The Buzz

Creative Sparks

BY GARY REES

Art student Mya Amsden ’28 had the opportunity to observe Coheninyo’s work on his metal sculpture, unveiled to the campus community this spring.

For two weeks this spring, students in the art department had the opportunity to learn a different creative approach from VISITING ARTIST OREN COHENINYO. “Oren engages students in hands-on workshops and thought-provoking discussions and encourages them to explore unconventional materials,” said Associate Professor of Art Karen Gergely. “I’m sure he will have a lasting impact on our art students.”

Oren Coheninyo is a storyteller artist from Israel. Born in 1973 in Tel Aviv’s Shabazi neighborhood, he earned BA degrees in Humanities and Fine Arts, and a diploma in Industrial Design from Domus Academy in Milan, Italy.

Coheninyo’s work is deeply rooted in the Israeli landscape, reflecting its history and character. An accomplished painter and sculptor with over four decades of experience, he creates public art that explores the narratives of ancient journeys and landscapes. Coheninyo brings these stories to life using materials such as iron, concrete, bronze, and stone. Throughout his career, he has designed and sculpted 53 outdoor installations in addition to landscape paintings. Alongside his artistic practice, Coheninyo has dedicated decades to education teaching art at universities and colleges, from Israel to Iowa.

When students aspire to become artists, Coheninyo first seeks to understand their motivations. He then introduces them to various artistic tools, and guides them in selecting the right ones, supporting them throughout the creative process. He emphasizes hands-on learning by personally demonstrating the proper use of these tools himself to ensure that student artists can effectively apply them.

Coheninyo sees himself as a blue-collar artist, often working in his signature blue-collar attire as he skillfully welds, sparks flying, to merge scraps of metal into striking sculptures. In developing his art, he believes it’s important that each piece begins with a story and is ultimately presented with love, and that to truly engage in art, artists must approach their work with deep emotion — love, anger, or even hate: “It is only when I can recognize emotion in an artwork that I can truly appreciate it,” he said.

Coheninyo reflected on his visit to the Lamoni campus:

“I have met so many wonderful people, and the Graceland community has been incredibly welcoming. Karen stands out as a positive person and inspiring art teacher for her students. I have truly enjoyed my experience, and can only hope the students benefited from it, too.”

Read more about Coheninyo’s work and the contributions made by Jean Witte ’63 Holmes through the Friendship Road Project here.

A Rewarding Exchange

A culturally responsive approach to teaching is one aspect that gives Graceland educators a successful edge in all settings, from elementary or secondary classrooms to specialist vocational and corporate train-the-trainer settings. This intercultural competence often can’t simply be picked up on home grounds, but must be actively experienced and explored. An alumni connection opened up a wonderful opportunity for student teachers at the Gleazer School of Education to do just that: with A PRACTICUM IN PUERTO RICO.

Pictured, left to right: R’Moni Canady-Dunn ’25, Mylin McDaniel ’25, Mya Lozoya ’25, Al-Farouk Salako ’25, and Megan Coon ’26.

Education professors Tanya Coffelt and Michele Dickey-Kotz led the small Graceland delegation to the Palmas del Mar community of Humacao on Puerto Rico’s southeast coast, where they received a warm welcome by their hosts at The Palmas Academy (TPA), a private college preparatory school. The TPA faculty and students happily opened the doors to their culturally diverse classrooms, and allowed R’Moni Canady-Dunn ’25, Megan Coon ’26, Mya Lozoya ’25, Mylin McDaniel ’25 and Farouk Salako ’25 to fully immerse themselves by observing and co-teaching.

“Stepping into a teaching role helped me realize how much I’ve learned, and how naturally it’s starting to come together. Seeing the students respond with excitement and actively participating gave me a huge boost in confidence. It reminded me that I can create meaningful and joyful learning experiences through music, and that I’m on the right path.”

R’MONI CANADY-DUNN ’25

Coffelt, Dickey-Kotz and Field Placement Coordinator Melissa Newman are very proud of how the group established meaningful, bilaterally rewarding relationships in an entirely new environment within only a couple of days: “Each of them proved that they have the capacity to make a difference in this world, far beyond Graceland. No matter what external messages their own future students are subjected to — in their classroom, they will know their value and worth; they will know that they matter.”

Anatomy In Motion

In the Health and Movement Science department, chair Melanie Mason, DAT, and her colleagues are learning to master an impressive new acquisition that they are very proud of: THE ANATOMAGE TABLE.

While Dr. Mason and one group of students in the Corrective Exercise class are leaning over the table at the front of the room, another group follows along from their desks on their corresponding tablets.

The Anatomage setup adds a whole new dimension of exploration and learning to the class: it virtually strips away the anatomical layers of the human body and reveals how bones, joints, muscles and connective structures work together in motion. Simulating different movements, the students can visualize what it looks like when movement patterns are impaired, and how corrective exercise can improve mobility and stability.

The interactive educational tool is loaded with 3D anatomy, physiology and pathology data compilations for the various medical disciplines, so the very first nursing cohort on the Lamoni campus this fall will benefit from it, too.

The table came to Graceland by lucky timing: at a conference, Associate Professor of Allied Health James Geiselman, DC, met fellow instructor Brian Nook, DC, of the Iowa-based Palmer College of Chiropractic. Nook told him about the college’s California campus closing and reducing its inventory. After some internal rallying by Geiselman and Mason, this circumstance resulted in a great deal for Graceland’s students — shortly after, they gladly helped unpack, set up and test out the new campus asset.

Everyone’s still playing around to get the hang of the seemingly endless features and functions of the Anatomage table, but everyone who sees it bring anatomy to life already agrees, “This is so cool!”

Pretty Good Pod

Director of Libraries Gabriel Chrisman has a favorite new inventory piece at the Frederick M. Smith Library, and it is not a book. For him, it really was about time: he had always envisioned such work and meeting pods for his previous libraries. Now, his vision finally took rectangular shape.

A DO GOOD FOR GRACELAND PROJECT survey by students within their Transformational Leadership major pinpointed areas for academic success improvements. One such point was more inclusion of the library as a study and collaboration hub. The space was there, the need was there as outlined in the students’ presentations, Chrisman’s idea was there…and for the financial realization, President Shrock stepped in, activating the Presidential Fund for Excellence that allows him to allocate funds specifically to immediate enhancements of the student experience.

Soon after, the top-of-the-line pod model by the Finnish producer Framery was delivered and installed at a perfect spot in the library — just in time to be instantly fully occupied throughout all finals week days in April, as Chrisman gladly observed on his user interface’s pod usage report.

Originally designed for corporate settings, Graceland is one of the company’s first customers in academia — the ‘time machine’ truly transported us ahead of others!

Chrisman is already daring to envision again: additional pods in various occupancy sizes for both the Lamoni and the Independence campus libraries, so more Graceland students can enjoy these pretty good little work spaces.

Want to contribute to a project that will impact the student experience?
Learn more about how you can contribute: graceland.edu/Good4GU