Spring 2021 Residency

Musicians and composers Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi will share their stories — along with four SCU faculty who also work as artists — in the fields of printmaking, music, acting, directing, and filmmaking. Learn how these artists made their way from undergraduate studies into careers, what their involvement with the arts looks like now, and what advice they have for those who are aspiring to work in the world of visual arts, performing arts, film, and other creative professions.

We invite students, alumni, and anyone with an interest in creative arts careers to join us for this discussion, which will include time for audience Q&A with the panelists:

• Kathy Aoki, Art and Art History, printmaker and visual artist
• Ray Furuta, Music, flutist and curator
• Nico Opper, Communication, film director and producer

Moderated by Jeffrey Bracco, Theatre and Dance, director and actor.

For time immemorial a relationship has existed between the arts and mental health. Evocative processes labeled as artist angst or genius permeate both worlds. Given this relationship, the Cowell Center could think of no better person to help us launch May Mental Health Month and our week of Suicide Prevention than the SCU Frank Sinatra Artist-in-Residence Rhiannon Giddens. 

 Musicians and composers, Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, will be joined by a filmmaker and scholars to discuss and explore the connections between African Americans and Italian Americans, revealing longstanding sonic and social affinities as well as overlapping histories of racial and ethnic exclusion.

• John Turturro, actor, director, and producer
• Camilla Hawthorne, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (UC Santa Cruz)
• John Gennari, Professor of English and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (University of Vermont)

Moderated by Christina Zanfagna, Center for the Arts and Humanities 2020-21 Sinatra Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Music and Ethnic Studies.