Festival of the Arts

Festival of the Arts is set to begin its fifth year next week with numer­ous activ­i­ties tak­ing place in down­town Big Rapids.

On Monday, Jan. 30 at 6 p.m., Artworks will host the festival’s kick­off event, which is free and open to the pub­lic, cater­ing is pro­vided by the Blue Cow Café and Great Lakes Office Products. The month-long event holds work­shops and per­for­mances that fea­ture local cre­ative tal­ent in addi­tion to vis­its by regional and national artists and inno­va­tors. Artist Winifred Godfrey will be fea­tured at the open­ing recep­tion as well as an oppor­tu­nity to meet artist Linda Stephen. Godfrey’s “Mayan Procession” and Stephen’s origami exhi­bi­tions will be on dis­play at Artworks through Feb. 25. There are a large num­ber of events and per­for­mances held through­out the month-long festival.

This year’s co-chairs of the Festival of the Arts are Carrie Weis and Ed Mallett. The 2012 Festival of the Arts runs from Jan. 25 through Feb. 29. For more details, visit online at fer​ris​.edu/​f​e​s​t​i​v​al/.

Mississippi State University invites graphic design fac­ulty mem­ber

As part of its School of Architecture Lecture Series, William Culpepper, a Ferris State University assis­tant pro­fes­sor of graphic design, will lec­ture at Mississippi State University.

On March 21 through March 24, there will be a pre­sen­ta­tion for stu­dents in archi­tec­ture and art; the theme of the lec­ture series is “Alternative Practice.” Culpepper will share Ferris stu­dents’ design projects as well as review and cri­tique the work of Mississippi State University Department of Art students. 

The lec­ture will focus on pro­fes­sion­al­ism, cre­ative work and Culpepper’s progress with Graphik Intervention, an urban revi­tal­iza­tion project that uti­lizes graphic design. Through his pre­sen­ta­tion in Mississippi, Culpepper hopes he can strengthen aware­ness of how graphic design­ers col­lab­o­rate with oth­ers as well as improve his per­sonal work. To learn more on William Culpepper visit fer​ris​.edu/​b​u​s​i​n​e​s​s​/​p​r​o​g​r​a​m​s​/​g​r​a​p​h​i​c​-​d​e​s​i​g​n​/​f​a​c​u​l​t​y​/​w​i​l​l​i​a​m​-​c​u​l​p​e​p​per.

Ferris State University holds first place for stu­dents with mil­i­tary expe­ri­ence

Listed as num­ber one out of ten in the Education Insider blog post­ing, Education Insider ranked the Ferris pro­gram “per­fect” for stu­dents with mil­i­tary experience.

Ferris State University’s recre­ation lead­er­ship and man­age­ment pro­gram topped Education Insider’s “Ten Perfect Majors for Students with Military Experience” list. Education Insider built its list that made up some of var­i­ous skills that men and women who have served in the mil­i­tary develop dur­ing service.

The com­men­tary listed for the Ferris pro­gram read, “As a ser­vice mem­ber you’ve prob­a­bly already devel­oped a lot of lead­er­ship skills. By major­ing in recre­ation lead­er­ship and man­age­ment, you can fur­ther develop those skills and learn about over­see­ing a vari­ety of recre­ational activities.”

For more infor­ma­tion on this topic, visit the Education Insiders’ website.