UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Arts and Architecture will honor its 2023 Alumni Award recipients at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, at the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, located at 146 S. Allen St. in State College. The ceremony, open to the public, will be followed by a reception in the Woskob Family Gallery. Attendees should register in advance by Oct. 3.
The Arts and Architecture Alumni Awards were established more than 30 years ago with the purpose of recognizing the career achievements of Penn State alumni in the arts and design disciplines.
This year’s recipients are Heather Augustine (2011, bachelor of fine arts in theatre), audio engineer currently working on Broadway; David Heasty (2000, bachelor of science in graphic design and photography), co-founder of Triboro design studio; William E. Holloway (1982, bachelor of architecture in architecture), principal and director of community practice for Bernardon, an award-winning architecture, landscape architecture and interior design firm; Matthew McMahon (2004, bachelor of landscape architecture in landscape architecture and bachelor of science in biology), director and senior landscape architect at Snøhetta; Ilenia Colón Mendoza (2001, master of arts in art history; 2008, doctorate in art history), professor of art history at the University of Central Florida; Ian Saunders (2009, bachelor of music; 2012, master of music in performance), performer, educator and artistic director for Project STEP; Mark Shulman (1996, bachelor of arts in integrative arts), senior vice president for programming at UBS Arena; and ceramicist Ron Hand (1973, bachelor of science in art education), who is receiving the award posthumously. Read below for more on the winners’ careers.
Heather Augustine’s Penn State studies focused on sound design. She is an audio engineer currently working on Broadway as a mixing sub, covering several shows, including "Funny Girl," "SIX" and "Beautiful Noise." Before moving to New York City, she toured North America for over a decade with a variety of shows, including "Billy Elliot," "Phantom of the Opera," "Les Misérables," "Miss Saigon" and "Mean Girls." Augustine is the current president of the School of Theatre’s Affiliate Program Group (APG) and one of the leaders behind STAGES, the APG’s multi-day mentoring/networking event. To further support sound design students, she established the Margaret Augustine Scholarship for Sound Technicians and the School of Theatre Design and Technology Alumni Conference Scholarship, which provides funds to help students attend the United States Institute for Theatre Technology annual conference.
David Heasty co-founded the Brooklyn-based studio Triboro in 2008. He and his partner, Stefanie Weigler, attract a global client base, ranging from innovative startups to respected international brands. The studio creates solutions for clients in publishing, art, fashion, music and lifestyle, as well as for cultural institutions. Recent Triboro projects include the identity for the Museum of Modern Art’s major 2019 expansion, designing the memoirs of Paul McCartney and Prince, and branding and packaging systems for Marc Jacobs. Heasty began his design career working at Design Machine in New York City. He has received numerous industry awards, including being named one of the top 20 designers under age 30 by Print magazine in 2002. Triboro has been featured in numerous design publications, including the American Institute of Graphic Arts and a major feature in Eye Magazine in 2018.
Bill Holloway is a principal and director of community practice for Bernardon, a division of the Core States Group, an award-winning architecture, landscape architecture and interior design firm. Spanning 41 years of practice, Holloway’s professional accomplishments include significant projects in the public works, institutional and health care markets. He is currently working on a major addition to the Delaware Division of Public Health Laboratory and a new environmental laboratory building for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The American Institute of Architects named Holloway a Richard Upjohn Fellow at the national level for his service on the institute’s board. He also was named a member of the Delaware chapter’s G. Morris Whiteside Society. In August 2021, Holloway was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become one of the three members of the National Institute of Building Sciences Board nominated by President Joe Biden that year.
Matt McMahon is a director and senior landscape architect at Snøhetta. He is attracted to overlooked landscapes, ideas and people, raising questions around perception, poetry and power. His design work places him between disciplines, often playing with context and scale, systems and objects, history and time. McMahon draws upon 25 years of professional and academic experience in landscape architecture, ecology and architecture. He has led Snøhetta’s work on the Blanton Museum of Art and the Willamette Falls Riverwalk, and he currently directs the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in the North Dakota Badlands. Prior to Snøhetta, McMahon worked with a variety of New York design firms. He regularly speaks at conferences and schools, attends studio design reviews, and contributes to publications such as Stan Allen’s Landform Building. McMahon holds a master of architecture degree from Princeton University.
Ilenia Colón Mendoza is professor of art history and affiliate faculty in graduate, Renaissance, Latin American-Caribbean and Latinx, and women’s and gender studies at the University of Central Florida. While at UCF she has received several teaching awards, including the Research Incentive Award and the Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Impact Award. Mendoza specializes in Spanish art of the 17th and 18th centuries. Her book, "The Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernandez: Polychrome Sculptures of the Supine Christ in 17th-Century Spain "(2015), examines the significance of the Cristo yacente sculptural type within the context of the theatrical elaborations of the Catholic Holy Week. She is the co-editor of "Spanish Royal Patronage 1412-1804: Portraits as Propaganda" (2018) and "Polychrome Art in the Early Modern World" (forthcoming). Mendoza’s research has been supported by the Program of Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s ministry of culture and U.S. universities, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and Fulbright-Hayes.
Ian Saunders is a performer, educator and the artistic director for Project STEP, which provides young musicians from historically underrepresented groups in classical music with comprehensive music instruction. Throughout his performance career, he has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Sphinx Symphony, and others. A committed educator, Saunders has taught in youth programs in Virginia and Maryland and was associated with Cincinnati’s El Sistema program, in addition to teaching at the collegiate level. Prior to Project STEP, he served as assistant dean of students at the Eastern Music Festival and assistant dean for artistic and social change at the Longy School of Music. He is a board member for Equity Arc and Emmanuel Music in Boston and a fellow in the Sphinx LEAD program. He holds a doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Maryland.
Mark Shulman is senior vice president for programming at UBS Arena. With more than 25 years’ experience in the entertainment industry, he has managed projects as varied as music festivals, major venue development, and high-profile stadium concerts. In 2003, Shulman joined AEG’s newly established NYC team and later developed and supervised the construction of the Nokia Theatre Times Square, winning Pollstar’s Best New Music Venue in 2005. He has promoted several national tours and shows at MetLife Stadium, Central Park Summerstage, Madison Square Garden, and Radio City Music Hall, working with artists from Prince to Paul McCartney. In addition, Shulman has served as an Entertainment Advisory Board member and producer of the annual Global Citizen Festival, where fans engage with causes to earn tickets.
Ron Hand, a Vietnam War veteran, attended Penn State on the G.I. Bill and later earned a master’s degree in ceramics with a minor in related arts and crafts at the University of Tennessee. He was an exhibition designer at the Palmer Museum of Art, where he also co-taught seminars on exhibition design and computer-aided design. Hand’s life passion was ceramics, and he described himself as having a “thirst for clay.” He found gratification in creating, teaching and exhibiting his ceramics in invitational shows at galleries and museums. Hand, who opened his studio, Tusseyville Pottery, in 1972, used natural surroundings to invoke designs, and many of his pieces were made from hand-dug clay and glazes developed from sifting and washing wood ashes. He passed away from cancer in August 2017.