Alumni
gallery director thrives on interaction with artists
By age 28, Mary Dohne (’97 B.A. Art History and French) was director of the Charles Cowles Gallery in New York City, promoting the gallery’s 25 artists, organizing museum exhibitions of their work, and advising private collectors and public institutions on acquisition of artworks. So how does one attain such success and responsibility before age 30? Ask lots of questions, Dohne says.
“I attribute my success to being curious,” she explains. “I want to know everything about anything; some might say I am borderline nosy. Learning something new is my biggest thrill, so working in a gallery environment is good for me.”
Dohne began her career at Babcock Galleries, first as an intern and then as assistant to director John Driscoll (’74 M.A., ’85 Ph.D. Art History). “Working with John, who is a true scholar, was a unique experience in the art world … he is a fascinating cross between college professor and savvy art dealer. His mentorship continues to be a valuable asset to me.”
Dohne says her internship at Babcock Galleries sparked her interest in gallery work because she enjoyed learning details about art from conservators, framers and dealers. Working at a gallery in Chelsea, where the Charles Cowles Gallery is located, was always her goal. “Chelsea is a nexus for contemporary art in New York and it’s exciting to work here,” she notes.
Before coming to the Charles Cowles Gallery as assistant director in January 2001, she held curator positions at The Women’s Museum (working out of New York City for the museum’s Dallas location) and Ohr-O’Keefe Museums in Biloxi, Miss. In between she managed to earn a master’s degree in the history of decorative arts, design and culture from the Bard Graduate Center in New York City.
In her master’s thesis, Dohne covered a subject not usually addressed in scholarly writings—the bachelor pad. Her thesis was titled “Masculinity at Home: Bachelor Pads and the Seduction of the American Dad.” “I entered school wanting to write my thesis on textile sample books from the 19th century because I liked them so much as objects, but then I took a course on interiors and was fascinated by the way people constructed so much of their identity around their homes,” she says. “Then I went further and looked at gender identity and that was how I hit upon bachelor pads … plus, they’re really funny.”
Although her master’s thesis did not relate directly to her career, Dohne says graduate school helped her recognize the resources available in New York City. “It definitely gave me a better sense of what my resources are and how to make better use of them.”
Dohne has lived and worked in New York City during one of the most tragic and challenging times in the city’s history. However, she says the events of 9/11 did not drastically affect the art world, even immediately after the terrorist attacks. “I think there was a slowdown after 9/11, but the art market bounced back pretty quickly and it is hotter than ever. Sales are good and prices are high generally.”
Regardless of the price of a piece of artwork, Dohne says making a sale to someone who really “sees” the art is one of the best parts of her job. “What I mean is not just decorating an apartment. The thing I love about art is its power to give you a visceral pop, and it is rewarding to be there when it happens to our clients.”What’s even more gratifying for Dohne is learning about an entirely different field. “My educational focus always tapered off around 1960, so living, breathing artists opened up a whole new world for me. Getting a handle on the contemporary art world has been challenging and rewarding,” she explains.
Dohne’s position has allowed her to develop a network of colleagues from every corner of the art world. She says she thrives on exchanging ideas with artists and curators, and in the future hopes to pursue a role that allows her to do more of that, perhaps by running an artist residency program. –AMM
Class Notes
Architecture
Paul Edward Zippel (’71 B.Arch.) started his own architectural firm in May 2005. Studio Z Architects, on 1626 Forest Ridge Drive in Pittsburgh, specializes in educational, healthcare and institutional facilities. Zippel also provides “owner’s representative/advocate” services as a part of his practice. He can be contacted at p.zippel@att.net.
Katy Fluck Flammia (’86 B.Arch.), who founded THEREdesign Architecture in 1997 in Boston, Mass., was recently featured in Better Homes and Gardens and was filmed for an appearance on HGTV, due to air fall 2006. She also appeared in a program for Asian Focus television. For more information, go to www.THEREdesign.com.
Art History
Heidi Hornik (’87 M.A., ’90 Ph.D.) has had her third book published. Illuminating Luke: The Public Ministry of Christ in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting was published by T&T Clark International, New York and London, in 2005.
Charles Fox (’88 B.A.) is historic site administrator at the Somerset Historical Center. As museum director for the center, he recently assembled an exhibit examining the service of Somerset County’s National Guard Unit, Company C, 10th Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard, during World War I. Company C played a pivotal role in the Second Battle of Marne, fought along the Marne River in France in July 1918. In conjunction with the exhibit, the Somerset Historical Center published a catalogue and a book containing a series of articles Fox wrote on Company C.
Integrative Arts
Cynthia Layton Falk (’93 B.A.) received a State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and was promoted to associate professor of material culture at the Cooperstown Graduate Program.
Damian Sinclair (’99 B.A.) is festival founder and executive director of Capital Fringe, which hosted the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, D.C., in July 2006. The ten-day event showcased local and visiting experimental performers, who worked in theatre, dance, music and other disciplines.
Kathleen van Fleet (’04 B.A.) recently received her M.F.A. from Savannah College of Art and Design. She currently lives in Savannah and works as a video editor for Farmer’s Almanac TV, a show on PBS.
Kelly Freeman (’05 B.A.) was honored by the Pennsylvania Association for Adult Continuing Education as one of Pennsylvania’s Outstanding Students in Higher Education for 2006.
Landscape Architecture
Roger Fickes (’70 B.S.) has retired after 14 years as the director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks. Employed for 35 years with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Fickes managed one of the largest state park systems in the country. Fickes was awarded a College of Arts and Architecture Alumni Award in 1996 and was named a Penn State Alumni Fellow in 2003. He and his wife, Trish, plan to tour the country in their newly acquired RV as well as enjoy their five grandchildren.
Keith Morris (’95 B.S.) worked for ten years after graduation as a landscape designer and project manager for a design-build firm in Pittsburgh. In 2005, he started his own design-build firm, K. Morris Landscape Design. His company’s current focus is high-end residential landscape projects. Morris employs eight people and has had gross sales of over $500,000 in his first year of business.
Music
Carson Rothrock (’56 B.S. Music Ed., ’62 M.Ed. Music Ed., Blue Band, Symphony Orchestra) recently retired and continues to work as an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) writer, composer and arranger.
Doris Gazda (’58 M.Ed. Music Ed.) has been appointed the new educational string consultant for Carl Fischer Music in New York. As a violinist, she is responsible for the creation of new educational and string publications and repertoire. Most recently, Gazda was a faculty associate at Arizona State University, where she taught string methods. She won a College of Arts and Architecture Alumni Award in 2004.
Jan Helen McGee (’72 B.A. Music, ’86 M.A. Humanities, Concert Choir) was featured in 2005 on the television show Psychic Witness on The Learning Channel, where she talked about solving a murder in Lebanon, Pa., in 1993. For more information, go to www.JanHelenMcGee.com.
Lee Appleman (’76 M.S. Music Ed., Blue Band, Concert Band) is the drummer for Monty Python’s SPAMALOT tour. The tour opened in Boston’s Colonial Theatre in March 2006 and is booked for several years throughout the United States and Canada.
Paul Varley (’78 B.S. Music Ed., Wind Ensemble, Marching Blue Band, Concert Blue Band) has received his Ed.D. from the University of Missouri at St. Louis.
Michael Ketner (’93 B.S. Music Ed., Wind Ensemble, Trombone Choir, Philharmonic Orchestra, Centre Dimensions) was recently appointed director of performance for the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Music. His wife, Kristin Bearn Ketner (’93 B.A. Music), owns/directs a large, private piano studio and is the organist/pianist at Hatboro Baptist Church in Hatboro, Pa. Michael and Kristin have two daughters, Zoe Marie, born June 3, 2006, and Sophia Annelise, who is 2.
Julia Saeli (’96 B.S. Music, Wind Ensemble, Brass and Horn Choirs, Horn Quartet, Chamber Orchestra) and her husband, Anthony, welcomed their first daughter, Sophie, in July 2005. Julia has competed in two marathons, the Chicago Marathon in October 2005 and Martin Marathon in April 2006.
Audrey Hayward (’98 B.S. Music Ed., Wind Ensemble, Philharmonic Orchestra, Blue Band, Clarinet Choir) played for President Bush during the Oklahoma State University graduation ceremony. She and her husband, Gene, live in Lawton, Okla., with their two children, Abagail, born Aug. 12, 2004, and Alexander, born Dec. 24, 2005.
Valerie Little (’04 B.M., Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras, Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Baroque Ensemble) graduated in May 2006 with a master of music in viola performance from the University of Texas at Austin. While at the University of Texas, she was awarded a Presidential Fellowship as well as a teaching assistantship. She will be going on a full scholarship to the University of Minnesota to pursue her doctor of musical arts in viola performance. She recently spent her second summer on a full scholarship at the International Festival Institute in Round Top, Texas, a professional orchestral and chamber music festival.
Christian Baldini (’05 M.M., Conducting, Chiasmo Ensemble) was awarded second prize and the audience prize in the Orquestra Sinfonica Estatal do Estado de Sao Paulo (OSESP) International Conducting Competition, held in February 2006 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In March 2006 at St. John’s Waterloo, London, he conducted the SouthBank Sinfonia, England’s youngest professional orchestra, for the world premiere of his latest work, an orchestral piece commissioned by Ibero Latin American Music Society (ILAMS). The concert was in conjunction with the Ginastera Festival, which commemorated the 90th anniversary of the composer Alberto Ginastera.
Performing Arts
John Citron (’54 B.A. Arts and Letters, Penn State Players) recently retired as president of Naturescapes, Inc., in Hot Springs Village, Ark. He is involved in local theatre as a technical director, photographer, actor and director.
Ralph Zack Manna (’58 B.A. Journalism, Thespians, Penn State Players) recently created for the stage, wrote additional lyrics and co-wrote the book for the new Cole Porter musical, The Pirate, which is based on the 1948 Judy Garland/Gene Kelly film that featured a score by Porter. The play opened at the Prince Theater, Philadelphia, May 6, 2006. Previously, Zack headed AT&T OnStage, which developed and presented productions at U.S. resident theatres, in London and on Broadway. Following that, he held executive positions at a number of theatre organizations, including Ford’s Theatre and David Merrick Productions.
Joan Mitsuka (’64 B.S. Elem. Education, ’65 B.A. French, Meditation Chapel Choir, Women’s Chorus) recently retired as a librarian from the New York Public Library.
Theatre
Frank Gerrish (’88 M.F.A., URTC, Pennsylvania Centre Stage) is currently the director of the film studies and theatre arts program at Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake City, Utah. As an actor, he is a working member of the Actors’ Equity Association and the Screen Actors’ Guild. Over the past 17 years, he has appeared in more than 50 feature films, documentaries, television series and made-for-television movies. He has been a resident member for 12 seasons of the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City and is a veteran performer of more than 100 stage productions. He appeared in the feature film Blind Guy Driving, with Jane Seymour, in spring 2006. Gerrish and his wife, Jill, are the proud parents of five children, ranging in age from 16 to 3.
Marco Pelusi (’93 B.A.) is an internationally renowned hair color artist and stylist who travels the world as an educator and platform artist, leading top colorist teams 
by premiering and teaching the latest hair color trends. He has been featured at leading hair shows and has been published in national magazines such as American Salon, Modern Salon and Front Desk. Pelusi lives in California, where he is one of the elite colorists in West Hollywood and has created his own line of hair care products. For more information about Pelusi and his hair care system, go to www.marcopelusi.com.
Gurhan Elmalioglu (’99 M.F.A.) recently finished working on the BBC project Lost Worlds: Hittites and was seen on the History Channel in the documentary The Ottoman Empire: The War Machine, in which he performed and served as fight coordinator. He is currently working as a fight choreographer on a feature film titled Polis. In addition, Elmalioglu teaches movement and acting at T. C. Maltepe University in Turkey.
Doug Cockle (’99 M.F.A.) has received an honorary B.A. in acting from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, England. He continues to act professionally in theatre, film and voiceovers. He is the father of two boys, Aidan (4) and Toby (2).
C. Graydon Schlichter III (’99 B.A.) graduated in May 2006 from Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles, Calif. He was on the dean’s list and was selected to address the 400 graduates and their guests at the graduation ceremony. He was the notes and comment editor of the law review and was a member of the moot court team.
Heath Lane (’03 M.F.A.) was responsible for all of the production drafting for the 2006 Wal-Mart Shareholders meeting, held in Fayetteville, Ark. Heath and Valerie, his wife, are moving to Springfield, Mo. and are expecting the birth of their first child in December.
Devin O’Connor (’05 B.A.) was contracted to manage all the events for MTV’s Spring Break and worked as a production assistant on a new show, 8th and Ocean, which premiered last March.
Visual Arts
Richard Loveless (’64 M.Ed. Art Ed.) retired in 2000 as professor emeritus from Arizona State University, where he was the founding director of the Institute for Studies in the Arts. This brought closure to a career in arts education that spanned 43 years, from one-room schools in western Pennsylvania, to acting as a fine arts coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, to teaching for 33 years in higher education in Florida and Arizona. He advocated for advancing research that moved creative practice into the digital reality. Loveless received a College of Arts and Architecture Alumni Award in 1998. After his retirement, Loveless launched his consulting company, Global Connections: Consulting Services in Art and Technology. He serves on several boards, including the board of Cosanti Foundation, where he is working with architect Paolo Soleri. He and his wife of 28 years, Susan, live in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Joan Bickley Groff (’67 M.F.A.) is semi-retired from her work as an art teacher in the Pocono Mountain School District. She is active in the Pennsylvania Art Education Association, and in community environmental, library and historical associations in East Stroudsburg. She has two daughters, Meredith and Elizabeth.
John Cleary (’71 B.F.A.) has held juried, invitational and one-man exhibitions in 2006 at Isadore Gallery, Lancaster, Pa., and in 2005 at Northern Virginia Community College, Fairfax, Va.; York Art Association, York, Pa.; CCBC Gallery, Catonsville, Md.; and Clare Spitler Works of Art, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Bonnie Levine Blackman (’71 B.S. Art Ed.) was the recipient of a 2006 Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Key award. Previous winners include Eleanor Roosevelt and Walter Cronkite. The Gold Key is awarded to those who have demonstrated their support of excellence in teaching journalism and advising student publications.
Florence Putterman (’73 M.F.A.) has held exhibitions in 2006 at the Projects Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa.; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pa.; Gallery 10 in Washington, D.C.; and City Hall, Hollywood, Fla. Her work was recently reviewed in the summer 2006 issue of ARTnews. For more information, go to www.putterman.com.
David Veater (’75 B.F.A.) is currently an advanced placement studio instructor and fine arts chairperson at Glynn Academy High School, Brunswick, Ga. He shows his artwork in exhibits at Coastal Georgia Community College.
Stanton Sears (’76 M.F.A.), along with his partner, Andrea Myklebust, recently completed new work on the Edgerton Street Bridge for the City of Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. To find out more about this particular work, go to www.myklebust-sears.com/portfolio.html.
Lynda Somach (’76 B.A.) recently designed and built her family’s new home and design studio.
Lynne Rae Perkins (’78 B.F.A.) was a 2006 winner of the Newbery Medal (the top prize in children’s books) for Criss Cross (Greenwillow Books), a coming-of-age novel about a group of 14-year-olds. Perkins, who illustrates her books, has also published four picture books and another novel, a prequel to Criss Cross.
Cathy McNamara McIlhenny (’80 B.S. Art Ed.) completed work on the interior/exterior design decisions for the new Indian Valley YMCA in Harleysville, Pa. She has her own residential design business, Taramel Designs.
Heather Bentz (’82 B.F.A.) is an assistant dean in the College of Arts and Architecture at Montana State University.
Nancy DeJesus (’86 B.S. Art Ed.) started her own business, Nancy DeJesus ~ Fine Art for Nurseries and Kids’ Rooms, in September 2005 (www.nancydejesus.com). She’s also an independent contractor for K12, Inc., which provides curriculum to virtual academies and homeschoolers nationwide (www.k12.com). She designed and wrote their art program. Previously, DeJesus taught art in public schools for 14 years. She and her husband have a daughter, Eliana, age 3.
Chris Puscian (’90 B.A. General Arts) is vice president of JB Hanauer & Co., a full-service brokerage firm.
Jill Simonsen (’93 B.A. Art) had four showings of her paintings in 2006: the PULSE Art Fair in March at the 69th Regiment Amory, N.Y., with Galerie Magda Danyz from Paris; a two-person show in June at BLVD Gallery in Seattle; a group exhibition in June at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco; and a solo show in September at Aidan Savoy Gallery in New York. She also continues to work as a freelance designer in New York City.
Beth Reitmeyer (’94 B.F.A.) is being represented by Zg Gallery in Chicago. She was a part of two group exhibitions at the gallery in 2005 and had her first solo exhibition, With Love, in February/March 2006. Reitmeyer, who received her M.F.A. from Northwestern University, is an artist-in-residence at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Ill.
M. Travis DiNicola (’96 M.S. Art Ed., ’92 B.A. Theatre) is the co-host of WFYI Public Radio’s Art of the Matter weekly arts talk show and was awarded an Arts Council of Indianapolis Creative Renewal Fellowship for his work in radio documentary production in 2004. In addition, he is involved in arts education for Young Audiences of Indiana. Also a writer, in 2005 he was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission for his fiction writing. Currently he is working on completing his first novel.
Sharon Kaplan (’01 B.S. Art Ed., Flute Ensemble, Concert and Symphonic Bands) is currently the museum educator at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Kirsten Grigor (’01 B.F.A. Art) is a graphics consultant for DecisionQuest.
Dahn Hiuni (’05 Ph.D. Art Ed, ’96 M.F.A. Art) is working as an artist and freelance art educator in New York City. He teaches studio art courses at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Old Westbury, Long Island, and is a lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dahn is also a teaching artist for Studio In A School, Manhattan’s premiere visual arts education organization, which places artists in city schools. In addition, Dahn teaches online art history and art appreciation courses for Shepherd University. He recently had a one-man show combining painting and performance at the Frank Center Art Gallery at Shepherd University, and has designed the poster artwork for the upcoming Broadway show, The Ballad of Norah’s Ark. He may be reached at dahnhiuni@aol.com.
Noteworthy
Susan Browning (’62 B.A. Arts) died at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York on April 23, 2006, from respiratory failure. Honored by Penn State in 1974 “for distinguished contributions to the performing arts,” Browning was a two-time Tony Award nominee for Best Actress in a Musical for Company (1971) and Good Time Charley (1975). In addition, for her role of April in Company, she received a Theatre World Award, which is given in recognition of an outstanding “breakout” performance, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for NBC’s First Ladies Diaries (1975).
