In 1999, when Eto Otitigbe graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, he received the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, culminating his student artistic honors which began with third prize in MIT's first annual Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts in 1996--a competition in which the painter/printmaker/set designer took top honors in 1998. Now, Artworks International Fine Arts Gallery is introducing him as an "emerging talent for the next millennium" with an exhibition through October 29. Several originals are for sale, along with limited edition prints and posters.The gallery is located at 405 York Street in Canton, MA, (781) 828-5397.
October 29 is the deadline to order professionally made multicamera videotapes of the 1999 Parents' Weekend A Cappella Concert. The groups who offered song and skits were the Chorallaries, Logarhythms, Tech Jazz Singers, Techiya, Muses, Cross Products and the MIT/Wellesley Toons. Cost is $10 for either the standard tape which includes various camera angles and close-ups, or the choreographer's tape which shows the entire stage at all times--or $16.50 for both. See the web site to order.
A September 19 New York Times millennium-issue magazine essay on the invention of the mechanical clock uses a sculpture by Artist-in-Residence Arthur Ganson to illustrate how the clock "brought order and rigidity to the world."
The Freshman Arts Program, a student-designed pre-Orientation program implemented this year, prompted a major feature in the Boston Globe. Headlined "Left brain, meet the right," the article explained how this new program "puts science scholars back in touch with their creative and playful selves." The reporter followed students to several of the more than 30 workshops "designed by MIT students, an inventive and ingenious bunch if ever there was one."
The Globe also published an article previewing Zojeila Itzel Flores's October 9 Panamanian dance performance. Ms. Flores had used her 1998 List Foundation Fellowship in the Arts for Students of Color to "make a journey of the heart into her heritage and identity," wrote Debra Cash, explaining the biology senior's summer travels to Panama to learn the native dances and the folklore behind them. Ms. Cash described the List Fellowship Program as a "remarkable program that attempts to affirm the diverse cultural identities of MIT students at the same time that it is nurturing their emergence as members of the international technical elites."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 27, 1999.
