Sanda Iliescu in the News
Friday, July 18, 2008
Assoc. Professor Sanda Iliescu Directs "Fun Bus" Public Art Project
[by Jane Ford, UVa News Services]
The Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department will soon have a new Fun Bus to transport young people to plays, concerts, art, science, nature-related and other cultural, educational and sports events throughout the year.
Elementary through high school students attending Charlottesville Parks and Recreation summer camp are participating in the public art project led by two local arts organizations: The Piedmont Council for the Arts and The Bridge / Progressive Arts Initiative. The campers helped design the art and will assist in painting the bus.
Sanda Iliescu, U.Va. associate professor of art and architecture, spearheaded the design scheme for the bus that combines visual elements of natural and urban life and summer educational camp workshops working with local artists John Bylander, Mike Parisi and Isabella Scott. The team engaged campers in workshop exercises based on themes of nature and the lessons learned by shared experience through collaboration. Iliescu and other artists met with campers in multiple sessions over a three-week period. The aim was to allow the campers' creative ideas to have an impact on the final design for the bus.
To this end, Iliescu designed two hands-on workshops and Bylander designed one bus art exercise. Campers explored natural forms in Iliescu's "Blades of Grass" workshop. The collected blades of grass, which campers gathered from nearby fields, were used to inspire their drawings, which will be incorporated in the decorated frieze or band running just below the bus windows. In the workshop, campers also learned about color and composition and developed their powers of observation.
Iliescu also infused an abstract component into the lessons. Just as a field of grass is composed of millions of blades, all contributing to the overall effect, each camper's work contributes to the overall design, she said. "The field concept can be a metaphor for democracy — a community of individuals in which each citizen had equal rights and responsibilities."
In a second workshop, Iliescu designed exercises based on geometry. "What's My Height?" engaged the campers in lessons of measurement as well as collaboration. Activities required them to work together both in decision-making and in practical exercises in which they were required to hone their skills in estimation as well as accuracy in creating and exploring geometric shapes. For part of the exercise, campers recorded their own height and foot length, which will be incorporated in the final bus design along a low horizontal band and will act to signify their contributions.
In Bylander’s exercise "Color Our Bus", he asked kids of all ages to create colorful designs on architectural drawings of the bus created by Parisi, a recent graduate of the School of Architecture. These kids’ designs are digitized and printed as decals on the interior soffit of the bus.
"I just love working with these kids, making art and at the same time teaching them something," Iliescu said. The whole project is an extension of her exploration of aesthetic and ethical ideals, which she teaches at the University in a course on painting and public art. In my academic endeavors I have explored the connection between "'good form' and form that in some way contributes to 'the common good,'" Iliescu said.
The design team will lead community members and campers in painting the bus July 12-17 outside Carver Recreation Center at 233 4th Street, N.W.
The Fun Bus will be unveiled on Friday, July 18, at Pen Park from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and at McIntire Park from 12:45 to 1:45 p.m., during Parks and Recreation's summer camp fun day. An exhibition of drawings, photographs and studies related to the project will be exhibited at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, 205 Monticello Road from August 1-3. An opening reception will be held Friday, Aug. 1, 6-8 p.m. The exhibit will be on display daily from noon to 3 p.m.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Four Faculty Members Receive Promotions from U.Va. Board of Visitors
At the University of Virginia Board of Visitor's meeting last week it was announced that the following four School of Architecture faculty members are receiving promotions: Michael Bednar is promoted to Professor of Architecture; Phoebe Crisman is promoted to Associate Professor of Architecture; Sanda Iliescu is promoted to Associate Professor of Art and Architecture; and Louis Nelson is promoted to Associate Professor of Architectural History. Congratulations to our talented and dedicated faculty!Friday, September 29, 2006
Faculty Members Collaborate on Public Art Project High Above the Elizabeth River
Assistant Professor of Architecture Phoebe Crisman and Assistant Professor of Art and Architecture, Sanda Iliescu have collaborated to create three enormous yellow banners made from plastics that will hang from the silos beginning on October 19. For the past two years Crisman, whose professional work combines architecture and urban planning, has collaborated with a task force to develop a sweeping revitalization plan for the heavily polluted Money Point area.Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Beta Bridge: 271 Words
Asst. Professor of Architecture and Art Sanda Iliescu organized today a public art project to paint the words of Lincoln's historic Gettysburg Address on the Beta Bridge of Rugby Road. The project invites 271 passersby to each paint one word of the address on the bridge, in an artistic statement meant in part to take postive action against the recent racially-motivated and homophobic postings on the bridge and elsewhere on Grounds. Approximately 40 students at the School of Architecture are serving as volunteers today to assist the public. Also, several groups of children from the nearby Venable School are participating as part of their studies of Abraham Lincoln and early American history.Related stories:
Charlottesville Daily Progress
Richmond Times Dispatch
