RaMell Ross, the director behind the Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated historical drama Nickel Boys, brought his unique approach to cinema to ������Ƶ. Ross spent a day with students through a series of events across campus. Meeting with multiple groups throughout the day, Ross generously engaged students on a series of topics.

The Morganroth Auditorium buzzed with excitement from both students and faculty. Ross—a critically acclaimed artist, writer, director, and Brown University professor, and a distinctive voice in contemporary cinema—spent the day on campus as the featured guest of the 41st Annual Visiting Art Historian Lecture Series, co-hosted by the Liberal Arts and Film Departments.

The day’s events included meeting with students on the Film Soundstages throughout the day, giving students the opportunity to sit down with the filmmaker, who chatted candidly about filmmaking, his process, and life. In the afternoon, his film Nickel Boys was screened in the Morganroth Auditorium, followed by a talk and Q&A session.

As an artist, Ross deliberately centers Black experience and perspective in his work. His path to cinema was non-linear. Before becoming a filmmaker, Ross played professional basketball for a team in Ireland’s SuperLeague North Division. Following his basketball career in Ireland, he returned to the United States to teach, a role he continues as an associate professor in the Visual Arts Department at Brown University. He has had numerous art and photography exhibitions.

His documentary debut, Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018), earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature, along with a Special Jury Award at Sundance and a Peabody Award.

He then made the leap to narrative filmmaking with Nickel Boys, adapted from Colson Whitehead’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which received Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the 97th Academy Awards.

Nickel Boys tells the story of two Black teenagers at an abusive Florida reform school during the Jim Crow era, inspired by the real-life horrors of the Dozier School for Boys, informed by the real-life testimonials gathered by Whitehead for the novel. What sets the film apart is its radical formal approach: shot entirely from the first-person point of view of its two protagonists, Ross’s concept of “sentient perspective” or “Black subjectivity” asks audiences not to observe these young men’s lives, but to live inside them.

For students who spent the day with Ross, the visit felt like more than an inspiring lecture. Jayde Dauley, Film Senior and Black Student Union President, who also helped give Ross a tour of the film department’s facilities and showcased Black history in the surrounding area, reflected on the significance of the visit. “As a film senior, I was ecstatic at the opportunity to meet and talk with RaMell Ross. Being able to hold conversation and ask questions about his life and work was exciting and entirely welcomed by my peers and I.”

“As a filmmaker myself, I found it helpful to receive advice from an active filmmaker in industry whose work is intentional and cultured,” Dauley shared.

Daniel Pacheco, who organized the recording of the lecture and Q&A and had the chance to speak with Ross afterwards, was struck by both the filmmaker’s generosity of spirit and the precision of his artistic thinking. “I felt as if my consciousness expanded just listening to him. He’s not only a true artist in every sense of the word, but also a scholar and one of the most inspiring filmmakers I’ve had the privilege of talking to,” Pacheco shared. “Learning about his views on cinema and his own approach to art has had a profound impact on me, and I think it’s already changed my trajectory as an artist.” One line in particular stayed with him: Ross’s observation that as an artist, “you’re always trying to make something smarter than yourself.”

“It was one of the best experiences I’ve had at Ringling by far,” Pacheco said. “I’m so grateful for Hector Sotomayor and all the people responsible for putting this together.”

The Visiting Art Historian Lecture Series is now in its 41st year, continuing its mission of bringing transformative creative voices to campus.

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Blake Gopnik is an art critic for The New York Times and the author of the 2020 biography Warhol, an exhaustive examination of the late pop artist. Most recently, he authored The Maverick’s Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream, about a philanthropist and modern art collector whose egalitarian ideals inspired a desire to take art out of the hands of the elite and make it available to the average American.

Christian Viveros-Fauné is an art critic for The Village Voice, curator-at-large for USF Contemporary Art Museum, co-founder of The Brooklyn Rail, and author of the 2018 book Social Forms: A Short History of Political Art from Zwirner Books.

The duo is notorious for turning the critiques into debates, forming hard and opposing positions on topics and works of art, but with a fun energy and mutual respect. Their visit to Ringling offered a night of the critics’ usual banter and provocative opinions. 

They debated a Caravaggio painting, depicting a young man in drag, who bears a slight resemblance to the artist, with one critic crediting the 20th-century revival of interest in the artist to advances in cinema. 

The two disagreed on the sexualized work of figurative painter Lisa Yuskavage, an advertisement featuring Andy Warhol, and a recent exhibition of early portraits by Amy Sherald. 

In a rare moment of unified thinking, they shared their mutual love for the 2016 documentary Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death by Arthur Jafa, screened in its entirety, leaving the whole room transfixed.  

The event was presented by ������Ƶ Galleries and Exhibitions, the Fine Arts Department, and the Liberal Arts Department, and emceed by Liberal Arts faculty member Tom Winchester. 

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Patton, a field scientist, restoration professional, and one of ������Ƶ’s Subject Matter Experts, takes students outside of the classroom to learn face-to-flower about the environments around them—whether it’s the landscaping on campus, the wildflowers along the side of the road, or the greenery growing wild in local parks. More than just identification, the goal is to learn about the interconnectedness of species, the effects of invasive flora and fauna, and the ways students can affect even a small patch of earth for the better.

In addition to his campus strolls, Patton leads six to eight accessible field trips per semester to local parks, including nearby North Water Tower Park and The Bay, as well as northwest Bradenton’s Robinson Preserve.

The trips usually involve hands-on projects like removing invasive species or planting trees, demonstrating in real-time the difference students can make. (Field trip participants earn an automatic A toward 20% of their grade.)

“I just kind of wanted to get active, be out in the environment,” said Sebastien Vaughn ’28, Film, during a recent field trip to North Water Tower Park to remove invasive air potato plants. “When we do [other] classes, we’re just kind of stuck doing stuff at a desk. We rarely get outside, and this is nice because we get to see nature and impact nature.”

Even outside of class, Patton’s students are encouraged to be observant. One-fifth of their grade involves using the iNaturalist app to identify 100 species over the course of the semester, whether they’re here in Sarasota, back at home, or anywhere else in the world.

For their final project, assigned on the first day of class, students must use their art to address issues related to biodiversity. The assignment has yielded some scientifically significant works, some of which have been published in naturalist magazines.

For instance, due to Patton’s connections in the scientific community, classes are sometimes exposed to newly discovered species. “I’ve had several students draw plants that have never had art of them before,” said Patton.

Patton also owns environmental consulting firm, Stocking Savvy, which uses ecological principles to restore and manage native Florida ecosystems. He’s been able to include his classes in projects that benefit the College in more ways than one.

“Most schools don’t think about their maintenance department, and maintenance departments also tend to be the lowest funded,” he explained. “So, by having the students design a landscape on campus that maintenance would have had to redo anyway, it saves [the College] design time. And we install it, too. They just have to take care of it afterwards. And because maintenance sets the parameters, and they pick the winning design, we know they’re going to be fine taking care of it.”

His next class project will be the installation of an on-campus bat house. “It’ll pull bats out of all the buildings, so that’s actually going to lower the chance of bat encounters,” Patton said. “They’ll eat mosquitoes and moths all over campus, including those annoying little moths. We’ll have like an hour each night where we’ll see thousands and thousands of bats pour out.”

Students ultimately come away with a new appreciation for the interconnectedness of nature and the ways that knowledge can elevate their work.

“We get to go out and see all of the creatures,” said Rebecca Peitz ’27, Computer Animation. “And I think it’s helpful to my major because obviously you have to design environments and that kind of stuff. Being in nature and learning about why things happen and why they’re there, it gives you a more detailed relationship and knowledge as you’re constructing and reconstructing those environments.”

Sean Patton is an expert in Florida ecology, habitat restoration, aquatic landscaping, invasive species management, science education, butterfly gardening, and Florida native landscaping with a focus on aquatic ecosystems.

������Ƶ’s faculty and staff are practicing artists, designers, industry leaders, and educators on the cutting edge of their fields. Learn more about ������Ƶ’s Subject Matter Experts on our website. Here, you will find distinguished experts on a diverse range of topics, from West African textiles to macroeconomics to the history of Sarasota.

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The minor was launched this semester, and two graduating seniors who had taken enough qualifying courses before the minor was established were able to claim it.  

Sky Lee ’25, Visual Studies, is one of the few students who could claim the minor in time for graduation this year. Lee described his growing interests in environmental studies that predated the minor, “Even before officially pursuing the minor, I naturally found myself drawn to environmental courses. As I worked toward the minor, I deepened my understanding of large-scale and local ecological issues.”

For graduating senior Theo Bell ’25, Illustration, their environmental studies had already begun before they entered college: 

“I have always been a big fan of science. By the age of five, I was telling people I wanted to be a herpetologist. During the pandemic, when I was in my junior year of high school, I spent all of my free time drawing and either watching National Geographic, PBS Eons, Animal Planet, or documentaries like Oceans and Crimson Wing. I knew I was either going into Marine Biology or Illustration. Ultimately, I decided on Illustration. The Environmental Studies minor was a perfect fusion of some of the things I love the most—art and science.” 

Bell plans to work as an artist for zoos and aquariums after graduation. 

To qualify for the Environmental Studies minor, students must take the Environmental Science course, which examines ecological systems and current environmental issues, plus four Environmental Studies electives. The electives span topics from the general, such as Sustainability, to deep dives on social behaviors in the Environmental Ethics and Ecological Beliefs course, the relationships between plants and animals in The Biodiversity of Earth, and planning for the future in Creating an Ecological City.

Liberal Arts faculty member Anamari Boyes is a water scientist who has worked at Mote Marine and a local drinking water laboratory. She teaches the Ecology of Water course that fits the elective criteria. She described the topic-driven course and projects: 

“We work on many different topic-guided projects and assignments, with one big project due at the end of the semester. This semester, we learned about tech and water use. In past years, we have studied a stressed water body and looked at the issue as a whole—history, stressors, and solutions, if any. We have also focused on Red tide, microplastics, and other big issues that our water world faces.”

The students create educational campaigns in a medium of their choice to teach the general public about the issue the group is addressing. 

Both Sky and Bell are champions for the minor. Bell shared their perspective on the need for studying the environment, “Regardless of your age and occupation, it is imperative that we are well-educated about our environment and how the choices we make impact it. Everything in this world is connected; the choices you make today can affect people and wildlife on the other side of the world.” 

Lee explains the critical role of the artist in making change, “Most climate issues do not feel immediately tangible to the general public. This is why environmental challenges need strong visual communication. ������Ƶ is filled with talented artists, and as artists, we are responsible for speaking to social issues through the language of art.”

Learn more about the Environmental Studies Minor and Liberal Arts at ������Ƶ.

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This past November, Markey was recognized by The Daily Sun newspaper as a FIERCE Woman for her work with The Teddy Bear Project, a 501c3 organization she founded to provide plush toys to vulnerable children. Markey first started the project in 2010, when she served as the head of the Family Center for the Family Violence Protection Program in Greenville, North Carolina.

“One of the things that I noticed was that when the children would come in, they would gravitate toward the teddy bears and stuffed animals,” she said. “So many of these families had so little. But then when they left, they’d have to leave the bears behind.”

What began as a holiday toy drive blossomed into an overwhelming response. There were so many donations that the surplus was given to the local sheriff’s office to be handed out during domestic violence calls.

In 2020, now living in Florida, Markey saw a drastic rise in domestic violence reports during COVID-19. She was inspired to start The Teddy Bear Project anew, this time based in Port Charlotte. In five years, the newly remade organization has donated thousands of teddy bears and teddy buds (non-bear plush toys)—more than 1,700 in 2023 alone. They’re shipped both locally and around the world, including to partners in the Ukraine and Mongolia.

Likewise, the donations arrive from all over the country. “It’s not unusual to open the door and find boxes the size of small apartments,” said Markey, who stores the toys in her own home, sometimes from floor to ceiling. “They come in by UPS, by Fed Ex, by USPS. They’re donated in memory of someone who’s passed away, from estates, from collections. All these people who want to be able to help, and this is a way to do it.” 

Markey has also found a way to connect hope and positivity with academia. This year, she copyrighted the study of “glistophilia,” the cultural and anthropological study of human attraction to things that glisten, glitter, and sparkle. It all began with her love of Christmas movies.

“So many of the decorations we’re attracted to are things that sparkle, glisten, glitter. I wondered if anybody has looked into the cultural, historical, and societal ramifications of this,” she explained. Glistophilia covers both naturally occurring phenomena—like twinkling stars—as well as man-made items, including makeup products and various aspects of the entertainment industry. “So many of these fields rely on that type of thing to attract buyers’ attention and use it for marketing purposes.”

Glistophilia marries Markey’s interests in “biophilia” (or relationship with nature) and “astrophilia” (dealing with the universe and the cosmos). Whether it’s soft toys or far-off stars, Markey remains keenly aware of ways to satisfy our fundamental human needs and curiosities.

“There’s a language of joy, a language of hearts and love, associated with teddy bears,” she said. “We do this year-round because these kids and their families need help all the time. Our philosophy is we never say no, no matter what it takes.”

Markey is a member of ������Ƶ’s Subject Matter Experts, as an expert on the subjects of Active killers, mass murders in schools, workplaces, public venues and church; intra-family homicide, violence, domestic violence, biophilia, astrophilia, Space Society, and Cosma Culture.

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Wilson also teaches a Liberal Arts course called Architecture in Film that examines cities, places, and spaces as seen in movies. Dr. Wilson chooses films where the buildings and spaces help tell the story. He points out that in The Shining, the hotel is the first major element the viewer sees. He said, “I chose The Shining for that reason—not only is the hotel a character, but important scenes of the film take place on stairs (meaning: transition), in doorways (meaning: relationship troubles), and at windows (meaning: watching/being watched).”

Now in its ninth year and 19th season, the Big Screen Film Series began in 2015 with a screening of a Hungarian film called White God by Kornel Mundruczo. Each season has a unique theme: The ‘80s: Big Screens! Big Hair! Big Drama!, Close Connections: Around the World with Film, Disguise and Transformation, and Hot Button Movies: Courting Controversy. The films are curated by a rotation of Liberal Arts faculty members, whose choices reflect their areas of interest and expertise, with the exception of a few seasons of special guest collaborators.  

A few years ago, they invited librarians to curate and introduce a series featuring movies about books and libraries. For another season, they partnered with New College to celebrate the anniversary of the book Frankenstein, showing half a dozen film versions.

The series was started by Liberal Arts faculty members Dr. Susan Doll and Del Jacobs, the idea of Jacobs, who is a film historian. He had been involved with film series at several venues in Sarasota and proposed it to Dr. Doll, who had her own experiences organizing midnight movies in Chicago. “To be able to see movies from all over the world, movies from all eras of film history, movies you have never heard of, or movies that are popular favorites was (and is) an incredible opportunity to understand movies as an art form or as entertainment or as a reflection of the era that produced it.” Dr. Doll shared. 

Over the years, they have shown everything from Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles to the Turkish film Mustang, the silent film Thief of Bagdad, and Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. They have screened to as few as five people in the audience and as many as 80. 

Del said of the value that the film series offers students at the College, “A community of spectators gathered together to watch a film on the big screen is the ultimate manifestation of cinema and the optimum witness experience for both audience and student-filmmaker. Our Ringling series is curated for relevance and effect and lends historical perspective to the art and commerce of the movies.”

The Big Screen Film Series screening of The Shining will give audience members a small glimpse of Dr. Wilson’s class, which looks at buildings and the built environment as they are portrayed in films. “Most of the films that we see in the course involve a building (or entire city) that isn’t just background but seems to be one of the characters of the film, along with the actors,” he shared. The course was developed after he co-wrote the book Reframing Berlin: Architecture, Memory-Making and Film Locations with his former colleague, Dr. Gul Kacmaz Erk. The two watched around 350 films that were either shot or set in Berlin, from which they chose 24 buildings, including the Berlin Wall, to write about. 

The Shining will screen on Thursday, April 10, at 7 pm at the Morganroth Auditorium in the Larry R. Thompson Academic Center. 

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Bella Race ’26, Graphic Design, Bella Thompson ’26, Graphic Design, and Samantha Balikowa ’26, Business of Art and Design, collaborated on the project; the back of the vehicle now bears their names. The students’ ideas took into account Sarasota’s identity and history, an approachable design to encourage interactions with the community, and signage that clearly communicated the vehicle’s purpose. 

������Ƶ Liberal Arts faculty member Matt Giles shared his perspective on the wrap’s impact on the local community: “The wrap that the Ringling students designed for Sarasota Police Department’s new Mobile Command Center looks amazing,” he said. “By including Ringling students and faculty in the creation process, Sarasota PD builds positive relationships with community members who would otherwise be uninvolved.”

Giles, who teaches a course on Policing and Media at the College, advocates for a closer relationship between law enforcement and the community. “I teach about the essential role of outreach to different pillars of the local community, and I’m thrilled to see our local police putting in the work to connect,” he explained. Cynthia Johnson, Sarasota PD’s Public Information Officer, has taken time in previous semesters to visit the class and talk with students about the complicated role of police in working with the local community.

“I encourage students—and all community members—to actively build connections with local law enforcement so that they already have meaningful relationships with police when they later interact with them,” said Giles. “By doing so, they have the option to become visible members of the community who can help guide interactions with police toward transparency, accountability, and collaboration.” 

Giles is a member of ������Ƶ’s Subject Matter Experts, focusing on intergroup communication, communication between police and protest groups, protest art, and language as culture.

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This lecture event is open to Ringling students, faculty, staff, and the general public, and is free to attend. 

Drawing on his experiences during the last major revision of federal copyright law, Traphagen will discuss the important copyright law questions raised by generative AI, and how the way federal courts and Congress answer them will influence whether generative AI will assist—or compete with—the next generation of writers, composers, and artists.

Traphagen will also meet with students and faculty on Monday, Feb. 19 and Tuesday, Feb. 20 for workshops and Q&A on copyright, AI, and potential effects on creative artists. 

Traphagen is a copyright lawyer who has played key roles in federal copyright legislation and international copyright treaties, and advised clients on World Trade Organization intellectual property disputes. He earned his first movie credit on filmmaker Michael Moore’s Academy Award-winning documentary Roger & Me, and since then has represented a wide range of creative artists and copyright owners including writers, songwriters, major music publishers, NBA and NHL teams, and the BBC. Mark teaches copyright and intellectual property law at George Washington University Law School and is a regular contributor to the legal treatise, Copyright Throughout the World. mark.traphagen@traphagenlaw.com

As interests and concerns about Artificial Intelligence flared world-wide, ������Ƶ rose to the challenge in the summer of 2023—creating an AI Task Force to research the scope of possibilities and potential challenges of using, working with, and learning from the artificial intelligence machines and software with a particular focus on artists, designers, and writers. 

Faculty and staff from the College’s Creative Writing and Entertainment Design programs to the Library and Career Services all weighed in on how this new technology could affect their fields and departments. At the helm of the Task Force, Creative Writing faculty Rick Dakan guides the large project in his appointment as chair. Traphagen’s lecture is one in an on-going series of discussions around the onset and integration of AI.

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������Ƶ will host from Friday, Feb. 23-Sunday, Feb. 25 on campus at the Roskamp Exhibition Hall. Anyone’s Game is a tabletop game conference that explores creativity, design, and openness in gaming. Up-and-coming tabletop game developers can test their game designs with players from the community and industry professionals from around the country. and .

The conference will include:

• Dozens of prototype games for attendees to playtest
• Tables for game developers to match with players and industry guests to test their games
• Design workshops led by award winning game designers

Schedule:

• Friday, Feb. 23: Opening Reception, 6 pm-10 pm
• Saturday, Feb. 24: Playtesting, 10 am-10 pm
• Sunday, Feb. 25: Workshops, 11 am-5 pm

Industry pros in attendance will include:

• PS Berge, game designer and media scholar

Projects include: Fish & Dagger and the ice: a tragic roleplaying game

• Carlos Cisco, game designer and screenwriter

Projects include: Star Trek: Discovery, MCDM, Candela Obscura

• Will Hindmarch, game designer and publisher

Projects include: Till the Last Gasp and Gameplaywright

• Kenneth Hite, game designer and writer

Projects include: Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents, The Fall of Delta Green, and co-host of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast

• Caro Murphy, interactive experience and live-action game designer

Projects Include: Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Incantrix interactive theater

All proceeds from Anyone’s Game go to supporting the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming. The Diana Jones Emerging Designers Fund amplifies the voices of up-and-coming designers, with a focus on creators from marginalized communities.  

($5 donation): Includes access to all three days of the conference, including opening night reception, Saturday playtesting, and Sunday game design workshops.

($20 donation): Includes access to a table on Saturday, Feb. 24 during the conference hours to run playtests of the designer’s game. In order to ensure table availability for all designers, designer badges are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. 

When purchasing a Designer Badge, please fill out the so that we can list your game for potential play testers and to enable registration tracking. You must fill out this form in order to ensure that you have a Designer Badge.

For questions about the conference, please contact Rick Dakan at anyonesgame@ringling.edu. 

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Released in August 2023 in both English and French, �ʲ��ٳ�é’O includes an interview with the artist himself by Dr. Hill-Thomas, among contributions from other international authorities on African art and culture.

�ʲ��ٳ�é’O was born in Burkina Faso and made his home in Côte d’Ivoire, where he has been a leader in promoting African-made products and fashions throughout the world. His recent collaborations included a piece inspired by Nelson Mandela for the Dior Cruise 2020 collection.

According to , Edition Patrick Frey, “The book explores topics ranging from the fashion and textile industry to labour migration, cultural heritage, politics and showbiz, and spans an arc from the past to the present.” A copy of the book, which is bound in African batik cloth, is currently available at ������Ƶ’s Alfred R. Goldstein Library.

Said Dr. Hill-Thomas, “One of the things that I’m most proud of was that the creators of this book are working with artists to produce something that’s not solely an art book and not solely an academic text. You can feel it and you can understand it visually, and that history is there to contextualize that. So there’s no boundary between art and art history. Which is a great analogy for ������Ƶ.”

Dr. Hill-Thomas, who grew up knitting and weaving Eastern European textiles with her Polish family, wrote her dissertation on the traditional Burkinabé cloth faso dan fani. She teaches the ������Ƶ Liberal Arts class, Fashion, Power, and Identity in Africa.

When she spoke with �ʲ��ٳ�é’O for the book in 2021, the two connected on topics like weaving and dying techniques. “Because we had both grown up with textiles, he was telling me a lot of information we don’t normally talk about in interviews,” she said.

Liberal Arts courses at ������Ƶ are taught by artists and designers and developed specifically to inform the artwork and aid the development of emerging creatives. Courses explore myriad cultures, taboo ideas, psychology, science fiction, classical mythology, scientific theories, and so much more. Students enter discussions and question standing norms and emerge as artists and designers who are relevant, thoughtful, and original. 

Genevieve Hill-Thomas holds a Ph.D. in the history of art from Indiana University, Bloomington.  Her dissertation, Faso Dan Fani: Marka Textiles in Burkina Faso, was supported by a Fulbright fellowship. An article based on this work, “Silk in the Sahel: Tuntun and Marka Faso Dan Fani in Northwestern Burkina Faso,” was published in the journal African Arts, and her latest essay on Burkinabè fashion and politics is included in the aforementioned book �ʲ��ٳ�é’��. She is currently an art history professor in ������Ƶ’s Liberal Arts Department as well as the College’s Fulbright Program Advisor. Her most recent work with combines her love of African art history with her background in nonprofit development, K-12 art education, and textile arts. 

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