Covers That Didn’t Make the Cut
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Art of Bookmaking
Most colleges or universities will have a course or even an entire major devoted
to learning how to write a book. Juniata digs deeper, offering a course on the art of
making a book.
Although its title sounds like a discarded song from “Guys and Dolls ,” the
course “The Art of Bookmaking” gives Juniata students a chance to redefine how
they perceive books. “The students can play with traditional notions of what a book
is, and what art is, and combine the two,” says Bethany Benson, assistant professor
of art. “Making a book as art can break down the idea of art (existing only) on the
wall, where people don’t interact with it.”
The key to the course is getting the would-be bookbinders to expand their
notions of what a book is. Her first assignment asks the artists to create a 24-page
book out of a single sheet of paper. “It gets across the idea that a book does not have
to be 300 pages long ,” she explains. “It can communicate an idea or a metaphor.”
The course doesn’t end with a large project, say, creating a 200-page book
of Japanese calligraphy. Students are asked to create a book that has a cover that
suggests what the stor y inside is. For example, a student wrote a stor y about
visiting McDonald’s and used a Chicken McNuggets container as the cover.
Another student used refrigerator-magnet letters on a metal book cover so
readers could make their own covers.
Past projects include books made from cameras, including a discarded
Polaroid camera and a book that is read by advancing the film knob in a Kodak
throwaway camera. “It allows people with many levels of artistic talent to make
a book,” Benson says. Will they be best sellers? Benson wouldn’t make book
on it, but she thinks students will enjoy thinking outside the dust cover.
A Storytelling Course?
It seems like everybody is writing children’s books. Madonna, Carly Simon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Spike Lee, even Katie Couric. Why not add 14 Juniata College students, all of them creating children’s stories as part of the college’s “Storytelling” course, into the mix?
Well, the final assignment for the course is to write and illustrate an original children’s story, but the
goal of the student authors is not a book contract, but rather positive reactions from classmates, children and other audiences.
“The story is primordial, storytelling has entertained all of humanity,” says Grace Fala, professor of communication at Juniata, who created the course in 2002.
Fala has the class study historical and contemporary stories from a variety of cultures, plus read and critique children’s books, as well as films that emphasize storytelling.
“I have one requirement and that is that every story must have a moral,” Fala explains. “I want the storytellers to focus on meaning.”
Assigned topics include writing an animal story, an adaptation of a fairy tale or a love story. “Typically
(students) make their stories unnecessarily complicated. In the end we want them to go from the complex to simple stories,” Fala says.
Each student’s final story must be illustrated and presented as a book. The stories were told at a public reading May 3 at a picnic at Fala’s farm. “When they watch their peers tell stories, or get feedback from children, they become better storytellers,” she says. “It becomes a collaborative and communal experience for them.”
Founders Hall
See the Architectural gallery.
See the Historical gallery.
Also check out the Founders Brick Project.
( Read the Founders Hall article. )
Follow the Founders Brick Loads
There are theorists that suggest that buildings over time come to absorb the joys and triumphs of the people that once occupied that space. Certainly the bricks of Founders Hall have assimilated a lion’s share of fond memories over its century of active use.
So, what better way to preserve those emotional connections by taking the bricks recovered from the partial demolition of revered place of learning and putting them to use in another form—say a nice patio or a cute planter?
Rob Yelnosky, who oversees Juniata’s sustainability efforts in addition to his financial duties, put out word to employees that bricks from the deconstructed north wing of Founders would be available for the taking for souvenirs or for a serious do-it-yourself project.
Presented here are some uncommon outcomes for the “building blocks” of a Juniata education:
- Decorative driveway column - Anne Wood, director of campus network and security
- Using a single brick as a base of a wood carving of Founders - Renee Lucas, staff assistant
- Thermal flooring for a greenhouse (made of other recycled materials) - Bob Reilly, professor of social work
- A flower garden border - Barbara Reck, purchasing agent
- Paths through vegetable gardens - JoAnn Wallace, dean emerita of international programs, Richard Hark, professor of chemistry
- Platforms in a flower garden - Evelyn Pembrooke, alumni office specialist
- Single brick gifts to alumni staff; Brick chips and pieces in a decorative bottle (presented to Shauna Morin) - Katie Dickey, assistant director of alumni relations
- Brick pizza oven (not built yet) - Dan Cook-Huffman, assistant dean of students
- Patio, steps and walkways (using Founders walkway pavers, not building bricks) - Dan Cook-Huffman, assistant dean of students
- Sent through the mails to various family members - Ashley Cunningham ’11, Pittsfield, Pa.
- A brick walkway - Sharon Conaway, mobile educator, Science in Motion
- Restoring a brick walkway and landing - Gail Ulrich, director of human resources
Founders Hall Article
Jacob Zuck is probably rolling over in his grave.
As one of the actual founders of the College, Zuck would not believe the air-conditioned, geothermally heated, easy-access, environmentally friendly building that now takes its rightful place as a welcoming presence on Juniata’s classic quadrangle.
For Juniata cognoscenti, Zuck is Juniata’s first faculty member, famous for teaching the first classes at the College in 1876 and also for being the first resident of Founders Hall. He also was the first to spend a night in the chilly new building in 1879, whereupon he caught a cold, developed pneumonia, and died shortly after the building opened. None of that’s going to happen this time.
First of all, no one will actually live in the building. However, lives will be changed inside these new walls. The history and English departments will be housed in Founders and the entire faculty can teach courses in the new classrooms–the first time classes have been taught there in more than half a century.
The president gets to move his offices up one floor and he and the provost get to share a balcony overlooking the central campus. Some things remained the same. We still have the iconic Founders tower, but now the entire structure is steelreinforced. We did have to give up the famous spiral stairs to the bell tower, but unless Hollywood is planning to remake Vertigo, that’s a loss we can live with.
In anticipation of the building’s grand opening for alumni on Homecoming weekend, the magazine includes a photographic tour of Founders where you can learn some little-known facts about the building and the renovation.
360°
I met a Juniata alum in the most unusual place place …
Share your story
Post in the comments the most unusual place or circumstance where you met another Juniata alumna/us and we will highlight it in an upcoming issue!
Heather (Davis) Myers ‘96 and Amy (Haberl) Nicewonger ‘98 were touring the Naylor Wine Cellars during the 2009 Tour de Tanks event of Uncork York in Pennsylvania and ran into alums Bruce T. Ketrick Sr. ‘73 and Bruce T. Ketrick Jr. ‘98. The Ketricks were celebrating Bruce Sr.’s birthday. (l-r) Bruce T. Ketrick Sr. ‘73, Bruce T. Ketrick Jr. ‘98, Amy (Haberl) Nicewonger ‘98 and Heather (Davis) Myers ‘98.
Stephen J. Koreivo ‘79
Now that I’d seen every major team play at least once, I set out on getting to a few stadiums I hadn’t visited yet. Last September, I headed to Baton Rouge, La. for a Saturday night game between LSU and Mississippi State. The night before, I went to Ivar’s, a sports bar to watch my Mets blow another game. The highlight was eyeing a display case with a gold LSU helmet, a white LSU helmet, a purple “Crown Royal” helmet, and a fourth that looked surprisingly familiar. I went for a closer look. The dark blue one had gold script lettering–a genuine Juniata football helmet from back in my day! I talked to the owner, John Quigley, about the significance. He played ball at Division III Marietta in Ohio. Regarding the helmet, he said a coach presented it to him about 13 years ago. The head gear was on display with two LSU helmets right in Baton Rouge, quite an honor in the heart of LSU football country.
Loni (Fultz) Kline ‘03
On Jan. 5, 2007 I interviewed for the position of director of annual giving at Lycoming College. One of the interviewers was Patricia (Fogel) McClintock ‘75! Patty and I became teammates and together, putting the “fun” in the annual fund at Lycoming College. I recently moved on from Lycoming, but it’s no surprise we fellow Juniatians remain friends!
Demetri Patitsas ‘07 thought when he accepted a position to help support El Colegio Miguel Angel Asturias, a school in Xela, Guatemala, that provides education for over 300 impoverished children, that he could not be further from any connection to Juniata. Part of his responsibilities were to assist in a service learning trip with a university from Vermont led by one of the residential life directors, who happened to be Stephanie M. Tyler ‘96. After a week of working in classrooms, visiting hot springs, volcanoes, and drinking chocolate, one evening after returning from an excursion outside of the city, Demetri and Stephanie were walking back to the hostel when crossing the street there was someone with a Juniata College sweatshirt on! Abigail E. Kress ‘10 was crossing the street and stumbled into them on her way to yoga class in a city of 150,000 people! Laughter, hugs, and mucho gustos were exchanged as all three Juniatians left knowing this was just the beginning!
Amanda J. Wimer ‘08
Heather N. Hassinger ‘08 and I were headed to Palm Springs, Calif. over Thanksgiving to play in the National Field Hockey Festival. We left the possibility of wonderful home-cooked meals of friends and family to play against the background of a shining sun, shady palm trees and glorious mountains with a group of STRANGERS! Heather and I were going to play for a club team that we had never met before and none of them had met us. Little did we know that we would meet and play with Allyson J. Kenyon ‘00, a member of the first team that our coach, Caroline Gillich, had in her first season at Juniata. We had a great week in California telling stories about the team that Ally helped start her very first season and the same one that we graduated from just a few months ago.
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