Support for Creative Expression
.The Amelia A. Gould Undergraduate Research Assistantship, offered through the Provost Office’s Center for Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) Summer Undergraduate Research program, supports projects in the creative arts, pairing faculty who are working professionals in their fields with an undergraduate student.
Artistic Collaboration: From the Mundane to the Sublime
In summer 2023, Clinical Assistant Professor of Art Derek Stroup, MFA, and Katie Romanyshyn ’25, Film and Screen Studies, engaged in a faculty-student collaboration that expanded both of their creative boundaries and artistic possibilities in the most unexpected of ways. Their work together was made possible by the Amelia A. Gould Undergraduate Research Assistantship.
Stroup joined forces with Romanyshyn, a student in his digital photography class. Together, they created a series of large-scale photographic screen prints on canvas, a continuation of Stroup’s Radiant Fields series.
Katie Romanyshyn ’25 with a print from Radiant Fields.
Elevating the mundane
Stroup’s images in his Radiant Fields series are that of weedy environments—places where nature runs wild, such as overgrown fields and cracked sidewalks.
In showcasing these landscapes, Stroup also highlights an aspect of nature that is not traditionally regarded as existing for humanity’s benefit, but rather pursuing life in its own inconspicuous way, often beyond human awareness.
He said, “I am much more in this category of artists who try to work in the ordinary world and, much more, the kind who is trying to reawaken myself, and to re-sensitize myself, and hopefully viewers, to the possibilities of regular things.”
Extending experiential learning
Romanyshyn also worked with Stroup to rebuild his professional website, involving the very detailed task of documenting his prolific works, and mastered WordPress in the process. In addition, they collaborated on a photo shoot at Jacob Riis Park for Stroup’s not yet published new book of fiction.
A truly artistic collaboration
Stroup is grateful to Romanyshyn for making his studio practice more visible to the world and in a better way, and Romanyshyn, a Film and Screen Studies major whose interest lies in digital storytelling, received professional training in various documentary practices while also working in an actual artist studio.
Said Romanyshyn, “This whole experience was very, very meaningful for me. Professor Stroup’s belief in me as a student and artist is probably the most meaningful part of it and his admiration for my commitment and work ethic was the cherry on top.”
Stroup’s prints on canvas completed with Romanyshyn were featured in his solo exhibition, Radiant Fields, at KPNZ gallery in Walton, New York in 2024.
“Professor Stroup’s belief in me as a student and artist is probably the most meaningful part of it and his admiration for my commitment and work ethic was the cherry on top.”
—Katie Romanyshyn ’25
Illusion Versus Reality: Creativity That Goes Beyond the Surface
A Pomeranian dog and an octopus, respectively, bark at the edge of or tread water in giant holes in the earth and ice. Next, ruptures on the earth, signals of climate change and collapse, appear as sinkholes. A glimpse at the Manhattan Bridge, accompanied by loud traffic, provides an actual sense of location.
It is DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), Brooklyn, across the river from Pace University’s New York City campus, and as part of an outdoor group exhibition in March and April 2024 titled The DUMBO Projection Project, Volume III, Professor of Art Jillian McDonald’s (MFA) work, Animals on the Verge, was being projected onto the neighborhood’s iconic infrastructure.
On how this project came together, she said, “I had one of my hole drawings on a table, and while positioning a bear [with the use of AR], had an aha moment: the situation seemed real, as if the bear was sitting on the edge of a deep hole. I always love making videos that slip in and out of fictional film space, when something is convincing one minute and then the illusion slips.”
Ben Pfeifer ’26 working on the Animals on the Verge project.
Experiential learning meets the arts
On this, she collaborated with Ben Pfeifer ’26, Film and Screen Studies, supported by the Amelia A. Gould Undergraduate Research Assistantship.
Through her video animation and video courses, McDonald discovered Pfeifer to be a great match for a creative collaboration. Animals on the Verge, produced in 2022, required the addition of more animal scenes and the creation of a condensed version of the video for the DUMBO project, and that’s where Pfeifer stepped in. He filmed the new animal scenes, interspersed them in the original video, and edited a ten-minute version.
“Professor McDonald’s mentorship was truly valuable. She provided very insightful instructions while also allowing me to explore and discover things on my own.”
—Ben Pfeifer ’26
McDonald and Pfeifer worked on other projects supported by the Assistantship. In Sweet Spot and Soft Spot, a pair of videos featuring McDonald’s hand caressing numerous mosses and mushrooms in various landscapes, Pfeifer worked on color correction, sound matching, and added new scenes that McDonald shot.
Pfeifer also completed a reedit of a video McDonald made in the forest as part of a residency at Stony Brook University. In addition, they are working together on several video projects: Chandeliers! and her newest work, Tunnel and Radio Skies, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and Pace.
Of his experiences, Pfeifer said, “Professor McDonald’s mentorship was truly valuable. She provided very insightful instructions while also allowing me to explore and discover things on my own.”