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David Gyscek ’96, studio arts coordinator in the visual arts department at Holy Cross, was photographing a male subject on his digital camera for a still photograph. When he went to review the images of the model mopping a floor they became animated.

“It sort of looked like a dance, and it was quirky,” he says.

With a bit of computer manipulation he was able to create a lively 7-minute video from the photographs of otherwise routine housework — and then rotated the whole thing counterclockwise at a 90 degree angle.

“I decided to orient the image on its side to throw the viewer off balance a little bit, which was an exaggeration of what was happening. It magnified the absurdity of it all,” he says.

Something was missing, though: a soundtrack. He turned to Mark Newton ’06, a musician, who was a studio art minor at Holy Cross, and asked him to produce music that was “quirky and whimsical.” Newton says he used a studio keyboard to create percussion and other background elements, and Pro Tools music software to master the sound.

“He sent me an MP3, and I loved it,” Gyscek says. “I remember watching it on my laptop and clapping — it was exactly what I was looking for.”

Appropriately enough, the video is titled “Wait, what?”

The video, along with other work by Gyscek, is included in Crossroads, a two-part exhibition of work by Holy Cross faculty and staff at the Cantor Art Gallery (through Dec. 19). Gyscek’s work consists of various media including paintings, illuminated photographs, an artist book, and video, and comes together to tell stories of domestic life and fetish. “I wanted to do a series of work that I describe as ‘eroticized domestic scenes’ — taking the mundane and turning it into a fetish,” he says.

On Nov. 19, from noon to 1 p.m., Gyscek will talk about his progression from a student at Holy Cross to a working artist. He will also display work that he created when he was a student at the College, where he majored in philosophy and minored in studio art.

After graduation, Gyscek lived in Asia for a year working in the Republic of Korea.  During this time, he traveled to Nepal and India where he studied the art of lost wax sculpture. He received a master of fine arts degree from Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 2000.

“David has been a model to Holy Cross students for a long time, in terms of the breadth of his interests and the deep intellectual reservoir into which he dips for sustenance and inspiration. He is a humanistic artist, always wondering about what it means to be alive and to live — and he embodies that humanism in his relationships with us all — faculty, staff, students. In that, too, he has never stopped being a model to our community,” says Joanna Ziegler, of the visual arts department, who was his professor for several classes.

Like the video, the three oil paintings in the exhibition also draw from his interpretation of technology.

“The idea for the paintings came from watching the iTunes visualizations on my computer. I photographed the computer screen and worked from that image, and made a painting,” he explains.

The colorful paintings are titled after the songs that were playing when he took the photographs: “Lucky Lisp” by Morrissey, “Leaving New York” by R.E.M., and “Analogue Roots” by Eric Pomeroy ’96.

“The conceptual thing that I think is interesting is that although they look abstract, they’re not; they’re coming from imagery. It’s imagery that I think people may not know where it comes from when they see it, but there’s something familiar about it,” he says.

Gyscek says he didn’t set out to work on this series to make a statement, but certain themes are recurring in the work.

“The images play into who I am and where I am in my life; reorient the viewer and get them to see things in different ways; and have just enough sex in them that they are provocative but not so much that someone will shut off to them,” he says.

“Some of the concerns that I was addressing when I was a student here are still concerns that I’m addressing now — this interest in the self, self-knowledge, and the figure, specifically the male figure,” he says. “The difference is that the work looks completely different. In my talk, I plan on walking the audience through my evolution.”

It’s an evolution that continues. Next semester, Gyscek will teach his first class at Holy Cross, New Approaches in Studio Art, which will draw on his background using different media.

Related Information:

* Press Release

Construction of the Linda and Park B. Smith Laboratories at Holy Cross is on schedule.

Project managers report that significant progress on the new building has been made since ground was broken about six months ago.

The steel structure of the four-story building will be complete this week, according to Scott Merrill, director of the College’s Physical Plant. Currently, workers are pouring concrete floor slabs on each level of the building, and some interior walls are even in place.

Workers have also started covering the steel structure with plastic sheathing in preparation for winter weather. By the time spring arrives and the covering is removed, some masonry walls will be visible.

The building is expected to be completed by January 2009, at which time the renovation of the existing Haberlin Hall will begin, according to Charles “Chick” Weiss, director of grants and foundation and corporate giving and the official coordinator (or “Shepherd”) of the project. Over the next several weeks, workers will begin installing mechanical and electrical plumbing systems.

Watch construction of the new integrated science complex via a real time Web cam.

Related Information:

* Integrated Science Complex

As construction of the Linda and Park B. Smith Laboratories progresses on schedule, Holy Cross officials are releasing three videos about the importance of the $60 million facility, the most ambitious building project in the College’s history.

“Over the last several decades, our science program has been very strong, and we have had tremendous success preparing students for careers in the medical and dental professions,” says Paul Sheff, vice president of development and alumni relations, who spearheaded the production of the videos. “The new Integrated Science Complex is intended to maintain strength in this area, a strength that will benefit our students and, through their successful careers, the wider society.”

The videos are being e-mailed to alumni working in the medical and dental professions and in the pharmaceutical business, and those who majored in the sciences.

Each two-minute video features supporting visuals and powerful speeches from three Holy Cross administrators who are uniquely qualified to speak on science education at the College.

The first video features President Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., whose academic background and advanced degrees are in computer science. The second video, which will debut on Nov. 28, features Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president at Holy Cross, and former professor in the chemistry department. The third, which will debut on Dec. 5, features Andrew Futterman, associate professor of psychology and pre-medical and pre-dental advisor.

“As president of the College, Fr. McFarland has a very powerful voice, a wonderful overview of our strengths, and a vision for our future,” says Sheff. “Having been at Holy Cross for more than 30 years, with much of his early time in the chemistry department, Frank Vellaccio has a unique perspective on why the Integrated Science Complex is important. As our pre-med advisor, Andy Futterman is well-acquainted with students studying in the program, and therefore the benefits that will befall future generations of pre-med students thanks to these new facilities.”

The Office of Development, with assistance from the Office of Public Affairs, contracted with Pagano Media, a marketing communications company in Worcester, to develop the videos.

Watch the first video.

Mary Chapel, a previously underutilized space on the lower level of the majestic St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross, was dramatically renovated in 2003. In the years since, the chapel’s new spaces for worship and reflection have infused energy in the College community’s religious development and spirituality, says Paul Covino, associate chaplain and director of liturgy at the College.

In a two-part illustrated article for EnVisionChurch.org, an online publication on church art and architecture from the Georgetown Center for Liturgy, Covino writes: “Students and staff alike comment on what some would call the qualities of transcendence and immanence in these spaces, and students are making connections between what they experience in the layout, furnishings and art in these spaces and the rest of their faith life.”

The configuration of the chapel for Mass — which was determined, in part, by student feedback — is one example. “When the chapel is full, as it often is for the lively and well attended weekly Sunday 7 p.m. Mass, no one is more than six rows away from the altar and lectern,” Covino writes. “The music ministers are well integrated in the assembly, and the presiding priest, while seated in a distinctive area, is not at all removed from the rest of the assembly.”

The baptismal and gathering space, located between McCooey and Mary chapels, is another example cited by Covino. The baptimsal font (pictured) with constantly flowing water “has become one of the most popular places” for reflection, he writes. “Students easily make the connection to their own baptism.”

Also in his article, Covino describes in detail much of the distinctive art that marks the liturgical spaces. For example, the new tabernacle, located in a small, private place for prayer, incorporates purple heart wood, a nod to the College’s purple and white colors.  The fabric hanging behind the tabernacle was made by women in a province of Indonesia impacted by the tsumani in 2005 and was a gift of Susan Rodgers, professor of anthropology at Holy Cross, whose scholarly research is based in that region.

Covino chronicles the history of the renovation, as well. In the late 1990s, the College Chaplains initiated a process to develop a worship space on campus that enhanced the celebration of the postconciliar liturgy. They sought input from student, faculty and staff and worked with a liturgical design consultant, architect, construction manager, and liturgical artists to achieve their goal. The renovation of Mary Chapel was a priority of the College’s Board of Trustees, and took place during the summer of 2003. The $2 million cost was underwritten by John Figge ’52, in honor of Bob McCooey ’59, for whom the smaller chapel was named.

Read the first part. Read the second part. (Registration required.)

Related Information:

• Read more about the renovation of the chapel (.pdf)
• Chaplains’ Office

The third annual Freedom Week will take place Nov. 12-15 from 12-5 p.m. in the Hogan Lobby at the College of the Holy Cross. Throughout the week the College Republicans will collect supplies and monetary donations, and then assemble care packages to send to troops stationed in Iraq.

“On the average we raise about $500 – $700 in monetary donations. In addition, we always collect boxes and boxes full of supplies,” says Caitlin Street ’08, chair of the College’s Republican Club.

The Club is collecting non-perishable snacks such as candy, energy bars, peanuts, beef jerky, gum; personal hygiene items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, baby wipes; batteries; books; games; DVDs; CDs; magazines; pre-paid phone cards, and “anything else that would brighten a soldier’s day.”

“While this is a College Republican event, faculty, staff, and students of all political perspectives are always very generous,” says Street.

With the monetary donations they receive they are able to send care packages to the troops regularly throughout the year. In addition, they try to send packages to service members that have ties to the Holy Cross community.

“We send care packages to the parents, siblings, and friends of Holy Cross students,” Street explains. “Please come by and support your troops.”

Throughout her career, Susan Schmidt has always based her drawings on observation. Landscapes, factory buildings, textile machinery, and statues have been among her subjects.

However, when Schmidt, associate professor of visual arts at Holy Cross, became a mother, she shifted her observation to subjects that were psychologically closer to home.

For the last decade she has been creating artwork that draws upon the experiences of her immediate family. Specifically, she has focused her attention on the interactions between adults and children at family and community events and coming of age rituals.

Eighteen of Schmidt’s small-scaled prints based on these observations are on display in the exhibition titled Crossroads: Holy Cross’ Visual Arts Faculty and Staff, Part II, which runs through Dec. 19 in the Cantor Art Gallery. As part of the exhibition, Schmidt will give a gallery talk on Nov. 13 from noon to 1 p.m. Schmidt’s work can also be seen this month at Brickbottom Open Studios in Somerville.

Schmidt is a printmaker. Another form of drawing, printmaking involves the printing of multiples from one source, such as a copper plate. The prints in this exhibition use traditional etchings on copper and chine collé along with newer techniques.

“I like to experiment with the printmaking process, layering, recombining, and recycling images in different ways,” she says. “In the process of printmaking, one image goes through so many transformations and new ideas start to emerge. As multiples, prints offer many ways to improvise.”

Schmidt first photographs her children in social settings. Later, in the studio, she reworks the images. The camera, therefore, is just a tool — simply a means toward an end. Ultimately, she hopes her artwork allows viewers to see children from a different perspective than the mass media typically portrays.

“I think that our culture gives us some stock images of children,” she says. “You have the historical version of children as innocent and needing protection. And you have the contemporary version of children as consumers of products. I hope what my work does is to take those stereotypes and look a little further and find more subtlety in children’s lives.”

Despite her latest reinvention, Schmidt’s current focus on motherhood isn’t a far stretch from the work of her earlier years.

“In the 1970s, the feminist art movement really inspired me to become an artist,” she says. “One of the ideas of the feminist art movement was that exploring the home, domesticity and motherhood were finally considered valid subject matter for contemporary art. Work like stitching or quilting became acceptable as a fine art medium. Some of that validity of working with domestic subject matter stayed with me from my early student days.”

Being able to tackle some of those broad issues is one reason why Schmidt loves working at a Jesuit liberal arts college. She has worked at Holy Cross since 1987 and she teaches courses in printmaking, drawing and artists’ books.

“I like the ideas that are layered into a liberal arts education. I enjoy students that bring ideas from other majors. It’s a really rich experience,” she says. “And I also enjoy working with other faculty members and going to hear their talks. I think the students are serious here and they work hard. And they are willing to take an idea and push it through different stages and find a final visual form for it.”

Related Information:

* Press Release
* Cantor Art Gallery

When she first heard about Abdi Lidonde’s idea to build a school in his native Kenya, Jacqueline D. Peterson, vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students at Holy Cross, said she’d try to help.

But it wasn’t until she traveled to Kenya that Peterson truly understood the importance of the project, a longtime dream of Lidonde, a supervisor in the College’s physical plant.

In 2004, Peterson met with Lidonde and Alice K. Mudiri, then a math and science teacher at the Nativity School in Worcester, to talk about their plans for a school. Mudiri has worked for the World Health Organization, the Africa Community Action Health Network and other international associations, and shared Lidonde’s dream. She will serve as head of the Beverly School of Kenya, named in memory of Lidonde’s mother.

“I told them I’d be happy to help in any way that I can,” Peterson says. “Clearly, I thought it was an admirable vision and goal.”

In the winter of 2006, unrelated to her decision to help Lidonde, Peterson accompanied students on the 12-day Kenya Immersion Trip, sponsored by the Chaplains’ Office. There, she met and spoke with men, women and children, and witnessed the widespread poverty that plagues the region. Hearing the children talk about their intense desire for an education moved her most.

No longer did she simply admire Lidonde’s idea.

“I came away with a totally, totally different perspective about what Abdi wanted to do and why it was so incredibly important to create this school. What I saw helped me clearly understand the importance of his vision. It’s not unlike what the students feel when they come back,” she says, referring to the hundreds of Holy Cross students who have described the College’s immersion trips as life-changing experiences.

As the head of Student Affairs, Peterson provides leadership in the development, implementation, and direction of programs and services to support the education and personal growth of students. And her commitment to Jesuit principles of service extends beyond her professional responsibilities. Yet while she had participated in many worthy causes over the years, and continually keeps in mind her “special responsibility to the world’s poor and powerless,” her trip to Kenya was unlike anything she had previously experienced.

Upon her return to the United States, Peterson couldn’t help but think this was a sign that she must do everything she can to help the project get off the ground. She agreed to serve on the board of directors of the school.

“I thought it was extremely fortuitous that I had this talk with Abdi and just a few months later I had this immersion experience in Kenya. It just called to me: This is what you’re supposed to do!”

She adds: “You realize that you are halfway around the world, and that you are living and eating, and breathing the same air with people who have been so incredibly marginalized, disenfranchised, and — for so long — forgotten. It’s different than watching the midnight shows requesting help. You are right there. You see it.”

On Nov. 14 from noon to 1 p.m. in Hogan Jenks Suite A, Peterson will share her story. Lidonde and Thomas A. Maher ’84, vice president of the board of the Beverly School who is passionately committed to education, will join her, in the luncheon titled “Living the Mission: The Beverly School of Kenya … A Son’s Vision.”

The talk is sponsored by the “Hate: Not Here!” committee and the Office of Human Resources and is a continuation of the “Lessons from the Cross … Stories of Civility” series, designed to provoke discussion and reflection on the College’s mission and social justice.

Maher was compelled to help after reading about the Beverly School of Kenya, named in memory of Lidonde’s mother, in the spring 2006 issue of Holy Cross Magazine.

Work on the multimillion dollar facility, which will be located about 60 miles northwest of the capital city of Nairobi, began this summer and is expected to be complete by July 2008. The school will serve students in kindergarten through grade 8.

As one of her contributions, Peterson is helping raise money for a farm that will be set up to help sustain the community. At the talk, she will unveil those plans and other opportunities to help.

“In order to have the farm operational, there are two things that are critically important: equipment and livestock. I learned from Alice Mudiri just how inexpensive these are,” says Peterson.

While several of her fellow board members who work in the corporate world are hoping to produce major donations, she sees this as her way of helping — and an opportunity to engage the campus community.

Peterson, who also helped to develop the curriculum for the school, plans to make time in her busy schedule to visit Kenya again soon.

“This is just a natural project that lives up to the College’s mission — in more ways than one. We’re reaching out to a community that needs help, we’re offering education to people, as well as the fact that Abdi — a member of the Holy Cross family — took his dream and acted upon it.”

Related Information:

• Beverly School of Kenya
• College Mission Statement
• Kenya Immersion Program

Holy Cross students put on their dancing shoes last weekend — all for a good cause.

From 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 2 until 8 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3, nearly 200 students cut a rug in the Hogan Ballroom in an event titled “Dance for a Cure.” More than $2,700 was raised, all of which is going to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

“We asked for a minimum donation of $10 but most students donated more than the minimum,” says Michelle Arata ’09, a biology major with a premedical concentration and captain of the Holy Cross Ballroom Dance Team.

The idea for the event started in the summer when Arata was working as a research student with Ann Sheehy, assistant professor of biology. HIV and AIDS is a topic of great interest for the student-professor team.

Sheehy’s lab work focuses on understanding the function of APOBEC3G, an anti-HIV protein that humans express in their immune cells. HIV essentially quashes the protein and Sheehy and Arata are trying to figure out how to help APOBEC3G escape this viral sledgehammer. “We are hoping to eventually publish Michelle’s work,” says Sheehy.

“I mentioned trying to put together a dance marathon a month before she got a random e-mail from another university asking whether Holy Cross might be interested in hosting such a benefit for the Glaser Foundation. The idea just grew from there,” says Sheehy, who loves to dance.

Says Arata: “The idea had been brought to my attention by two separate parties. It was just meant to be. I knew it was something that I was meant to run.”

In addition to the ballroom team, seven other student organizations helped Arata make the dance a success by spreading the news across campus: American Medical Student Association, Biology Society, Bishop Healy Multicultural Society, Campus Activities Board, Dance Ensemble, the Delilah’s, and Latin American Student Organization. She hopes the event will become an annual tradition at the College.

A DJ kept music spinning non-stop into the morning. Incentives kept participants motivated — and moving — throughout the night. Entertainment was served up every hour on the hour by The Delilah’s, Alex Spanos and the Blackouts (a campus band), the Ballroom Dance team, and the Dance Ensemble.

Ballroom dance representatives from Clark University, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute also participated. Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of Holy Cross, and Mark Freeman, professor of psychology and dean of the class of 2011, among other faculty members, stopped by.

There was plenty of food available throughout the night, and all remaining participants were treated to a full buffet breakfast in the morning.

Although she served as faculty advisor for the event, Sheehy says the students should take most of the credit for the success of the event.

“This is a phenomenal group of students who put together an event that not only reflects the mission of the College, but the remarkable ability of our young people to stand in solidarity with those who are marginalized and lack a voice,” says Sheehy.

Luisa Lora ’08 is the first to admit that she hasn’t always been interested in politics, but knowing that she will be eligible to vote in next year’s presidential election has encouraged her to think about the candidates and the issues.

So when Brenda Hounsell Sullivan, director of Orientation, Transition, and Leadership in the division of Student Affairs, and Katherine Robertson, special assistant to the president for community affairs, offered her a summer job within the Community-Based Learning Program, to increase the awareness of voter registration on campus, Lora jumped at the opportunity.

A sociology major with a Latin American and Latino Studies concentration from Lawrence, Lora’s interest in Student Affairs started as a resident assistant. She enjoys working with students, and the thought of being able to make an impact on the next election — all while learning about the issues — created the perfect opportunity.

During the summer and early fall semester, Lora, with the help of Hounsell Sullivan, convened a bipartisan committee and have been strategizing ways to encourage students to register to vote.

The first major event will be a voter registration drive from Nov. 6 through Nov. 8 between the hours of 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. on the first floor of Hogan. The drive will take place one year shy of the Nov. 4, 2008 presidential election.

Lora wants the efforts in the next year to focus on two things: why to vote and how to vote.

“If you’re not going to vote and you leave the decision up to someone else than why do we have a right to vote? It’s empowering,” she says. “You put the people into office that you feel will do a good job, and make the United States a better country.”

It’s very easy to register to vote, says Lora.

“Well-informed students will be manning the tables. They know how to fill out the applications which will take five minutes to complete. They will even stamp and stuff the envelopes and send them out,” she says.

Lora says there are several issues that are important to her, including health insurance, the field of employment (after all, she will be job hunting shortly), taxes, and federal money for higher education (she hopes to pursue a master’s degree after taking a year off).

Getting students to vote requires informing them that their future lies in their own hands. In order to do that, each Registered Student Organization at Holy Cross will be able to advocate their own causes during the drive. She envisions, for example, that Eco-Action may encourage students who are environmentally conscious to register and vote to “save the planet.”

“We expect to register many students,” she says.

Earlier this fall, at a ceremony in Boston, Ani Nalbandian ’09 delivered a dramatic poetry recital in both Armenian and English in the presence of the head of the Armenian Church, during his visit to the United States.

More than 300 people had gathered at a resplendent marble hall in the International Place to greet His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and his entourage from Armenia. Included in the formal program was Nalbandian’s performance of “The Armenian Church,” by Armenian poet Vahan Tekeyan. The poem is about the fundamental importance of the Armenian Church to the soul and identity of the Armenian people, says Nalbandian.

Leaders of the Armenian community in Boston asked Nalbandian to perform after having seen her recite a poem with music earlier this year.

“The poem, which is in first person, makes reference to the sheltering walls of the Armenian Church against storms and disruption — essentially a metaphor for the effects of the Armenian Genocide. Even beyond that, the poem talks about how, for the Armenian people, the Armenian Church has been the protector of all aspects of our identity, for our ancestors in the past, and for us today,” she says.

By all accounts, Nalbandian, from Trumbull, Conn., is an exceptional scholar and talented artist. She is majoring in history, is in the premedical program and the College Honors Program.

When she was 16, Nalbandian wrote her first book, titled Polis: A Way of Life. Earl Peace, dean of the Class of the 2009, remembers when Nalbandian entered his office and asked if she could go to a book signing her freshman year. When he asked whose book signing, she replied, “Mine.” The title Polis is a reference to the Greek democratic city-state, relaying “the notion of the ideal existence, the ideal society, free of the heavy social and political burdens, inequalities, and injustices that ours is laden with,” she says.

“I realize it was a bold work — a 16-year-old attempting to offer advice to others well her senior, and her peers. But that is why I wanted to do it,” she explains. “It makes a statement, and despite my age, I felt then — as a I still feel now — that I have experienced things that have granted me insight, and the desire and strong motivation to hold on to my idealistic virtues.”

Earlier this year, she recorded and produced a CD with her father, Rev. Untzag Nalbandian, pastor of the Armenian Church of the Holy Ascension in Trumbull, consisting of Armenian, as well as international songs. She plays the piano, organ, srink (an Armenian wind instrument), and accordion. She is fluent in Armenian; writes poems in Spanish (some of which were published in the Holy Cross foreign language journal, Fosforo); and is not afraid of sounding off on issues that are of concern to her.

Most recently, Nalbandian had a letter published in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette about the Armenian genocide. His Holiness Karekin II visited the U.S. during a time when America has been asked to acknowledge last century’s genocide of millions of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. Present day Turkey has tried to defeat the Armenian resolution by denying responsibility for the atrocities.

Nalbandian has an unwavering commitment to her Armenian heritage.

“I have spent time reading the works of several important Armenian leaders of the 19th and early 20th centuries,” she says. “I have been inspired by them, and heed their warning that if we don’t take action, the Armenian identity — the language, the culture, the Orthodox Church, the country, and hence the race — will cease to exist.”

Having traveled to Armenia for the first time in 2006, Nalbandian hopes to make many return trips, with the long-term aim of improving the Armenian homeland and aiding the Armenian people.

At Holy Cross Nalbandian is co-chair of the Bishop Healy Multicultural Society, science ambassador, tour guide; and member of the following organizations: American Medical Student Association, COMPASS, Eco-Action, Schola Cantorum, and an op-ed writer for the Crusader, among others.

“Holy Cross has really influenced my thinking, broadened my self and life-defining principles, and continues to contribute in guiding me spiritually through my formative college years,” she says.

She is also enthusiastic about her involvement in the many programs available through the College that promote religious dialogue.

“Religion is an engraved part of my life,” she says. “These programs teach me how to be a better person, and especially how to help others, which is an aspect of my life I am always looking to augment and improve upon.”

Pictured: Ani Nalbandian ’09 stands beside His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.