Inside a box waiting for her on a front porch, senior Autumn Balamucki was about to pick up history. She would eventually receive a newfound skill and appreciation, too. In the summer of 2020, unexpectedly back early from an off-campus study semester in Peru due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Balamucki signed on as an intern …
Category Archives: Arts and Humanities
Pandemic Inspires Art
It has been observed that, throughout history, pandemics have inspired creative minds — to write plays, to postulate new scientific theories, to create works of art. That last undertaking — to create works of art — naturally emanated from Lisa Walcott, assistant professor of art, during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. Now, a sculptural installation …
“A Swell of Grace”: New Music from Hope for Advent and Christmas
Remember when the unofficial start to the Christmas season waited until after Thanksgiving? No more. Now retail stores have Santa displays on the endcaps and “Frosty the Snowman” over the loudspeaker before kids can finish saying, “Trick or Treat!” Into this fast-paced frenzy of commercial Christmas chaos, a group of Hope students, helmed by Bruce …
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Finding the Christian Church in China
When Dr. Gloria Tseng arrived at Hope College in 2003 as a Europeanist with an emphasis on France, her first course in French history was attended by one student. “On one hand, it was a good student-faculty ratio,” she says now, with a lilting laugh. The following semester, history repeated itself: just one student, albeit …
It All Started Over Lunch
The usual “who-are-you-and-what-do-you-do” chatter of an introductory lunch conversation, those words of nicety that more often than not just scratch surfaces, transformed into a vision of deeper collaboration for four new Hope arts faculty members this fall. Now, just a few weeks into their first semester at Hope, Dr. Jordan VanHemert of the music department, …
Mathematic and Aesthetic Artistry in Lego Form
Chuck Cusack hopes that the viewers of his works will see that there is beauty inherent in mathematics, and that serious art can be created using mathematical concepts and a very simple medium.
Dance + Civil Engineering = Senior Andrew Niedbala
Andrew Niedbala has been dancing his way around the world for a few years now as a Hope dance major. But dance is not the only thing this senior does. He also majors in civil engineering.
Speaking Spanish for the Community
“Me llamo Kelly. ¿Cuál es su nombre?” “Soy Juan.” “¿Juan, cómo está usted?” “No tan bien.” “Oh, lo siento, ¿qué pasó?” — Junior Spanish and international studies double major Kelly Fuhs is not shy, but she is not forcefully bold either. Rather, she is calmly outgoing, and that trait has helped her use a second …
Memory and Music: Andrew Le’s Sabbatical Story
When Dr. Andrew Le says he spent his fall 2018 sabbatical “learning” a series of piano pieces, what he really means is that he memorized them.
They’ll Always Have Paris
A small but reputable library in Paris now has a new and meaningful relationship with a small but reputable liberal arts college in the U.S. thanks to a Hope English professor and her two research students. For two and a half weeks during the summer of 2018, Dr. Natalie Dykstra, senior Sarah Lundy and junior …