Saint Mary's Newsroom / Campus Notes
Winona Campus NewsletterBaseball clubhouse dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony
A special dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony will be held Monday, Jan. 14, for the new baseball clubhouse. This special private unveiling is being held at the request of the lead alumni benefactor who wanted our Cardinal baseball team to get the first exciting look at the new facility. Faculty, staff, students, and the broader community are invited to an open house for the clubhouse on April 27, so mark your calendars and watch for further details.
MCA to hold auditions for spring dance production
WINONA, Minn. — The Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA) will hold auditions Saturday, Jan. 19, at 3 p.m. for the Dance Repertory Company’s (DRC) 46th annual spring production, “Classically Speaking.” Auditions are free and open to the public and will be held at the Valéncia Arts Center, 1164 W. Howard St.
The DRC is MCA’s preprofessional dance troupe composed of intermediate and advanced dancers ages 13 and older. “Classically Speaking” will be an evening of classical music and contemporary dance. Suitable and engaging for all ages, works will range from contemporary ballet to hip hop and tap to modern dance. The performance will encompass restaged works as well as new choreography created by MCA faculty and regional guest artists Jessica Dienger, Christine Martin, Bryan Moore, Raina Racki, and Tammy Schmidt.
For the audition, dancers should be prepared to learn a series of dance combinations in different genres, including hip hop, tap, jazz, contemporary ballet, and modern. They should bring dance shoes specific to their genre.
Those cast will be required to pay a $75 performance fee to cover costumes and will need to be enrolled in at least one dance class at MCA during the winter session. College students at any university who are enrolled in any dance class on a campus are exempt from the class requirement. The Saint Mary’s University student fee is included in Saint Mary’s tuition as MCA is an affiliate program of Saint Mary’s.
The final performances will be April 11-13 at the Page Theatre on the Saint Mary’s Winona Campus. The rehearsal schedule will be devised around dancer availability, but mandatory rehearsals and performance dates will be posted at the auditions or can be made available by calling 507-453-5500.
About MCA
The Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA), an affiliate program of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, is a nonprofit organization offering programming in dance, music, visual art, and theater. Classes, lessons, workshops, and camps are offered for students of all ages from birth through older adults at the Valéncia Arts Center. For more information, go to mca.smumn.edu, email mca@smumn.edu, or call 507-453-5500.
In case you missed it
Dr. Catherine Pakaluk, assistant professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., visited the Saint Mary’s University Twin Cities Campus on Dec. 12, 2018, to deliver the first presentation of the Cardinal Virtue series. She offered a thought-provoking lecture on economic justice, in which she challenged listeners to realize the great abundance we have been blessed with in both the natural and supernatural. Watch Dr. Pakaluk’s presentation and get information about upcoming speakers at smumn.edu/cardinalvirtuepresentations.
Saint Mary’s celebrates biochemistry program reaccreditation
Saint Mary’s is celebrating the reaccreditation of the undergraduate Biochemistry program, which recently received reaccreditation by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for the full seven years. The reaccreditation was led by Dr. Deb Martin, Biology Department chair and professor of Biology and Chemistry. She collaborated with colleagues in the Biology and Chemistry Departments, including Dr. Jaime Mueller, current Chemistry chair, and Dr. Brett Bodsgard, former Chemistry chair. Congratulations to all on this accomplishment!
Saint Mary’s University’s online M.B.A. program ranked among the best and largest
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota was recently ranked the third largest Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) program in the state by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
Saint Mary’s earned a top spot on the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal list with a total of 326 M.B.A. students enrolled in fall 2018, which is up 16 percent from the previous year. This increase is unique to the five largest programs ranked, as all other schools in the top five saw a decline.
The Saint Mary’s M.B.A. program was also ranked in The Best Online MBA Programs with No GMAT Required by The Best Schools. The programs on this list are selected based on the quality of the program and the range of the courses provided, as well as school awards, rankings, and reputation. Find more information about the ranking methodology at thebestschools.org.
“To be recognized for our growth and efforts shows how committed we are to our students and their learning,” said Holly Tapper, J.D., Saint Mary’s M.B.A. program director. “Since launching our online M.B.A. program in 2016, we’ve had great success and continue to see a climb in the number of students who seek our accelerated learning model.”
Saint Mary’s offers the M.B.A. degree in a blended or fully online program. Students also have the option to specialize in social media and marketing, data analytics, or environmental management sustainability. To learn more, visit smumn.edu/mba.
Saint Mary’s connections featured on Artwork Winona
Saint Mary’s Teresa Remick, Performance Center managing director, and members of H30 Jazz Trio (Eric Heukeshoven, assistant professor of music and director of Jazz Studies, and sons Hans Heukeshoven ’15 and Max Heukeshoven, current student) were recently featured on Artwork Winona, a show on HBC TV-25 hosted by Lee Gundersheimer, Arts and Culture coordinator for the City of Winona. Check out the latest episode!
Saint Mary’s alumni in the news
A cop comforted her at a crucial moment. Now she’s on movie screens to recruit women officers [Twin Cities Pioneer Press] — article featuring Saint Mary’s alumna Anna Taylor ’17
Spring Grove native Mollie B has polka party with Eastwood in ‘The Mule’ [La Crosse Tribune] — article featuring Saint Mary’s alumna and former music instructor Mollie Busta M’05
Answering the Unanswerable Questions [Lasallian Volunteers] — article written by Saint Mary’s alumnus Ben Peters ’18
Sympathy to Paulson family
Norman “Jerry” Jerome Paulson, who taught in the Saint Mary’s Music Department for many years, died Jan. 1. Paulson was a dedicated educator and well-known trumpet player throughout the region. He founded the group “Swing, Inc.” in 1999 with Dr. John Paulson, Eric Heukeshoven, and others.
Island City’s Jazz Jam kicks off a new year
WINONA, Minn. — H3O Jazz Trio will launch the 2019 season of monthly Jazz Jams at Island City Brewing Company on Sunday, Jan. 20, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Started in September 2018, the Jazz Jam at Island City Brewing Company, 65 E. Front St. in Winona, is an open mic night for jazz. Whether you play an instrument or sing, the Jazz Jam is your chance to sit in with a professional rhythm section. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to perform some of their favorite jazz standards.
Interested jammers can choose from a wide selection of jazz tunes. Players can choose music from Hal Leonard Real Books, bring their own, or ask the trio if they can play their favorite. Simply sign up on the clipboard and get ready to jam.
Island City Jazz Jams happen on the third Sunday of each month from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the taproom. The event is free and open to all ages. If you’re not quite ready to sit in, come and enjoy a great evening of jazz.
For more information, contact Ashley Haig, Island City events coordinator, at 507-961-9743 or events@islandcitybrew.com.
About the H3O Jazz Trio
The father and son’s jazz trio H3O began performing together when bassist Max Heukeshoven was only 14 years old. Along with older brother Hans on drums and vibes and dad Eric on the piano, the group was asked to play for a private pool party and hasn’t stopped since!
A. Eric Heukeshoven is an assistant professor of music and director of Jazz Studies at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Hans Heukeshoven is a 2015 graduate of Saint Mary’s with degrees in Music Performance and Computer Science and works as a software engineer. Max Heukeshoven is completing a degree in Music Industry at Saint Mary’s and plans to attend law school.
H3O Jazz Trio performs a wide variety of jazz styles including original music. They have worked as the rhythm section for numerous area professionals including Minnesota Music Hall of Fame’s Les Fields and Dr. John Paulson. Recent appearances include HBC25’s Artwork Winona, Midwest Music Fest, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Free Family Concert Series, and many other venues. The trio hosts a monthly Jazz Jam at Island City Brewing Company in Winona on the third Sunday of every month from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
More information about the H3O Jazz Trio can be found at H3OJazz.com.
Photo caption: The Fabulous Five Frenches from Winona jam on “Doxy.”
Saint Mary’s Page Theatre to present female Arab American artists Jan. 18
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University Page Series will present Za’atar, an evening of contemporary performance and dialogue featuring three dynamic female Arab American artists, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18, at the Valéncia Arts Center (1164 W. Howard St.).
The second installment in the 2018-19 season’s Cedar Tree Project, Za’atar is named for a Middle Eastern-Mediterranean blend of spices that creates a rich and distinctive flavor. The event features of three artists, each performing solo works:
- Leila Awadallah, a Palestinian American of Minneapolis
Awadallah will perform YISSH, a piece rooted in the Palestinian-American experience that explores the tension between a deep urgency to run toward Palestine and the patience required in the time it takes to reconnect. Her choreography emerges from an aesthetic of embodied calligraphy. She creates movement by writing words of the Arabic language, as well as pulling from Arabic folk dance forms, such as dabke, and social elements of belly dance to share Palestinian stories through her own articulation of Arab contemporary dance. - Sharon Mansur, a Lebanese American of Winona
Mansur’s Among the Cedars is a snapshot of the rich and emotionally layered experience of Mansur’s first trip to Lebanon in spring 2018 and a continued meditation on her Lebanese heritage, her personal experiences with the complex and fluid nature of cultural identity, and the power of place in our dreams. Her solo will be integrated into her upcoming Dreaming Under a Cedar Tree 2.0, presented by the Page Series April 24-25. - Leyya Mona Tawil, a Syrian Palestinian American of Oakland, Calif.
Tawil’s All we could give was our watching interrogates distance as it relates to power and agency. A new work that Tawil began during her fellowship at the Saari Residency in Finland, the score is built live with microphones and effects altered by her proximity to them. The dance material is tested through iterative variations as Tawil searches for ways to understand what she can and cannot control. It is a quiet, yet steady, treatise related to political resistance.
Inspired by the Arabic word for “trio,” the performance will conclude with Thulathi, a new collaborative work devised and performed by Awadallah, Mansur, and Tawil specifically for this event. The work will celebrate the first time these three artists have created and performed together and integrated their individual and shared perspectives as artists, women, and Arab Americans.
Prior to the performance, Winona State Dance Program Director Erin Drummond will offer a talk — starting at 7 p.m. — introducing contemporary performance and themes that will be explored through Za’atar. A post-performance discussion with the artists — moderated by Mary Jo Klinker, professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Winona State — will give audience members the opportunity to further explore the ideas and issues presented through the performance in an effort to encourage empathy and understanding.
The Page Series will also offer two free events with Awadallah, Mansur, and Tawil to introduce the artists and their work to the Winona community:
- Za’atar Artist Panel: Arab American Women’s Identities and Activism through Performance
Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 5:30 p.m.
Winona State University SLC 120 - Za’atar Artist Talk
Thursday, Jan. 17, at 12:10 p.m.
Figliulo Recital Hall, Saint Mary’s Performance Center
Tickets to the performance are $15 and may be purchased online at pagetheatre.org or by calling the Saint Mary’s Performance Center box office at 507-457-1715 (noon-6 p.m., weekdays). Tickets will also be sold at the door on Jan. 18 beginning at 6:30 p.m.
About the Artists
Leila Awadallah is a Palestinian American dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and interdisciplinary performance artist based in the Twin Cities. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Arabic Language and Literature from the University of Minnesota. Her creative work unfolds within the intersections of diasporic Arab identity, Palestinian stories, and building a deeper connectivity with ancestry as it lives in the body’s cellular memory. She crafts with intentional response to the ways mainstream media/histories erase, vilify, and distort Arab and Palestinian peoples. Her research in creating Arab Contemporary Dance has recently brought her into living, learning, and performing in Lebanon and Palestine. Her choreography has been presented at the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Rawi Arab Literature Conference (Minneapolis), and BIPOD Dance Festival (Beirut, Lebanon). Awadallah is a company member of the touring ensemble Ananya Dance Theatre (2013), and a co-creator of Kelvin Wailey dance trio (2016). She received a SAGE Award (2016) for her work in film, a Jerome Travel Grant (2018) to study dance in Palestine, and is currently a Springboard 20/20 Fellow (2018-19). Learn more at leilaawadallah.com.
Sharon Mansur is a Lebanese American experimental dance and visual artist, educator, curator, mover, and shaker based in Winona. She is committed to dance as a transformational and healing catalyst for individuals and communities. Her performance/installation projects and dance films have been presented throughout the United States and abroad, and she is the curator of The Cedar Tree Project. Mansur was a guest artist at the 2018 International Dance Day Festival Lebanon (IDDFL) at the Lebanese American University in Byblos. She is grateful for the generous support she has recently received for her artistic projects and community engagement activities from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (2017), a Springboard for the Arts Hinge Arts Fellowship (2017), and a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant (2018). She is also a 2018 Winona Fine Arts Commission Awardee and a 2018 McKnight Dance Fellow. Learn more at mansurdance.com.
Leyya Mona Tawil is an interdisciplinary artist working with dance, sound, and performance practices. Tawil is a Syrian, Palestinian, American engaged in the world as such. Her articulation of Arab Experimentalism embeds political sub-narratives and cultural confusions into the performance fabric. Tawil has a 23-year record of choreographies and performance scores that have been presented throughout the U.S., Europe, and the Arab world. She is a 2018 Saari Residence Fellow (Finland) and an AIRSpace Resident Artist at Abrons Art Center (New York City). Tawil is the director of DANCE ELIXIR and TAC, a venue in Oakland, Calif. Learn more at danceElixirLIVE.org.
About The Cedar Tree Project
Throughout the 2018-19 Page Series season, The Cedar Tree Project explores cultural heritage, perceptions, and identity through the lens of Arab and Arab-American artists and invites people to develop deeper understanding and empathy through artistic exchange. Curated by Winona dance/visual artist Sharon Mansur, events include dance performances, visual art installations/exhibitions, panel discussions, workshops, and community gatherings with Mansur and visiting artists. Learn more about the Cedar Tree Project.
The Cedar Tree Project is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
About the Page Series
Now in its 32nd annual season, the Page Series connects professional performing artists from around the globe with thousands of Winonans each year. With events at the Joseph Page Theatre on the campus of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, as well as at locations across the Winona community, the Page Series offers dance, music, and theatre performances, workshops, classes, and more that inspire, uplift, educate, and invite community members to discover the relevance of the arts in their daily lives.
Page Series community programs are made possible, in part, through a grant from the Xcel Energy Foundation.
Saint Mary’s invites businesses to community hockey tailgate event
WINONA, Minn. — Winona-area businesses are invited to participate in Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota’s Men’s Hockey Community Tailgate Event Thursday, Jan. 17.
The event begins at 5:30 p.m., and the puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
This tailgate, which will be held in the Toner Student Center, gives businesses an opportunity to meet and interact with students of all majors, as well as free booth space to showcase your company or organization. Additionally, participants receive complimentary tickets to game, which features the Saint Mary’s Cardinals facing off with the University of Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils. Also, there’s an opportunity to meet Saint Mary’s new athletic director, Brian Sisson, during a social at intermission (between the second and third periods).
For more details or to RSVP, email Christine Beech at cbeech@smumn.edu. The event is hosted by the Saint Mary’s Business Advisory Council.
Season’s greetings!
Final exams are over, papers have been handed in, our students have returned home for rest and rejuvenation, and many of us will spend the joyous Christmas season with family and loved ones. I take this opportunity, in a season of giving and receiving, to offer you, as a gift, some of the wonderful moments and memories created by our students who have achieved so much. I hope from these moments you will receive keenly a sense of the positive impact they make to our campus life and in the larger community. I also want to share some of the exciting events that have happened at the university. Here are just a few snapshots from the semester.
— Father James P. Burns, IVD (winter 2018)
Saint Mary’s University inaugurates 14th president
On Oct. 5, Father James P. Burns, IVD, Ph.D. was inaugurated as the 14th president of Saint Mary’s University. A crowd of approximately 1,500 gathered on the Winona Campus to congratulate Father Burns on a day that was filled with pomp and circumstance. Saint Mary’s showcased its strong educational reputation and welcoming atmosphere.
During the inauguration ceremony, Father Burns spoke about what sets an education at Saint Mary’s apart from the competition: “If we are open and unafraid about forming our students and ourselves, not only in intellect, but in heart and soul as well, we will be living into that which truly sets our schools apart.
“In fact, we could even say that just helping our students is not enough, just educating their minds is not enough, and even just forming them generally is not enough. All of these are only part of our educational effort. Rather more deeply it is about forming them in a particular way, helping them to perceive, to know, to act, and to do the good in the right way at the right time for the right reason.”
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