DENTON, Texas (UNT) – Two UNT faculty members expand upon work they've done in the past when they complete projects as fellows in UNT's Institute for the Advancement of the Arts in the 2015-16 academic year.

Professor of Dance Shelley Cushman and Associate Professor of Studio Arts Matthew Bourbon will be granted a semester off from teaching duties to work on their projects full time.

For Cushman, that project will be research to choreograph a new work and to reconstruct three existing works, with the goal of including these in Cinematic Caricatures, which is part of the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts' dance collection. For Bourbon, it will be completing a new body of mid- and large-scale paintings, and a suite of drawings, for exhibition in Houston, Dallas, New York and Denton. More details on each project are below.

IAA fellowships are awarded following an application process and allow faculty members to create and present creative research projects. A list of past winners and their projects can be found on the IAA Emeritus Fellows site.

Shelley Cushman

In 1996, UNT College of Music professor Phil Winsor, now deceased, asked Cushman if she would choreograph to some of his music compositions. That collaboration – finished in a whirlwind three weeks – resulted in 10 works, titled "Book I," and a performance at the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia. When Professor of Media Arts Ben Levin saw the performance, he approached Cushman about filming the works. So began a long term project that now includes 26 pieces that have been choreographed, 22 of which have been filmed. Eight of these are completed and have been published by Carl Fischer, Inc., in New York City under Cin Car Films and two are in the Lincoln Library for the Performing Arts Dance collection in New York City.

The four works that Cushman aims to choreograph during her time as an IAA fellow includes one new work and the reconstruction of three previously choreographed works. These works will be added to "Cinematic Caricatures," which is in the dance collection of the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts. "Cinematic Caricatures" will include 30 works, organized in three "books." Levin and Michael Mullins, teaching assistant in the MFA film program, will film the choreographed works.

"All 30 pieces will be choreographed to music that Phil wrote before he died," Cushman said. "Each piece takes the title of the music composition – but I don't know what the title is before I choreograph it. I want to get the feel from the music when choreographing the piece, rather than knowing what Phil thought it was about."

Cushman, Levin and Mullins plan to submit these works – which wrap up the project originally started with Winsor – to film and dance festivals, for conference presentations and in showings around the world.

"I'm not sad that this project is coming to an end," Cushman noted. "I'm hopeful that we can have a premiere of all 30 pieces in one event at some point."

Matthew Bourbon

In recent years, Bourbon has traveled the world – from various points in Europe to Japan – as research for his work that combines western and eastern strategies of narrative painting. After visiting art collections in Toyko and Kyoto in spring 2014, he returned to create a new body of paintings that combine his interest in the historical traditions of western art (such as paintings by Giotto, Fra Angelico, Masaccio and others) with the shallow and truncated space found in eastern art (such as paintings by Hokusai, Hiroshige, Korin Ogata and others).

With such varied inspiration, his paintings appear representational and abstract, and seem to call to mind collages. He finds inspiration in a variety of images – film stills, illustrations, advertising, mail catalogs and fabric designs.

"By combining and transforming these varied sources, I create painted vignettes that merge my interest in descriptive painting and abstract patterns," Bourbon said. "I think of it as akin to jazz music, where there is a foundational structure for the medium but, within it, ample room for improvisation."

Each of the pieces that Bourbon creates takes shape over many weeks and months, which is why the IAA fellowship is so valuable to his work. The chance to work uninterrupted throughout the fall 2015 semester will help with the continuity of his painting and accelerate the progression of his work.

"This gives me unimpeded time to work, but also time to think, read and assemble the pieces needed for each painting," he said.

When these pieces are finished, Bourbon expects to show a number of mid- to large-scale paintings, as well as a suite of drawings, at one or more of his galleries in Houston, Dallas and New York, and in Denton at UNT on the Square.

The fellowship will also allow Bourbon the chance to create a catalog and promote his work nationwide.

About the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts

Launched in 2009, the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts (IAA) aims to showcase, support and advance excellence in the visual, performing and creative literary arts at UNT, among its faculty members and in conjunction with their renowned colleagues and collaborators. The three central components of the Institute are UNT on the Square, the IAA Faculty Fellows program and the IAA Artist-in-Residence program. The IAA Faculty Fellows program provides UNT (Denton campus) Faculty Fellows with 100 percent reassignment for one semester to accomplish and present creative research projects. Participants are selected through an annual application process open to all UNT (Denton campus) full-time faculty in the visual, performing and creative literary arts.