Kelley Bell, assistant professor of Visual Arts, will speak at American University on March 29 as part of a panel of four women in the District of Columbia area who currently work in animation and motion graphics. In honor of Women’s History Month, the Animator’s Roundtable will provide an opportunity for the artists to show samples of their work and discuss how they approach animation, from business to aesthetics.

Uncultivated, an art project by Lynn Cazabon, associate professor of Visual Arts, will be featured in two exhibitions and will be published in a digital media art catalogue, SCAN2GO. An ongoing public art project that explores wild plants in urban landscapes, Uncultivated began in Baltimore in late 2010 and has expanded to include other cities.

Photographs from Uncultivated are on display at the VisArts Gallery, at 155 Gibbs Street in Rockville, Maryland, from March 9 through April 14 in an exhibition curated by UMBC IMDA alumna Susan Main.

Photographs will also be on display at Brooklyn Utopias: Park Space, Play Space, at the Old Stone House, 333 3rd Street, Brooklyn, New York, from April 5 through June 25.

Uncultivated is also featured in the publication SCAN2GO, a printed catalogue of digital media art works produced by the College Art Association Services to Artists committee in collaboration with v1b3. The catalogue will represent the artworks by printed QR codes, which function to connect viewers to digital media art works by using a smart phone. The QR codes are linked to a web address/url that shows an art piece (sound art, video, code pieces or web art) that will be viewed on smart phones and camera enabled tablet computers.

John Sturgeon, professor of Visual Arts, was selected for a Fulbright Scholar award to the United Kingdom, 2012-13, as a Distinguished Chair at the London College of Art, London, England. This is Professor Sturgeon’s second Fulbright Scholar appointment (Argentina/Uruguay 1988-89), but his first since joining the UMBC faculty in 2000.

Writing and photography by Callie Neylan, assistant professor of Visual Arts, was featured on National Public Radio’s “The Picture Show” blog on March 17. Offering a St. Patrick’s Day reflection on a visit to Ireland, she notes, “One thing I stress when teaching design is the philosophy of austerity, simplicity, and that less is more. What you take out, I always say, is more important than what you leave in.”

Marie desJardins, computer science and electrical engineering, competed in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn last weekend. She placed 44th out of 593 solvers, 22nd (of 568) in the “B” category (solvers who haven’t competed in the A (elite) or B finals), and 5th (of 87) in the Mid-Atlantic. She was the 8th ranked woman in the tournament, and the top-ranked woman in the Mid-Atlantic region. She also earned an “I Beat Dr. Fill” button for outscoring the crossword-solving computer program, “Dr. Fill.”

The tournament page is here: http://www.crosswordtournament.com/

Rankings: http://www.crosswordtournament.com/2012/standings/rank.htm

Dr. Fill: http://www.crosswordtournament.com/articles/bg031112.htm

Linda Dusman, professor of music, was profiled on the contemporary music website NewMusicBox in a feature by Molly Sheridan, “Linda Dusman—Leading a Creative Life.” The video accompanying the text includes performance excerpts of several of Professor Dusman’s works by UMBC faculty—Lisa Cella, Tom Goldstein and Airi Yoshioka—with additional contributions by Alan Wonneberger and the Imaging Research Center.