Sean Nixon in the News
Sean Nixon’s “Drawing COVID” exhibition opens at Unison
Hudson Valley One: Art & Music
by Frances Marion Platt
SUNY Professor of Art and Rosendale resident Sean Nixon will be exhibiting 48 pen and ink drawings about the “cultural trauma of Covid” at Unison in New Paltz.
Much of what we know today about the Great Plague of London (1665) and the Great Fire of London (1666) can be chalked up to the fact that a British Navy bureaucrat, a bourgeois Londoner named Samuel Pepys, decided on New Year’s Day in 1660 to keep a diary – and then kept at it for a full decade. He also captured plenty of inside information about the Restoration of King Charles II and the Second Dutch War, which ended with the treaty that transformed New Netherland into New York. That his diaries survived was a great stroke of luck for historians. Read the Article
Unison Arts Center’s latest exhibition explores the ongoing story of COVID
Melissa Dvozenja-Thomas For the Poughkeepsie Journal
When we look back at our lives two years ago, no one could imagine all that would take place in the world. At the start of the pandemic, as populations were learning how to live a different version of life, we each took up new or different rituals and hobbies to cope with the uncertainty of the world around us.
The love I already had for baking and cooking for my family, turned into therapy and an escape from the news, infection rates and injustices. Read the article
The Real World Classroom
Taking the Satisfy Hunger Campaign to the Next Level
By Katie Clayton
The Real World Classroom in the News
The Real World Classroom™ Design Program at SUNY Ulster is at it again, this time teaming up with Chris Hewitt, executive director of the Hudson Valley Current, a local digital currency geared towards strengthening our communities and sustaining the local economy.
One of the HV Current’s projects is the Satisfy Hunger campaign, which is a food security initiative that brings local community members together to share in community dining experiences. What better way to do this than by way of a food truck?
The idea of a food truck cruising through the Hudson Valley, serving its local community on a pay-what-you-can model sounds like a humanitarian’s dream. Not to mention, who doesn’t like a good food truck? One of their best features are their unique designs, giving patrons a feel for what they have to offer inside. That’s where Professor and Applied Learning Expert Sean Nixon of SUNY Ulster’s Real World Classroom™ Design Program comes in. Read More
SUNY Ulster Awarded Grant for Student Travel
By Kathy Welsh
hudson Valley News Network
SUNY Ulster has been awarded a Santander Global Scholars Award enabling five current students to travel to Mexico City for one week in March of 2016 to study graphic design at LaSalle.
“The Real World Classroom Design program is committed to international study by offering every design student an international experience while in the program,” said Professor Nixon. “This can range from a critique by a Professor from another country via Skype to travel to another country. The opportunity to apply for the Global Scholar award ignited a spark of pride with a touch of healthy competition among the students. They see the application process and actual acceptance as an acknowledgement of hard work that will pay off for years to come. The present generation wants to travel, to have more opportunities to expand their worldview. We are interested in developing a designer that is a global citizen – with experience to contribute to the Global economy.” Read full article
A ‘road map’ app that can change the way students go to school
By Donna Cohn Viertel
Blue Stone Press
At SUNY Ulster, Sean Nixon, Associate Professor of art and graphic design program coordinator, and John Sheehan, Assistant Professor and computer science program coordinator, are collaborating to make a difference in education.
When Nixon was asked what was the most important thing students do not have when they enroll in college, he emphatically said, “A plan – an education and career plan based in reality or none at all.”
But don’t worry, Nixon and Sheehan assured that students can have a plan, right at their fingertips. “We are developing the Real World ClassroomTM Road Map environment that will forever change the way you go to school,” said Nixon with a beaming smile. He sees the future, his confidence is infectious, but he is impatient to actualize the project. Read full article
Real world class to the rescue
By Freeman Staff
The Daily Freeman
He and his “real-world classroom” of design students are spearheading a project called “To The Rescue,” with the aim of recruiting more people to serve as volunteers in the emergency field.
Nixon, armed with statistics to motivate his students, said that volunteers make up about 70 percent of all fire and rescue units across the country.
“Most people don’t know this, and this is what the real-world classroom project is all about,” he said.
“They (emergency units) do not have enough members. They’re starting to fall short. The problem we have as designers is to solve that,” Nixon said. Read full article
Real World Classroom Design Students Featured in Exhibition
SUNY Ulster logo show at CHRCH
C H R C H Project Space hosted an impromptu exhibition of the logo designs and information videos created by Sean Nixon’s Real World Graphic Design Class from SUNY Ulster.
C H R C H functions like a laboratory / workshop / studio / cultural center. Its program features pioneering art projects that emphasize community engagement. These projects are designed by artists who collaborate with the broadest possible range of people to address such timely issues as the environment, sustainability, food, agriculture, technology, social issues, popular culture, race, and gender. Read More
