Geneseo = Picture Perfect
Everyone remembers Sturges, with its chiming clock tower. Every day, students look out across the valley. And of course, sun sets on campus are legendary. Artist Nicholas Pesce '12 has recreated them and other notable landmarks in a mural that stretches across an entire wall in the Student Union. It's a gift, for everyone who works, lives and studies at Geneseo. "The idea is based on Geneseo — community, campus and the people who make it up," says Pesce. "I want to show the spirit of Geneseo in a timeless way." Featured in his landscape is Sturges Hall, the Knights logo, nearby Fallbrook gorge, the Main Street bear fountain and an oak tree in the center, with silhouettes of a farm house and silo in the distance. Long after he's graduated, they will still symbolize Geneseo. Charles "Chip" Matthews, director of college and union activities, invited Pesce to come up with an idea and paint the wall outside the Union Ballroom. Matthews wanted an artist who could incorporate town, county and campus into one artistic expression for years, he says. Pesce's vision, Matthews says, "is exactly what I wanted." Pesce worked on the mural since October and finished it last week. He tries not to think of all the hours he put into the artwork: "Probably hundreds," he says. Art is a hobby for Pesce. A business administration and sociology major, he wants to pursue a career in international corporate law and is studying Chinese as preparation. Last year, he created a large mosaic mural in Onondaga Hall of celebrity portraits, including John Wayne and Mahatma Gandhi. He painted himself in right after Walt Disney and Dumbledore, for good measure. 
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IN OTHER NEWS ...Students hold El Sauce basket sale this week  Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is holding a sale of hand-woven pine-needle baskets made by women in El Sauce, Nicaragua, today, April 28, from 1 to 3 p.m. and Thursday, April 29, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the second floor lobby of the School of Business in South Hall.
The sale benefits SIFE activities as well as the women of Cerro Colorado. Geneseo has an ongoing commitment to the El Sauce community in its service-learning program, which includes volunteering, economic development projects and English language classes. The School of Business helped fund intensive artisan training for the basket-makers. The group's first basket sale, held last fall, sold out quickly. ↑top kudos
Four Geneseo seniors were among 1,000 people who participated in a
four-day conference in Raleigh, N.C. commemorating the 50th Anniversary
of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), where they had
the opportunity to meet and hear panel presentations and keynote
lectures by many of the men and women who, when they were roughly the
students' age, served as the shock troops of the Civil Rights Movement. The
students also developed connections with "SNCC, Jr.," the biological
and spiritual children of SNCC who made presentations on their work for
social and racial justice in arenas, including education, health, food
and prison reform. Students saw Freedom Singers concerts, watched
SNCC members interact and attended lectures by activism legends — Bob
Moses, the project director of the Mississippi Movement and founder of
the Algebra Project, and John Doar, who directed the Civil Rights
Division of the Justice Department in the early 1960s. Shanna
Reulbach '10, a history and political science major who wants to be a
civil and human rights lawyer, said the experience was a "once in a
lifetime opportunity." History and black studies Professor
Emilye Crosby attended the conference with the students. She said
all of the Geneseo students said the ability to hear first-hand accounts
— and considerable debate and difference of opinion — and meeting and
talking with people they have studied about is a high point of their
college education, as they were able to connect all of it to their
personal commitment to activism and justice. The other students
who attended are:
• Alexis Everson '10 (history, adolescent
certification)
• Brian Hartle '10 (black studies and history)
•
Ryne Kitzrow '10 (history and political science) ↑top UPCOMING EVENTS - On Saturday, May 1, at 7 p.m., in Alice Austin Theatre, the 23rd Annual Artists Fighting AIDS Benefit Performance will be staged, produced by Johnnie J. Ferrell, associate professor, and Professor Randy Barbara Kaplan. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. It is presented by the School of the Arts.
- On Sunday, May 2, at 3 p.m., in Wadsworth Auditorium, the Geneseo Festival Chorus, conducted by Professor Gerard Floriano, and the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Walker, distinguished service professor, will perform. It is free and open to the public. It is presented by the School of the Arts.
- On Monday, May 3, at 8 p.m., in Wadsworth Auditorium, the Geneseo Percussion Ensemble, directed by Adjunct Lecturer Jim Tiller, will perform. It is free and open to the public. It is presented by the School of the Arts.
↑top PHOTO GALLERYPhoto of the week ... 
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April 28, 2010In this week's issue:Features In Other News
 About ENCompass
ENCompass Weekly is designed to keep faculty, staff, students and friends in touch with what’s happening at the College. Please submit story ideas, news briefs and comments or suggestions to encompass@geneseo.edu. Deadline to submit information is Wednesday by noon for the following week's publication. | |
