Whether you’re a painter, a dancer, an actress, or someone who can make something creative out of just about anything, there’s a scholarship out there with your name on it.

Art is something that takes skill to do, and with college prices going through the roof, artistic scholarships are also taking off in popularity. Coming up in April, May, and June, some really cool scholarships for artists are available for application. No matter what your artistic talent is, there’s a scholarship somewhere that can cover it.

Take, for instance, the Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest. Sponsored by Duck Brand Duct Tape, this contest is based on the artistic design capability, construction, and overall creativity of a girl and guy heading off to a four-year university.  The two applicants are to design, create, and wear a prom dress and tuxedo made out of nothing but duct tape. This is a full dress and a three-piece tuxedo we’re talking about here. It’s a huge work of art.

These dresses are not your typical A-line ballroom dresses.  They are designed intricately with ruffles, pleats, trains and bodices, overlay… one dress that won was made entirely of duct tape peacock feathers. It took over five thousand feathers to put this dress together, and when it was done it was unbelievable. And the tuxes? Unbelievably well-done.

The award itself is pretty good, too. $5,000 each for first place, $3,000 each for second place, $2,000 each for third place, and $500 each for all remaining top ten.

I’m entering Stuck at Prom this year with a good friend of mine – designing with duct tape is harder than it seems, and working with it can also be frustrating, but the end result is totally worth the pain. You can never go wrong with wearing duct tape.  (For a short description on how to start making duct tape clothing, search ‘The art of duct tape’ on thewatchdogonline.com)

Maybe you don’t like making clothes out of unusual items, though. Maybe you’re more of a performing arts person. There are scholarships for that, too! Due on May 3, there’s a performing arts video scholarship application available. This is the Heineken Performing Arts Scholarship, which was recently espoused by CBC.

Ten students will receive an award of $3000 each for a video display of comedy, monologues, and skits where the submitted is clearly visible. Singing, sonnets, poetry recitations, or any other type of performing art imaginable are allowed.

Along with this video, students must submit a transcript to prove that they have at least a 2.5 GPA, write a short essay, and have a letter of recommendation from a performing arts faculty member. All current college students in good standing are eligible.

But BC also has an art building where students can be seen painting or drawing every day, and there’s a scholarship for that, too. The L. Ron Hubbard Future Illustrators of America runs a scholarship competition quarterly, where students can submit any work of art based on fiction with the possibility of a $4,000 scholarship to any art school in the country.  The approaching deadline is June 30.

So whatever your artistic passion is, check out the web and do some research – because it might just be your ticket to college!

“It is an eye opener to how people feel when loved ones die,” said Tyler Sims, Director of The Shadow Box.

Have you ever been being told of an impending death of a close family member? How would you react?

Would you be optimistic enough to survive seeing life fade in people you love? Would you be angry with yourself for not knowing how to hold on to them?

To examine the above, Stage Fright Student Productions is bringing The Shadow Box, a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play, to BC campus this week.

In this compelling, dramatic triptych, three terminal cancer patients dwell in separate cottages on hospital grounds. They have all reached the end of their treatment and have agreed to take part in a psychological scheme to be interviewed by a psychiatrist.

The three are attended and visited by family and close friends: Agnes and her mother Felicity, estranged further by the latter’s dementia; Brian and Beverly whose marital complications are exacerbated by Brain’s new lover, Mark; and Joe and Maggie, unready for the strain of Joe’s impending death and its effect on their teenage son.

As the play proceeds, the audience will be able to find out more about the protagonists’ lives before their ill health and see their respective attitudes towards death unravel.

The Shadow Box first debuted in Broadway on March 31, 1977. It was adapted for a television movie in 1980 by Michael Cristofer, actor and playwright.

“The purpose of this show is to let student direct a show and for the actors to grow as actors,” added Sims.

This BC production is starring Elizabeth Craswell, Evan Christopher, Sion Shauny Jang, Vincent Agustus Pham, Rebecca Prows, Jennifer Weisner, Ross Johnson, Savannah Shaffer and Corey Grant; the cast has been working on the show for two months.

The Shadow Box is playing April 12 to 14 at 7:30 p.m. each night in the E-Building’s Stop Gap Studio Theatre. Doors are open to the public at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $5 and are available at the door or through brownpapertickets.com.

“This is all very unexpected. I never knew you could do things like that [with teapots],” commented Takhmina Dzhuraeva, ASG’s VP of Finance and Communication.
Curated by BC ceramics instructor Lars Husby, “Extreme, Extraordinary, Exquisite—Teapots on the Edge,” showcases 40 extreme teapots created by professional artists.
Like Takhmina, you may think that nothing can be done with teapots. However, this newest exhibit, shown at the BC Gallery Space that runs in conjunction with the 46th Annual Conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramics Arts (NCECA), is certainly going to prove you wrong.
If you tend to stack up dishes in the sink, you will likely resonate with “Doing the Dishes” by Lois Harbaugh. Being described as “procrastination” by BC interior design student Karen Schafer, “Doing the Dishes” is a white porcelain teapot that imitates the silhouette of a stack of cups and plates.
“I really like the humor behind it. It is very much real life and I look at the piece and think that that is what my own sink looks like,” said Schafer.
Harbaugh’s teapot is just one of the many forms of edginess presented in the exhibit. Elizabeth Minkin’s vividly colored Orange Ya Hot Teapot, Randolph Silver’s steam engine-like Texas Tea on Empty, Clin Cannon’s teapot covered in poetry, and Marie Weichman’s Squeeze Me, made with slip-dipped foam, are just a few examples of the imaginative teapots created specially for the NCECA satellite exhibit.
NCECA is a dynamic membership organization that inspires passionate interest and cultivates thoughtful practice in ceramic arts and education through its annual conference, exhibitions, publications, resources and symposia.
This is the first time NCECA is coming to Seattle, and 5,000-8,000 people will be coming from all over the country to attend NCECA.
A whirlwind of satellite ceramics exhibitions will be all over the Northwest area at regional museums, galleries, schools, and associated organizations.
The theme of this year’s conference is “On the Edge,” which explains why the conference is taking place in Seattle, a location on the edge of the Pacific Rim. According to NCECA, this year’s theme is also about visiting the edge of our imagination and appreciating the use of clay in dynamic new ways.
On March 28, there will also be a talk by Sonny and Gloria Kamm in Carlson Theater. Sonny and Gloria own the world’s largest collection (over 17,000 items) of contemporary and antique teapots. Artists and internationally recognized collectors will all come to BC for the exhibit and for Sonny and Gloria’s talk.
“When Tess [McMillan] first presented [this exhibition] to ASG for reception funding, she told us everyone thinks glass is sexy and interesting. With this exhibition, she hopes that people will find ceramics sexy, too,” Dzhuraeva recalled.
Well Tess, I may not be able to speak for everyone, but as far as I am concerned, you have succeeded!

Sometimes when you go in to see a play,  you measure the theater building and think you have it all figured out.
The theater looks drafty, there are too many people, and they smiled at you when you took your ticket. The lights look funky on the outside – Well that’s not good at all, this play is going to be horrible isn’t it? And the chairs creek?! Five points from Bellevue College. ‘Ha ha ha, I know how this game works,’ you think to yourself.
So when you sit down inside the theater ignoring everything around you, feeling like you might as well just read the program throughout the show – not going to miss much – the lights turn off slowly, everyone else around you silencing in some energized anticipation, like they know something you don’t.
Then a tiny red light brightens on the stage fireplace, and every piece of the most realistic set you have ever seen comes to life with the warmth from a simple light trick.
Somehow, the Bellevue Theater Department constructed the inside of a southern country lodge on stage, and each prop inside of it – on the walls, on the stairs, the second floor, the living room and the register – pull you in. The program you had planned to weild the rest of the night falls between your legs.
The music brings to life perfectly the world in which “The Foreigner”, written by Larry Shue, was cast in. Two strangers with British accents come onstage to talk, and then an old southern woman bursts on stage and an amazing thing happens.
You realize the play is a comedy, and it is really, really hilarious.
Directed by Tammi Doyle, the faculty head at BC’s Theater Department, “The Foreigner” starred Bellevue College students Tyler Sawers, Maddie Dugan, Curtis Gehlhausen, Fred Tse, Logan Wilgus, Danika Drake, James Webster, and exceeded all of my high expectations.
Not only had the cast and crew managed to create a beautiful, humorous play their audiences loved, but they delved into the story on stage and simply enjoyed their characters, making the play feel completely at home to those watching – something most actors and actresses spend their entire lives trying to accomplish.
“The Foreigner” was by far one of my favorite shows here at BC, and I give this production two thumbs up for their creativity. If you missed “The Foreigner”, make sure to buy tickets for next quarter’s production of “Spring Awakening.” BC’s Theater Department surprises me every quarter and I can’t wait until spring.

“This energizes me!” said Trisha Brink, English instructor and faculty advisor of the BC Glee Club.
Yes, Glee is on TV, in video games, at your local Claire’s and now, it is invading the BC campus.
“BC Glee Club has become a mini-U.N. of students.  It’s a great way not only to share music, but also connect with other cultures.  BC Glee strengthens our cultural understanding and leads toward a more accepting world.  This is why ‘We are the World’ is such a fitting song for us to sing right now,” added Brink.
It all started with ESL students Jun, Sam and Shauny when they began their search for a singing club on campus. The three soon decided to start their own club after finding out that there are only choirs established.
They first came up with the idea of a karaoke club, but Shauny, being a big fan of the TV show Glee, thought otherwise at that time.
“I thought we should not only sing together for fun, but also we should perform,” she said.
Shauny, who is now one of the Presidents of the club, then brought up the idea of starting a Glee Club to the table and the BC Glee Club was officially set up in spring 2010.
Aiming to promote cultural understanding through music, the club sings a variety of different music from classic rock to country to pop. For instance, during their most recent performance, BC Glee members performed Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”
At first, the BC Glee Club focused mainly on promoting among ESL students. Their first ever performance was at the BC English Learning Institute’s End-of-the-Quarter Party.
Since then, more and more students have shown interest in the BC Glee Club. Starting in the fall of 2011, the club also started advertising to all credit students. Ultimately, anyone who loves to sing and wants to be part of a fun international community can join the BC Glee Club.
Faculty advisor Trisha was not exaggerating when she claimed the BC Glee Club to be a mini-U.N. Stepping into E102 every Tuesday, 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., you will find one of the most culturally diversified clubs we have on campus.
Members come from all over the world: America, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Ukraine, China, Vietnam, etc.
“My friends invited me to join the BC Glee Club…there are many students from other countries and we can communicate with each other here. This is why I like the club,” said Chaco from Japan.
“I joined the BC Glee Club because I like to sing…I like the BC Glee Club because the people here are friendly,” said Kristianto from Indonesia.
No prior musical training is required and no audition is necessary for BC Glee Club members. So, what are you waiting for? Check out the BC Glee Club and join in on the fun. And the best part of all? You will never get slushy-ed.
This quarter, the BC Glee Club will perform at the ELI End-of-the-Quarter party on March 21 in the Champions Centre at 1:30 p.m.  They will also perform at International Night on Saturday, April 28 (6:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.) in BC’s cafeteria.

On Feb. 28, the friendly librarian Benaya Israel transformed into self-proclaimed “Mr. Music” for the day. He was the mastermind behind all the soulful goodness you may have noticed flooding the cafeteria and your eardrums that day. During a passing period it could be Stevie Wonder, about an hour later you may recognize a childhood song by the likes of Earth, Wind and Fire.
Anything could have been expected according to Israel: “Gospel, Reggae, African music, Hip Hop, Jazz and the last part of the show will be dedicated to love songs – mainly featuring Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.” From 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. the music was playing Bob Marley’s Exodus album, a compilation of songs, which Time Magazine recently credited as “the album of the 20th Century.”
He initially wanted to feature these songs during Black History Month last year as the idea came about during a casual discussion between the black faculty. Regardless, he is pleased to be playing DJ for a day this year.
Israel says that similarities between African-American music and African music would be the call-and-response style of orchestration, such as a drummer answering another drummer with a varied beat, or a vocal style of call-and-response.
The listener is constantly reaffirmed of this chemistry within a track; they are experiencing a personal dialogue. It’s similar to eavesdropping.
Israel’s intention for the day was to “[simply] play black music. I want to show more than what is being played on the radio currently. Black music encompasses everything from Jazz to Classical.”
One could not help but ponder the vastness of black music, how it doesn’t just grace separate styles of sound but delves into and makes notable marks upon almost every musical style known to man. Everybody can relate to black music.
I slowly realized, midway through a Sam Cooke classic, how crucial this music is to the artists themselves as well as the listeners. I have known art to be originated from a need for humans to express themselves, a need to self-medicate by creating something, or a need to send messages to those going through similar emotions.
The public may welcome the messages as descriptions of the emotions themselves, many times arriving in the form of metaphors; an example of the diamonds which (we often forget) transpire from the filth.
Other times they are soothing lullabies to those undergoing similar trials; the reminder that we are not alone. And most times, they can just be substitutions for a current mood one would rather have.
Israel may have agreed with this analysis when he said, “Music is entertainment. With black music and all music, it is to keep the mind occupied, to help with life’s activities or different moods.”
Any art form sends a message. Since music is so readily available I often forget to regard it as such.
Feelings can make us do anything. Art can compel us to think, to change, to grow. It can also compel us to do the opposite.
So when I asked Israel what he felt of the differences between the music currently being played on the radio and what he remembered listening to growing up, his genuine smile faded as he enunciated his cautions.
“Black music has been message music from the beginning, starting with gospel from slavery, but now a lot of the artists are people who are not good at exemplifying good messages,” he said.
A dear example, for Israel, of a good message was from a reggae group called Third World, whose music began playing during our conversation.
The song was called “Dreamland” and the instrumentals and vocals paints the artist’s true wishes for everyone, that we might all find our eternal dreamland. Israel says ultimately, he wishes this for every student he encounters.

“In this inspired romp, Charlie Baker is a painfully shy Englishman who must spend a few days alone in a fishing lodge in Georgia. His friend Froggy helps by telling the innkeeper that Charlie is foreign and speaks no English.
“As the locals become comfortable around Charlie, personal secrets and public betrayals are revealed and Charlie must decide if he can find enough strength to expose his own lie and save the day.”
– Larry Shue, playwright to The Foreigner.
It’s the end of the winter quarter at last, and that means two things are on our horizon: Spring, and the quarterly theater production put on through students and staff at Bellevue College.
This quarter Tammi Doyle, the Theater Department’s faculty advisor and this production’s director, has chosen The Foreigner for performance, a comedy by playwright Larry Shue.
“What happens throughout the play is that this man is unable to speak – he literally has no voice; he has problems with his wife, is shy, and says in the play itself that he has no personality.
“Through the play he holds a series of relationships with strangers – he becomes a sounding board [for everyone else in the show]. By giving them attention, he realizes the strength he has in himself.
“By feeling the attention they are being given, the other characters begin to display their true selves. Every single person is transformed through the play.”
John Dillon, a close friend of Larry Shue’s before the playwright’s passing, visited the cast during the play’s rehearsal process.
He said that Shue had gone on a trip to Japan in his younger years. Unable to speak or express himself because of the language barrier, his experiences there inspired Shue to recreate his own life experiences into The Foreigner.
To us, the South is a completely different world just as Japan was to him during his stay on foreign soil. The cast learned a lot about the play from Dillon.
“It is a small cast, so everyone being able to get to know each other was really important. Winter quarter is longer then the others so we get a longer rehearsal process. One of the biggest challenges was dialect – the main character is British, and British is very hard to do alongside Southern accents.”
Starring Fred Tsu, Tyler Sawers, Maddie Dugan, Curtis Gehlhausen, Danika Drake, Logan Wilgus and James Webster, with stage manager Melissa Russell and assistant Tim Bartz, this play is getting hype, and already starting to sell tickets.
“It is a broad, big comedy, and that means timing is everything. It has to be perfect. Like being a musician, there’s no being a ‘little off’.”
The Foreigner is playing March 7-10 at 7:30 p.m. each night in the E Building’s Carlson Theater. Doors are open to the public at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for student and staff who bring I.D., and are available at the door or through brownpapertickets.com.

Linda Thomas, an Arts professor at BC, shows the Printmaking class a panoramic view of a shoe box full of tissue paper.

After asking what they did with their weekend, she asks, “Who’s ready to print?”

A few raise their hands. Thomas says she’ll show them the demo later, but for now they’ll be given time to work.

Right now, they’re doing a method called “intaglio,” in which you cut grooves into a metal, pour over ink and wet paper to go over the piece. The materials used are copper plates, scratching tools, burnishes, and de-burring tools. The de-burring tools take away the ridges and edges off the copper plates.

Plastic gloves are necessary for the ink stage. One student spends five minutes at the sink trying to rid his hands of the stain. He says that coming up with designs is his favorite part of class. He wishes to remain anonymous for an “air of mystery.”

Another student, Naomi, says that her favorite thing is that the class “forces you to think of things in a different perspective…you have to reverse the drawing process. Sometimes you have to carve stuff out each time you make a new print, so that you’re layering stuff. It made me think about the process in a different way.”

They’re paired in groups of three for an intaglio project in which all three do different parts of a body. None of the group members are allowed to see the other parts until all the finished parts come together.

The class has a fun atmosphere. People are talking as they work, many smiling (a good sign!).

The slideshow is the only hint of a traditional classroom setting. Still, it’s different: People continue working on their projects during the presentation or wash their hands or plainly listening. No one takes notes, but there’s almost a question for every slide.

The setting of the room is also different than that of a typical class: The class has white, lab-like tables.

On the class, Thomas says that “it’s really fun to help students find a new technique for them to express their ideas. It’s fun to see them excited about learning new techniques. It’s fun to help them solve problems, and it’s fun to see them solve problems themselves as well.”

There are no perquisites for the class, though Thomas thinks “this would be a hard first art class for most students.”

Depicted in science fiction books and films as a place where anything and everything mysteriously disappears once engulfed, and as a place where time is halted, there exists mystifying regions in space known as a black holes.

On Friday, March 2, the third and final showing of the planetarium show “Black Holes” will be presented to the general public at 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets are absolutely free, and can be reserved on the Brown Paper Tickets website, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/216030. Ticket reservations became available last Friday, but the first show sold out within hours.

What’s really exciting is that this show is hosted at our very own planetarium at BC! Located at B244, the Geer Planetarium is the only community college planetarium in the state. This dome is 30 feet and can seat sixty people.

In the event reservations run out before you get a chance to book your tickets, do not be discouraged. There will be a physical waitlist available the night of the show beginning at 7 p.m. Show up on time, and 15 seats along with the seats of those who neglect their reservations will be given to those who are write their names on the waitlist on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The show will display 3-D simulations of black holes along with their unique physical and visual effects. Black holes are unique in that their pull is so strong that not even light can escape. They have the energy of a million suns and can completely devour entire stars. In addition, viewers will be able to see what it would be like to approach the super massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

The incredible technology within the Geer Planetarium is the Digistar 3 projector, which can (to name a few of its abilities) show star positions in three dimensions, realistic journeys through space, and the night sky accurately.

If you are planning on attending the show, please arrive on time. Once the show begins, those who are late will not be admitted due to the fact that the planetarium must remain completely dark during the show. Also, ditch your food and drinks upon entering the planetarium, for they are not allowed.

Don’t feel limited to just watching planetarium shows to learn about space. If this subject sparks your interest, perhaps you should consider enrolling in one of the astronomy classes at BC. There will be 13 basic astronomy classes offered spring quarter, five of which will be hosted in the planetarium.

A big thank you goes out to the Science and Math Institute (SAMI) at BC for sponsoring this event. SAMI started in 2008 and organizes events and offers programs to promote success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It also provides events and programs for K-12 to increase interest and awareness in the science and mathematics fields.

For those attending, enjoy the show, and stay tuned for other upcoming events by SAMI. There may even be a star gazing night, in which you can go to the rooftop observatory at BC to look into the Meade 16” Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with computerized drive.

Spring quarter is almost upon us, and for some of us, spring sounds an aweful lot like “Almost time to transfer.”

Preparing to say goodbye,  getting ready to make new friends and striking out on your own – Spring quarter holds the last few months here for some of us here at Bellevue College.

Our memories of BC will stay with us for a life time, the people we met here and the classes we took will propel us into our goals and dreams, and there are some fantastic classes coming up that are a perfect send-off before it’s time to leave:

 

CES 286: Popular Culture: Punk and American Underground

Torrence J. TTh 3:00-5:10p R101

“This course starts with punk rock of the 1960s and 70s, then branches out into a variety of cultural movements that influenced and were influenced by the punk movement.

Some of the topics covered include punk, new wave, noise, industrial and gothic music as well as underground fashion, body modification, neo-tribalism, pranks and hoaxes, guerrilla art, etc.”

- James Torrence

ART 108: Intro to Hand and Power Tools

Lillie G. TTh 7:30-10:20am C162

ART 240: Oil Painting

Lindman D. TTh 4:30-7:20p

CMST 161: Basic Broadcasting

Gardner J. MTWTh 9:30-10:20a R106C

-lab 10:30-11:20a MW D126R

CMST 291: Making Movies

Bogert V. TTh 12:30-2:40p

DMA 102: Digital Design and Storytelling

Garrow S. T 3-5:10 D103

DMA125: Drawing for Animation 

Jones C. ONLINE L100

ENG 111: Zombie Literature and Film

Torrence J. MW 12:30-2:40p R110AB

“This course is a survey of zombie-related literature, film, and music starting with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and hitting genre highlights from around the world. Much of the course will involve interpretation of zombie literature from a variety of literary perspectives.”

-James Torrence

INDES 140: Intro to Interior Design

Davis P. MW 9:30-11:40a B104

Culpepper M. TTh 2:30-4:40p L213

MUSC 116: History of Rock & Roll

Wilson M. DAILY 10:30-11:20a N204

Almli T. ONLINE R230

MUSC 136: Intermediate Guitar

Wilson M. TTh 1:30-2:20p N204

ENGL 237: Writing Fiction

White J. TTh 12:30-2:40p R201

Seeman J. ONLINE R230

 

If you aren’t yet at the point of no return (a.k.a. transfer season), these classes are still a great way to widen your experience, have fun, and meet other people with a creative mindset.

To see more of the Spring class line-up, grab  a schedule around campus in the C Building inside Student Programs.