Rochele Royster, Department of Creative Arts Therapy
Rochele Royster, assistant professor of art therapy, received at $10,000 Central New York Community Foundation Black Equity & Excellence Grant for the Black Seed Groundwork Project and Workshop Series, an arts-based wellness initiative of the ME/WE Creative Art Therapy Lab that supports Black artists while building pathways to collective healing in Syracuse. Through monthly artist-led workshops, weekly open studios and a three-tiered model of care (including community events, group art therapy and free individual sessions) the program expands creative access and mental health support for Syracuse residents. Rooted in Black and Indigenous wellness traditions, the initiative culminates in public showcases that position art as research, therapy and collective action toward healing and liberation.
New York State Council on the Arts Grants Faculty Winners
Nine faculty members in the College of Visual and Performing Arts were among more than 2,400 nonprofit arts and culture organizations and individuals receiving New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) funding for 2026. Support for Artist awards of $10,000 each were announced for these faculty members:
Boryana Dragoeva Rossa, professor, Department of Film and Media Arts, for the project “Aphrodite’s Conception”; Tamika Galanis, assistant professor, Department of Film and Media Arts, supporting the Light Work project “By the Skin of Her Teeth”; Kelly Gallagher, associate professor, Department of Film and Media Arts, for “By All Your Memories”; Kara Herold, associate professor, Department of Film and Media Arts, for “Mid-Film Crisis,” presented with New York Women in Film & Television; Normandie Luscher, assistant professor, School of Art, for “Demigoddess Comic Series”; Wendy Moy, associate professor, Setnor School of Music and School of Education, for “We Hold These Truths: Commemorating the 250th Birthday of The United States of America”; Erica Murphy, assistant professor, Department of Drama, for the project “Wolf Women”; and Jeremy Tarr, instructor in the School of Art, for the work “Night Field,” presented at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park.
In addition, Sam Van Aken, associate professor in the School of Art, in collaboration with Columbia University faculty members Lynnette Widder and Wendy Walters, received a $10,000 independent project grant for the book initiative, “Seeds of Diaspora: Plants, Migrations, Settlements, Cities.” The grant program, a partnership between NYSCA and The Architecture League of New York, recognizes work in architecture, historic preservation and various fields of design.
David DeAngelis, Setnor School of Music
David DeAngelis, assistant professor of music education, was selected as a Music Will Modern Band Higher Education Fellow for the 2025-26 year. As part of the fellowship, DeAngelis will receive instruction in incorporating modern band pedagogies into the music education program, along with 20 credits from Music Will to purchase new instruments for the program.
Sam Van Aken, School of Art
Sam Van Aken, associate professor of studio arts in the School of Art, is the Jack Wolgin Annual Visiting Artist and Lecturer at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years. This endowed visiting artist program brings one of the nation's most influential artists and thinkers to campus to work with Tyler students and present a free public lecture each year.
Boryana Rossa, Department of Film and Media Arts
Boryana Rossa, professor of art video, was selected for the Fall 2024 TTTfellows: Art and Science Residency, receiving $5,000 in support of her work. Rossa worked with Heidi Hehnly-Chang, associate professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, on the project “Conception, Pregnancy and Care in Biotechnology and Mythology.” TTTfellows is organized by the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University, within the framework of Rewilding Cultures, a project co-financed by the European Union, and hosted in collaboration with the Corfu Central Public Historical Library – Corfu Tech Lab, the Corfu Aquarium and BiHELab.
Lyndsay Michalik Gratch, Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies
Lyndsay Michalik Gratch, associate professor of communication and rhetorical studies and a 2024-25 Syracuse University Art Museum Faculty Fellow, curated the exhibition “Performance, Gesture and Reflection” as part of “Faculty Fellows Curate” at the museum. The exhibition mirrored her course CRS 314, which explores the social, cultural and political dimensions of performance in various forms, including theater, dance, rituals, everyday life and media.
Zeke Leonard, School of Design
Zeke Leonard, associate professor of environmental and interior design, was awarded a 2025-26 Faculty Fellows grant from Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). He has committed to a four-week summer residency in 2025 at SCRC that includes workshops and training sessions on handling special collections materials, teaching students how to research within and across collections, and designing hands-on, individualized, creative and critically-minded assignments with rare materials. He is his long-standing course Sustainable Furniture and Lighting (DES 561), a design and build studio in which students create both a lighting and seating object.
NYSCA Grant Winners
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) grants have been awarded to two faculty members in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and three arts organizations at Syracuse University. Kathleen Wrinn, assistant professor of musical theater in the Department of Drama, and Soudabeh Moradian, assistant professor of film in the Department of Film and Media Arts, each won $10,000 NYSCA grants for their work. Learn more about their projects and the other winners.
Rochele Royster, Department of Creative Arts Therapy
Rochele Royster, assistant professor of art therapy, initiated “This Woman’s Work,” a groundbreaking group exhibition and workshop series at Syracuse University’s Community Folk Art Center funded by the New York State Council on the Arts. The project celebrates the profound impact of Black women’s community care in Syracuse and Central New York.
Susannah Sayler, Department of Film and Media Arts
Susannah Sayler, assistant professor of art photography, is one of five artists to be recognized with a 2024 JGS Fellowship for Photography. The $8,000 unrestricted cash grant, administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts, is open to New York State photography artists living and working anywhere in the following regions of New York State: Western New York, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Central New York, North Country, Mohawk Valley, Capital District, Hudson Valley and Long Island. The support for this funding is provided by Joy of Giving Something (JGS), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the photographic arts.
Mišo Suchý, Department of Film and Media Arts
Mišo Suchý, associate professor of film, along with Guggenheim Fellow, artist and community college art media instructor Lida Suchý, and award-winning filmmaker, animator, editor and sound composer Evan Bode G’23, were selected as one of the seven 2024-25 Engaged Humanities Networks (EHN) Cohorts. Their collaborative project, “Teens with a Movie Camera,” is a filmmaking initiative between City of Syracuse teens and local media artists. Supported by a $5,000 grant from the EHN and the Academic Affairs Office of Strategic Initiatives, the collaboration will focus on personal visual storytelling, culminating in the creation of original short films and their public presentation in the communities where they were made.
