Experiential Learning Archives - BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications

Young Performer Luke Rands Finds His Place in NYC

Alyssa Anderson — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 16:29:39 +0000

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The College of Fine Arts & Communications Announces #ExperienceCFAC Creative Works Contest Winners

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 19:13:28 +0000

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Give Children a Musical Experience with the Young Musicians Academy

Alyssa Anderson — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 18:27:47 +0000

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New Dance Project Shatters Misconceptions and Challenges Stereotypes

Elena Castro — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 20:02:34 +0000

Two directors, two dance troupes, one new project: Living Kinnected When Living Legends artistic director Jamie Kalama Wood and Kinnect Dance Company artistic director Angela Rosela Challis came together for an experimental and experiential learning opportunity, they created a fusion between their two companies. This fusion would prove challenging not only for their students, but also for themselves as individuals and as educators. Living Legends is a dance company that specializes in indigenous dances from Polynesian, Latin and Native American cultures. Kinnect Dance Company specializes in dance education. They visit elementary schools throughout Utah and teach the importance of dance and art to students. Kinnect also prepares BYU students to be future dance educators. Living Kinnected is a project that merges both groups with brief interactions and aims to create more unity and friendship within the dance companies. It all started when Challis, as a BYU student in the early 2000s, was a dancer in the Kinnect company. She had friends who were part of the Living Legends company, but there wasn’t any collaboration between the two groups. Today, as Kinnect’s artistic director, Challis wanted to change that. “I felt it would be important to make a film that showed how these two dance worlds could come together to make art. Then we’d go to elementary schools and teach the students how they, too, can approach somebody they normally wouldn’t,” said Challis. With ideas bouncing around in her head, Challis joined with Wood to create a collaborative dance project. Though the interactions were brief, they have learned that students from both groups have created new friendships with one another. Additionally, dancers from Kinnect have formed a desire to connect with their heritage and dancers from Living Legends have explored new ways to be involved in the dance department. To introduce this new union, Challis wanted to create a short film on breaking perceptions. “I wanted to change stereotypes, but sometimes stereotypes are ingrained in us,” she said. The film features dancers sharing what they believe are the stereotypes or perceptions they give to other people and then share how they are different from that stereotype. Challis admitted that watching the footage playback was heartbreaking and that a lot of the takes were so real and raw that they wanted to keep those confessions safe. They worked with the students in a two-way conversation to make sure that the students felt comfortable. The conversation was continued to make sure that students felt comfortable in sharing their answers to the difficult and personal questions about stereotypes. Honoring student requests made editing tricky, but it was worth every effort. Wood added that they did this to represent who their dancers really are and not what others may perceive them to be. The project was an effort to break down the physical and visual barriers people place between themselves and others. “There might be people right next to you that you have the potential to connect with, but you wouldn’t know that if all you’re seeing is that outer piece,” said Wood. Coming into this project, both professors were under the impression that this would be a one-film endeavor–a single collaboration during one semester. But after seeing such a thought-provoking outcome, both instructors are thinking of ways this new project could continue on. “I think it would be great to have a place where people can come and say, ‘This is how people perceive me, this is how I want people to perceive me.’ I think we should go further with this and include as many people who want to be included because everybody has something important to say,” said Challis. “This gives students the chance to share their voice, the chance to connect with others and to connect physically. Not everybody is a dancer, but we all have a kinesthetic awareness,” said Wood. Wood said that if Living Kinnected were to become a long-term collaboration, it would be essential to incorporate students early in the planning process. By doing so, this project could become a powerful tool for expression and a way for each person to share their story.

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Short Film by Sophia Prestwich Showcases Moms who Skateboard

Chris Hayes — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 18:18:07 +0000

“Skaterhood” tells compelling story of female skateboarders and their ties to motherhood When Sophia Prestwich pitched the idea of making a documentary about women who skateboard, she had already begun to dabble in the sport herself. “I saw other girls skating and was intrigued by their presence in a sport usually so dominated by men,” she said. Prestwich’s film was chosen to be a student Capstone project. This provided funding and led to a mentorship with Brad Barber, Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and associate chair for the BYU Department of Theatre and Media Arts. Prestwich, who is from England, was not originally planning to attend university at all. But after a conversation with her high school art teacher, she decided to apply to BYU. “I really wanted to push myself to have an adventure, and America sounded fun,” she said. “I’ve been here for five years now.” Prestwich recently graduated from BYU with a major in media arts and an emphasis in documentary. “Skaterhood,” Prestwich’s short documentary film, was released in October 2020. Its three subjects — Xan, Jen and Cass — share a common thread of motherhood. “They were all pretty open about being filmed,” Prestwich said. “Cass and Xan were already posting to social media a lot, and Jen was going to the skate park every morning with her son Max.” Director of photography Skyler Sorensen is a media arts major who will graduate from BYU this spring. He was responsible for lighting and filming, sometimes running two cameras at once. Filming with a three-person skeleton crew (Sorensen, Prestwich and sound mixer David Sant) presented plenty of challenges. “It stretched me to focus on the bare minimum equipment needed to tell a compelling story in a beautiful way,” Sorensen said. One of the most painful yet profound moments of the film was when newly pregnant Xan discovered she had suffered a miscarriage. “When the miscarriage happened, I was cautious about how to approach it, but Xan was the one to suggest including it,” Prestwich said. “She told me that only good things could come from sharing it. It was kind of a miracle, and definitely a learning experience for me. She became a catalyst for empathy.” “One of the duties of being a filmmaker is building relationships with the people you film,” Prestwich continued. “The subjects aren’t actors, but real people with real stories. I learned how emotionally taxing creating films can be, especially documentaries. But I also feel like I changed as a person. I didn’t expect that.” Prestwich shared that one of her favorite moments was filming Xan longboarding in Provo Canyon. “It was just me and my husband Israel,” she said. “I was skateboarding down the canyon with her while holding my camera.” The importance of story is one of the lessons Prestwich learned along the way. “You can have a really cool idea, but if you don’t know how to put it together as a compelling story, it falls apart,” she said. “Our editor, Jenna Schaelling, did a great job with the footage. Editors don’t get enough credit for what they do. “It was also really helpful to have Brad Barber’s advice on how to craft a strong narrative,” Prestwich said. “Brad brought in a few friends from when he was in school who are film professionals now. They watched the documentary and provided feedback. It was great to work with so many talented people!” Prestwich is currently working on several passion projects. “My goal for 2021 is to create like crazy! I’m naturally drawn toward topics of women’s issues.” Her hope is to become a better filmmaker with every project, so people will recognize her work and so she can continue to make films for many years to come. Follow Sophia Prestwich on Instagram.

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Design Students Use Creativity to Promote Safety and Unity

Emily Andersen — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 15:44:52 +0000

Design’s Liset Rivet explains the contests that lead to student-designed masks and zine BYU design students are in for a treat come December. The Department of Design is producing a quarantine zine, or “Quaranzine,” that will be filled with the creations of BYU students and alumni. Over the summer, the department held a contest for quarantine-related designs to include in the zine. All participants in the contest will be featured. The winners were announced on Instagram on July 1. “Students keep asking about when they’re going to get the zine,” said Liset Rivet, who runs the design department’s social media accounts. “They’re really excited about it.” But the call for Quaranzine art didn’t end there. The design department launched a new contest in October inviting design students and alumni to submit their original mask designs, which will also be featured in the zine in December. The winners of the mask contest were announced on November 3 on the Design Department’s Instagram. The winning masks will be produced and sold in the BYU store. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BYU Department of Design (@byu_design) The first-place design was made by Alec Ahlstorm and featured the bottom half of the face of Brigham Young on a neck-gaiter mask, with a Y on the cheek. There was not a specific theme for the masks, and the four winning designs were each very different from the others. Rivet said that while the contest was an opportunity to inspire students’ creativity, she also hoped that it could help promote more safety on campus. “I hope that students will be more encouraged to wear masks. The fact that the winning mask will be sold on campus is so cool. Who wouldn’t want to see their design physically created? I hope that a lot of students feel encouraged to begin wearing their masks. This can hopefully better promote that,” Rivet said.

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The College of Fine Arts & Communications Announces #ExperienceCFAC Creative Works Contest Winners

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 21:51:41 +0000

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Share Your Story: Tyler Persson

admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 09:25:29 +0000

Performing student Tyler Persson shares how an experiential learning opportunity has enhanced his time at BYU I’m not the best dancer at BYU. Actually, I’d say that I’m fairly average amongst the incredibly talented individuals I am constantly surrounded with, both on my own International Folk Dance Ensemble, as well as among the other dance groups I associate with. Despite this, I often feel my dance classes at BYU are somewhat limited — the things we learn don’t feel entirely out of reach, and I can learn all of the material adequately in a semester or so (albeit, with a lot of hard work). It isn’t often that I encounter things I recognize as unattainably beyond my current skill level. However, while in China with BYU Spectacular, we folk dancers attended an exchange workshop at Minzu University (known for being one of the premier universities for Chinese ethnic minorities, which is expressed especially well in its large dance program); this experience shattered my feelings of relative competency in dance and performance. I saw people performing at levels far beyond my current ability — to dance like they do would require years of persistent learning, and even then, I feel like I wouldn’t do it all justice. Much of my experience in China served as a reminder that there is such a wealth of knowledge to gain, no limit to the abilities to be attained and no small amount of hard work to be exerted to gain it all. China has reinvigorated me to work harder to achieve heights previously beyond my vision. In addition, as I reflect on my time in China, it’s clear that all of my knowledge and ability means very little without people to share it with. This BYU Spectacular tour was about people, not about performances. The interactions that we had with people in lobbies, on the streets or in any other daily comings and goings were poignant reminders of this. This puts the knowledge and abilities I’ve gained (and will continue to gain) into the greater context of benefiting people. It’s easier now to ask myself, “How will what I am learning be of use to someone else?” In these two ways (among others), the people in China have left their mark on me. My renewed determination to work harder and achieve more than before, and my growing understanding of the ties between my learning and the people it benefits are treasures to me. The publication of student articles allows the College of Fine Arts and Communications to highlight the experiential learning opportunities and behind-the-scenes experiences of students and faculty and tell stories with a unique voice and point of view. Submit your story at cfac.byu.edu.

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AdLab Student Project “Your Decisions Write Our Stories” Dominates Awards Season

McKell Park — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 22:43:14 +0000

The project, titled “Your Decisions Write Our Stories,” won several awards this year, including a Gold Award at the International Andy Awards and Best in Show at Utah’s American Advertising Federation Awards When BYU advertising student Connor Dean first heard about Dr. Scott Warren, an Arizona State University professor being charged for ‘harboring illegal people’ at the border, he was confused by the backlash Warren received for his actions. “To me, it was a modern-day Good Samaritan story of a man choosing to go against prejudice to help save another life,” Dean said. “I began to think, what would I do in the situation? What is right and what is wrong? What is the greater commandment as children of God, to love one another or to love the law of the land?” Quickly, Dean’s personal reflections morphed into an advertising project titled “Your Decisions Write Our Stories.” The video — branded with the LA Times — tells the story of the wife of a border patrol officer who stumbles upon a young boy and his pregnant mother as they attempt to cross the border near the couple’s home. The student team — Connor Dean (Producer), Enoch Lui (Copywriter), Cam Tribe (Art Director) and Quinn Frehner (Strategy) — decided to produce the commercial in a narrative structure, allowing the audience to understand the complex issue through a relatable and emotional story. “I tend to gravitate more towards narrative-type storytelling in commercials because I feel that I can share important messages in a beautiful and relatable way,” Dean said. Although the ad addressed controversial messages about immigration, the students hoped to shed light on humanitarian aid at the border, a topic the group believed many are unaware of. “Border groups such as No More Deaths and Border Angels organize water drops and supplies for refugees crossing the border in harsh conditions. There have been legal ramifications to these individuals for helping immigrants as they seek a better life,” Dean said. By using the captivating story and character development, the team wanted to promote more understanding for illegal immigration, and encourage a different way of thinking about immigrants coming into the United States. “Instead of being passive about topics that might make us uncomfortable, such as illegal immigration, we can make a conscious effort to develop empathy for others and to see them as human beings with valid life experiences,” Dean said. The students also hoped to convey a message about the importance of finding truth, even when that truth can be difficult to hear. The words that appear at the end of the commercial — “your decisions write our stories” — are a reflection on the relationship between what one believes to be true and how that can affect decision making. “We make decisions based on what we believe ‘truth’ is. Paradoxically, in today’s world truth is harder to find, even though there are more news stations, search engines and resources than ever before,” Dean said. “We won’t discover truth if we rely solely on our own experiences to perceive the world, because people everywhere have extremely different circumstances and realities that we cannot comprehend.” Enoch Lui, who worked as the copywriter for the project, found personal fulfillment from his involvement and the opportunity to use his voice and talents for good. “The project meant a lot to me because I served my mission in Guatemala. I saw a lot of people leave their homes to try to find a better life in the United States,” Lui said. “We weren’t trying to show one side or the other, and we were just trying to give the facts, but we felt like it was an important message to share.” The AdLab had a great impact on the success of the project, as the students were able to bring their creative ideas to life using its resources. Dean was able to benefit from real-world experience in film production. “As a commercial film producer, you are in charge of the whole production process,” he said. “You need to understand film production, narrative structure and story development as well as handling things like budgeting, casting and scheduling. The AdLab has been so crucial in my education and growth as a producer. We have access to amazing resources such as cinema cameras and editing and coloring software.” Ultimately, “Your Decisions Write Our Stories” sought to bring empathy — not based in political views, but rather real people and stories. “I hope that people can watch this story and form opinions not based on political affiliation or preconceived notions, but on seeing and hearing the stories of other people — especially those who are marginalized,” Dean said. “I hope we can become better at not simply accepting the truths that are portrayed to us by our own culture, but that we can put in the work to recognize the experiences of humanity everywhere.” Watch the full ad here. Awards Won: Gold Cube – Art Directors Club (ADC) for The One Club for Creativity Gold Award – The International Andy Awards Gold – Telly Award Utah AAF – Best in Show

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Cast and Crew Members Share Lessons Learned from BYU’s Cancelled ‘Wendy & Peter Pan’

Martha Duzett — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 19:17:57 +0000

The theatre department is currently working to reschedule the production — which was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns — for the Fall 2020 semester On March 12, life in the Department of Theatre and Media Arts was turned upside down as rehearsals ground to a halt, performances were cancelled and students were instructed to return home due to COVID-19 concerns — all just a week before mainstage production “Wendy & Peter Pan” was set to open. Despite their disappointment after months of preparation, members of the cast and technical crew of playwright Ella Hickson’s retelling of the J.M. Barrie classic look back on the rehearsal process as a formative experience and highlight of their BYU education, audience or no audience. “I was really excited to be one of the ones creating the magic, since Neverland is such a vivid location for so many people,” said student set designer Elisabeth Goulding. “The challenge of bringing a beloved story to stage is always one of managing expectations. You’ve got to find a balance between creating a distinct Neverland that’s unique to the needs of this production but still has a spark of the familiar Neverland that we already know and love. I wanted to help capture the same sense of wonder and excitement that I remember feeling when reading about Wendy and Peter’s adventures.” For theatre education major Skyler Denfeld, who played Slightly, one of the most impactful parts of working on “Wendy & Peter Pan” was watching director Kris Jennings Peterson unite the cast in common goals for what they needed to convey in their performance and develop as actors. “Kris asked us to really think about the play’s exploration of light and dark,” said Denfeld. “We talked a lot about the light in our lives and the shadows that we all have, and how we deal with the contrast that the light and the dark create. We also talked about learning to fight the shadows and accept the light.” Read the full story at the Department of Theatre and Media Arts website.

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