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The Sylvia and David Steiner Speaker Series

The Sylvia and David Steiner Speaker Series is dedicated to bringing creative practitioners who push boundaries, defy definition, and demonstrate excellence in all aspects of the arts, to the Carnegie Mellon campus for deep engagement with our students and faculty. The Steiner Speaker Series is administered by the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, the research laboratory of the CMU College of Fine Arts, with the assistance of an advisory committee comprised of faculty from around the university. Members of the CMU community may apply for Steiner Visitor Invitation Grants for support to bring creative guests to their classrooms, departments, and clubs.

 

Year Five (Fall 2022 – Spring 2023)

During the 2022-2023 Speaker Series, the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO worked with CMU faculty, students, and staff to create online, in-person, and hybrid events across all five schools under the College of Fine Arts and beyond. We are proud to have hosted and sponsored over 35 speakers; a broad array of artists, activists, designers, filmmakers, performers, architects, musicians, and engineers to engage our community with one-of-a-kind events. Read more about our visiting artists in the fifth annual Sylvia & David Steiner Series book! [2.5mb]

This exciting full year of in-person programming was led by the directorship of Nica Ross, with assistance from their staff, Assoc. Director Harrison Apple, Program Coordinator Bill Rodgers, Financial Assistant Carol Hernandez, and Business Manager Linda Hager.

 

For the first time, the Steiner Speaker Series includes two commissioned essays on our Visiting Artists, with Ultraviolet Blackness about Mikael Owunna by Anna Mirzayan, and Dorothy Santos is Learning to Sound Like Nobody Else about Dorothy R. Santos by Dani Lamorte.

  • Adam Lowenstein – Film & media scholar with expertise in the Horror genre
  • Adrian Jones – Pittsburgh-based Creative Technologist
  • Aki Sasamoto – World renowned sculptor and performance artist
  • Anna Betbeze – Visual artist specializing in proprioception and touch
  • Annie-B Parson – US-based choreographer and founder of Big Dance Theater
  • Becky Elquist – Branding consultant specializing in creative digital assets
  • Brandon Clifford – Architect and fabrication specialist in reused stone
  • Claire Hentschker – Digital artist and creative technologist
  • David Perry – Computational textile artist and creative technologist
  • Dimitris Papaioannou – Greece-based choreographer and director
  • Dorothy R. Santos – Digital media artist and Executive Director of Processing Foundation
  • Geo Wyex – New York-based artist and educator in music and performance
  • Huw Messie – Textile artist and digital animator
  • Ingrid Mayrhofer – Austria-based architectural design and theory educator
  • Jazmine Buttefly – Pittsburgh-based HIV/AIDS awareness activist and performer
  • Jules Gill-Peterson – Baltimore-based historian and professor specializing in trans history
  • Katie Mitchell – UK-based experimental director
  • Kenya Miles – Natural dye expert and educator for Blue Light Junction
  • Kyle McDonald – Computational new media artist
  • Kyle Steinfeld – California-based architect specializing in computational design
  • LaDonna LaMoore – Hottelville-based drag performer
  • Liz Jackson – US-based designer and educator with specialization in disability studies
  • Margarita Jover – Spain-based architect specializing in water and socioecology
  • Mikael Owunna – Pittsburgh-based photographer and director
  • Peggy Ahwesh – New York-based filmmaker and former programmer ofL Pgh Filmmakers
  • PLOrk Sideband – Experimental orchestra developing new electronic instruments
  • Regan Linton – Colorado-based director, actor, and advocate for disability in theater
  • Sasha Waltz – Germany-based director and choreographer
  • Shahrbanoo Sadat – Afghanistan-based filmmaker, writer, and producer
  • Steven Haines – Pittsburgh-based film curator and projectionist
  • Tara Mateik – New York-based filmmaker and educator
  • Tatiana Mustakos – Computational textile artist and educator
  • Timur Si-Qin – Germany-based new media artist and writer
  • Tlacael Esparza – New York-based artist/founder of music technology company Sunhouse
  • Violet Maimbourg – Cleveland-based fabricator and artist
  • Young Joon Kwak – Los Angeles-based artist and musician
  • Kim Ye – Los Angeles-based filmmaker and musician
  • Yves – New York-based model and activist

Year Four (Fall 2021 – Spring 2022)

During the 2021-2022 Speaker Series, the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO worked with CMU faculty, students, and staff to create online, in-person, and hybrid events across all five schools under the College of Fine Arts and beyond. We are proud to have invited 66 artists, designers, architects, musicians, and engineers to engage our community with one-of-a-kind events. The return to campus in Spring 2022 included the opportunity to host in-person events in the STUDIO; reaffirming our mission to provide a space for catalytic thinking and making at Carnegie Mellon University at the intersections of arts, science, technology, and culture. The 2021-2022 Season was invigorated by the STUDIO’s first ever co-directorship. Golan Levin (School of Art) and Nica Ross (School of Drama) have worked together to broaden the reach of the Steiner Lecture Series as part of the STUDIO’s public programs reaching thousands of audience members, world-wide. Headshots and biographies of the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 Steiner visitors are compiled here, well as in the 2021-2022 Steiner Invitational Speaker Series: Year Four [19.2 MB].

Year Three (Fall 2020 – Spring 2021)

As with so many other aspects of life and education during the COVID-19 lockdown year, circumstances in 2020-2021 required the comprehensive reinvention of how the Steiner Speaker Series operated. To meet this challenge, we adapted our process, providing CMU faculty, staff and students with the opportunity to invite creative guests—virtually—to their departments, cohorts, and classrooms. Despite the limits and constraints imposed by Zoom, 50 Steiner Speakers found ways to give presentations about their creative work, deliver lectures about the history and theory of various topics, lead practical workshops in advanced techniques, participate in critiques and reviews, and facilitate guided discussions with students. Biographies of the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 Steiner visitors can be found at these links, or in this document, Sylvia and David Steiner Lecture Series Book: Year Three (5MB .PDF), featuring:

Year Two (Spring 2019 – Spring 2020)


During the second year that the STUDIO managed the Sylvia and David Steiner Speaker Series series (November 2018 through May 2020), we presented 22 public lectures and 34 additional student engagement events (including 14 classroom visits, 7 workshops, 3 public exhibitions, and 10 critiques or charrettes), with a total attendance exceeding 2000 persons. These events were presented in collaboration with a variety of institutional partners, including the CMU Schools of Art, Architecture, Design, and Music; the Miller ICA, the Entertainment Technology Center, the IDeATe Network, the Center for Arts and Society, and the Masters of Arts Management Program; and with off-campus partners, the University of Pittsburgh, and The Andy Warhol Museum. These events are documented in the Sylvia and David Steiner Lecture Series Book: Year Two (165MB .PDF), featuring:

Year One (Fall 2017 – Fall 2018)

During the first year that the STUDIO managed the Sylvia and David Steiner Speaker Series series (November 2017 through November 2018), we presented 16 public lectures, 18 classroom lectures and workshops, and 26 other student engagement events, with a total attendance of 1,782 persons. These events were presented in partnership with a number of institutional collaborators, including the College of Fine Arts Schools of Art, Architecture, Design, and Music, the Miller Institute of Contemporary Art, The BXA Interdisciplinary program, the Dietrich College Department of English, dSHARP, the Entertainment Technology Center, the IDeATe Network, the Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival, and with off-campus partners, the Andy Warhol Museum. These events are documented in the Sylvia and David Steiner Lecture Series Book: Year One (20MB .PDF), featuring: