Chicago, April 2004 - Columbia College Chicago undergraduate and graduate commencement ceremonies will be held at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 29 at the UIC Pavilion, 525 S. Racine. The college will award 1,832 undergraduate and more than 70 graduate diplomas. This marks the first year Columbia has held its undergraduate and graduate ceremonies together.
Three distinguished individuals whose lives and work embody the college's ideals and spirit will deliver this year's commencement address, announced Columbia's president, Dr. Warrick L. Carter. The college will award honorary degrees to:
·Bill T. Jones, dancer, Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa
·Mary Ellen Mark, photographer and humanist, Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa
·Frank Rich, journalist and cultural critic, Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa
Jones and Mark will speak at the morning ceremonies; Rich will give the address at the afternoon ceremonies.
Bill T. Jones, founder of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, began his training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY) where he studied classical ballet and modern dance. Prior to forming his dance company in 1982, he performed nationally and internationally as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane. He created more than 50 works for his company and received many commissions to create dances for modern and ballet companies.
In 1995 he directed and performed "Degga"--a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach at Alice Tully Hall. The Lincoln Center commissioned the work for its Serious Fun Festival. His collaboration with Jessye Norman in 1995, "How! Do! We! Do!" premiered at New York's City Center. His television credits include "Fever Swamp," "Untitled," and "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land" and "Still/Here." The making of "Still/Here" was the subject of documentary entitled "Bill T. Jones: Still/Here with Bill Moyers" and premiered on PBS in 1997.
Jones is the recipient of numerous awards including: the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2003); MacArthur Fellowship (1994); Dance Magazine Award (1993); three New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Awards, the last two for his work, "D-Man in the Waters" (1989); and Choreographic Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1980-82).
His memoirs, "Last Night on Earth," were published in 1995. "Body Against Body The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane," published in 1989, is an in-depth look at his and Zane's work.
Mary Ellen Mark, one of today's most respected and influential photographers, has gained worldwide visibility through her books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work. For almost three decades her travels have led her to the far corners of the globe to photograph people, events or places that reflect a high degree of humanism.
Her images of our world's diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. While in India, she photographed Mother Teresa, Indian circuses and Bombay brothels. Her photo-essays have been published in LIFE, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair and she is a contributing photographer to The New Yorker. A photo essay on runaway children in Seattle became the foundation for the academy award-nominated film "Streetwise."
She received the Cornell Capa Award, the Infinity Award for Journalism, an Erna & Victor Hasselblad Foundation Grant, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the Matrix Award for outstanding woman in the field of film/photography. She was presented with three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as other awards including two Robert F. Kennedy Awards.
Marks has published 14 books. Her most recent project "Twins," a book and exhibition, featuring her 20x24 Polaroid portraits of twins was released in September 2003.
Frank Rich, was named Associated Editor of The New York Times (The Times) in January 2003 and in March 2003, began writing a weekly essay that runs as a column on the front page of the Sunday Arts & Leisure section. As associate editor, he serves as advisor on the newspaper's overall cultural news reports.
In 1980 when he first joined The Times, he served a chief drama critic. During the 1992 Presidential campaign year he joined The Times Washington reporter Maureen Dowd to write a daily column at the conventions as well as for
Inauguration week in Washington in January 1993.
He was named a columnist for the Op-Ed Page in January 1994. A few years later, in 1999, he was given the additional title of senior writer for The New York Times Magazine. The assignment of a dual title was a first for The Times. He draws from his background as a theater critic, observer of art, entertainment and politics for his columns and articles.
Prior to joining The Times Rich was a film and television critic at Timemagazine; a film critic for the New York Post; and senior editor of New Times magazine. In the early 1970s, he was one of the founding editors of the Richmond Mercury, a weekly newspaper.
Rich has written on culture and politics for other publications. His latest book, "Ghost Light," a childhood memoir was published in 2000 and the film rights have been acquired by Storyline Entertainment. In October 1998 he published a collection of his drama reviews, "Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for
The New York Times, 1980-1993."
He earned a B.A. in American History and Literature from Harvard College in 1971 where he also served as editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson. He has two sons and lives in Manhattan with his wife, author and novelist Alex Witchel.
Columbia College Chicago provides innovative education and practice in the visual, performing and communications arts. For further information or to learn more visit www.colum.edu.
Media contact: Micki Leventhal, 312.344.7383, mleventhal@colum.edu or Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805, phunter@colum.edu