Nico Armeanu
Attendees converse at the Artist Curation Exhibition's opening reception Aug. 24 at the ARTSWIN Gallery.
Music:
Awards earned at the 2025 Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media
Awards earned at the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters College Competition
Writing:
April was National Poetry Month, and the Southern Indiana Review (SIR) partnered with the College of Liberal Arts to hold a poetry reading. Rosalie Moffett, assistant professor of English and poetry editor at SIR, read several of her poems at the event. The poems came from her book, “Making a Living,” which had been published a month prior.
The Southern Indiana Review Press and the Michael Waters Poetry Prize released “Milk for Gall” by Natalie Louise Tombasco in 2024. The Southern Indiana Review released their 31st volume, with Number 2 being its 30th anniversary issue.
Candid Magazine released its seventh volume at the end of the fall semester. Their eighth volume is expected to be released at the end of this semester.
FishHook released their 13th volume in the fall of 2024. It featured works from Maci Crowell, Nikita Fischer, Hunter Greenwell, Drake Hubert, Emalee Jones, Abigail Kercher, McKenna Love, Gage Lynn, Denise McKenzie, MonteLee Norton, Peyton Peters, Tegan Ruhl, Aubrey Swart, Shelby Trotter, Paris Wallace and Kaitlen Wood.
Awards earned at the Indiana Collegiate Press Association
Visual Arts:
This year, I attended many exhibitions and gallery receptions. I also had the pleasure of speaking to dozens of artists, curators and creatives about their work.
Overall, the most interesting one would have to be “Opusilva: Woodland Works” because the artist explained to me the process behind each artwork and more.
I had never gotten such an in-depth look behind the curtain, and her process is truly unlike any that I have ever seen, especially since she grows some of her materials.
Closer to home and near to my heart is this year’s Senior Exhibition.
While I truly believe in the talent and skill of my peers, I cannot write about it in an unbiased way because many of my friends are featured in it.
Next fall will have a void in the art department with their graduation, and their advice, laughter, dry humor and encouragement will be missed.
One overall change that students may have noticed in the Art and Design department is the number of shows being held in the Virginia Thomas Memorial Gallery.
With an influx of posters lining the halls, calls for submissions and receptions, this gallery, located on the top floor of the Arts Center, has been livelier than I have ever seen it in my three years here.
It’s become clear that we, as students, are being encouraged to get some valuable, hands-on experience curating and organizing shows.
What hasn’t changed is how our faculty consistently shows up to support us. Whether the galleries have been in New Harmony, Newburgh, Evansville, on-campus or during class-time, for just about every event a student or alum has organized, a professor has stopped in to cheer them on.
Theatre:
This year, USI Theatre did anything but play it safe. They had multiple student-directed shows: “Vanities,” “35mm: A Musical Exhibition” and “The Taming.” They retold classic stories from Greek mythology and Shakespeare. They even had a play within a play and two three-woman shows.
We’ll have to wait and see what the 2025-2026 season has in store for us.