TCNJ

e College of New Jersey ANNUAL REPORT 2017–2018 SCHOOL OF THE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION GARDEN PARTY TCNJ art students participated in two community-engaged projects in a course led by Assistant Professor Carolina Blatt-Gross. In partnership with the East Trenton Collaborative, students designed and painted mural panels for installation at a community garden located in downtown Trenton. The mural represents the many people who work together to make community gardens prosper and emphasizes the human connections that foster community gardens. Mentored by artists from the Inside Out Project, a global platform for people to share their untold stories and transform messages of personal identity into works of public art, TCNJ students researched, photographed, and installed 50 portraits of Trenton residents around the city. Each portrait stands five feet tall and offers its subject the opportunity to make a statement about what they stand for. The project's theme, "The Fabric of Trenton," was concepted by art education major Estefany Rodriguez '20. This project was a partnership between TCNJ, the Trenton Downtown Association, and Isles, a Trenton-based nonprofit that fosters self-reliant families and healthy, sustainable communities. FIELD NOTES The Center for the Arts welcomed acclaimed actress, playwright, and professor Anna Deavere Smith in April. Deavere Smith, creator of the HBO film "Notes from the Field," discussed and performed excerpts from her documentary theater and film work in which she transforms the words of ordinary people into dramatic monologue. Her lecture addressed some of the complexities around understanding racial and gender identities and their intersections with social justice in the current political and social climates. She emphasized the importance of individual stories in trying to develop understanding and empathy for others whom we believe to be unlike us. Her appearance tied into the college's 2017–18 campus theme, "Who We Are." 100 YEARS OF MUSIC The 2017–18 academic year marked the 100th anniversary of the Department of Music. To celebrate, the department presented the 2018 Alumni Music Festival during Alumni Weekend that included performances and collaborations between students, faculty, faculty emeriti, and alumni. The event culminated with a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Choral Fantasy" with the TCNJ Orchestra and alumni vocal soloists, and featured pianist Tomoko Kanamaru, associate professor of music. The festival also included social gatherings to give multiple generations of TCNJ students and faculty the opportunity to connect with friends, both old and new, while reminiscing and reflecting on the changes that have taken place over the years within the school. BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS Associate Professor of Journalism and Professional Writing Donna Shaw co-authored a book, Blood on their Hands, which is based on her investigation of numerous pharmaceutical companies in the 1970s and 80s that knowingly distributed tainted blood products. Thousands of hemophiliacs contracted HIV and hepatitis C as a result. The book chronicles the legal battle fought on behalf of victims against a pharmaceutical industry that failed to protect them from the potential for contracting these diseases through their blood-clotting medicines.

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