Professor of Art Star Varner and Instructor of Applied Music Katherine Altobello ’99 were among the many local artists, actors, and musicians who donated their talents at the Heart for Ukraine concert and art sale, held April 21 at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Austin. Varner donated an original animal drawing, while Altobello performed the iconic Rodgers and Hammerstein song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” alongside pianist Rick Rowley. This event raised more than $40,000, with all proceeds going to charities currently on the ground in Ukraine, including SeaStar Kids, Doctors Without Borders, and Lutheran World Relief. A video of the concert is available on YouTube.

President Edward Burgerand Professor of Art Victoria Star Varner presented an invited joint lecture in the Bridges Lecture Series at the University of Waterloo, Canada, on the connections between their original research in math and art on Nov. 21. The Bridges Lecture Series “aims to rediscover points of affinity among academic disciplines…and to bring them back into productive dialogue; to raise questions that are essential to scholars in Arts, Science, and Mathematics; and to provide specialists and non-specialists alike with compelling and enriching information that uncovers the possibilities and opportunities that exist on the bridge between disciplines. Our guiding goal is to coax audiences out of their intellectual comfort zones, and to transcend narrow discipline-specific avenues of academic inquiry.”

Professor of Art Victoria Star Varner’s artwork was selected for the 7e Internationale Exposition Estampes Bisannuelle Miniature (the 7th International Miniature Print Biennial Exhibition) organized by the Ottawa School of Art, Ontario, Canada. The exhibition brought together 260 works by over 100 artists from 20 countries. In addition, she and Technical Assistant and Exhibitions Coordinator Seth Daulton were invited to participate in Our Indiana: M.F.A. Selections, curated by Professor Gail Panske, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Professor Ellen Price, Miami University, Ohio, for the Mid-America Print Council’s biennial conference held at the University of Wyoming.

Professor of Art Victoria Star Varner presented four works from her Crossed Paths series in the 38th Mini Print Internacional de Cadaques in Spain, which exhibited selected artists from 53 countries June 30–Sept. 30 at Taller Galleria Fort in Cadaques. The exhibition is traveling to Galeri L’Etange d’Art in Bages, France, next.

Professor of Art Victoria Star Varner’s engraving from her Crossed Paths series was selected for the 2018 International Contemporary Miniprint of Kazanlak exhibition at the Kazanlak Art Gallery in Bulgaria, Europe. There were 450 works from 152 artists representing 40 countries. The international jury comprised Kouki Tsuritani (Japan), Renee Chevalier (Canada), and Peter Boyadjieff (Bulgaria).