Mills QuarterlyFall 2007 Alumnae Magazine

R ac y a l u m n a D e n i s e m c c l u g g ag e ’47 m e e t t h e n e w m u s e u m D i R e c t o R

Lighting the WayArts Faculty at the Leading EdgeCatherine Wagner

rosCoe MitCheLL

MoLissa FenLey ’75

4 Leadership PerspectivesMills College President Janet L. Holmgren and AAMC President Anita Aragon Bowers ’63 share views on the College–alumnae partnership.

12 Bright Ideas: Arts Faculty Make a Tradition of InnovationMills College has long been at the forefront of creative artistic expression. Meet three faculty members who are carrying this tradition into the 21st century.

20 A New Era for the Mills College Art Museum by Barbara GoodsonJessica Hough, the museum’s new director, shares her ideas on the place of art in education and the future of the museum.

22 Life in the Fast Lane by Moya Stone From her career as a journalist to her exploits as a race car driver, Denise McCluggage ’47 has made a life’s work of busting stereotypes.

40 Visual Music by Jessica Hilberman Raymond Boynton’s Concert Hall murals have seen better days— but careful restoration is returning them to their former glory.

Mills Quarterly

contents Fall 2007

on the cover: Catherine Wagner’s photo series A Narrative History of the Light Bulb draws inspiration from an everyday object; her teaching has provided inspiration to Mills art students for three decades. (Cover photo: “Untitled I,” 2006. From the series A Narrative History of the Light Bulb by Catherine Wagner.)

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d E P A r T M E N T s

2 Letters to the Editor

6 Calendar

6 Mills Matters

24 Bookshelf

26 Class Notes

35 In Memoriam

12 1220 22 40

2  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

Letters to the Editor

Standing tallI e n joy ed so m uch Bruce Cook’s photos and history professor Bert Gordon’s article about the eucalyptus trees at Mills (“Eucalyptus at Mills,” summer 2007). I had a fellow feeling for those Australian trees, being at first homesick, having come to Mills myself from a faraway land. I wrote in 1944:

Eucalyptus Trees IIThere is a certain indescribable beautyAbout eucalyptus trees against the skyStanding in tall thin rowsWith a blue haze always about themWatching the clouds go by.

There is a certain indefinable sadnessAbout eucalyptus trees against the skyAnd then I remember that theyDo not really belong hereAnd neither do I.

I’m sad they have had to go, and feel a little guilty—since I believe a forebear of mine was one of those responsible for bringing them to California!

—Dorothy Britton Bouchier ’46Kanagawa-ken, Japan

Volume XCVI Number 2 (USPS 349-900) Fall 2007

PresidentJanet L. Holmgren

executive vice President for Institutional AdvancementRamon S. Torrecilha

vice President for DevelopmentVirginia V. Rivera

Director of Development and Alumnae communicationsDawn Cunningham ’85

Interim Managing editorLinda Schmidt (Sherrie Raynor ’05 until August 31)

Design and Art DirectionNancy Siller Wilson

contributing WritersBarbara Goodson, Glen Helfand, Jessica Hilberman ’03, Jo Kaufman, Jackie Kennedy ’09, Moya Stone, MFA ’03, Pamela Wilson

Bookshelf editorDavid Harrison Horton, MFA ’01

editorial AssistanceAlison Lazareck ’08

class notes Writers Alice London Bishop ’58, Julia Bourland Chambers ’93, Laura Compton ’93, Barbara Bennion Friedlich ’49, Sally Mayock Hartley ’48, Marian Hirsch ’75, Cathy Chew Smith ’84, Judith Rathbone, MFA ’05

Special thanks toAnita Aragon Bowers ’63 Jane Cudlip King ’42

The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly by Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California, and at additional mailing office(s). Postmaster: Send address changes to the Office of Institutional Advancement, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Copyright © 2007, Mills College.

Address correspondence to Mills Quarterly, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Email: quarterly@mills.edu Phone: 510.430.3312Fa

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the more things change…I wa s m yst I f I ed By Chana Bloch’s observations of Mills (“The Times They Are a-Changing,” spring 2007). My years at the college were more than a decade earlier, and my impression was different. Although multiracial student bodies were still to be achieved nationally, it is a fact that historically Mills had pioneered in diversity, especially recruiting in the Far East. By the time I arrived, my peers included Asian and black students.

While the Jewish presence was not high in numbers, there was some sense of identity. Classics professor Miriam Goldeen gave an immensely popular Old Testament course (as it was called then). A brilliant, scrappy scholar, her dynamic classes were jammed, despite her terri-fying habit of calling students by name, law-school style. On Friday afternoons, a hardy group of students and faculty, led by Professor Goldeen, met in the Chapel to chant some blessings and read and discuss the weekly Torah por-tion. Despite underage drinking laws, Chaplain Hedley graciously allowed us to store our Manischewitz in the chapel cabinet!

Women’s lib and the feminist move-ment in general were yet to take off. But the Mills experience was one of empow-erment. It was assumed that no goals were impossible to achieve with com-mitment, talent, and hard work—a kind of inherent feminism in the best sense, inculcated by both faculty and admin-istration.

—Cheryl Stern Seltzer ’59New York, New York

I WOr k ED In THE ADMISSIOnS office for three years after graduating, so I have personal knowledge of Mills from 1960 to 1967. Dr. Bloch’s state-ment that “diversity” had not “entered our vocabularies” is not true of either the attitude or practice at Mills prior to her arrival. As a member of the admis-sions staff, I participated every year in a nAACP college access project and went to high schools to speak with students who were not in any respect “WASPy.” It was an express part of my mandate to recruit students who would not have fallen within that definition. One of the barriers we encountered in the ’60s was that many women of color would be, as I was, the first women in their family to attend college.

As a Mills student, I volunteered at the napa State Hospital and at Oak knoll naval Hospital, where the first of the Vietnam casualties were returning. I know those volunteer programs had been established before I arrived and that I was far from the only student par-ticipating.

It would be a pity if someone used the article as an accurate portrayal of a group of women Dr. Bloch did not know, did not research, and did not describe.

—Jane Molnar McCormmach ’64Mercer Island, Washington

What’s Your opinion?

talk back to the Mills Quarterly. Email your letters to quarterly@mills.edu or send them to the Mills Quarterly, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

tell us how to do it better through alumnae surveys. The College is planning a new survey project to find out how we can better serve and communicate with alumnae. To make sure that you are part of the survey population, send us your email address using the class notes form on the inside back cover or email a message with “Survey Me” in the subject line and your full name, previous name (if applicable), and class year in the body to alumnae-relations@mills.edu.

Leadership Perspectives

4  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

A Message from AAMC President Anita Aragon Bowers ’63

G r e e t i n g s f r o m R e i n h a r d t a l u m n a e h o u s e !

I am pleased to report that represen-tatives from the Alumnae Association of Mills College (AAMC) and the College worked hard through the summer and fall to facilitate changes brought about by the July 1, 2007, Memorandum of Agreement. Alumna Trustee Susan Brown Penrod ’71 and I met regularly with Executive Vice President for Institu-tional Advancement ramon Torrecilha, Vice President for Development Virginia rivera, and Interim Director of Alumnae relations Sheryl Bizé-Boutté ’73 to develop procedures and programs that will ensure even stronger connections between alumnae and the College.

We encourage local alumnae to par-ticipate in campus events and take

full advantage of AAMC membership by using College facilities such as the library, pool, and fitness center as well as resources such as email for life and the career network. We also want to ensure that alumnae at a distance remain con-nected to the College through revital-ized branch and regional programs. Our vibrant AAMC travel program offers opportunities to rekindle College friend-ships in unique locations.

I am writing this message as we con-clude the exciting events of our 2007 reunion and the dedication of our new natural Sciences Building. Our AAMC staff and alumnae volunteers operated in partnership with the College to make this reunion one of the best ever. The winter Quarterly will cover reunion events, including our first ever Alumnae Association Awards given to Deborah Santana ’97 for distinguished achieve-ment and to Jane Cudlip king ’42 and Thomasina Woida ’80 for their work as outstanding volunteers. For the suc-cess of our awards program, I thank all alumnae who submitted nomination letters as well as those who served on the awards committee appointed by the AAMC Board of Governors.

As President Janet L. Holmgren writes in her letter on the next page, nearly 60 percent of Mills College Trustees are alumnae, and, soon, more of us will pro-vide guidance to the College through our service on campus committees. We will have the opportunity of sharing our unique perspectives as we help shape decisions in many aspects of the life of the College.

Members of your Alumnae Association Board of Governors are committed to strengthening the AAMC as a vital organization that serves as a liaison between alumnae and the College. I share President Holmgren’s desire that the AAMC continue “to be the College’s most influential institutional partner.”

Warmest regards,Anita Aragon Bowers ’63President, AAMC

contact the AAMc

Contact the AAMC to share your thoughts with alumnae representatives on the Mills College Board of Trustees (marked with an asterisk below), attend Board of Governors meetings, get an AAMC mem-bership card, learn about travel programs, or purchase alumnae merchandise.

Alumnae Association of Mills college P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613 Phone: 510.430.2110 Email: aamc@mills.edu Website: www.mills.edu/alumnae

officers of the Board of Governors President: Anita Aragon Bowers ’63* AnitaAragonBowers@alumnae.mills.edu

Vice President: Linda Jaquez-Fissori ’92 Vice President: Diana Birtwistle Odermatt ’60 Treasurer: Kathleen Janes ’69

Alumnae trustees Susan Brown Penrod ’71* Gayle Rothrock ’68* Sharon K. Tatai ’80*

Faculty Member Vivian Fumiko Chin ’89 Board Members Michelle Balovich ’03 Micheline A. Beam ’72 Marie Bowman ’78 Lynda Campfield ’00, MA ’02 Beverly Curwen ’71 Rina Faletti ’81 Cynthia Guevara ’04 Nangee Warner Morrison ’63 Karlin Sorenson ’92 Rita Stuckey ’01 Alice Zakian ’73

Student Governor Jax Vogel ’08

For a list of AAMC regional gover-nors, please visit www.mills.edu/alumnae/board_of_governors.php

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A Message from Mills College President Janet L. Holmgren

Welcome to the first issue of the Quarterly published by Mills College, an issue that marks the start of a new era of alumnae engagement at the College.

Throughout the campus community, there is a great deal of excitement about the opportunity to build stronger, more direct connections with our alumnae—an opportunity brought about by the revised Memorandum of Agreement be-tween Mills and the AAMC announced in July. We are setting up and seeking out ways of giving alumnae a greater voice in the leadership of the College, of tapping alumnae expertise to enhance the outstanding educational experience we provide to women, and of making Mills a lifelong learning and networking resource for alumnae.

One of the first steps we have taken is to establish an Alumnae relations Office to organize programs on campus and across the country that will give alum-nae more opportunities to connect with each other and with the College. In the coming year, you will hear about more events like the December 12 celebra-tion in new york of the dance career of Molissa Fenley ’75 (page 19) and the February 14 presentation in San Francisco by Eleanor Sims ’64 on an intriguing Persian manuscript (page 6). We are also inviting alumnae to sit in on the course to be taught by Amina Mama, Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership, during the spring semester (page 7).

In October, when AAMC President Anita Aragon Bowers ’63 became a member of the Mills Board of Trustees, we raised the number of AAMC repre-sentatives on the board from three (the three Alumnae Trustees listed on the preceding page) to four. Today, nearly 60 percent of our 42 Trustees are Mills graduates. In addition, in consultation with the AAMC, Mills is preparing to welcome more alumnae to serve on key campus committees, further strengthen-

ing the voices of our graduates in the life of the College.

As this new era begins, Mills has never been stronger—and our success owes much to our graduates. Alumnae admissions representatives have helped us build the largest student body ever and attract bright and diverse students (page 6). Gifts from alumnae (page 28) have enabled us to provide generous scholarships to 89 percent of our under-graduates and to raise our endowment to $230 million, placing ours in the top third of college and university endow-ments nationwide. The health of the institution permits us to maintain an outstanding faculty dedicated to provid-ing women with an education designed to foster skills for leadership. Our aca-demic excellence is well recognized by such media as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Princeton review, and U.S. News and World Report (page 7).

As an independent organization with its own endowment, the AAMC contin-ues to be the College’s most influential institutional partner. We have received much assistance with this issue of the Quarterly from the association, which

contact Mills college

Contact the Mills College Alumnae Relations Office to get information on alumnae events and resources such as the career network and email for life; update your address, phone, and email information so that your class-mates and the College can contact you; and get help finding classmates.

Alumnae relations office Mills College 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Oakland, CA 94613 Phone: 510.430.2112 Email: alumnae-relations@mills.edu Website: www.mills.edu/alumnae

Mills Quarterly Phone: 510.430.3312 Email: quarterly@mills.edu classnotes@mills.edu

Mills college Annual Fund Phone: 510.430.2366 Email: mcaf@mills.edu Website: www.mills.edu/giving

Get Mills email for Life Website: https://alumnae.mills.edu

previously published this magazine to celebrate the achievements of Mills alumnae, students, faculty, and others in the College family. With alumnae involvement—contributions of stories, letters, class notes, and other news—the College will continue this tradition. The Mills community is tremendously tal-ented, innovative, and diverse. Whatever the field in which our bright ideas shine, we have much to learn from each other.

Sincerely,Janet L. HolmgrenPresident

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The biggest, the brightest, the most diverse: Mills’ student body this fall inspires superlatives. Enrollment has reached an all-time record: 1,454, including 948 undergradu-ate women and 506 graduate students (of whom 81 percent are women). The campus’ residence halls are completely full, housing 590 students.

Mills received more than 1,500 applications for 2007 undergraduate admission, the greatest number ever, and this semester welcomed 330 new undergraduates. The 185 first-year students are particularly noteworthy for their aca-demic achievements as well as their diversity. They have the highest grade-point average (3.61) of any entering class in 13 years, speak 26 languages, and range in age from 17 to 60. More than 30 percent are the first in their families to attend college, and 49 percent are women of color or multi-ethnic.

The 237 new graduate students include the first nine to enroll in the new Master of Public Policy Program.

To support this talented student body, Mills is providing greater amounts of financial aid than ever—a total of $16.8 million from the College’s resources—to 89 percent of under-graduates and 75 percent of graduate students. The average undergraduate financial aid award is $31,008.

6  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

For more news of upcoming events open to Mills alumnae and friends, visit www.mills.edu.

Mills honors Molissa Fenley Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 pm, Joyce Theater, New York City Part of a week-long celebration of the dance career of Molissa Fenley ’75. For more information, see page 19 or contact Barbara Goodson at 510.430.2242 or bgoodson@mills.edu.

concert: helmut Lachenmann Saturday, January 26, 2008, 8:00 pm, Lisser Hall Jean Macduff Vaux Composer-in-Residence. 510.430.2296

Art exhibition: We Interrupt Your Program January 16 to March 16, 2008, Mills College Art Museum The work of 14 women artists working in video and other media on war, violence, power, technology, gender, and the natural environment. 510.430.2164

contemporary Writers Series: Wanda coleman Tuesday, February 12, 2008, 5:30 pm, Mills Hall Living Room The unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles. 510.430.3130

the Windsor castle Shahnama of 1648: An Illustrated Persian Manuscript Thursday, February 14, 2008, 7:00 pm, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Eleanor Sims ’64, formerly of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, discusses a treasured Islamic manuscript from the collection of the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. RSVP to 510.430.2373.

contemporary Writers Series: Peter ho Davies Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 5:30 pm, Mills Hall Living Room One of Granta’s 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003. 510.430.3130

Save these dates:reunion 2008: September 18–21

reunion 2009: October 1–4

Calendar of Events

President holmgren (in gray jacket) welcomes new students at a reinhardt Alumnae house tea.

Enrollment

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We are proud to announce the addition of several out-standing new faculty mem-bers who continue the Mills College tradition of excellence in research and teaching.

Three new faces join Mills in tenure-track faculty posi-tions, bringing the number of full-time faculty to 94 (of whom 61 percent are women and 26 percent are people of color). Christie Chung, assis-tant professor of psychology, is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Claremont Graduate University. She studies memory in old age, cognitive changes associated with Parkinson’s disease, changes in emotional memory throughout the lifespan, and statistical memory modeling.

Assistant professor of psychology Cedar Riener has conducted extensive research on vision and perception. He earned his undergradu-ate degree at Harvard and

As enrollment climbs, Mills continues to place high in national rankings of American colleges and universities, reflecting the academic excellence of students and faculty. Three publications issued in August gave Mills top marks.

For the third year in a row, Mills College has been named one of the Best 366 Colleges and one of the 123 Best Western Colleges by the Princeton review, a recogni-tion given to only 15 percent of four-year colleges. The Best 366 Colleges 2008 character-izes Mills as an institution

Mills Matters

his PhD at the University of Virginia, where he designed and taught a seminar on the science of illusion.

Margaret L. Hunter, assis-tant professor of sociology, specializes in the sociology of gender, contemporary racial attitudes, comparative racial and ethnic relations, women of color in the United States, and the sociology of knowledge. She studied at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and completed her doctorate at UCLA.

Mills welcomes two faculty members to distinguished professorships. renowned jazz composer, improviser, and teacher Roscoe Mitchell holds the Darius Milhaud Chair in Composition for 2007–10. For more on Mitchell, see page 16.

Amina Mama will be the first to hold the Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership.

that is “all about the empow-erment of women, innovative thought, independence, and activism” with a “rigorous and challenging” curriculum. Mills undergraduates are said to receive “plenty of support and guidance from the fac-ulty to aid in each student’s individual success.”

In America’s Best Colleges for 2008, published by U.S. News and World Report, Mills ranks sixth among western institutions that offer a full range of undergraduate and master’s degree programs. In the same report, Mills ranks sixth in the West in the

Currently chair in gender studies and director of the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Mama earned her PhD at the University of London. She has taught social studies and gender studies in European and international institutions. Her research projects address women in government and politics in a variety of African contexts as well as militarism, women’s organizations and move-ments, race, and subjectivity. In spring 2008, Mama will co-teach a course entitled real Policy, real Politics with Congresswoman Barbara Lee ’73 on seven consecutive Saturdays beginning January 26. A limited number of seats will be held for alumnae who wish to attend. For informa-tion about reserving a place in the course, contact Delaine Eastin at deastin@mills.edu.

New faces join the faculty

category of “Great Schools, Great Prices,” which recog-nizes institutions with a high academic quality relative to the net cost of attendance for a typical student receiv-ing financial aid. U.S. News and World Report rankings are based on assessments by administrators of peer institu-tions, graduation and reten-tion rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving.

The Washington Monthly ’s alternative evaluation system ranked Mills 49th out of 201 liberal arts colleges nation-wide based on the areas of

social mobility, research, and service. The Washington Monthly gives colleges like Mills kudos for making strong tangible contributions to the public interest.

Finally, in October, The Chronicle of Higher Education named Mills a leading producer of U.S. Fulbright Fellowship recipients for the second year in a row, with three alumnae winning awards in 2007–08. Watch for news of these alumnae in the next issue of the Quarterly.

Mills receives top marks in college reviews

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christie chung

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Less than a decade after being resurrected, the Mills College swimming and diving team stands tall with national Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (nAIA) qualifiers, plenty of laughter, and out-standing academic achieve-ment.

With an overall 3.31 grade point average, the Mills team has been recognized as a 2006–07 nAIA scholar team—one of only nine teams in the nation to be so honored.

“This outstanding national honor reflects the academic and athletic dedication of our student athletes,” says neil Virtue, head swimming coach. “While studying and working, our team members spend 12 to 15 hours per week at the pool, 24 weeks a year. This says a ton about what kind of women they are.”

The team has met equal success in the water, attending the nAIA nationals in each of the last three years. Last February, 200-yard freestyle relay members Alexi Ueltzen ’07, Jessica Embree ’07, Helene kelly-Isham, and Sachiko Hakuta captured an 18th place finish with a time of 1:53.28.

Virtue is quick to say that the credit for his team’s suc-cess lies with the athletes, who range from the superstar to the athlete who is just learning to blow bubbles. “I try to focus on individual successes,” he says. “yes, we have a group that qualifies for nationals, but we also have people who might not get there and whose accomplish-ments we still want to cel-ebrate.” This year’s 12-woman

team includes an athlete who taught herself to swim from a book as well as a Mills record-holder in eight events.

Above all, Virtue makes the team fun: he has each swim-mer pick an animal name (don’t be surprised if you hear swimmers calling out “Golden Mantle Squirrel” or “Wild Ass” around the pool). And the team participates in the annual Swim-a-Mile to fight breast cancer, a Bay Area event held at Mills that raised over $300,000 in October.

All of these achievements are worthy in Virtue’s book. “Everyone can have differ-ent goals, and all of these goals are valid,” he says. “you might remember going to the national meet, but you’ll also remember the hard practices and the friend-ships that were made.”

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In the swim

Three generous recent gifts are helping the College accomplish its goal of providing access to a Mills education for as many quali-fied women as possible.

In July, the Alumnae Association of Mills college (AAMC) transferred assets of $254,546 to the College to establish the Alumnae Association of Mills College Donna Hunt Endowed Scholarship Fund. The seed monies for the fund were given to the AAMC by Donna Hunt, who served on the staff of the College for 23 years and was its first director of financial aid, when she passed away in 1979. In September, the vera M. Long Foundation pledged $1 million to endow the Vera M. Long Scholarship Fund for Women in Science to honor the memory of Vera Long ’35, a former College Trustee. This scholarship program recognizes under-graduate women who show potential for leadership and who have an expressed interest in the study of—or have declared majors in—the physical sciences. The board of the William randolph hearst Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to increase the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship Fund at Mills College. The foundation has provided financial aid for more than 40 undergraduate women at Mills since 1983.

To support scholarships at Mills College, contact the Office of Institutional Advancement at 510.430.2097 or donors@mills.edu.

scholarship endowments boosted by $1.35 million

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dynamic educational leader heads new programTo encourage students’ interest in social justice, civic leader-ship, and equality—and their sense of personal responsibility—Mills has launched the Center for Civic Engagement and Women’s Leadership (CCEWL), a new program that coordinates the activi-ties of the Women’s Leadership Institute, the Institute for Civic Leadership, and the College’s service learning initiatives.

CCEWL seeks to give students first-hand knowledge of the structure and mechanics of constitutional government and democratic institutions, and to increase the number and variety of internships available. It is hoped that the majority of Mills students will be able to participate in at least one substantive community service experience with local schools and organizations. These “learning in practice” opportunities will be coordinated with graduate and undergraduate academic departments.

The effort is headed by Delaine Eastin, senior advisor to President Holmgren and distinguished visiting professor of educational leadership. “We plan to work closely with the Oakland schools, the city, and other civic and nonprofit organi-zations to set up internships and tutoring opportunities,” says Eastin. “We are all working together to get students engaged. I believe engaging in service helps students find their voice.”

Eastin came to Mills in 2004. From 1995 to 2003, she served two terms as California state superintendent of public instruc-tion, the first—and, to date, only—woman elected to the office. During that time, she reduced class size and implemented a statewide system of standards, assessments, and accountability. Eastin also served four terms in the State Assembly.

Since arriving at Mills, Eastin has taught classes in educa-tion and public policy, and, earlier this year, she sponsored a healthy school lunch conference featuring Berkeley restaura-teur and sustainable local food advocate Alice Waters. Eastin is excited about taking on CCEWL and has high hopes for involving students in civic leadership. “We need more women in government,” she says. “When women hold government positions, things change.”

Food for thought: Delaine eastin, at podium, introduces Alice Waters at “100 Leaders: the Mills Forum on Student Achievement, children’s health, and School Lunch.”

“Are women treated differently? Are women

heard around the board table?”

kate Mitchell, the opening speaker at Mills’ inaugural Linda Pitts Custard Women in Business Conference on September 28 and managing director of Scale Venture Partners, said she doesn’t usually speak about the challenges she faces as a woman. But at this gathering of 125 women—including more than 50 Mills alumnae and students—she admitted, “yes, it is different for us, but women can be heard. Expect to be treated differently, get over it, and then become effective.”

Organized by Mills’ Graduate School of Business and co-sponsored by the Financial Women’s Association of San Francisco, the Women in Business Conference focused on strategies for success in the finance field and provided a forum for networking. Evelyn Dilsaver, former president and CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Management, gave the closing address.

Linda Pitts Custard ’60, in whose honor the conference was endowed by her father, L. Frank Pitts, launched the conference by acknowledging the foundation Mills gave her for a career in business: “Mills was for me a dynamic and transformative experience. I got that sense that you can do anything, that you can create your own success.”

Women in finance share strategies for success

Making change: conference speaker Kate Mitchell, Graduate School of Business Dean nancy thornborrow, and conference namesake Linda Pitts custard ’60.

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“The initiative is about educating and supporting women, and growing them as future leaders,” said Muse. “Women write memos, poems, essays, novels, and papers on public policy. I want them to gain experience in writing primary and foun-dational documents, including a constitution. It’s a perfect partnership with work being done at Mills in public policy and a real example of democracy in action, or what democracy is supposed to be about.”

By Jackie kennedy ’09

If you could write a 21st-century U.S. Constitution, how would you do it? In honor of the 220-year anniversary of the ratifica-tion of the U.S. Constitution, the Women’s Leadership Institute (WLI) at Mills College announced its 21st Century Constitution Initiative, a contest for Mills community members—including alumnae—to rewrite the Constitution to be more inclusive of all people.

The initiative is the brainchild of Daphne Muse, director of WLI, and WLI roundtable Fellows Melissa McDonough and Courtney Donnell, both juniors. Muse explains that while many groups of people in the United States continue to struggle for equal rights under the law, “there’s been a lot of movement in other countries in rethinking their own consti-tutions and moving forward in new directions.” She cites the constitutions of Venezuela and post-apartheid South Africa as examples.

McDonough and Donnell were inspired to help Muse launch the project when they learned that two alumnae—Beate Sirota Gordon ’43 and Eleanor Hadley ’38—helped develop a constitu-tion for Japan at the end of World War II. Hadley contributed the economics section, while Gordon wrote the family, equity, and gender policies. Article 14 of that constitution states, “All of the people are equal under the law. There shall be no discrimi-nation in political, economic, or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status, or family origin.”

“We thought ‘no way! A Mills alumna did that? Why don’t we write our own constitution?’” says McDonough. The idea gained steam when Donnell found Thomas Jefferson’s state-ment: “Let us provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods…. It is for the peace and good of mankind that a solemn opportunity of doing this every 19 or 20 years should be provided by the constitution, so that it may be handed on with periodical repairs from generation to generation.”

21st century constitution Initiative entry Guidelines

Any individual, team, class, or organization affiliated with Mills College is eligible to participate in the 21st Century Constitution Initiative. Your submission may take one of the following forms, each of which represents a separate category in the competition:

• articles in the form of the current U.S. Constitution

• narrative poem

• essay

• interpretive dance (submitted on DVD)

• song (submitted on CD)

• play (submitted on DVD)

Entries are due on March 3, 2008. A panel of Mills faculty, staff, and alumnae will select one finalist and one winner in each category, as well as a grand prize winner. The winners will be announced on March 31; the grand prize winner’s printed submission may be published in the Mills Quarterly and on the Mills website.

Email submissions to dmuse@mills.edu or mail them to: Women’s Leadership Institute, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. For more information, call WLI at 510.430.3196.

Write a 21st-century Constitution

College President Janet L. Holmgren continues to represent Mills and the agenda for women and higher education on the national scene. In August, she was elected to the Princeton University Board of Trustees to serve a four-year term. Before she became Mills’ 11th president, Holmgren served as vice provost at Princeton, where she was one of the university’s highest-ranking female administrators between 1988 and 1991 and where she earned her MA and PhD in linguistics.

In June, President Holmgren signed a national Climate Commitment with more than 300 presidents and chancellors of U.S. colleges and universities who are “deeply concerned about the unprecedented scale and speed of global warming and

its potential for large-scale adverse health, social, economic, and ecological effects.” The presidents and chancellors agreed to develop a comprehensive action plan for their campuses to achieve climate neutrality as soon as possible. Holmgren commented, “This initiative will provide a nationwide model for addressing critical environmental challenges from global warming.”

In October, President Holmgren was invited by Ann Lewis, senior advisor to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, to sit on a panel, “Making History: Electing the Future Woman President,” moderated by Lewis at the national Women’s Finance Council Summit in Washington, DC.

President Holmgren’s leadership recognized at the national level

10  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

Dan

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Mills Matters

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 11

By Jessica Hilberman ’03

Even Dr. Joi Lewis’ answering machine is upbeat. “Have an awesome day,” she encour-ages, right before the beep.

As the new dean of stu-dents, Lewis heads the Division of Student Life and is the primary advocate for all Mills students. Her goal is to “provide Mills students with a transformative student learning experience.” Her positive outlook and experi-ence will help her meet that challenging task. A higher education administrator for more than 15 years, Lewis completed her EdD in higher education management at the University of Pennsylvania,

where her research focused on black women’s roles in higher education transforma-tion in South Africa and the United States. Earlier, she had been the first dean of multi-cultural life at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she helped increase the population of students of color and raise the retention rate from 65 to 97 percent.

Lewis says Mills’ diversity is one of the things that drew her to the College, but it’s also one of the hurdles. “I really believe that Mills is a model for higher education for the 21st century. We have the

diverse community that so many are striving for, but our challenge is figuring out how to live and thrive with such multiplicity. now the fun and work really can begin. We may want to stand at the edge and simply put our toe in the water, but the intersections of all of our multiple identities call for us to dive right in.”

Lewis has taken the plunge. Though she has only been on campus since mid-August, she has dedicated herself to determining how she can help build community on campus. “I come with the expectation that everyone I meet wants to be my close personal ally,” she

says. “I have to believe that we want to be connected to each other as human beings even when we can’t show it.”

She has worked fast for a person who’s still getting her bearings. Though she spent a sabbatical in South Africa, Lewis has lived most of her life in the Midwest, near her family. While she admits that it’s hard to be away from her young niece, the twinge of homesickness brings her closer to the student experi-ence. And for Joi Lewis, that experience is paramount. Says Lewis, “I love my work with students—it is one of the rea-sons I get up in the morning.”

dean of students delivers transformative learning experience

If you’ve ever taken a class in studio art, music, or dance at Mills, you know what it means to be part of a creative laboratory. It means your teachers gain worldwide attention

for pushing the boundaries of their art forms while encouraging

students like you to try out new techniques, to cross disciplinary

boundaries, and to explore new ways of seeing the world. your

classmates take inspiration from each other and the faculty—

and give it back. In this playground for the intellect and

imagination, you are part of substantial breakthroughs

in concept and style.

12  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

Arts faculty make a tradition of innovation

In the following pages, the Quarterly features three of the 16 full-time fac-ulty whose work defines Mills as one of the nation’s preeminent creative institutions: artist Catherine Wagner, composer roscoe Mitchell, and chore- ographer Molissa Fenley ’75. These art-ists, like their colleagues at Mills, are pursuing new projects that engage the mind as well as the senses.

Mills’ reputation for incubating cut-ting-edge art in an interdisciplinary, liberal arts setting has been built by gen-erations of faculty over the course of the past century. In the 1940s, visual art-ists Fernand Leger, a major figure in the development of Cubism, and Bauhaus school professor Lásló Moholy-nagy taught Mills summer session courses. The Mills College Ceramics Guild, which became an important experimental base for artists like Peter Voulkos and robert Arneson, was founded in 1940. Since then, notable instructors have included Antonio Prieto and ron nagle.

In 1940, French-Jewish composer Darius Milhaud joined the Mills faculty and established the College’s status as a world leader in experimental music, a reputation strengthened in 1967 with the founding of the Center for Contemporary

Music, previously the San Francisco Tape Music Center (see sidebar on page 17). As recounted in Oakland Magazine’s recent feature, “The Evolution Starts now: Mills College Pushes the Limits of Contemporary Sound” (October 2007), Mills’ music faculty has nurtured such outstanding talents as jazz legend Dave Brubeck, Hon. MFA ’46; Grammy Award recipient Steve reich, MA ’63; and cult folk music star Joanna newsom ’06.

When Marian van Tuyl founded the Department of Dance in 1938, Mills was one of only two institutions of higher learning in the United States to provide a degree in the subject, and in 1941, it offered the nation’s first degree in mod-ern dance. The College has hosted resi-dencies by such luminaries as Merce Cunningham, who had previously stud-ied at Mills, and a summer session course

taught by Martha Graham. Strong and lasting connections across the depart-ments of dance and music were forged on the Mills campus. Composers John Cage and Lou Harrison, for example, worked as accompanists for Mills dance classes and recitals.

Mills’ continued vitality in the arts—and its ability to attract and retain tal-ented faculty and students—depends on the quality and availability of perfor-mance and exhibition spaces, studios, and classrooms. But many of the spaces that helped establish Mills’ reputation in the past century need renovation or expansion to keep up with the activity within. Mills has made it a top priority to invest in improvements to these facili-ties. The Concert Hall and west wing classrooms in the 1928 Music Building designed by Walter ratcliffe are cur-rently undergoing major renovation, to be completed in August 2008. Planning is underway for improvements to the Art Museum, designed by ratcliffe in 1925. Mills is seeking funding for all its arts facility initiatives and welcomes the support of alumnae and friends. To dis-cuss ways you can help, contact Barbara Goodson, associate director of major gifts, by phone at 510.430.2242 or by email at bgoodson@mills.edu.

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 13

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Catherine Wagner:

By Glen Helfand

Illuminating Culture

14  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

HE LIGHT BULB IS A UBIqUITOUS, everyday object. Its commonness, how-ever, obscures the fact that the light bulb is a technical innovation that has become an indispensable fixture of mod-ern life and that this mundane thing is a symbol of ideas—of the spark that ignites adventurous and innovative thinking. Light bulbs help us to see; rarely, how-ever, are they viewed as objects of artis-tic contemplation themselves.

Catherine Wagner is an artist whose interests lead her to focus on just such overlooked but necessary objects and ideas. In a recent series of elegant color photos, A Narrative History of the Light Bulb, she depicted the subject with a formal elegance from which layers of meaning emanate. “The light bulb is a metaphor for how ideas are gener-ated, but they’re also formally interest-ing objects,” the Mills professor of art explains. The series emerged from a two-year residency at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, which houses a collec-tion of some 50,000 vintage and recent bulbs—a collection Wagner explored in depth, pulling fascinating examples of the evolving form. The pictures allude to artistic lineage, shifting technology (the light bulb, as we know it, may soon be obsolete), and global warming. The series is but one example of how Wagner has expressed her continuing interest in making art that explores the founda-tions of contemporary culture.

“I’m really interested in how culture works, how it moves and is formed,” she says. “I’ve examined all these things—home, science, Disneyland—and I’m always looking at the major building blocks of how we live.”

During her formidable and constantly evolving artistic career, Wagner has pur-sued this inquiry with a keen eye and

intellectual rigor. With photographic projects including American Classroom (1988), Home and Other Stories (1993), Art & Science: Investigating Matter (1997), and Cross Sections (2001)—which are included in the collections of new york’s Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, SFMOMA, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London—she has looked deeply and artfully at infrastructures that are often taken for granted. In addition to the light bulbs, she has created elegantly composed pictures of such things as con-struction sites, museum display hard-ware, and sub-zero laboratory freezers filled with DnA samples.

These interests make her an ideal can-didate for work in collaboration with research facilities, archives, universi-ties, and institutions, and she has been awarded numerous esteemed fellow-ships, awards, grants, public commis-sions, and residencies. The scale and dimension of these endeavors continue to grow in importance, public visibility, and artistic intent.

She has three such projects currently in the proposal stage: works for a major new Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) building, a public/private hous-

ing development in Santa Monica, and a prestigious two-year artist-in-residency fellowship at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, whose new “green” building in Golden Gate Park will open in late 2008. These afford Wagner the opportunity to rigorously engage with cultural themes such as justice, the use of public space, and scientific thought while expanding her own artis-tic practice. none of the resulting art is likely to be photographic in the tradi-tional sense. Wagner’s proposals involve revealing aspects of architecture and installing outdoor magnifying lenses or configurations of security mirrors.

“It’s sculpture, but it comes from my ideas about framing sites within the social and physical contexts,” she says. research is an integral part of her meth-odology. “What I am most interested in is the element of process, which can pro-vide a platform for discovery,” she says. recently, she has been looking at LAPD photo files and sound recordings of notable “voices of justice” that have been converted with a tool called the spectro-graph into a visual graphic similar to a charted heart rate, which may become a primary feature of an exterior mural for the police department building.

“I’m really interested in how

culture works, how it moves and is formed.

I’ve examined all these things—

home, science, Disneyland—

and I’m always looking at

the major building blocks of how we live.”

GoinG PublicMills faculty and alumnae in the studio arts work in an incredible array of formats—from painting to electronic media, from sculpture and ceramics to fiber and book arts. Their work can be seen in galleries and museums all over the world. But great works are also found as centerpieces of grand public spaces, shaping the way people interact with their environment.

Besides Catherine Wagner, who is currently engaged in three public commissions, two other Mills professors of studio art have gained national attention for their public installations.

Anna Valentina Murch has created a dozen public artworks around the country. Last year she was commis-sioned by Miami-Dade Art in Public Places to create Water Scores, a series of wave ramps and benches surrounding the entry plaza of the Carnival Center for Performing Arts in Miami. And thousands of harried travelers may have experienced a moment of calm watching Skydance, her light sculpture at the Denver Airport that evokes the Colorado sky by projecting soft-colored light and swirling cloud formations onto the fabric of the ceiling.

A little closer to campus, Hung Liu recently installed a painted glass mural of red-crowned cranes in flight at the Oakland Airport. Going Away, Coming Home was inspired by a 12th-century Chinese scroll painting. “These 80 birds are blessing our journey,” Liu told the Oakland Tribune when the piece was unveiled. “It’s not a day-to-day kind of chicken,” she laughed. “It’s a heavenly bird.”

Liu’s Oakland installation and Murch’s Water Scores were selected by Americans for the Arts for inclusion in its 2007 Year in Review CD, which features 40 “innovative and exciting examples of American public art.”

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 15

Working with cutting-edge technolo-gies and nontraditional tools is noth-ing new for Wagner. In 2001, she was named one of Time magazine’s Fine Arts Innovators of the year, an honor that speaks to the expansiveness of her vision, which challenges the confines of the photographic medium. For the Cross Sections show that year at the San Jose Museum of Art, she exhibited velvety black and white images created with magnetic resonance imaging (MrI) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). She employed various digital devices to produce the images, including the daz-zling “Pomegranate Wall,” a 40- by 8-foot curved arc displaying a backlit transpar-ency of interior views of a piece of fruit.

While there’s an almost celestial qual-ity to that glowing wall, Wagner’s use of a simple object to address complex ideas goes back 20 years to her American Classroom, a series that includes a photo-graph of apples used in a sixth grade biol-ogy experiment. The photo points to experimentation as a pedagogical tool—

something Wagner knows much about, as she’s been a key figure in the Mills College Studio Art Department since 1977.

“Those pictures are documents, but they are also conceptual meditations on these sites of knowledge,” she explains. “The classroom is an arena that reminds me why I became an artist,” she contin-ues. “The conversation that takes place there is an exciting complement to my own studio practice in the way that it provides a sense of community. I like the interaction with the students and get-ting them to think of greater culture.” In symbolic terms, it’s a lot like watching those light bulbs go on.

Glen Helfand is a freelance writer, curator, and educator. His work appears regularly in Artforum and other publi-cations and exhibition catalogs. He also teaches contemporary art in Mills’ Studio Art Program and, in 2006, organized the exhibition Particulate Matter for the Mills College Art Museum.

Smart art: catherine Wagner in her San Francisco studio with her dog Bishonen; her print “right Brain, Left Brain” (2000) hangs behind her.

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roscoe Mitchell:

Exploring the Unknown

By Linda Schmidt and Barbara Goodson

Photos by Dana Davis

those willing to lend an ear will be drawn along on Mitchell’s daring acous-tic adventures.

Born in Chicago in 1940, the environ-ment of his youth was ideal for stimulat-ing a young ear. “Music was all around me when I was growing up,” Mitchell says. “I listened to the music my mother and father were listening to. My older brother, norman, played lots of differ-ent records. We went to theaters that featured not only movies but also live performances by musicians like Count Basie’s big band, Duke Ellington’s big band, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald.” He learned saxophone and clarinet as a teenager and continued his musical education after joining the army in the 1950s. While stationed in Germany, he

studied with the first clarinetist of the Heidelberg Symphony and played with other enlisted musicians, like saxophone innovator Albert Ayler, who went on to make their careers in the jazz world.

Shortly after returning to the States in 1961, Mitchell joined up with other like-minded musicians in the Chicago area to explore contemporary alternatives to conventional jazz improvisation and composition. In 1965, this group formed the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a collective whose members have been recognized among the most important jazz innova-tors of the ’60s and ’70s.

Over the years, Mitchell has appeared with AACM members in a variety of con-figurations, seeing the change in per-

16  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

A HOrn WAILS, rATTLES SHAkE, and whistles toot. Unidentified objects creak and clang and crash. you’re lis-tening to roscoe Mitchell’s “The Little Suite,” a 1966 recording that challenges the listener to re-examine concepts of sound, music, and melody.

“The Little Suite” allows a variety of nontraditional noisemakers—what have become known as “little instruments”—to interject themselves into the more familiar jazz instrumentation. The title track of the album on which it appears, Sound, forces silence to be considered as an integral presence in the composi-tion. These pieces, and the works found on nearly 90 albums released over the past 40 years, demonstrate Mitchell’s pioneering approach to jazz composition and improvisation. His 2007 release, Composition / Improvisation Nos. 1, 2, & 3, was recorded by Mitchell and 13 other musicians at a symposium for impro-vised music in Munich, curated by the Munich kulturreferat and the musicol-ogy department of Ludwig Maximillian University. It’s not easy listening, but

Take note: roscoe Mitchell’s “scored improvisations” guide and focus students learning the art of improvisation.

sonnel as an opportunity. “I’ve always thought: you do music with who’s there. And that’s not a bad thing—because it stretches the mind and helps you to think of different orchestrations and dif-ferent things that you can use,” he says.

Whether performing in a quartet, ensemble, with a partner, or on his own, Mitchell’s creative leadership is always apparent. His many honors include the International Jazz Critics Poll, Down Beat magazine’s Talent Deserving Wider recognition and record of the year (for Nonaah), and the nAACP’s Image Award. He has been recognized by the national Association of Jazz Educators and has received numerous composi-tion and performance grants from the national Endowment for the Arts, as well as the John Cage Award for Music from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

But Mitchell has perhaps made his greatest impact in the realm of impro-visation, and he is incredibly versatile: In addition to his main horns, he plays flute, piccolo, oboe, baritone and bass saxophones, piano, and numerous per-cussion instruments. This variety is essential in his approach. “It’s the study of sound in general,” he explains. “That’s why I play instruments that are high-register and low-register—it gives me a better understanding of how the whole music works. But I don’t see instruments in any particular role, especially in an improvisation. Any instrument can be the lead, and any note can be the root.”

This open-minded philosophy has now brought Mitchell to Mills College as the Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition. “We are honored to have a creative art-ist on our faculty who not only once performed with John Coltrane but also initiated revolutionary changes in improvisation, composition, and perfor-mance of his own,” says David Bernstein, head of the Music Department. “Mills has an incredible musical legacy. roscoe Mitchell’s appointment demonstrates that we continue to play a leading role at the forefront of contemporary music.”

Mitchell is equally pleased. “I was drawn to Mills because—well, just look at the faculty,” he says. “A lot of people here are improvisers, and this is one of my main interests in music.”

He is adamant, however, that good improvisation requires a great deal of study and practice. “I’m a firm believer that to be a good improviser, you need to study composition,” he says. The inter-action between the two is essential, and each technique strengthens the other. “For instance, I may play something as an improvisation and, later on, decide to write that down as a completely notated composition.”

Similarly, Mitchell says, written mate-rials can serve as a reference for expan-sion and improvisation—a sort of map for the journey—a method that will benefit the students he works with over the three years of his appointment at Mills. “A lot of beginning improvisa-tion students make the same mistakes. I’ve tried to devise different methods of scored improvisation that address some of these problems, allowing the inexperi-enced improviser to function within the

40 Years of the center for contemPorarY musicThe Center for Contemporary Music (CCM), housed in Mills’ Music Department, is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. CCM’s roots lie in the San Francisco Tape Music Center, founded in 1961. The Tape Music Center moved to the Mills campus in 1966–67 under the directorship of Pauline Oliveros, who has since returned to the College to serve variously as visiting professor and composer-in-residence.

From its inception, CCM has been at the forefront of experimental practice, presenting groundbreaking works by such internationally renowned composers as Oliveros, Morton Subotnick, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others. Robert Ashley, director of CCM from 1969 through 1981, created a new genre of opera that included video, electronic music, and improvisation. Co-director David Behrman, along with Ashley and others, helped change the aesthetic of electronic music from playing back music recorded on tape to live performance.

Today, CCM is directed by Maggi Payne, a composer, interdisciplinary artist, and recording engineer, and Chris Brown, an instrument builder, pianist, and composer. John Bischoff, pioneer of live computer music, serves as studio director. Works by all three were performed at October 2007 concerts at Mills and at Los Angeles’ REDCAT Theater that celebrated CCM’s role in shaping electronic music over the past 40 years.

David Bernstein, head of the Music Department, has written The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, due from University of California Press in July 2008.

improvisation for a longer period of time and to develop skills of concentration,” he says. “But it’s a constant study, for me too.”

yet the deliberate act of composing a piece can be as filled with discovery and surprise as a free improvisation session, Mitchell explains. “One of the things I’ve learned from improvisation is that every day and every minute is different, so if you block that off then you’re not open to what’s happening with that instant. So a lot of times I won’t even know what I want to write. Sometimes it will be in my head, and I’ll sit down and write it out, and eventually it will start to reveal itself.”

“you never know what you’re going to hear out there,” he continues. “The thing I find most exciting is to explore and study music. Music is kind of like a mystery, and that’s what excites me about it.”

“One of the things

I’ve learned from improvisation

is that every day and

every minute is different.”

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 17

S O yOU’D LIkE TO BECOME A world-famous choreographer? First, make sure you start dance lessons at an early age so you are well prepared to audition for dance school. Do your very best in school so you can get into the right com-pany as a member of the corps. Dance your heart out for several years, learning all you can from the choreographers you work with. Then, perhaps, when you’ve started creating your own works, you will break into the big time. That’s how to do it… unless you’re Molissa Fenley ’75, now a renowned choreographer and part-time associate professor of dance at Mills College.

Thirty-two years ago, fresh out of Mills College with a bachelor’s degree in dance, Fenley exploded all conventions by bursting onto the new york dance scene with none of the standard credits to her name. “I literally got on a bus the afternoon of graduation and moved to new york,” says Fenley. “I had the con-fidence from having gone to Mills that it was possible.” In 1977, she formed her company, Molissa Fenley and Dancers.

Since then, Fenley has created more than 60 works and performed both solo and ensemble pieces in major dance fes-tivals around the world. She has accepted commissions from Deutsche Oper Ballet of Berlin, Australian Dance Theater, the Ohio Ballet, the Pacific northwest Ballet, and famed dancer Peter Boal. She has also created dances on commission from her alma mater: In 1998, she choreo-graphed La Muse Ménagère, with music by Darius Milhaud, and this spring she choreographed Castor and Pollux, with music by Harry Partch. She has received funding from numerous sources includ-ing the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Greenwich Collection Ltd., and the national Endowment for the Arts. She has received two new york Dance and Performance Awards (“Bessies”) in

Molissa Fenley:

Wild discipline

By Barbara Goodson

choreography, for the ensemble piece Cenotaph in 1985 and for the 1988 solo work State of Darkness.

Born in Las Vegas, nevada, and raised for a few years in upstate new york, Fenley spent most of her childhood in nigeria, as her father was working for the newly created United States Agency for International Development. For her junior and senior years in high school, she attended boarding school in Spain before coming to Mills College. “I was petrified of coming to the United States,” she says, so the atmosphere of a small women’s college that offered a major in dance—and the proximity of her sister in Santa Cruz—made Mills a welcoming choice.

Fenley’s upbringing served, in a way, as a substitute teacher for what has become her distinctive style of dance. Freed from the constraints of childhood training in ballet and with her early exposure to flamenco and African dance, she draws easily from the vocabulary of movement present in a variety of dance traditions, using dancers’ bodies to define angles and explore space. She cites Asian sculp-ture, Cycladic art, Egyptian hieroglyph-ics, and yoruban dance as influences on her vision. “Fenley’s style recalls dances of Hawaii, India, or Thailand in which each hand, foot, and finger movement has specific meaning. The precision and artistry can captivate you whether you know the fine points or not,” critic

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extensively to scores by John Cage and Lou Harrison, and performed to music by Laurie Anderson, Anthony Davis, Pauline Oliveros, and Talking Heads—partnerships that often germinated in the creative network at Mills College.

Perhaps it was, in part, this drive to stay in touch with new ideas that led Fenley back to Mills College as a teacher in 1999. Her continued friendship with faculty at Mills and the opportunity to work with students also aided her deci-sion to return to Oakland, where she is usually in residence each spring semes-ter. “It’s interesting to be in a repartee with someone who’s just starting out,” she says. “It’s good to be in conversation about how to make dance, why to make dance, what dance means in a culture that is constantly shifting.”

Fenley will be spending spring 2008

in residence in Italy as a winner of a 2007–08 American Academy of rome Prize. The prize has no category for dance, so Fenley applied in design, using the 13th-century Cosmati mosaics as a jumping-off point. These mosaics are designed using equilateral triangles and nested structures; Fenley’s application outlined her desire to devise a dance exploring different aspects of movement in the same way the mosaics bring out different aspects of geometry.

While in rome, Fenley will draw on the resources of the region and the skills of fellow awardees in a wide range of dis-ciplines. The prospect of being a part of this vibrant intellectual community is tantalizing, she says. “I’ve not worked with an architect before, I haven’t sat down to dinner with an archaeologist. I just find that a fascinating thing.”

Paula Court

On December 11–16, 2007, the Joyce Theater in New York will present a week-long 30th-anniversary celebra-tion of Molissa Fenley and Dancers. Fenley and her company will perform the New York premiere of Dreaming Awake with music by Philip Glass and the world premiere of Calculus and Politics, a dance for three women, three men, six stuffed swans, and a skipping rope, set to music by Harry Partch.

mills honors molissa fenleY

December 12, 7:30 pm Joyce theater, new York city

In conjunction with the Joyce Theater festivities, Mills College alumnae and friends are invited to attend a dance performance and recep-tion in New York City in honor of Molissa Fenley. For more informa-tion, contact Barbara Goodson at 510.430.2242 or bgoodson@mills.edu.

celebratinG 30 Years of Dance

Sharon McDaniel wrote in the Palm Beach Post in January 2001.

The precision of Fenley’s work is often termed “cerebral” or “intellectual,” but she also displays an unrelenting physicality. She trains both at the gym and the dance studio, merging cardio- vascular endurance with the strength and flexibility demanded of dancing her choreography. Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times termed Fenley “a spare, astringent sprite” and San Francisco Examiner reviewer Allan Ulrich said, “She uses every muscle in her grueling, elegant choreography.… yet the body remains so beautifully balanced through its central axis that the risk- taking nature of the choreography is off-set by a certain poise, even serenity.”

risk is also present in Fenley’s adven-turous collaborations. Her performances may take place with musicians on stage, or in silence. She might incorporate unusual components such as text by Eric Bogosian, video by keith Haring, sculpture by kiki Smith, or costumes by Merrill Wagner that tether danc-ers to the wall. She has developed close creative ties with composers Philip Glass and Somei Satoh, choreographed

“It’s good to be in conversation about how to make dance, why to make dance,

what dance means in a culture that is constantly shifting.”

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Jessica Hough, the new director of the Mills College Art Museum, is known for her

outstanding interpretive vision in creating exhibitions of contemporary American and

international art. She brings particular expertise in working with emerging and mid-

career artists to develop innovative projects and successful exhibitions of their work.

“Ms. Hough is an excellent addition to the Mills community. She likes to show work

that is challenging, that questions the meaning and purpose of art, and that pushes edgy

ideas,” says Mary-Ann Milford, provost and dean of the faculty (and formerly dean of fine

arts). “She is also aware that balance is needed in a museum setting and enjoys doing

shows that are approachable to students, children, and the wider community.”

Hough received her undergraduate degree in art history from Occidental College

in Los Angeles and her master’s in curatorial studies from Bard College in new york’s

Hudson Valley. For nine and a half years, she was a staff member at the Aldrich

Contemporary Art Museum in ridgefield, Connecticut, starting as an intern and work-

ing her way up to the position of curatorial director. During that time, she was part of

the team responsible for rebuilding the Aldrich Museum—experience that will serve

her well as she plays a leading role in planning for the future of the Mills College Art

Museum. We interviewed Hough at the start of the fall semester.

By Barbara Goodson

What led you to a career in art?I have had a pretty straight trajectory, unlike most people. I grew up going to museums in Philadelphia. I had two full years of art history in high school; a wonderful teacher took us on field trips to new york—to galleries and to the Museum of Modern Art—so I had this amazing, rich art experience as a kid. In college, despite my mother’s begging me to do something practical, I ended up majoring in art history.

How did that evolve into curating?I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Manuel Ocampo, an artist who was liv-ing in Los Angeles at the time. I got to spend time with him in his stu-dio, at his home, and at the gallery where his work was shown. It was a great expe-rience. After graduating I curated exhi-bitions at Occidental; my first show was reviewed in Art Week, which was very exciting and very encouraging.

Then I applied and was admitted to the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. This was a new idea: a two-year degree to train people who wanted to become contemporary curators.

What drew you to Mills College?

Mills offers a wonderful opportunity to direct a museum that’s heading in a really interesting direction and to build on a great foundation. And I loved the idea of being part of a small liberal arts college community. This year, I’m enjoying life on campus, in Faculty Village, with my hus-band and four-year-old daughter.

How does the museum enrich arts education at Mills?

The museum plays a very important role for MFA students and for undergraduate art majors and art history majors. It’s cru-cial to students who are studying studio art or art history to understand the way art institutions work. I’ll be teaching the museum studies course and hopefully acting as a mentor—providing guidance and making con-nections for students.

But I also believe the museum experi-ence is part of education across the board. Understanding the visual art world is part of being a rigorous thinker and exercising your imagination. By visit-ing exhibitions, students learn visual lit-eracy. So the museum is important for every student on campus.

20  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

a new era for the mills colleGe

Art MuseuM

What’s the most distinctive aspect of our program?

There aren’t too many colleges of this size that actually have a bona fide museum with a collection on campus. Students have an incredible opportunity to have a hands-on experience at the museum, such as talking to the director or with artists or being able to handle an object in our collection. I think when students leave here, they’ll find that’s hard to replicate.

How does Mills’ commitment to women’s education influence your activities at the museum?

I’ve decided to focus primarily on show-ing female artists over the next year. Most major museums show more art-work by men than by women, so I feel there are many reasons to focus on women—not just for Mills, but for the community as a whole.

But there are broader questions that I’m thinking about, too. How does the fact that Mills is dedicated to educating women impact what we collect? Are there other ways that we can serve students and serve female artists? These are really important questions for me to address.

the first show curated by Jessica hough at the Mills college Art Museum,

Don’t Let the Boys Win, closing December 9, features three internationally recognized

women artists. Lara Schnitger created Private Dancer (right) for this exhibition of work with a playful and empowered female perspective.

the museum’s spring semester show, We Interrupt Your Program, will include video

and new media works by 14 women. For more information, see page 6 or go to

www.mills.edu/campus_life/art_museum.

What do you like most about directing an art museum?

I love the issues that come with running an institution. I like thinking about mar-keting and attendance and traffic flow and issues around wall text and whether or not to do a brochure or a catalog and putting together combinations of exhi-bitions.

What are your short- and long-term goals for the museum?

First, raising attendance and raising the public profile of the museum. Another goal is to steer the museum toward a potential renovation and expansion. This includes considering the future of the museum programmatically and how that affects what kind of physical facility we should have. There’s already a lot of momentum and enthusiasm about that.

What can the Mills College Art Museum bring to the Bay Area art mix?

The Bay Area is a very exciting place right now for visual arts—and espe-cially contemporary art—with important institutions that operate in the broader international art community, such as the Berkeley Art Museum, the Wattis Institute, SFMOMA, and yerba Buena Center for the Arts. I’m beginning to see how Mills can contribute something unique to the Bay Area, and how it has an opportunity to play an even larger role in the national and international art scene. Because of the museum’s situa-tion in a liberal arts college—and a wom-en’s college in particular—it’s differently positioned than those other institutions. And so that context should inform what it does and how it moves ahead.

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 21

a new era for the mills colleGe

Bru

ce C

ook

22  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

A BOLD STATEMEnT near Denise McCluggage’s senior photo in the 1947 yearbook proclaims, “We predict Denny to be the first woman President, Olympic ski champion, or the mother of ten children.” Denny has not disappointed. A racecar driver, sports reporter, and columnist for AutoWeek magazine, in 2001 she also became the first journalist (and only the second woman) inductee into the Automotive Hall of Fame. Her remarkable life and accomplishments have set an extraordinary example of a woman who knows no roadblocks.

One of three girls, McCluggage grew up in Topeka, kansas, with a lawyer father who encouraged his daughters in all their endeavors. “I was lucky. Dad’s attitude was that we could do anything,” she says. “I got my driver’s license at 13.”

Just three years later, McCluggage came to Mills. An avid skier, she founded the College ski club. “It was during the war, so we didn’t get to travel much, and ski trips were few and far between,” she recalls. Some of McCluggage’s other extracurric-ular activities raised a few eyebrows among the school’s admin-istrators: “We used to play football on Toyon Meadow—that

in the

FASTLIFE

LANE

was frowned upon—and I was called to task for organizing and advertising a jazz concert.” The concert included Dave Brubeck, then a graduate student at Mills.

McCluggage participated in academic life with equal relish. Mills didn’t offer a degree in journalism, the career she had already chosen for herself, so she forged her own way, under-taking a combined major of philosophy, economics, and politics. This broad education proved to be an advantage in her journal-ism career: “The main thing you need in life is curiosity,” she says, “and Mills fed curiosity.”

After graduating, McCluggage became one of the few women on the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle, pestering the editors until they finally hired her. “The editor in chief at the time said there should only be one woman reporter,” she recalls. “They already had one, so they hid me.” She worked as an associate editor of the Sunday magazine, covering music, books, and the arts, and she initiated a jazz column written by ralph Gleason, which became widely syndicated.

McCluggage didn’t know it at the time, but her life was about

Pho

to c

ourt

esy

Tom

Bur

nsid

e

By Moya Stone, MFA ’03

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 23

to take a radical detour. At a local imported car dealership, she found something she just had to have: an MG-TC, the two-door British roadster that turned post-war America on to sports cars.

One sports car led to the next and it wasn’t long before McCluggage was racing. “I liked driving fast, and I had a knack for driving on dirt tracks,” she says. “racing was simply a nor-mal thing to do if you liked to control powerful forces at speed, whether on skis, in a sailboat, or in a car. It felt good.” So good, in fact, that McCluggage went on to race in many of the great auto races and rallies of her day, such as Sebring, the nurburgring, and Monte Carlo.

The world of racing was no more welcoming to women than journalism had been, but McCluggage’s outgoing personality and varied interests led to friendships with great characters, from fellow racers like Stirling Moss, Phil Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Carroll Shelby to an array of A-list celebrities such as Miles Davis and Steve Mcqueen.

In the early 1950s, she moved to new york and married actor Michael Conrad. But the expectations surrounding the tradi-tional wifely role were an uncomfortable fit. She recounts one incident when Conrad—at 6’5” and with a booming, thunderous voice—forbade her from fixing their broken-down car, despite her ability, and insisted on calling in the local (male) mechanic. “I had hoped his obsession with what was properly masculine and what was properly feminine would be tempered with time,” she wrote of her husband in her book, By Brooks Too Broad for Leaping (Fulcorte Press, 1994). “At first I enjoyed the challenge of playing chameleon and turning myself into whatever color necessary, but soon my energies were depleted beyond rejuve-nation. And so it ended.” They divorced after 11 months.

Her journalism career continued with the New York Herald Tribune, where she was assigned women’s features. But after sub-mitting an article about skiing, she was invited to move to the sports section—an unimaginable challenge to the status quo.

“To them I was a woman, not a reporter,” says McCluggage. She was often kept out of the press box at sporting events

but wouldn’t allow social norms to sidetrack her—she simply invented another route. McCluggage found her stories by roam-ing among sports attendees, listening in on conversations, and catching the athletes in hotel lobbies for interviews. She believes these unconventional methods were actually a bonus, allowing her to gather more interesting material.

Meanwhile, in 1956, the incoming sports editor at the Tribune pledged to remove McCluggage from the sports section and return her to the women’s page.

“I don’t go backwards,” McCluggage told him. She quit the paper and took over the racing publication Competition Press, for which she had already been moonlighting as a writer. She ran Competition Press for a year before selling it (many sales later it became AutoWeek).

McCluggage has a unique vantage point to evaluate the chal-lenges women face as they make their way in the world and to recognize the tools that ensure women’s success. She strongly believes in the value of all-women’s education at Mills. “Men dominate the external environment, and women need to have the world to themselves for a while.”

now 80 years old and one of Mills’ Golden Girls, McCluggage is still on the move writing for AutoWeek and her local paper as well as attending new car introductions and other automo-tive events. She hasn’t raced since the end of the 1960s, but her collection of trophies still resides in the kitchen of her Santa Fe, new Mexico, home. “I hope people will think I got them for cooking,” she says, “and will be more receptive to what I feed them.”

Moya Stone, MFA ’03, is a freelance writer who has worked for the Contra Costa Times, Orinda news, Daily Candy, and Glamour magazine.

Ready, set, go! Denise Mccluggage after the first heat of the 1956 “Ladies race” in nassau, the Bahamas (left). Mccluggage today (top right) and with her signature polka-dot helmet (above).

Defending violetJennifer Louise Jefferson ’82 five star Publishing, 2006 www.gale.com/fivestar

Defending Violet is packaged as a crime thriller—its plot revolves around a murder and the main character’s unhealthy obses-sion with developing a defense for the impending trial—but look deeper and you’ll find a tenderly written tragedy set around the details of a murder mystery.

This case just “tumbled… into my life,” says Ginger rae reddy, the gritty, slightly disillusioned, and certainly cynical narrator who sets the stage in the first line of the novel. On the last day of winter, as Ginger rae worries over her income, she answers the call that would take her “for a ride to places [she] did not want to go.” Violet rosado was calling from jail. Ginger rae had already won a restraining order against Violet’s ex-boyfriend and father of her child. now Violet had been arrested for abus-ing her 10-month-old infant, who lay in a coma. “I only take very minor criminal cases… the occasional misdemeanor… nothing that will deal the client more than 364 days in the county jail,” reflects Ginger rae. “Baby in the hospital didn’t sound minor.”

But Ginger rae, a recovering alcoholic, hardly has the will to fight the storms coming her way, storms that could cause trouble to her health and to her relationships with those she loves. She takes Violet’s case and tragedy unfolds as the mystery unveils and justice ensues.

In sharp descriptions of a gritty town trying to survive both post-industrial and post-gentrification depression, of Ginger rae’s modest office and home and the people who occupy them, of all Ginger rae observes, the reader will find more than super-ficial attempts at increasing the page count. The author’s fine descriptions of this world and the people in it expose not only what Ginger rae sees and what she likes, but also reveal her own inner workings.

This is not purely genre fiction, though it adheres to the themes well enough to satisfy most crime novel junkies.

Jefferson’s observations are poetic and insightful, giving enough weight to her story to carry the suspense and details of the criminal case as well as the humanity of her characters and the world through which they fight—win or lose—to make their way.

—Cleavon Smith, MFA ’02

Bookshelf

24  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

the Ultimate Golf JournalLisa Bach ’90 chronicle books, 2007 www.chroniclebooks.com

Lisa Bach hits the sweet spot with The Ultimate Golf Journal. A golfer since age nine, Bach says that “most golfers play more than they practice, but all

golf professionals are clear about the fact that it’s essential to practice more than you play.” While the book includes plenty of room for playing, there is a strong focus on improving one’s game through practice, with useful tools to achieve that end. Designed as a kind of golf training log meets golf instruction book, Bach’s book will be accessible and interesting to players of all levels. The book includes logs for practice, games, lessons, and even expenses, as well as a place to attach score cards.

The Ultimate Golf Journal also provides plenty of helpful back-ground and information: there is a section on golf etiquette, an extensive glossary of terms, a brief history of the game, tips for effective driving and putting routines, descriptions of 15 dif-ferent golf games, and instructions on how to determine your handicap. While the book is immensely practical, it also includes fun features like a place to keep track of favorite “19th holes,” the term given to the bar at a golf course or country club.

Whether Bach’s readers are aces, duffers, sandbaggers, scratches, or hacks, The Ultimate Golf Journal is an excellent tool to help improve their game. Bach says she’s spent almost 30 years trying to hit a hole-in-one; perhaps, with this book, she has finally achieved that goal.

—Laura Joyce Davis, MFA ’06

the Secret Language of Sleep: A couple’s Guide to the thirty-nine PositionsEvany Thomas ’92 and Amelia Bauermcsweeney’s irregulars, 2006store.mcsweeneys.net

Evany Thomas and Amelia Bauer’s The Secret Language of Sleep is an extended play on both couple self-help books and the myriad sexual position reference books that have become multi-million dollar niches for mass-market publishers.

The text categorizes couples into four types of sleepers: Sun, Wind, Sea, and Wood. These new-agey names frame intro-ductions to each section that explain the similarities shared by members of each group: “The focus of any Wind pose is the way the couple’s elements dovetail together.” Thomas doesn’t miss a beat in her use of the scientifically definitive tone used in serious research, and she also shows a keen ability to veer into the truly humorous, often within the same sentence: “The one unifying aspect of all Sun pose couples is that they always sleep facing the same side of the bed, their bodies aligned front to back, lined up like Girl Scouts eagerly waiting for a chance to donate blood or apply a cold compress to a burn victim.” She has mastered the psych-pop speak of best-selling self-help books: “But as Fireman’s Carry couples know, it can also take courage to agree to a third date after a lifetime running from commit-ment, or (in the case of Bird in Handers) to try again after long, loving relationships go sour.”

Each of the 39 positions is accompanied by a full-page Amelia Bauer illustration, which provides much more than the graphics required for a tongue-in-cheek parody of sexual position books. Bauer’s line drawings manage to portray the security and hap-piness of the couples practicing these sleeping positions. An added, and obviously intentional, element of the illustrations is Bauer’s unwillingness to define coupledom solely in terms of heterosexuality. Gay and lesbian couples are represented in the same way as the other illustrations, making a visual argument that they are no different than other couples. It’s subtle but very powerful.

Like other books in the McSweeney’s catalogue, The Secret Language of Sleep is well-crafted textually, physically, and aes-thetically; this is a beautiful, hard-bound book object. If you can’t wait to find out more, Evany Thomas has a website where you can discover your own sleeping position: www.evany.com/sleeptest.

—David Harrison Horton, MFA ’01

reflecting the wide-ranging interests and expertise of Mills alumnae and faculty, the following books and DVDs have come to the attention of the Quarterly ’s editors in recent months. Although constraints of time and space do not allow full reviews of these offerings in this issue, we are pleased to share news of their publica-tion with the Mills community.

ethics of emerging technologies: scientific facts and moral challengesThomas F. Budinger and Miriam D. Budinger ’59 Wiley, 2006

motivating moves for People with Parkinson’s: Janet hamburg’s seated exercise Program (DVD)Janet Hamburg, MFA ’76 Parkinson’s Foundation, 2004

together again: a creative Guide to successful multigenerational livingSharon Graham Niederhaus ’63 and John L. GrahamM. Evans & Co., 2007

touring the sierra nevada Cheryl Angelina Koehler, MFA ’86University of nevada Press, 2007

rituals of memory in contemporary arab women’s writingBrinda Mehta, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Mills College Syracuse University Press, 2007

eleanorCarole Silva ’54Vantage Press, 2007

the transformationJuliana Spahr, Associate Professor of English, Mills CollegeAtelos, 2007

homelands: women’s Journeys across race, Place, and time Patricia Justine Tumang, MFA ’06, and Jenesha de Rivera, MFA ’07 (eds.) Seal Press, 2006

world Voyagers Amy P. Wood ’90, Philip J. Shelton, and Stewart P. WoodBook Orchard Press, 2007

Further reading

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 25

Dear Alumna traveler,the aamc travel committee offers an enticing list of excursions to various corners of the world, presenting an interesting spectrum of destinations and experiences with an emphasis on culture, art, and history.

there are many advantages to group travel: You gain access to special events and visits not available to individual travelers, avoid standing in line to enter exhibitions and galleries, and enjoy great savings. and the camaraderie of traveling with a group of alumnae and friends makes the experience even more rewarding.

it is with great pleasure that we present such a varied agenda of trips with value and substance. Don’t wait too long to register—plan your 2008 travel now!

for reservations or more information, please contact the alumnae association of mills college: tel: 510.430.2110 fax: 510.430.1401 email: aamc@mills.edu

alumnae travel

34  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

colonial mexico January 26–february 2, 2008

Spend seven nights at the beautiful Hosteria Las Quintas Resort in centrally located Cuernavaca, with its lovely gar-dens and pleasant weather. Visit archaeo-logical sites, private art collections, and the famous Anthropological Museum in Mexico City. All meals and excursions are included. 9 days, $1,895 plus air

tahiti and french Polynesia february 3–11, 2008

Enjoy the incomparable beauty of these magical islands, with their astounding wildlife, relaxing beaches, and a history, culture, and mythology that has been represented in literature and musicals. All meals on the seven-night cruise aboard the Star Flyer Clipper. 9 days, $2,695 plus air

a los angeles weekend february 16–18, 2008

Immerse yourself in culture! Visit the Walt Disney Music Center with optional concert, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels (the larg-est cathedral in the U.S.), a reception with a local alumna artist, the newly opened Getty Villa, and much more. 3 days, approx. $750

costa rica march 6–13, 2008

Explore all that Costa Rica has to offer: a jungle canopy tour, whitewater raft-ing, and the LaSelva Biological Station, which does rainforest research. Venture to Arenal Volcano, one of the world’s most active, and, finally, spend a few days relaxing at the Playa Tambot. Visit www.globaladrenaline.com/mills/email/2007/June. 8 days, $2,325 plus air

tulip time in holland april 19–27, 2008

This is the ideal time to enjoy the abun-dant flowers of the area and to learn about the complex engineering feat that has protected Holland from devasta-tion by the sea. All meals and excur-sions while aboard the beautiful Avalon river boat. 9 days, $1,994 plus air

china: traditional and modern art and architecture may 12–25, 2008

Join Wah Cheng, Mills associate profes-sor of history, who will lend insight into the people’s voice in modern China. Beginning in Beijing, visit the new build-ings for the 2008 Olympics as well as traditional historic monuments. Travel on to Longsheng, famous for its rice terraces on hills cultivated since the 13th-century Yuan dynasty. End your travel in exotic and modern Shanghai. 14 days, $4,990 plus air

Dublin in an irish castle June 16–23, 2008

Live in a castle while exploring the history and culture of the capital area of Ireland, then see the beauty of the Irish countryside on a train journey to Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland. Great changes are occurring as Ireland adopts a prosperous, high-tech economy. All meals and excur-sions included. 9 days, $2,005 plus air

st. Petersburg and moscow on russian waterways July 30–august 10, 2008

Cruise the Volga, Neva, and Svir riv-ers aboard the MS Repin, your “floating hotel” from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Explore medieval villages and charm-ing country homes of national heroes. You will have a priority visit to the State Hermitage Museum, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Petrodvorets Palace, and St. Isaac’s Cathedral. In Moscow, you will visit the Kremlin, the Armory Museum, Red Square, and St. Basil’s Cathedral. 13 days, $2,495 plus air

Georgia (on the black sea) september 30–october 13, 2008

This ancient region is bursting with stone churches and fortresses, cave monasteries dug out of the living rock by devout monks, some of the most savory dishes in the world, and fabulous local wineries. There will be great interaction with local people as we visit the studios of artists and craftsmen and prepare a meal in a Georgian home. Edna Mitchell, Mills professor emerita of educa-tion, will be study leader. 14 days, $4,795

September 21–23, 2008

Join us for a delightful 3-day post-

reunion tour of the wine country, with

food, tastings, camaraderie, and fun!

Contact the Alumnae Association of

Mills College for more information.

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 35

Alumnae Dorothy Thomas Davie ’29, cousin of Marion Dirr Cooper ’33 / May 3, 2007

Kathleen Mullins ’35, sister of Georgina Mullins Allen ’37 (deceased) / May 24, 2007

Eleanor “Elly” McDonald Meyer ’36, mother of Nancy Meyer Neal ’70 / June 7, 2007

Elizabeth “Zib” Myers Parish ’36 / September 1, 2007

Kyoko Hoshiga Mukai ’37, MS ’39, mother of Margret Mukai ’75 / May 18, 2007She was interned in Topaz, Utah, during World War II and later earned a degree in library science from Rutgers University. She served as reference librarian in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.

Elizabeth “Betty” Buxton Smith Stevenson ’38 / September 7, 2007 She was Queen of Osiris at the Memphis Cotton Carnival in 1936 and the Southern Women’s Tennis champion in 1937. She traveled extensively and was known as an excep-tional amateur photographer.

Elinore Jean Faw Boulger ’39 / May 9, 2007

Nancy Newbury Hincks ’42, sister-in-law of Margaret Hincks Dyer ’43, aunt of Susanne Dyer ’73 / April 22, 2007

Sally Cheek Mee ’42 / May 7, 2007

Ruth “Redi” Reddick Teague ’43, mother of Suzanne Teague Pidduck ’68 / June 22, 2007

Barbara Brady Douglas ’48, sister of Mary “Pat” Brady Evans ’47, aunt of Barbara Evans Johnson ’77 / May 30, 2007Among her many efforts on behalf of the Vashon Island community in Washington state, she was a founder of Allied Arts, helped establish the Island Health Center, worked with the PTA and other school commit-tees, and was active in local political groups, including the League of Women Voters.

Virginia Frick O’Brien ’49 / December 5, 2006She worked as a teacher and draftsman and was an accom-plished vocalist.

Elizabeth Stalder Bippart ’50 / February 5, 2007

Anna Belle McVicar Giomi, GR ’50, cousin of Marybel Batjer ’77 / May 7, 2007She worked as a teacher and was a talented painter of Nevada landscapes. She toured the country speaking for Aglow, a transdenominational organiza-tion of Christian women.

Betty Nomura ’55 / April 14, 2007She enjoyed her vocation as a kindergarten teacher’s aide and pursued many domestic hobbies.

Ellsworth Milburn, MA ’68 / May 3, 2007A devoted teacher and noted composer, he was a founding faculty member of Rice Univer-sity’s Shepherd School of Music.

Margaret “Peggy” Holt Wurlitzer ’44 / September 9, 2007

Caroline Bacher Hakim ’46 / May 31, 2007She spearheaded children’s music education programs and wrote children’s study books on the history of opera, composers, and musical history. Earlier in life, she had been a food consultant and publicist, writing cookbooks and supervising food photography.

Virginia Butterworth Buffum ’47 / August 18, 2006

June Brent Maddock ’47 / January 10, 2007

Trista Kline Conger ’48, mother-in-law of Harriet Milnes ’78 / September 6, 2007 She served Mills College as a Trustee from 1977–1985 and, late in life, had become a successful playwright; her work The Stones Cry Out was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and a semi-finalist for the Geraldine R. Dodge New American Play Award. As a young woman, she had been an actress, appearing in The Tempest on Broadway for two weeks; in her college years she was active in national student activities and spent a summer with Eleanor Roosevelt at Campobello. She was a member of several playwrights’ groups and an associate at the Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute.

Spouses/FamilyOrrin K. Airola, husband of Helen Drake Airola ’41, father of Kay-Daphne Airola ’74 / May 19, 2007

George Clifford, husband of Marilyn “Macduff” McClure Clifford ’48 / March 6, 2007

Morris Reed Grady, husband of Mary Phyllis Parker Grady ’46 / July 8, 2007

Lois B. Henley, mother of Cathy Henley-Erickson ’62 / October 23, 2006

Charles Lane, father of Alice Lane Deane ’61, brother-in-law of Gertrude Guggenheim Levison ’24 (deceased) / July 9, 2007

Philip Spielman, husband of Sheila Weibert Ballantyne ’58 (deceased) / April 24, 2007

Albert Walkoe, husband of Shirley Peavey Walkoe ’48 / April 5, 2007

In Memoriam

36  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

The Mills community mourns the tragic loss of Boitumelo Arabella McCallum, a Mills undergraduate who was found dead at her mother’s new york City apartment on August 5, 2007. Affectionately known as “Tumi” by friends and family, McCallum had completed her sophomore year and was living in new york for the summer. Her former boyfriend was arrested after confes-ing to the killing.

Born to a mixed-race family in South Africa, McCallum was a passionate advocate for social justice. Professor of Ethnic Studies Julia Sudbury said, “Tumi’s early experiences as a young girl growing up in South Africa during apartheid greatly shaped her life and her commitment to racial justice.”

At Mills, McCallum chose to major in political, legal, and eco-nomic analysis and enrolled in ethnic studies courses. While taking a class with Sudbury, McCallum began volunteering with Justice now, an Oakland-based activist organization dedicated to ending violence against women and stopping their imprison-ment. McCallum advocated for women in prison to ensure they received essential services such as medical care.

McCallum had moved with her family from South Africa—where her mother, Teboho Moja, was a prominent anti-apartheid activist—to new york in 1999. Moja, a professor of education at new york University, has served on international boards, such as UnESCO’s Institute for International Educational Planning, and on South Africa’s national Commission on Higher Education. McCallum’s father, robert McCallum, is an adjunct professor of art education at nyU. Tumi McCallum is survived by her parents and two brothers.

Boitumelo Arabella Mccallum ’09, 1987-2007

Mills remembers tumito honor tumi mccallum’s life, mills college held a candlelight procession through campus on august 16 as well as a remembrance ceremony on september 4 that brought together mccallum’s family, professors, and friends from mills and new York city.

mills has also established the boitumelo “tumi” mccallum memorial scholarship fund, which will provide a scholar-ship in fall 2008 to an undergraduate majoring in ethnic studies or in political, legal, and economic analysis.

to make a contribution to the scholarship:

• call the mills college annual fund at 510.430.2366.

• contribute online at www.mills.edu/giving; be sure to designate your gift to “mills college annual fund: student scholarships” and note that your gift is in memory of tumi mccallum.

• send a check payable to mills college, with a note that your gift is in memory of tumi mccallum, to: office of institutional advancement, mills college, 5000 macarthur blvd., oakland, ca 94613.

on behalf of her family, mills college thanks donors for supporting students who will continue tumi mccallum’s legacy of activism.

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 37

Elizabeth Murray was born in Chicago to a family of very modest means. Although her parents provided moral support, Murray found little encouragement for a woman of her economic standing to pursue her dream of becoming an artist. However, her talent was recognized early by a teacher who suggested Murray attend art school and who helped provide the means for her to do so. This path took her to the Art Institute of Chicago and later to Mills College.

Murray’s work, full of vivid colors, often appeared on shaped and constructed canvases, moving the art of painting into a three-dimensional realm. These pieces are filled with exuber-ance, but the underlying tensions also reveal her frustration with the world. robert Storr, dean of the yale School of Art who curated Murray’s 2005–06 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in new york, says Murray’s work masked her anger. “There’s a great deal of pain and a great deal of tragedy and a great deal of anger in her work,” he says. “So she expresses that anger and that pain in forms that seem kind of comfortable. When you get close to them, you realize that they can bite.”

Murray helped re-invigorate the art of painting in the 1970s, a time when sculpture had become the dominant medium. She also inspired a new generation of women artists. kathy Halbreich, director of the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, says that Murray changed her life. “She gave a lot of women a sense of possibility.” In 1999, Murray was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.

Murray died August 12, 2007, of complications from lung cancer at her home in upstate new york.

Portrait of Elizabeth Murray, June 1999. Photo by Ellen Page Wilson / Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York (top).

Morning is Breaking, 2006. Oil on canvas on wood. 9 feet, 2-1/2 inches by 10 feet, 1 inch by 2-1/2 inches. © Elizabeth Murray, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York. Photo by Ellen Labenski / Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York (right).

“She gave a lot of women a sense of possibility.”—kathy Halbreich, director of the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis

elizabeth Murray, MFA ’64, 1940-2007

Born in Montana and raised in the East Bay, Mary Walker Mag devoted much of her life to women’s education and women’s issues around the globe. After completing undergraduate and graduate degrees in education at Mills College, Mary Walker worked at The Bishop’s School for Girls in La Jolla, then returned to Mills to serve as registrar and director of personnel.

In the years following World War II, she worked with the Asia Foundation to establish educational and cultural activities along democratic lines and to increase women’s empowerment in the Asia-Pacific region. She opened the foundation’s Tokyo office in 1952, learning Japanese and teaching democratic principles to women’s organizations. She subsequently worked in korea and Pakistan before moving to Afghanistan to start a health and physical education program for girls and their teachers.

In 1960, she married Eddie Mag and moved to rome, Italy, where she became president of the Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas (FAWCO), an organization promoting education, health, and human rights, particularly the rights of women and children. Six years later, Mary Mag established the FAWCO Foundation in order to collect and distribute funds in support of FAWCO’s charitable and educational projects.

Mag returned to the San Francisco Bay Area after her hus-band’s death in 1980. She lived in rossmoor and Oakland and became a nationally ranked lawn bowling champion. She mar-ried another bowler, Leo Hasse, in 1988.

May Walker Mag passed away on August 21, 2007. She is mourned by five nieces and nephews.

Mary Walker Mag ’35, Me ’37, 1911-2007

Mary Walker Mag devoted much of her life to women’s education and women’s issues around the globe.

38  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

Emory Adams, by Phyllis Carman Marling ’41

Shirley Donovan Aggeler ’39, by Frances Dofflemyer Stillwell ’39

Orrin Airola, by Imogene Fluno Whipple ’43

Nancy Van Norman Baer ’66, wife of Alan Baer, by Alan Baer

Sheila Weibert Ballantyne ’58, by Gloria Abramson Grossman ’58, April Ninomiya Hopkins, MFA ’03, Barbara Hunter ’57

Robert Barron, father of Lucy Barron-Gitter, by Lucy Barron-Gitter ’82

Marguerithe Dietrich Baxter ’28, mother of Barbara Baxter Pawek, by Barbara Baxter Pawek ’56

George Blackwell, by Phyllis Carman Marling ’41

Allison Brandt, mother of Corinne Brandt Gallagher, by Corinne Brandt Gallagher ’68

Jane Richardson Brown ’30, by Elizabeth “Lid” Bryant Miles ’34

Alda Nye Byron ’88, by Isabelle Hagopian Arabian ’45

Alfred Campbell, by Nancy Meyer Neal ’70

Barbara Bohannon Carleton ’50, by Palo Alto Area Mills College Club

George Clifford, by Ann Jones Cahill ’48, P ’76, Cynthia Taves ’48

Sara Glasgow Cogan ’60, by Joy Glascock Harvey ’60

Jane Johnson Craig ’41, by Phyllis Carman Marling ’41, Norma Godfrey Vermilion ’41

Evelyn “Peg” Deane ’41, by Mary Hart Clark ’42, Elaine Bowe Johnson ’62

Karen Ricci Dettling ’60, by Joy Glascock Harvey ’60

Barbara Brady Douglas ’48, by Carolyn Price Dyer ’53, MA ’55, Lesli and David Lockwood III, Marilyn Wilson Newland ’48

Gary Erickson, by Patricia Erickson ’79

Melle Ann Waddington Espey ’41, by Phyllis Carman Marling ’41

Lillian Fabricant, mother of Jill Fabricant, by Jill Fabricant ’71

Joy Waltke Fisher ’55, by Diane Smith Janusch ’55

Bernard Garfinkel, husband of Judith Goldman Garfinkel, by Judith Goldman Garfinkel ’51

Gifts in Memory of (received May 1–July 31, 2007)

P=Parent For information about making a commemorative gift, contact 510.430.2097 or donors@mills.edu.

Mary Abbot-Mead and Sedgwick Mead, MA ’92, parents of Sedgwick Mead Jr., by Catherine Perry and Sedgwick Mead Jr.

Sally Cheek Mee ’42, by Jeanne Fontana Lower ’39

Eleanor “Elly” McDonald Meyer ’36, mother of Nancy Meyer Neal, by Nancy Meyer Neal ’70

Kathleen Mullins ’35, by Ivey Adell Ruiter Lambert ’38, MA ’46

Constance “Jade Snow” Wong Ong ’42, by Ann Colyer Rook ’42

Eddie Page, by Dr. Linda Jewel Page ’63, P ’96

Dorothy Jane McVeigh Raney ’45, by Ellen Graue Ferris ’46, MA ’51, Mary Jean Rosenberry Ferris ’45, P ’74, Shirley Schweers Goers ’45, Michal and Frank Handy, Nancy May de L’Arbre ’46, Katharine Mulky Warne ’45

William Rogers, by Ann Jones Cahill ’48, P ’76

Ruth Collison Ross ’24, by Priscilla-Joy Everts ’40

Peter Sloss, by Jerome D. Oremland, MD

Christian Sporck, husband of Paula Merrix Sporck ’46, by Sally Mayock Hartley ’48

Meta “Kay” Anderson Stanley ’35, by Barbara M. Bundschu ’38

Ruth “Redi” Reddick Teague ’43, by Aimee Wolff Minkin ’43

Catherine “Katie” Morgan Trefethen ’31, by Virginia Finn Blechman ’62, Gorden Class, Darrell Corti, John Crncich, Nancy and Jay Cutler, Ernest and Julio Gallo Winery, Evelyn D. Haas, Heitz Wine Cellars, Lorrain and Thomas Kongsgaard, Dana and Frances Leavitt, Marilyn and William Logan Jr., June Maus, Fraser and Helen Drake Muirhead ’58, Robert Biale Vineyards, Schramsberg, Slocum & Sons, Roselyne Swig, P ’80, David and Janille Whitehouse, Ann Witter

Dr. and Mrs. Yukinori Tsunemastu, parents of Kazuko Tsunematsu Tajima, by Kazuko Tsunematsu Tajima ’69, MFA ’71

Fa l l 2 0 0 7 39

William and Helen Gaw, by Jane Farrell Gaw ’52

Claire Gede-Cundy, by Mary Wetsel ’51

Karen Gee, by Virginia Ong Gee ’51

Della Gilmore, by Katherine Richards ’88

George and Alice Gordon, parents of Ann Gordon Bigler, by Ann Gordon Bigler ’61

Elaine Johnson Gutleben ’44, by Carol Nicolai Parker ’44

Eleanor Hadley ’38, by Marilyn Wilson Newland ’48, Gayle Rothrock ’68

Donna Stockbridge Haire ’55, by Diane Smith Janusch ’55

Elizabeth “Betsy” Rulison Harrington ’40, by Helen B. Smith

Francis Herrick, P ’54, father of Mariam Herrick Melendez ’54, by Sally Mayock Hartley ’48

Nancy Newbury Hincks ’42, by Margaret Hincks Dyer ’43, P ’73, Ann Colyer Rook ’42

Carla Eddy Hinrichsen ’41, by Sharon Birchall Maurel ’77

Evelyn Merrell Hinrichsen ’38, MA ’40, by Barbara M. Bundschu ’38

Alan Hjellum, by Carol Thompson Sundberg ’48, P ’80

Virginia and Kenneth Holmgren, parents of President Janet L. Holmgren, by Sheryl Bizé Boutté ’73, Mills College Club of New York

C. Rodgers Kines, by Diane Smith Janusch ’55

Louise Barkan Klein ’38, by Barbara M. Bundschu ’38

Nancy Ladd, MA ’50, by Estate of Nancy Ladd ’50

Henry Leong, father of Cecil Leong, grandfather of Vivian Wai Man Leong ’80, Shirley Wai Kan Leong ’83, Dr. Esther Wai-Ming Leong ’86, by Cecil Leong, P ’80, ’83, ’86

Ruth Garvin Marquis ’41, by Phyllis Carman Marling ’41

Gildee Abercrombie Vaughn ’68, by Patricia Roberts Carleton ’68

Arla Wagers Wade ’39, by Frances Dofflemyer Stillwell ’39

Imogene and Franklin Walker, by Katherine “Kit” Farrow Jorrens ’57

Albert Walkoe, by Ann Jones Cahill ’48, P ’76

Louie Mason Walther, MA ’35, by Terry and Will Doepken

Cynthia Weintraub Weber ’69, by Kazuko Tsunematsu Tajima ’69, MFA ’71

Ann Beyer Wert, mother of Amy Wert Johnson ’79, by Barbara M. Bundschu ’38

Lois Strittmatter White ’47, by Elizabeth Alexander Smith ’47

Helen and Reynold Wik ’74, by Katherine “Kit” Farrow Jorrens ’57

Reynold Wik ’74, by Grace Dote ’63, Gwendolyn Jackson Foster ’67, Candace Pelissero ’68, Judith Salzer Warner ’63

Judith Winestine Wolf ’41, by Phyllis Carman Marling ’41

Amelia Stenzel Wood ’28, by Pauline Wood Bauer ’58

Janet Havely Woodson ’56, by Barbara Baxter Pawek ’56

Japonisme style popular in the early 20th century. The painting is characterized by bold colors and the lavish use of gold. The fresco Youth and Aspiration (above) depicts a man releasing the waters of life from the near the base of a tree.

Over time, the murals have become dirty and damaged. Today, some of the aging pigment has detached from the walls; in some spots it has disappeared entirely. The once-shining gold paint is dull and in particular need of care.

As part of the extensive renovation of the Concert Hall cur-rently underway, these paintings are being restored to their orig-inal vibrancy. They will be cleaned, and the paint re-adhered and filled in. In addition, some punctured panels in the color-fully patterned ceiling will be replaced. When the restoration is complete, the resulting bright colors and gleaming gold will continue to give “free play to the imagination” of future Mills students, alumnae, and friends.

To contribute to the restoration of the Boynton murals, con-tact Barbara Goodson at 510.430.2242 or bgoodson@mills.edu.

Jessica Hilberman ’03 is a writer and editor. She runs an Oakland community blog at www.oaklandgoods.com.

Visual music

By Jessica Hilberman ’03

restoring vibrancy to the Concert Hall murals

F

40  M i l l s Q u A r t e r ly

Or MOrE THAn 80 yEArS, visitors to the Mills College Concert Hall have been delighted by the colorful murals that grace the hall’s walls, ceiling, and organ screen. Inspired by the northern California landscape, the murals were painted by renowned artist raymond Sceptre Boynton, who drew on myth-ological, medieval, and 20th-century themes for his designs.

Boynton, a native of Iowa, taught at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and UC Berkeley and—during the Great Depression—painted one of the murals in San Francisco’s Coit Tower. When Mills commissioned him to paint the murals for the College’s new Concert Hall in 1928, Boynton wrote to then-president Aurelia Henry reinhardt that his vision was “to produce a scheme of decoration which would give free play to the imagination and, through color and rhythm and formality, heighten that mood in the listener.”

Boynton used two different techniques to realize his creation. Some of the murals were painted directly onto the walls, while others were painted on plaster in a faux fresco style. The centerpiece, California Mother Lode (back cover), which appears on the organ screen above the stage, depicts the Oakland landscape surrounding Mills in the international

By Jessica Hilberman ’03

Begin in the magnificent imperial capital of Beijing. Visit the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. Tour the Houhai district by pedicab for a view

of traditional life. Experience the magnificent Great Wall and wonder at the bold architecture and engineering of China’s current building boom, including the 2008 Olympic sites.

Fly to Dunhuang and spend a full day exploring the amazing Mogao Caves, one of the world’s great reposi tories of religious art. From Dunhuang, fly to Xian to see the legendary terracotta warriors and other historic sites. In Guilin, view the sublime scenery of hillsides covered in ancient rice terraces and the spectacular karst limestone mountains along the Li River. Conclude your trip in Shanghai. Tour the famous Shanghai Museum and take an in-depth look at Shanghai’s emerging contemporary art scene through visits to museums and artists’ studios. Dr. Wah Cheng, associate professor of history at Mills College, will accompany the trip. Trained primarily as a cultural and intellectual historian, Professor Cheng will help in understanding the current thinking of the Chinese people. To receive a copy of the brochure, email aamc@mills.edu or phone 510.430.2110. For questions about the trip, phone China Advocates at 888.333.2585.

Your cost, from Beijing, per person, Based on douBle occupancY: $4,990single supplement: $1,490

CHINAArt and Beauty of the Middle Kingdom

– OPTIONAL POST-TRIP EXTENSIONS – HuANg MouNtAINs or the YANgzI RIveR CRuIse

may 12–25, 2008

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for a full list of upcoming aamc travel opportunities, see page 34.

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remember this mural? read all about it on page 40.

Mills Quarterly