more traditional concert hall, and live performances, Boston Baroque’s trajectory is trending in a positive direction.

Principe pointed out, “The greatest beauty of everyone pivoting into the digital sphere is the democratization of accessibility, of information.” The access Boston residents have to leading performance art and classical music is rare. So for those outside of the metropolitan area, Boston Baroque performances can be a window into a niche sect of the genre. Individual live stream tickets are pay-what-you-can, starting at $9 — a low barrier to entry when compared to in-person prices, which range from $25-$175 depending on the performance.

“We really, finally, I think, listened to what our audiences were saying and allowed them full flexibility with deciding what kind of relationship they want with Boston Baroque,” said Weddle.

A new kind of streaming at Guerilla Opera

Guerilla Opera, an artist-run organization, was founded in 2007. They are a music ensemble that performs without a conductor or formal music director. Like Boston Baroque, they’re small, nimble and open to experimentation and change. “We’ve been doing this for 16 years, and in 16 years, we’ve championed over 30 composers with the works that we have in development,” said Artistic Director Aliana de la Guardia “We have 40 works that have either premiered or in the making and over 100 performances.” And they’ve been live streaming since 2013. Although, how they plan to offer digital performances in the future has been changed by the pandemic.

After watching the 2013 Philip Glass Walt Disney opera, “The Perfect American,” live streamed from Spain, de la Guardia imagined ways Guerilla Opera could introduce it. At the time, the organization was in residence at the Boston Conservatory. “I asked for it, and we let [The Boston Conservatory] test it through us,” said de la Guardia.

When things shut down, Guerilla Opera was in a good place to continue sharing work digitally because of its breadth of archival footage. And they were able to circumvent many of the regulations big organizations have when it comes to music rights and licenses.

“Everyone was game. They wanted Guerilla Opera to survive, and they wanted our audiences to have an opportunity to experience their work again,” said de la Guardia. “This gave not just our audiences, but new audiences and people who haven’t known us for that many years, the opportunity to see the history of our work.”

The organization experimented with how to offer virtual content during the pandemic. First, they offered a series called “Encore,” which offered free productions. Then, last year came The Guerilla Underground, a monthly streaming service. “We did a call for videos and we got submissions from all over the world and we called for videos that highlighted feminist work and underrepresented voices,” said de la Guerra. In the end, they had five guest artists presented alongside Guerilla’s own work.

After launching Guerilla Underground, their profits from ticket sales leaped. In its 2019 season, the organization made $1,100, and in 2022, they made $9,100. This increase can be partially explained by digital offerings, but they also implemented “community-centric” ticketing pricing, a pay-what-you-want model with tiered suggested admission prices, and saw an upswing in sales for live performances in terms of how much people were willing to pay.

But they came up against a central challenge in the digital world: building community. After private and public virtual trials, de la Guardia said Guerilla Opera has made a decision. In the future, their Underground series will be presented as a kind of virtual festival that features Guerilla’s performances and official selections from guest artists. It will take place just once a year.

“Because, for me, live streaming isn’t just about showing people our work, right? It’s about the community experience. It’s about what’s happening in the chat box,” she said.

De la Guardia’s dream is to host live viewings of performances in large theaters similar to the Metropolitan Opera. But regardless of how organizations move forward, she hopes people will continue to support the arts; classical music and otherwise. “Especially the small ones that work in your community, that create work using the artists that are in your backyard,” she said. “It really directly affects you. And your economy and your cultural economy.”

Boston Baroque and Guerilla Opera approach the future of live performance differently, but they want similar things. To share beautiful, cutting-edge art with listeners near and far. Although the beginning of the pandemic sounded a death knell for the performing arts, it also forced organizations to observe, reimagine and rebuild.

While discussing the future for Guerilla Opera, de la Guardia asked a prescient question, one that’s relevant to the entire arts landscape at this point in the pandemic: “In how many ways can a work have a life?”

The National Gallery Singapore has launched a new exhibition designed to take visitors on a journey back in time through the history of video installation art.

Following the success of its Nam June Paik: The Future is Now exhibition, the new free exhibition, titled See Me, See You: Early Video Installation of Southeast Asia, is a two-part series offering a fascinating look at the pivotal moments when video installation first emerged in the 1980s and 1990s.

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The exhibition brings to the forefront Southeast Asian artists from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore who have broken through conventional art forms of paintings and sculptures that were prevalent at that time.

Through experimentation, the artists combined installation, performance and audience participation together with video, leading to a new form of art as a result of their interdisciplinary approach.

To allow visitors to experience these works, the gallery commissioned the recreation of several of these iconic artworks, many of which have been forgotten and have not been exhibited for decades. The exhibition also highlights the new and ongoing challenges of preserving time-based media, ensuring that these pioneering video works are available for future generations to enjoy.

“As a dedicated museum to modern Southeast Asian art, we wanted to highlight the important contribution of pioneers of video art in Southeast Asian art history,” said Dr. Eugene Tan, the director of National Gallery Singapore.

“Video installation is commonly found in contemporary art and this exhibition demonstrates how the artists experimented with new video technology at the time, which was not as advanced as it is today. Through careful recreation and staging, these early video works are now available for visitors to experience. We hope that this exhibition will enable visitors to gain new perspectives on the evolution of modern art in Southeast Asia and better understand and appreciate the region’s artistic history.”

The exhibition will be located at the gallery’s Ngee Ann Kongsi Concourse Gallery and will feature five Southeast Asian artists with five video art installations in its first edition. 

Some of these works include Choose by Johnny Manahan which may be the earliest surviving video artwork in Southeast Asia with the artist being one of the first Filipino artists to experiment with video as a medium. The work highlights televisions’ association with mass entertainment and the challenge to focus on multiple screens at once. It continues to be relevant today where multitasking and constant stimulation are the norm and serves as a self-reflexive commentary on the medium of video and television through five video segments, showcasing the artist’s deep understanding of the medium from his work in the entertainment industry.

Another piece on display will be How to Explain Art to a Bangkok Cock by Thai artist Apinan Poshyananda who makes a return to the gallery with a 2019 version of Apinan’s early work that incorporates LCD screens showing digitised footage from the original video the artist had made. The artwork takes a satirical approach to the iconic Mona Lisa, with Apinan humorously explaining the painting’s images to chicks, chickens and turkeys. 

The exhibition will run from 5 May to 17 September with the second edition set to run from 13 October to 4 February 2024.

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The words we bring to art intend, at best, to translate the perceptual realm into the linguistic, anchoring sensation through definition. But, as we all know, that often doesn’t occur. The well known essay, “International Art English” by Alix Rule and David Levine skewers that premise, as does Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word (1975) nearly forty years earlier, and a decade before that Susan Sontag’s “Against Interpretation” resisted language’s simulacrum of art. So on, down the line. And yet, words also serve to support, promote, highlight, associate, and adore the art they describe.

Words appear for new practices, movements, and styles to expand appreciation and awareness. They necessarily limit in order to focus attention on specific elements and criteria. Adopted, they take on a life of their own. For well over two thousand years, the word “beauty” has been used and confused. It points at something, though no one, not even Plato or Kant (or should I say, no thanks to Plato or Kant), can confirm how or where beauty appears. When even the word “art” confounds, what are we to do? We hoist our attempts into the next sentence.

When art encounters technology, the language gets brackish as disciplines and histories converge. Just as some people sneer at art’s lingo, misunderstanding its unfamiliarity as obscurantism instead of observing an effort at specificity (let’s presume), so do many art audiences shrink from the terminologies associated with digital art. Or, should I say media art, or new media, or computer art, or virtual art, or art and technology…?

With so many emerging technologies, language proliferates. It gets co-opted by headlines and marketing efforts. To resist the inflections now attached to those terms, new words appear, or old ones revived. Curators, critics and scholars study the roots and contexts of these words to make sense of how they might be refreshed or why they should be abandoned.

I thought of this Critics Page as a symposium on the language of art and technology, inviting curators and scholars from around the world to contribute their perspectives by selecting a word they would like to never hear again or one they think important for this moment. It is a smattering of keywords with many more possible as our interests and concerns evolve.

There are definitely some words many of us despise, and Margaret Wertheim’s text about “the metaverse” aptly articulates the problem with the way the word was co-opted by corporate interests. There are no “neutral” practices, explains the longtime director of Postmasters Gallery, Magda Sawon. The legal trio of Yayoi Shionoiri, Sarah Conley Odenkirk, and Megan Noh ask about the emphasis on human touch that has percolated around issues of AI; this seems particularly relevant as we look back at the history of conceptual art, which often denied the necessity of the artist’s own hand in the process of making the work.

Such concerns naturally lead us to debate the aesthetic values we bring to art, which art historian and curator at the Buffalo AKG Tina Rivers Ryan considers in musing on her affective response to works of art. Just as Pop art responded to the visual culture of comic books, advertising, mass media, and consumer product design, we are challenged now to consider the influence of gaming, computer graphics, screen culture, social media, and the widespread access to and use of digital tools. We may want a space free of that bombardment, but its influence and critique is being expressed in art across all forms of media.

When and where are we looking at digital art? On our mobile device while in transit or standing in relation to a geolocated work? Passing by a shop or gallery window? Seated on a bench? Guided with instructions or figuring it out on our own? In a gallery, museum, fair? Display is the concern of Nxt Museum Director Merel van Helsdingen, as the curation of digital art continues to get negotiated as new practices demand new infrastructure or positioning. And yet, all this talk of new and different leads curators and theorists Ruth Catlow and Penny Rafferty to enter into a dialogue on the problems with innovation as the celebrated concept in the discourse. Mashinka Firunts Hakopian offers the word “ancestral” to shift just this kind of thinking.

Thinking historically leads professor Sarah Cook to converse with her PhD student Bilyana Palankasova on the shifts in the word “incubator” over the last couple centuries. The words we use produce contexts for thinking just as datasets establish worlds of knowledge and reference. Writer and curator Clara Peh examines the popular term “worldbuilding” and reminds us to consider what tools and whose data enable the world being designed. When audiences introduce expectations for greater specificity, we all have the chance to demand more equitable designs. That is the major concern of the anonymous collective Kanon, articulated through their essay on “community,” available in the online edition of this Critics Page.

So many words might have been added that could not fit in this limited context, though they often appear as a subtext to these essays: binary, code, decentralized, equity, and ethics, through to software, transparency, user, virtual, and so forth. The choice to invite curators and scholars stemmed from my own curiosity about how these people, who often anguish about how to express their research and intent, find the current conversation. Theirs is not the only perspective, so the Art and Technology column this month asked artists in media ranging from AR to sculpture to share words they have used or experienced in relation to their practice; confusion about art making is there, as is support. In the spirit of broadening the conversation, I hope readers will join us for the New Social Environment on this Critics Page and share the word that troubles or excites their engagement in art and technology.

The words we use matter, and so I close with the importance of the poetry of language, which appears in the haikus provided by independent curator Doreen A. Ríos. The haiku is a Japanese form of poetry with a strict requirement of five syllables for the first line, followed by seven in the second and returning to five in the last line. That discipline, however, is meant as a provocation beyond the terse language. A Zen practitioner years ago described it to me as kin to the koan. Both provide the opportunity for audiences to find themselves present. Certainly we need to be present to the developments and influences arising, fading, and fluctuating in art, technology, and the world around us.

Whether it’s starting a new business, writing a book, or achieving a lifelong dream, the Wildcat family continues to reach milestones. Alumni share professional and personal updates for spring 2023.

1970s

Steven T. Callan’s (Political Science, ’70) first novel, The Case of the Missing Game Warden, has been named a “Best First Novel” award finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Having published two non-fiction books beforehand, Steven’s third book tells the fictional story of a veteran Northern California game warden who confronts a gang of commercial duck poachers and then disappears in the winter of 1956. Thirteen years later, a rookie game warden named Henry Glance sets out on an adventure-filled quest to find him. Callan is a retired patrol lieutenant with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. He is currently editing his second novel in the Henry Glance series.

Peter Hovland (Physical Education, ’77) is set to retire this May after serving as head swimming and diving coach for the Golden Grizzlies at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, for more than four decades. During his tenure, the men’s team established itself as one of the country’s most elite programs, winning 44 consecutive conference championships. Peter also served as the women’s head coach for a total of 24 seasons, helping that team extend its own remarkable streak of 28-straight league titles. He was 23-time All-American and five-time individual national champion during his days as a student-athlete at Chico State, and was hand-picked to join the Grizzlies coaching staff. He has been inducted into Chico State’s Hall of Honor; the Chico State Athletic Hall of Fame; the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame; and the Summit League Hall of Fame; and he was named one of the 100 greatest swimming and diving coaches of the past 100 years by the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America.

Samuel Lankford (Geography, ’79; MA, Recreation Administration, ’81) and Jill (Knowles) Lankford (Recreation Administration, ’81) celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in October 2022. They met at Chico State in a recreation administration class, and 20 days after their marriage ceremony moved to Seoul, South Korea, to work in recreation for the Eighth US Army. They eventually moved to Oregon to attend the University of Oregon where Sam earned a master’s degree in urban planning and a PhD while Jill earned a master’s degree in urban planning and master’s degree in landscape architecture. What followed was a long teaching career for them both—10 years at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, 13 years at the University of Northern Iowa, and nine (and counting) years at Fresno State. Sam and Jill have published numerous books and articles throughout their long and adventurous careers, and they have raised two children.

1980s

Lisa Fitzgerald (Latin American Studies, ’80) has been elected governor for the Soroptimist Sierra Nevada region for the next two years. As region governor, Fitzgerald will serve as the top administrative officer for Soroptimist clubs in her geographical territory, which covers Northern California and Nevada. A member since 1996, Fitzgerald has held several leadership positions including governor-elect, district director, president, secretary, and various committee chair positions. She currently works as a marketing and event planning management consultant for Big Chico Creek Resources.

Robert Richards (Business Administration, ’80) is twice retired! First, in 2011 after serving as a Solano County reserve deputy sheriff, and then again in 2016 after working in compliance and internal controls for the Chevron Corporation.

Cornelius “Paul” Frydendal (Economics, Business Administration, ’81) has retired as a CPA and chief operating officer for Special District Risk Management Authority, a public entity risk pool. Paul lives in Sacramento with his wife, Jayanthi, and their two children.

James Leamon (Business Administration, ’89) retired in July 2022 from the Oregon Department of Transportation. James bounced around through a series of trainee positions before being hired as a consultant/contractor and then moving into a full-time role as a senior developer and database administrator and trainer. He is currently enjoying his retirement by taking “lots of photographs.”

Rich DeLong (Geology, ’80), a geologist, natural resource manager, and businessman, was elected to the Nevada State Assembly in November 2022. The republican will represent District 26 and sit on Legislative Operations and Elections, Government Affairs, and Natural Resources committees. After graduating from Chico State, Rich received master’s degrees in geology and resource management from the University of Idaho. He lives in South Reno with his wife, Julie, and teenage daughter.

Donald McGuire (Business Administration, ’89) has been named senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. In this new role, Donald will oversee all marketing and corporate communications, research, and analytics. He has over 25 years of marketing experience, including previous positions with Intel, Leap Wireless, and Sprint PCS. Donald has also attended an executive master’s program at Stanford University’s Schwab School of Business.

1990s

Todd Fitchette (Journalism, ’90) is the associate editor of Western Farm Press and has spent the last 10 years writing about agriculture and environmental issues in the West from his home in Arizona. He started his journalism career as a general assignment and beat reporter for several small-town newspapers in California and then transitioned to agricultural writing. Along the way, he earned a first-place photography award from the National Newspaper Association in “Spot News Photography,” and was lauded in 2021 by the Fresno County Farm Bureau for his agricultural coverage throughout the state.

Deborah Linggi (Journalism, ’92) is principal of executive and internal communications at Intuit, global financial technology platform.

Jef Huber (Attended, 1992-93) is the president and CEO of Worldwide Halo, Inc., owner of a variety of diverse travel organization entities, and the operator of Club Cruise, a luxury membership agency. He is also set to release a new media production later this year called The Travel Agency Show, which will offer an inside look into the travel industry. Among his proudest accomplishments are Jef’s two children, both Wildcats: Heather Huber (Attended, 2013–18) and Lance Huber (Business Administration, ’21).

Lois Ann Abraham (English, ’94; MA, English, ’96) published her second novel, Deborah’s Gift, in 2022—it is available at www.newwindpublishing.com. Her previous two books are Tina Goes to Heaven, a fictional account of escape from life in the sex trade, and Circus Girl and Other Stories, which includes a story for which she won first place from The Chico News & Review. Abraham taught composition, creative writing, early English literature, early American writing, and structure of English as a tenured professor at American River College, retiring in 2018.

Jennifer Kennelly (Psychology, ’94) received both master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology from Palo Alto University and now runs her private practice. She conducted therapy and psychological testing within schools, juvenile hall, child protective services, and with private members of the Chico community and the surrounding area for 14 years. At the end of 2019, Jennifer relocated back home to Santa Cruz where she lives with her college-aged daughters and conducts an exclusively telehealth practice.

Laurie Maurice (Sociology, ’94) has recently accepted a position as a paraeducator with the New Haven Unified School District in Union City. Previously, Laurie spent over 15 years working as a human resources administrator and analyst within the tech industry in the Bay Area before choosing to become a stay-at-home mom to spend more quality time with her daughter, Madeline. She is now enjoying working with students inside the classroom rather than from behind a desk, and is looking forward to making a meaningful difference in people’s lives with this new adventure.

Frank D. Treadway (Sociology, ’94) is a self-employed political consultant who coordinates local elections from the school board to the State Senate. Throughout his diverse career, he has helped to create strategies and budgets for over 30 political candidates; traveled to more than 33 countries; owned two businesses in Redding; and has worked as an independent travel guide. Frank received a master’s degree in school counseling from the University of La Verne.

For the last 15 years, Pamella Dana (social work, ’97) has served in leadership roles at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a Florida-based research institute engaged in artificial intelligence, robotics, sensory substitution, data mining, and related technologies. As chief external affairs officer, she works to expand the institute’s reputation while managing its relationships with government, corporate, and nonprofit partners. She previously served as director of the Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development— Florida’s senior-most officer responsible for programs and policies leading to economic growth—and was a founding member of Triumph Gulf Coast, a nonprofit tasked with distributing funds to recover from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

2000s

Alexis McDowel (Communication Studies, ’00) is vice president of global communications for Oura, a health technology company and maker of the “Oura Ring.” Since graduating, Alexis has led public relations for various well-known technology companies including Lucas Arts, Zynga, Unity Technologies, and Fitbit.

Brian Sherman (Business Administration, ’00) was recently named senior vice president and chief people officer at Delta Dental of California. Sherman originally joined the insurance company in 2018 as vice president of people. In his new position, he will oversee a variety of functions including talent acquisition, development, and learning; diversity, inclusion, and belonging; business resilience; and corporate social responsibility.

Elizabeth Kile (English, ’03) published her first book, Haunted San Jose, with Arcadia Publishing in September 2022. The book provides a historical account of ghost stories in San Jose. Beth is currently collecting new material from the rest of the South Bay area for her next book, and is looking for new haunts to include—email her at hauntedsj@gmail.com if you have a creepy ghost story to share!

Narcippa Teague (Communication Design, ’04) published his debut children’s book, Daddy, I’m Scared, a tale about taking control of bad dreams. Teague was inspired to write the book when his daughters Lisa (now 25) and Lizette (24) woke him on consecutive nights after having nightmares. He is in the process of retiring after 15 years at AT&T and plans to use that time to write more books, continue coaching basketball (Teague played two seasons at Chico State following a nine-year stint in the Navy), and work on the business he and his partner, Kamika, have started, S&K Enterprises.

Jerry Zigounakis (Applied Computer Graphics, ’05) is a visual effects artist living in Harbor City. He is a single dad raising his pre-teen daughter, and has recently worked on James Cameron’s Avatar sequel.

Darcy Reed (Theatre Arts, ’07) released her newest book, Extraordinary Women with Cameras: 35 Photographers Who Changed How We See the World, in the summer of 2022. She is a successful writer, editor, and actor living in Sonoma County. Darcy’s book release was promoted by Pacific & Court, a Brooklyn-based publicity and digital marketing firm co-founded by another Chico State alum, Kourtney Jason (Journalism, ’07). Kourtney is now president of the firm, bringing with her a decade of experience as a publicist representing celebrities, world-renowned chefs, and bestselling authors. She previously led the in-house publicity departments at Ulysses Press and Time Inc. Books.

Brian Kennedy’s (Journalism, ’06) Youtube channel, BKXC, reached a new milestone of 500,000 subscribers. He documents the best mountain bike trails and his videos have taken him to all 50 states and around the world. Brian started the channel in 2016, and 839 videos later with over 67 million views, has turned it into a full-time job. His goal is to introduce bikes into everyone’s life as a way to stay fit, something to be passionate about and, most importantly, something everyone can do. He plans to make videos in Mexico, Peru, and Israel in the coming months.

Jason Fitzer (Business Administration, ’08) has recently joined San Diego State University as the inaugural director for the Center for Fraternity & Sorority Life.

2010s

Garrison Harward (Theatre Arts, ’10) has been named the new executive director of Andando, a 501(c)(3) public foundation operating out of Senegal that seeks to alleviate poverty around the world through micro-development. Garrison has been with Andando a little over two years, after having lived in Senegal as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2010–12.

Adam Roth (Sociology, ’12) was recently awarded a $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund his research on rural-urban disparities in cognitive aging over the next five years. His research will contribute to the study of cognitive aging and will help inform approaches to other public health issues such as loneliness, social isolation, and access to social and health services. Adam is an assistant professor in Oklahoma State University’s Department of Sociology.

Jordan Carrol (Business Administration, ’13) has published Remote for Life: How to Find a Flexible Job and Fast-Forward to Freedom, a guidebook on how to cultivate a thriving career that allows you to work from anywhere. Jordan is a productivity expert and remote job coach who creates content and courses for remote job seekers. You can find him on his YouTube channel promoting self-development and the digital nomad lifestyle, as well as in a variety of publications and media discussing his innovative approach to work—this is his first book.

Erin Jamison (Psychology, ’14) a second-year student at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Saint Paul, Minnesota, has received a Benjamin B. Ferencz Fellowship in Human Rights and Law from World Without Genocide, a human rights organization at Mitchell Hamline. The fellowship provides support for work in human rights including research, policy development, and action at local, state, national, and international levels. Jamison will conduct research and advocacy about the Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority group in China. Jamison previously spent three years teaching English in Taiwan, and worked with historically underserved youth groups in California through AmeriCorps.

Michael Arensdorf (Business Administration, ’17) is a Certified Public Accountant and owner of an accounting firm on the central coast of California. He specializes in helping small businesses maximize their value and individuals grow their wealth.

Eric Dugoni (Psychology, ’17) was hired as an account executive at Verkada in San Mateo in November 2021. Eric also got engaged in the summer of 2022 and will marry Katherine Hudson in July.

Jenna Fletcher (Health Science, ’17) and Myles Gregory (Business Administration, ’17) were married in October 2021 and recently bought a house in Austin, Texas, where Gregory was promoted for work. Jenna works in biotechnology as a purchasing advisor and auditor for Corvus Pharmaceuticals and Gregory works as a small and medium-sized business account executive for Confluent, a software company.

Gloria Lopez (Child Development, ’17) works as a site supervisor for the Santa Clara Unified School District. She recently received a master’s degree in education from Pacific Oaks College and presented her final research on early education centers and inclusive environments.

Jessica Church (Agriculture, ’18) was recently promoted to quality control program manager for the Vegetation Management Department at Pacific Gas & Electric. Previously, she worked for three years as a contractor for the company.

Elizabeth Ernster (Journalism, ’18; Undergraduate Education, ’19) is the director of communications and development for the California State Alliance of YMCAs. She is currently working on fundraising, as well as a communications and engagement plan for Healthy Kid Day, a nationwide YMCA event, with a focus on engaging legislators in activities across the state.

Dana Moot (Anthropology, Nutrition and Food Sciences, ’18; MA, Art, ’21) is currently a PhD student studying archaeology at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. An Air Force veteran, Dana is interested in Mayan hieroglyphs and just completed his first dig in Guatemala. He looks forward to working and traveling throughout the country soon as he researches ceramic collections.

Sean Dobbyn (Business Administration, ’19) is an account executive for the Oakland Athletics.

2020s

Leah McKinley (Business Administration, ’21) is now employed as a revenue analyst with the City of Boise, Idaho.

Rebekkah Conklin (English, ’22) is currently earning a master’s degree in English literature at City, University of London. She is focusing on medieval studies and feminist theories, and will graduate in spring 2023. Rebekkah plans to earn a PhD afterward.

Alexandra Lee (Liberal Studies, ’22) began working for the US Department of Defense while studying at Chico State and is now an annex supervisor for the US Navy Child and Youth Programs.

Juliana Ordonez (Public Health, ’22) is a case manager for DHS: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where she provides community-based services for undocumented young adults, including helping them comply with immigration obligations, aiding them with accessing community resources, and reducing misinformation within the immigration process until the resolution of their cases.

Leandra McNeal (Psychology, ’19; MS, Psychology, ’22) is a project development coordinator for the New Day Training Center in Yuba City, where she is focusing on expanding the center’s mental healthcare services to Chico, Paradise, and eventually Oroville. Leandra is committed to improving the mental health of as many people as possible, and is overjoyed that her position allows her to do just that.

Hannah Hull (Media Arts, ’20) is living her Hollywood dream, bringing stories to life on the big and small screen. She is a set decoration production assistant but has done work as a character designer, storyboard assistant, production coordinator, and property production assistant. Her resume includes assisting with commercials, like an Uber Eats ad featuring Elton John and Lil Nas X, as well as television shows Rutherford Falls and For All Mankind, and films Black Adam and Nope. Her path from Chico to Hollywood has come from her determination and making the most of her opportunities and Chico State education. Hull is focused on learning and practicing as much as she can during these early years of her career as she works toward her goal of directing and telling her own stories one day.

Have you recently changed jobs, been promoted, or started your own business? Perhaps you’ve gotten married, crossed something off your personal bucket list, or achieved a lifelong dream. Send an email to classnotes@csuchico.edu to share where life has taken you since your days at Chico State.

Fond Farewells

The University and Alumni Association note with sorrow the passing of our alumni, students, and colleagues.

Alumni

Charles Lindon Allen (Mechanical Engineering, ’88)

Ardith Allread-Atkins (Education, ’65; Credential, ’65)

Betty Bates (Education, ’52)

Jan Carol Howsden Bishop (Sociology, ’86; Credential, ’88)

Kenneth Stanley Blonski (Social Welfare, ’69)

James “Jim” Alan Bremer (Business Administration, Economics, ’68)

Lloyd Douglas “Doug” Brewer (Education, Credential, ’64)

Roy Carrington (Business Administration, ’70)

Richard L. Colbert (Industrial Arts, ’73)

Gloria “Glo” Nieto (Communication Design, ’76)

Jessica Jean Crawford (Public Administration, ’79)

Erin Dougherty (Geography, ’96)

Robert Harlan Fosen (Psychology, ’52)

Samuel “Sam” Hans Funner (Education, Credential, ’55)

Elaine Carol Gray (English, ’72; Credential, ’73)

Karl Hagmaier (Business Administration, ’54)

Joanne Marie Harley (Art, ’65; Credential, ’66; Credential, ’81)

Kenneth Kennedy Hodge Jr. (Agriculture, ’79; MA, Agriculture, ’88)

Christopher Hutton (Attended, 1975–76)

Wesley Howard Isom (Business Administration, ’60)

Kevin Kearns (Biological Sciences, ’81)

Trudy Alice K. Lackey (Attended, 1972)

Robert Loman (Business Administration, ’78)

James Lutz (Physical Education, ’77)

Mark McDonald (Business Administration, ’94)

Walter Howard Moehrke (Mathematics, ’61)

Vincent “Vince” Craig Moreno (Agriculture, ’85)

Thomas O’Connor (Attended, 1969–71)

Matthew Prentice (Criminal Justice, ’19)

Cherie Manson Ramirez (Attended, 1965–66)

Albert Redamonti (Attended, 1955–59)

Patrick Lynch Ryan (Information and Communication Studies, ’91)

Kenneth George Sahl (Biological Sciences, ’50)

Lois Ann (Strong) Shoupe (Physical Education, ’52; Credential, ’52)

Frederick Smiley (English, ’66)

Gary Stone (Business Administration, ’77)

Steven Tadeo (History, ’17)

Valerie Wilson (Art, ’70)

Joseph Womack (Environmental Science, ’15)

Jennifer Wood (Liberal Studies, ’97)

LaVerne “Frankie” Ann (Frankenstein) Zehrung (Nursing, ’66)

Faculty and Staff*

Martha Ann Armocido, Facilities Management and Services, 1988–99

Tara Becraft, Chico State Enterprises, 2011–22

Kenny K. Chan, Department of Finance and Marketing, 1985–2019

Casey Lorne Donoho (Economics, ’80; MA, Business Administration, ’84) Marketing, 2008–17

James “Marty” Gilbert, Theatre Arts, 1979–2005

Ronald Leslie Kohl Sr., Facilities Management and Services, 1960–91

Robert Thomas, Biology, 1966–2005

Dennis Yarnell, Instructional Media Center, 1974–2009

Students

Daniella Senico, Psychology

* YEARS OF SERVICE

For this inaugural summer, Montclair is offering tuition scholarships to all students. Students in Film and TV, Social Media Success, Business Entrepreneurship, and Intelligent Systems will receive a 50% scholarship, making the total program cost $1200. Students in the NYC Experience program will pay $1800, a 25% discount, to accommodate the cost of multiple experiences in New York City.

Once accepted, families can pay a deposit of $100 to secure a spot in the program.

Deposits (and all payments) can be made via our electronic portal here. You can also mail in a check to the following address:

Montclair State University, attn. Office of the Provost, 1 Normal Ave., Montclair, NJ, 07043

Deposits are due on June 1. However, we encourage families to submit a deposit as soon as possible, as spots in your selected program cannot be guaranteed until a deposit is received. The remainder of program fees are due according to the following payment schedule:

June 16: 50% of tuition ($600 — $900 for Big Apple Program)

July 8: Remaining tuition ($500 — $800 for Big Apple Program)

Families are welcome to pay any or all portions of program fees in advance of these dates.

Boat builders and owners have been using replica models for centuries.  The earliest known models are of Bronze Age ships. Made of clay, they are crude representations of canoe-like boats possibly made from hollowed-out tree trunks. Archaeologists have found accurate scale ship models in Egyptian tombs dating as far back as 2000 B.C. The ancient Egyptians believed that the dead could travel on land but needed “spirit ships” to cross the Nile. Ancient ship and boat models have been discovered throughout the Mediterranean, especially from ancient Greece, Egypt, and Phoenicia. Archaeologists have determined that ancient Greek ship models were used as burial or votive offerings and as household articles such as lamps or drinking vessels.

The elaborate ship models constructed for Britain’s Royal Navy were referred to as Admiralty models and were principally constructed during the 18th and 19th centuries to depict proposed warship designs. Admiralty models served to educate civilians who were involved in the financing or some other aspect of the ship, to avoid construction errors that might have evolved as the ship itself took form.

Half hull models were customarily used by shipwrights to fashion a half-model of a ship prior to construction. These models enabled the builder to study and perfect hull design before a complete set of plans was drawn.

In the early part of the 20th Century, amateur ship model kits became available from companies in Great Britain and in the United States. Early 20th century models comprised a combination of wooden hulls and cast lead for anchors, deadeyes, and rigging blocks. In the decades since World War II plastic model ship kits became increasingly popular. These kits consist of preformed plastic parts which can be bonded together with plastic cement, and optionally painted. The plastic models are much simpler to construct than the more labor-intensive traditional wooden models.

Visit many ship building company offices, the Pentagon, almost any yacht club, or even the White House, and you’ll see both full and half hull models on display.

One often asks, “Could I get a model of my boat?” Thanks to the team at SD Model Makers you can now commission an incredibly detailed scale model of your boat, in any size or scale desired. The commissioning process is straightforward – If you can take a photograph, you can have a model made of your boat. It is that simple! Working with photographs and available boat plans, line drawings and other resources, the crew at SD Model Makers will work to create an exact replica model that will bring you continued pleasure, even when you switch from captain’s chair to desk chair.

Model sizes range from 12-inches to four feet on up – you decide on the size or scale. Each model ship comes fully assembled, the hull is made using a combination of ABS and kiln-dried mahogany, with other parts made from a variety of woods, resins and metals Waterline models with sea state dioramas, cut-away sections and LED lighting are some available options. The fun part is deciding where to display your model – at home or the office.  It will bring smiles to the faces of all who enjoyed her and discussions with those who wish they could have. Replica models, be it for trade show exhibits, office/dealer displays, or customer gifts, SD Model Makers can create them all.

About the Author

SD Model Makers was founded in 2007 by Brad Poulos, a passionate waterman with an MBA and 20 years of medical device marketing experience. He is also a 100-ton USCG licensed captain, racing and cruising sailor, a multihull fanatic, surfer, kite boarder, scuba diver and lover of all things nautical. Combining his nautical passions with an extensive sales and marketing background, he created SD Model Makers. The company specializes in made-to-order replica ship model sales.

The opinions expressed herein are the author’s and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.