Cornish has played a pivotal role in the revitalization of the Denny Triangle neighborhood, interweaving the arts into the lives of everyone in the community. The addition of student housing will infuse the neighborhood with close to 300 students, who by living and working in the area, will add to the vitality of downtown Seattle.

“Student housing has been a major component of the College’s plan for campus renewal and expansion,” said Cornish College President Sergei Tschernisch. “We want our students to thrive intellectually and creatively and are committed to providing the best living and learning environments possible as they grow and develop as artists, citizens and innovators.”

The two buildings, only a five-minute walk from Cornish’s Main Campus Center at 1000 Lenora Street, will provide housing for 284 students in large, double occupancy rooms that each contain private bathrooms. Additional features include student common areas, 24-hour security, coin-operated laundry facilities and a limited number of parking spaces. Both facilities will be managed by full-time resident directors who will be assisted by six student resident assistants in each building. Priority for the residence hall will be given to the incoming Fall 2009 class at Cornish.

“I am very excited about our new Housing and Residential Life program and the positive role it will play in the Cornish College community,” said Dean of Student Affairs Jerry Hekkel. “This living/learning community will greatly enhance the experience of each incoming Cornish student.”

About Cornish College of the Arts

Cornish College of the Arts is nationally recognized as a premier college of the visual and performing arts offering Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in dance, theater, art, design and performance production, and a Bachelor of Music degree. A pioneer in arts education, Cornish College of the Arts sprang from the remarkable vision of Nellie Cornish, a woman determined to cultivate the arts in Seattle when it was scarcely more than a frontier town. Her philosophy of educating the artist through exposure to all the arts was progressive at the time, and continues to be innovative today.

“This exhibition is unique because it presents an entire body of work from each graduating senior, ranging from site-specific installations to interactive projects to new media pieces and works made by traditional techniques. It’s an opportunity for the graduates to express their creative voice to a large public audience for the first time, and a chance for visitors to preview the work of these new emerging artists.”
-Jess Van Nostrand, Exhibitions Curator

“Design is irrepressibly expansive and promiscuously inclusive. Its capacity for relevance is essentially limitless. As such, it is the goal of the Cornish Department of Design to prepare flexible designers who possess both broad and specific skills. In this, we are deliberately, actively, aligned with the tradition of craft. Where this tradition has been lost — perhaps eclipsed by the tools themselves — we endeavor to restore an appreciation of craft to creative practice. But it is also our goal to educate designers into both broad and specific knowledge, and to nurture experience. Our alignment with the past and engaged sensitivity to emerging realities underwrites our belief in current and future designers. We are profoundly invested in the generations of citizen-designers to come.”
- Grant Donesky, Design Department Chair

“The BFA exhibition is a culmination of an intensive curriculum that combines studio practice, contemporary theory, and liberal arts. The program emphasizes personal discovery and visual/conceptual exploration through a multi-disciplinary approach that, depending on individual direction, employs and often combines the mediums of painting, photography, print arts, sculpture and video/media arts. This exhibition is conceived and produced — aided by peer critiques and faculty guidance — as a self-directed thesis during their senior year. I celebrate with you the accomplishments of these artists who stand on the threshold of their professional lives. They were a joy to work with and we invite your engagement in viewing their skillful, deeply personal work.”
- David Ulrich, Art Department Chair

Featured student composer/arrangers include: Jonathon Bourke, Courtney Cutchins, Cassia Demayo, Patrick Douglass, Kendall Galbraith, James Hunter, Greg Larsen, Evan McPherson, Trevor Ridge, and Dick Robinson.

Monday, May 4, 8 p.m.
Tickets: $10 general, $5 students
Seattle Drum School
L.A.B. Performance Space
12510 15th Ave. NE
Seattle, WA 98125
Tel: (206) 364-8815

The Jim Knapp Orchestra is a 14-piece jazz ensemble that has achieved a unique and original sound through the compositions and arrangements of Jim Knapp.  Featuring many of the finest jazz soloists in the Northwest, the orchestra has performed at countless major venues and has won several awards. The L.A.B. performance space at the Seattle Drum School is an all-ages venue.

In addition to the visual art featured, Enotria will also highlight Cornish music alumni in Sunday Evenings at Enotria, weekly live acoustic music performances.  Performers include Cornish music alumni Angela Reed (2004), Elsa Nilsson (2008) & Michael Owcharuk (2006), Josh Rawlings (2005), and Kirstin Connell, in addition to part-time faculty member Marco De Carvalho.

Friday, April 17, 1:30pm
Cornish Main Campus
1000 Lenora Street, Seattle

 
Honorary degrees will be awarded to sculptor John Frame and theater artists Susan and Clayton Corzatte.

Monday, May 11, 1pm
Benaroya Hall
200 University Street

A teacher of enormous influence, generations of dancers from the Seattle area were trained by Gwenn Barker, a soloist with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo [1955-60]. She directed her own ballet school for fourteen years and performing company, Bellevue Civic Ballet, for five years. She served as the head of the Preparatory Dance Division of Cornish College of the Arts for 18 years.

“A Tribute to Gwenn Barker,” celebrating her life and career will be held at the Daughters of the American Revolution mansion, Sunday May 3 from 1:30 to 4 p.m., 800 E Roy St, Seattle, WA 98102.

Gwenn Barker’s earliest training was in her native England, then later in Olympia, Washington where her family had settled after immigrating in 1940 to Vashon Island during WWII. Some of her most influential ballet teachers included Marian and Illaria Ladré, who were formerly with Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and had opened a studio in Seattle; later Frederic Franklin; Vladimir Dokoudovksy; Nina Novak; and Lisan Kay.

Some of her parts and favorite ballets were: Princess in “Giselle;” ‘Big Swans’; the ‘Red Lady’ in “Gaîté Parisienne;” and the headmistress in “Graduation Ball.” She was the first female to do this part and found it very rewarding. She never got tired of dancing in “Les Sylphides”- even without a special part.

At his request, she managed Alan Howard’s The Academy of Ballet at 2121 Market Street in San Francisco for a year before returning to performing with the Ballet Company at Radio City Music Hall, and after a year and a half, dancing in the musical “Camelot” for six months before marrying and moving to the suburb of Bellevue, Washington where she opened her ballet school in 1965.

Interested in analyzing technique and presentation of dancers, her classes and combination exercises were logically structured, technically sound and produced students with very clean technique. She began teaching at age 16 by assisting her hometown teacher and recognized from that time she knew she would one day teach - “career or no career.” Barker helped the younger children understand how to do certain steps and “I seemed able to do this very easily and enjoyed it.”

After retiring from full time teaching, Barker continued to coach and teach on a part time basis, regularly took the “ballet barre” portion of classes and even did some tap dance performing. Her passion and lifelong interest in ballet - and good technique - never waned, and she frequently traveled to attend performances, including each of the USA International Ballet Competitions in Jackson, Mississippi.  She is one of the subjects in an upcoming University Press of Florida book about ballet technique and teaching.

She is survived by her husband of forty-four years, Roy Harsh; her sister Ann Holland and brother Christopher Barker, both of Whidbey Island; her niece Dana Delman (Kirk); great-niece Anna; nephew James Skutt (Sarah); and great niece and nephew Hannah and Peter.

The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, remembrances may be sent to the Gwenn Barker Endowed Scholarship at Cornish College of the Arts, Advancement Office, 1000 Lenora, Seattle, WA 98121.

“TheFilmSchool’s mission is to elevate the art of cinematic storytelling through intensive training in screenwriting and directing. Since cinema spans the visual and the verbal, temporal and spatial, performative and narrative, it intersects with art forms already present in the Cornish curriculum. We are delighted to embark on this partnership that both supports the respective missions of our institutions and contributes to the increasingly important place of Seattle as a player in the film world.”
    -Jenifer K. Ward,
    Associate Provost, Cornish College of the Arts

Through this partnership, non-Cornish students can earn college credit by participating in TheFilmScool’s three-week intensive course covering various aspects of writing and directing. Cornish students accepted to TheFilmSchool have the opportunity to earn credits towards their degree at Cornish with approval of their departments.