Lon Ferguson died of colon cancer in June.

“Emanations: The Art of Lon Ferguson,” features many of his works and the art of his fellow faculty members and friends. The exhibition began at the University Art Gallery Sept. 29 and ends Wednesday.

Ferguson, who taught photography at Central Michigan University starting in 2001, had several interests before he settled on photography.

“He got his first camera with tax returns at age 19,” said Anne Gochenour, director of the University Art Gallery. “Then he got a degree in architecture and moved to Chicago where he became bored with the idea then later got his MFA (Masters in Fine Arts) at Northern Texas University.”

Ferguson’s death strongly impacted his former colleague Al Wildey, who is an associate professor in the Art Department.

“He spent a lot of time here,” Wildey said. “He was a valuable photographer and he cared about his students. The exhibition was a way for us to honor him.”

Ferguson was well known for his use of myth and spirituality in his art works. He was inspired in his works by Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, and by mythology and world religion, Gochenour said.

Some faculty who did not directly work with Ferguson during his time at CMU in the Department of Art and Design were still impacted by his work.

His work was very introspective, said Jonathan Russell, assistant professor of art.

“I have heard it was spiritual and features figures and landscapes,” Russell said.

Ferguson’s personality distinctly impacted his tenure at CMU, Gochenour said.

“He was very friendly and generous,” Gochenour said. “He would always offer compliments on the work of others and he lived life to the fullest.”

The meeting takes place at 9 a.m. Thursday in the president’s conference room in the Bovee University Center.

The total amount being requested is $1.5 million, where $1.42 million will go toward additional renovations in Brooks Hall and $80,000 for classrooms and safety rules.

“We’ve had temperature control problems in that building, so this money will address those issues,” said Steve Smith, director of public relations. “The university has been moving quickly to try and resolve the issues, but we’re still investigating as to why these errors were made.”

The deferred maintenance fund maintains the buildings and facilities on campus.

Renovations to Brooks Hall, built in 1964, began in August 2008 with new underground water piping and installation of air supply duct work for the air conditioning. Piping, duct work and the installation of 120 heat pumps were among some of the additions this past summer. Facilities management has performed most of the additions and fixtures.

The Board also authorized $750,000 at its September meeting for renovations.

There have been noise level problems since the new heating ventilation and air conditioning system has been added, Smith said.

“We need to do some upgrades,” he said.

Burdette also will request approval of the capital outlay budget for 2010-11 consisting of a bio-technology building, with a proposed cost of $75 million.

Other agenda items

Interim Provost Gary Shapiro will propose the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is funding intended to help stabilize budgets in order to minimize and avoid reductions in education. CMU has the opportunity to apply for funding up to $2,342,100.

Any grant exceeding $500,000 in one year requires prior formal Board action before the university accepts the grant.

“When state government approved its state appropriations for CMU, they took into account the federal stimulus dollars that were designed to keep our appropriations at a continued level from last year,” Smith said.

The Board also will discuss changing the name of the Department of Art to the Department of Art and Design, along with the election of Board of Trustees officers for 2010.

Also on the agenda is discussion to authorize rights to market, sell, distribute and further develop the Authorizer Oversight Information System software. Corporate Computer, Inc. entered an agreement with the Center for Charter Schools on June 25, 2003.

The National Science Foundation has provided a grant of $463,150 for the purchase of confocal microscope to be used by faculty in development biology, cell biology and neuroscience. The Board will vote to authorize negotiations to form a contract to purchase a microscope not to exceed that amount.

Student liaison meeting

The Student Liaison Committee will meet with the Board at 4:30 p.m. today in the UC’s Terrace Room C Student Government Association President and Mount Pleasant senior Jason Nichol will discuss several topics.

One such topic is the request to make student opinion survey results available to students online. As of now, students may obtain SOS results in Charles V. Park Library on a compact disc.

“We, as students, think it’s beneficial because it’s a consistent measurement,” Nichol said. “All we’re hoping to do is move it from its current form on CD to the Internet, which is the medium our generation prefers to consume information.”

Other issues SGA will discuss with the Board is the possibility of removing phones from residence halls. Nichol said an estimated $400,000 to $600,00 can be saved just from removing the phones from the residence halls since students do not even use them to begin with.

Grosse Ile senior Ryan Taylor rakes the ashes of a kiln Sunday afternoon between Wightman and the North Art Studio. Students and instructors built the kiln during the summer of 2009. (Paige Calamari/Staff Photographer)

The holidays came early Sunday for Ryan Taylor.

The Grosse Ile senior, along with about a dozen other ceramic and pottery students, got to see their finished pots after spending the weekend firing them in a wood kiln outside Wightman Hall.

“It’s really exciting when we get to open (the kiln) at the end; it’s like an early Christmas,” Taylor said.

The art department fires up the kiln once a semester for a different pottery-making experience.

Kansas senior Megan McWhirter said the kiln, which runs off wood instead of gas or electricity, was running since 7 a.m. Friday.

“The experience and the outcome is always different — unpredictable,” said Utica senior Stephanie Galli.

A new experience

The students used a new kiln built over the summer.

The kiln is supposed to reach 2,200 to 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit to fire the artwork. Students and professors are not sure if it got hotter than 1,800.

Once the kiln reaches its maximum temperature, it starts the cooling process.

“We shut all the ports and all the doors and just let it slow cool for three to five days,” McWhirter said.

The kiln runs for 48 to 72 hours before the cooling process begins, but some artists may fire their work for five to ten days, she said.

At the end of the time period, students open the kiln to see their artwork. If the kiln does not get hot enough, the artwork has to be taken out and refired in a different kiln.

Students put in an average of 15 pieces and can have up to 100 at a time.

“You’ll probably like about three of your pots that come out of the kiln,” Taylor said.

Firing kilns is a regular part of classes for Central Michigan University pottery and ceramics students, who also make their own paints and clay.

“It kind of sucks if you screw up, but it’s good because you learn how to do it,” said Saginaw junior Todd Herzberg.

All these things can be found at the faculty art exhibit in the Main Art Gallery.

The annual faculty art exhibition is designed to satisfy the curiosity of students who wonder what their professors do when they are not in class and to give the community a chance to see what goes on behind the doors of Wightman Hall’s Art Department.

“The faculty’s research is their art,” said Anne Gochenour, gallery director. “It’s a way of showing the creative work the faculty does.”

One of the artists, Shelley Stevens, an art department assistant professor, has been teaching students how to paint and draw in the art department for two years.

She describes her work as “other-worldly” and hopes she can stimulate her audience visually and intellectually through the allegory created by employing symbolic masks in her paintings.

“I use masks in order to convey the way that we attempt to either hide who we are or suggest that we are someone other than who we actually are,” Stevens said. “A key word really is authenticity. Celebrate who you are, whatever that may be.”

This is Shelly Stevens’s second year in the show.

Missa Coffman’s performance artwork engages the audience in a different way.

The assistant professor of art created a toaster-typewriter hybrid that turns slices of white bread into the canvas by branding short messages on them. Video footage of her artwork is being shown in the gallery.

More work, less faculty

This year, the exhibit has undergone some logistical changes.

“We are highlighting fewer faculty, allowing more of their work to be shown,” said Clark Most, associate professor of art and an artist in the exhibit.

Eleven art department faculty members will have work on display in the gallery this year and, next year, the remaining faculty will be represented.

Most, who has participated in the show nearly every year for 10 years, said he will display some of his personal and client-based work, including photography, illustrations and designs.

The exhibit, open to the public, runs until Sept. 19.

The art gallery is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

Things are transitioning quickly at Central Michigan University with at least 15 administrative positions searching new leadership in an array of jumbled switches.

The most recent is Dan Vetter appointed as interim dean of College of Business Administration, effective Aug. 31, from his position as senior associate dean of CBA.

Claudia Douglass became interim vice provost for academic affairs Aug. 10. And Douglass’s former position of associate dean of the College of Science and Technology is still without an interim.

Although there are a lot of positions left without permanent replacements, Cali Clark, director of employment and compensation, said the movement is not necessarily unexpected.

“This is more than normal, but that’s typical when a president leaves,” she said.

Interim Provost Gary Shapiro said the larger number of interims will not affect how the university operates. The focus of the university seldom changes, he said.

This being Shapiro’s second stint as interim Provost, he believes CMU can move forward.

“We’re fortunate that we’ve been able to have people with administrative experience step into these positions,” he said.

But some positions are being passed around.

The College of Communication and Fine Arts has been playing musical chairs with the administration when a national search brought Salma Ghanem to CMU as dean of the college. Diane Krider, who moved up to interim dean from associate dean of CCFA, did not go back to her former position, as she began a transitional leave of absence on Aug. 1, according to a document from Steve Smith, director of public relations.

Al Wildey, interim associate dean of CCFA, now will remain in that position instead of returning to his previous title as chairman of the Art Department, causing Larry Burditt, graphic design professor, to be appointed interim chairman.

Although Shapiro was shocked and surprised by some the position left open, he said he feels the university cannot lose sight of what is really important — helping students learn.

“Fate sometimes gives us surprises,” he said.

It will not be there.

One of the two dark rooms is turning into a computer lab to accommodate for the photography curriculum’s shift to digital photography.

“It’s going to be a change that we need to make to meet new technology,” said Larry Burditt, interim chairman for the art department.

The new curriculum will focus on what photography majors need to strengthen their skills and help them with job prospects.

And with introductory photography courses switching from film to digital, it will help students not majoring in art, said Missa Coffman, professor of photography.

“It will be much more useful than taking one class and it only being in film,” she said.

But dark room use is not being completely taken out of the curriculum. Things are just being restructured, Coffman said.

Film and developing in the dark room will be introduced in the 300-level photo classes instead of the first two being strictly film.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions that the dark room is gone. It’s just moved to different courses. These are great changes,” Coffman said. “There’s more flexibility in our curriculum, so students can get to the information that is most useful in the easiest way.”

Lake Orion senior Jan Kruszewski thinks the option for more digital photography will open a lot of opportunities to students to learn different skills but, as a photography major, he is upset to see so much of the dark room leaving.

“I think there’s really something to value on learning with analog (cameras) in black and white,” he said.

While digital photography students might not appreciate all the work, Kruszewski does believe going digital is a needed step these days.

“I do think it’s necessary, because there’s such a demand for it,” he said. “It’s opened a lot of doors for a lot of students.”

Burditt said this transformation also has a practical use to it as well. Students were having trouble finding photo equipment for the film classes.

“Now (analog cameras) are becoming antiques,” he said. “The older cameras are becoming expensive.”

The project was completed Tuesday, but classes were held in the new lab Monday. In the years to come, the second dark room may also be transformed, but a small dark room will be added to Wightman Hall Room 153.