Metropolitan Museum of Art director to speak at Commencement 2007

By: Melissa Wheeler

Published: Friday, June 1, 2007 for The Chronicle

Link: http://www.thecampuschronicle.com/features/articles/070601c.cfm

Approximately 1,100 Savannah and e-Learning graduates will participate in the 27th commencement ceremony of the Savannah College of Art and Design, June 2, 9 a.m., in the Savannah Civic Center’s Martin Luther King Jr. Arena, 301 W. Oglethorpe Ave. The renowned director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Philippe de Montebello, will deliver the address. The college will award Chiu Yung, a member of the Beijing Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference with the China Red Sandalwood Museum, an honorary Doctor of Building Arts degree. Tickets are required for the ceremony. The Savannah commencement ceremony also can be viewed as a webcast via www.scad.edu/sod.

This year, 34 SCAD e-Learning students will receive degrees after completing their entire programs of study online. Eleven of the 34 will participate in the commencement ceremony in Savannah. SCAD also will celebrate its first commencement ceremony in Atlanta for SCAD-Atlanta graduates June 2 at 6 p.m.

De Montebello will address the graduating class at the commencement ceremonies in both Savannah and Atlanta. SCAD will present de Montebello with an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.

With a tenure of 30 years, de Montebello is the longest-serving director in the museum’s 135-year history. Under his leadership, the museum has nearly doubled in size and has acquired significant masterpieces and collections, including Duccio’s “Madonna and Child,” Jasper Johns’ “White Flag” and the Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history, de Montebello also received an advanced degree from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Spanish Institute Gold Medal Award, the 2004 Amigos del Museo del Prado Prize, and Doctor of Laws honorary degrees from Dartmouth College and Harvard University. In March 2003, United States President George W. Bush presented the National Medal of Arts to de Montebello for his efforts “to preserve, protect and present the cultural and artistic heritage of our world.”

At the commencement ceremony, SCAD also will honor the following Savannah students as the 2007 Excelsus Laureate, valedictorian and salutatorian:

Excelsus laureate Amanda Hunt Bayard is fascinated by stories, acting and screenwriting, leading her to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in film and television.

The Columbia, S.C., native wrote and directed her thesis film, “Licious,” collaborating with SCAD students of various majors in production. She also worked part-time with the college’s in-house film and video production department, Dept. 61, producing segments for www.scad.edu.

Bayard has started her own film production company, One Bedroom Productions LLC, and she hopes to continue making films with other talented SCAD classmates.

Marisa Carmen Gomez, the 2007 valedictorian, grew up in Minneapolis and came to SCAD to study architectural history in the apropos city of Savannah.

Passionate about architecture, Gomez distinguished herself by taking every opportunity to be involved with many projects that would enable her to interact with national scholars. Highlights of her accomplishments include conducting research and writing a historical marker plaque nomination for the Carnegie Library in Savannah; presenting a paper at the 2006 Savannah Symposium on architectural history; and co-editing a 500-page guidebook for the 2007 Vernacular Architecture Forum titled “Savannah and the Lowcountry.”

Gomez was nominated by SCAD for the 2006 USA Today All-U.S.A. College Academic Team and served as vice president of the student club Friends of Architectural History.

Having completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in architectural history, Gomez plans to enter a graduate program in architectural history.

Salutatorian Murphy Ann Munday-Paul came to SCAD from Knoxville, Tenn., where she frequently experimented with black-and-white photography. Participating in SCAD’s Rising Star program as a high school junior influenced her decision to attend college at SCAD.

Munday-Paul was one of five finalists in the Foundation Studies Award competition during her first year at SCAD, and also was awarded the Richard L. Allen Memorial Scholarship. Addition¬ally, her work appeared twice in Silverworks, the photography department’s annual compilation of outstanding work.

Having completed her B.F.A. degree in photography, she is pursuing an assistantship with a master printer in a traditional printmaking shop.

Born and raised in South Africa, Presidential Medal honoree Taryn Craig attended the Chelsea College of Art and Design after her family immigrated to London. Intending to study interior design, Craig instead became amazed by the graphic design field and changed her major upon transferring to the Atlanta College of Art. She made the transition to SCAD-Atlanta when ACA and SCAD combined in June 2006.

A member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Craig was awarded a Presidential Scholarship at ACA in 2003. In 2006, a juried panel selected her work to be included in the DesignWorks exhibition at the ACA Gallery of SCAD in the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta.

Craig is a designer for U1 Design in Atlanta, working with clients such as TBS, TNT, CNN, E! and Spike Network.

Johanna Tysk, born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, is both a 2007 SCAD-Atlanta Out­standing Achievement Award winner and a Presidential Medal nominee. Tysk began her studies in fine arts at ACA, then transitioned to SCAD-Atlanta in 2006. She changed her major to graphic design and was a 2006-07 Savannah Advertising Federation ADDY Award nominee in the logo design category for “Koko,” her brand design for a children’s clothing line. “Koko” earned Tysk a gold medal in the 2007 SCADDYs, the SCAD-sponsored advertising awards. She was also a finalist in the 2006 poster design competition for the inaugural ING Georgia Marathon.

The New York City advertising/graphic design firm hired Tysk after company representatives met her at SCAD’s Career Fair, and she will begin a graphic design position there following graduation.

SCAD-Atlanta Out­standing Academic Achieve¬ment Award winner Wendy Heller is from West Bloomfield, Mich. Heller decided to pursue a Master of Arts degree in interior design at SCAD-Atlanta after purchasing and restoring a historic home.

She won second place in the 2005 Westin Meets Martha SCAD Design Challenge, a suite redesign competition inspired by an episode of “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.” She placed third for her “Showroom of the Future” in the 2006 Steelcase Showroom Design Competition. Heller’s participation in the Steelcase competition led to her joining the company as an application specialist in May.


Wheeler is media relations manager at SCAD.