Dr. Brad Jessop, professor of art at East Central University, has been named the first director of ECU's new School of Fine Arts.
With the opening of the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center a year ago and a new emphasis on the fine arts at ECU, the music, art and communications programs have been grouped into the new school which is part of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
Dr. Mark Hollingsworth, professor of music, is the acting dean of the college.
Dr. Brad Jessop, professor of art at East Central University, makes a point during one of his lecture classes. Jessop is the first director of ECU's School of Fine Arts which combines the art, music and communication departments. New coordinators also have been named for the music, art, communication and mass communication programs.
The fine arts center will celebrate its first year with a birthday party at noon on Sept. 24 [FRIDAY] on the Centennial Plaza. Hot dogs, birthday games, cupcakes and a pep rally will be free and open to the university and the public.
Jessop previously taught in Kansas and has been at ECU since 1990. In addition to teaching, he organized the Oklahoma Small Works Juried Exhibitions for a number of years and the current Grounded Chalk Arts Festival. His work has been shown in one-man shows and group exhibits over the country.
In addition, new program coordinators have been announced for the School of Fine Arts. Dr. Kelly Alig will oversee music, and Dr. Richard Groetzinger will coordinate the communication program. Christina Mitchell will oversee mass communication. Jessop continues to coordinate the art program.
Alig, who teaches choral music, is the director of the Little Dixie Music Contest that brings more than 1,000 high school students to ECU each fall. He came to ECU in 1997 after teaching in Oklahoma and Texas. He also was the national executive director of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and a trustee of the Sinfonia Foundation in Evanston, Ill., for two years.
Groetzinger has directed several plays since joining ECU's faculty in 2008. He taught and directed at Heidelberg College in Ohio for eight years and Colby (Kan.) Community College for 12 years. He acted in two Equity-recognized companies for nine summers, the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival and the Music Theatre of Wichita.
Mitchell also came to ECU in 2008. She previously was communications director and production assistant for Roadtrip Nation and Roadtrip Productions in California, an independent television production company with a PBS series and broadcast partnerships with Fuel TV and SBS Television in Australia.
Hollingsworth is a familiar performer in Ada, either playing primarily the clarinet in concerts or the bagpipes for various ceremonies. He also performs in the Moonlighters Big Band. Before coming to ECU in 1986 he taught in North Carolina and Texas. He has performed with orchestras in Tyler and Sherman, Texas, and Des Moines, Iowa.
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