McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair
Marking Place: EMU Celebrates Artworks that Engage with Its Historic Campus
The College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Art and Design will host a celebration of three art installations that engage with the University’s past and place. The three works are the creations of 2024-25 McAndless Distinguished Professor Dr. Joey Quiñones, EMU graduate student Lydia Vollavanh, and Cranbrook Academy of Art graduate student Maddie Gordon. The events will take place between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
This celebration will conclude the year-long Marking Place Project presented by Professor Quiñones, a nationally recognized artist and scholar and the Head of Fiber at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
The student works were selected through a juried competition of proposals submitted by Master of Fine Arts students at EMU and Cranbrook Academy of Art. The winning works will be installed on Eastern’s campus in April 2025.
Members of the public are invited to attend any or all of the following events on April 16:
A preview of Growing Home by Lydia Vollavanh
11:00 am - 2:00 pm: Participatory seed bomb making with artist Lydia Vollavanh
Join artist Lydia Vollavanh to create seed bombs at the site of their installation Growing Home on the former route of Forest Avenue through South Campus. On the final day of the Lao New Year (Pi Mai), this creative activity will encourage participants to ask, "What seeds in our lives do we wish to grow and how do we create an environment for them to bloom?" Seed bombs will be made using native Michigan seeds, clay, and compost. This ephemeral aspect of the installation will live on wherever the seed bombs are planted, fostering a sense of community and reflection on the ways we cultivate sincerity and joy in our lives.
2:30 - 3:00 pm: Growing Home with artist Lydia Vollavanh
Artist and EMU graduate student Lydia Vollavanh will introduce their sculpture installation Growing Home, "an installation of abstracted ceramic dok champa flowers, the national flower of Laos, suspended from a tree in the pedestrian circle on the old Forest Avenue path. The suspended flowers represent the refugees from Laos and the arbitrary nature of settlement, symbolizing how people, like seeds, are scattered by the wind and shaped by their circumstances. The location at the pedestrian circle on the old Forest Avenue calls back to the anti-Vietnam War protests at Eastern Michigan University in 1970. The installation invites participants to reflect on the path that they and their ancestors took for them to arrive here and the roots they are putting into the community and environment around them."
A sketch for Reflections of the Past by Maddie Gordon
3:15 - 3:45 pm: Reflections of the Past with artist Maddie Gordon
Artist and Cranbrook Academy of Art student Maddie Gordon will talk about her fabric art installation Reflections of the Past in the Student Center lounge (first floor south). Gordon explains, "During my first visit to Eastern Michigan University, I was immediately drawn to the intricate sculptural details embedded in the architecture of the campus buildings. Often depicting animals, flora, and agriculture, these subtle yet beautiful sculptures highlight the university’s long history and craftsmanship. For my installation in the Student Center I drew inspiration from these architectural details and motifs that are recurring across the campus. I created a series of sewn stained-glass-inspired fabric tapestries, crafted from hand-dyed organza. These tapestries directly reference the campus’s unique design features and are placed within the second row of window panes. As sunlight filters through them, the organza casts colorful light across the space, transforming the Student Center's shared lounge area into a vibrant environment for students and visitors alike."
4:00 - 6:00 pm: Transplant, ekphrastic poetry reading, and reception with McAndless Professor Joey Quiñones
2024-25 McAndless Professor Joey Quiñones will introduce their sculpture Transplant and community members will read poetry that engages with the yearlong Marking Place Project. “The Marking Place project considers the role of statues, monuments, and memorials in representing diverse narratives,” explains Quiñones. “We invite students from all disciplines to ask: ‘What should we, as a community, remember? How can we honor multiple histories in shared spaces, and what are alternative forms of monumentality?’”
Refreshments will be served. Join us in the Kaufman Critique Atrium in the Windgate Arts Complex.
Map
See this Google Map for event locations. There should be ample parking directly in front of the Windgate Arts Complex. If you do not have an EMU parking pass, please capture your license plate number and use the QR code posted on the tall light post in front of the building to pay for guest parking.
Dr. Joey Quiñones Is the 2024-25 McAndless Professor
Eastern Michigan University College of Arts and Science is proud to announce that Dr. Joey Quiñones is the 2024-25 McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair in the Humanities.
Dr. Joey Quiñones, a nationally recognized artist and scholar, and the Head of Fiber at Cranbrook Academy of Art, joins EMU as a visiting professor, and will present several campus-wide and community events from September 2024 to April 2025.
Quiñones is engaging with EMU through the Marking Place project, launching in Fall 2024 at Eastern Michigan University. The Marking Place project includes a series of discussions, interactive assignments, public lectures, an ekphrastic poetry reading, major exhibitions and use of the Windgate Arts Complex on our north campus. Activities will include EMU faculty, students and the wider community of Ypsilanti.
The starting point will be the study of the existing sculptures on EMU campus and throughout Ypsilanti to consider ways students can open dialogues and offer multiple narratives through art. “In the past decade, there has been substantial discussion on the role of statues, monuments, and memorials, and how they reflect (or don’t reflect) the people, histories, and events of a place,” says Dr. Quiñones. The Marking Place project invites students from all disciplines to consider: “What do we as a community need to remember? How do we honor multiple histories in a public space? And, what are alternatives to the idea of 'the monument'?"
Quiñones' mixed media sculptures focus broadly on issues of race, class, gender and sexuality, and recent work specifically examines how narratives of the domestic, family, and womanhood are complicated by a history of slavery, stolen labor, and racism. As a queer Black artist, Quiñones has a distinctive vantage point from which to probe these consequential issues, and indeed reflects the ideals of the CAS position on diversity, equity, and inclusion. While Quiñones’s work has achieved impressive recognition in the art world, we are excited by how their work and engagement at EMU will impact our uniquely diverse student body. Quiñones' Marking Place project will investigate local monuments and sculptures as a way of exploring multiple narratives – a direct reflection of EMU’s commitment “to more fully account for the contributions or counter-narratives of previously neglected or marginalized groups."
EMU community members interested in participating in the program and instructors interested in integrating the Marking Place project into their winter 2025 classes may contact Associate Dean James Egge or Professor Margeaux Claude.
Photo credit: Kohler Co. Courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Past Events
"Marking Place: Art, Artists, and Monumentality"
Thursday, October 24, 5:00 – 6:15 p.m.
Halle Library Auditorium
McAndless Visiting Professor Dr. Joey Quiñones will deliver the keynote lecture for the Marking Place project, which explores how statues, monuments, and memorials at EMU reflect the people, histories, and events of our University community.
Marking Place Exhibition
January 3-31
University Gallery, Student Center
Opening Reception January 9 from 4:30-7:00 pm
A juried exhibit of 38 works exploring the themes of memory and commemoration by graduate and undergraduate students at Eastern Michigan University, the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Western Michigan University, Central Michigan University, Michigan State University and the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
About the McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair
Every year the M. Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair in the Humanities brings to the College of Arts and Sciences a visiting scholar, writer, or artist of national prominence in the arts or humanities. The chair was established in 1986 through a generous bequest from the late M. Thelma McAndless, Professor of English Language and Literature.
McAndless Committee Members
Victor Okafor, Africology & African-American Studies
Leslie Atzmon, Art & Design
Jeromy Hopgood, Communication, Media & Theatre Arts
Melissa Jones, English Language & Literature
Mary Strasma, History & Philosophy
Anderson Romero, Music & Dance
Laura McMahon, Women's & Gender Studies
Audrey Viguier, World Languages
Andrew Cornett, Honors College
James Egge, Dean's OfficePast McAndless Professors
2023 The Formosa Quartet
2022 Petra Kuppers
2021 Kevin Boyle
2020 Jeremy Crampton, Claudia Hart, and Stephanie Kerschbaum
2019 Corine Vermeulen
2018 José Carlos Aguiar de Souza
2016 Alison Kafer
2015 Annette J. Saddik
2014 Daniel Johnston
2013 Laurie A. Finke
2012 Evan Roth
2011 Mark Carnes
2010 Farzaneh Milani
2009 Ali Mazrui
2008 Marshall Poe
2007 N. Scott Hofmann
2006 Scott McCloud
2005 Ben Vereen
2003 Jayne Cortez
2002 Cheryl Dileo
2002 Gillian Eaton
2000 Bouthaina Shaaban
1999 Susan Tatershall
1998 Roger W. Wilkins
1996 Sarah Daniels
1996 Tom Regan
1995 Gwynne Dyer
1993 Bei Dao
1993 Nicholas Pennell
1991 Sondra Freckelton
1990 Kenneth Burke
1990 Nancy Ford
1988 Peter Strevens
1988 Richard Hunt
1986 Maxine Hong Kingston