“When you look back when places were pillaged… It’s always the art that is being taken, the architecture that is being destroyed,” Metalsmith, Professor Renee Zettle-Sterling said. “[Art] is our history, it tells a story about who we are. I think this is why people are so fascinated by it.”

This fall marks Renée’s 19th year with Grand Valley State University. She is notably known for her role in the GVSU Jewelry and Metalsmithing and Foundations programs. 

Renée was not always a fan of metalsmithing. Back when she was an undergraduate art student, she would assure her friends that no one would ever catch her metalsmithing. 

Fatefully, she came into contact with metalsmithing in her graduate school years. Having to take a metalsmithing class, she fell in love. Renée finds metalsmithing empowering, humbling, and therapeutic. “I can be very scattered [in my head]... but working with metal focuses me,” she said, “when I sit down on the bench, hours will go by and I won’t even know.”

In her creative work, she leans towards the cultural implications of adornment. “I have students… who think that jewelry is pretty,” Renée said, “it can be pretty but it can be all these other things too.” Through her courses, she wants to break stereotypes and to implore her students to think more broadly about the arts. 

[Art] is good for your soul, it’s good for the person that you are,”  Renée said, “I can’t imagine my life without it. [Life without art] depresses me beyond belief.” She thinks that through art, you can have an outlet to talk about things. “[With art], you are generating something that’s completely new every single time, and I think there’s power in that.”

Renée encourages GVSU students to give #GVFallArts a try. “It will be a conversation starter, possibly getting you interested in going into more things.”

“[Music] is my entire life. I fell in love with music - every aspect of it and pursued everything I could about music,” said Dr. Henry Duitman, music professor and orchestra director at Grand Valley State University.

This musician finds his inspiration through helping others create beautiful music. “So much of what you’re doing is not, first of all, about yourself, it’s about others,” he said.

As a seasoned conductor, he views individuals in the orchestra as his musical instrument. He helps each member of the orchestra to discover “what the [original] composer had in mind” and guides them to perform the pieces with the same emotional and technical elements.

Dr. Duitman recognizes that “music has tremendous power beyond words.” He believes that art “gives a person a legitimate way to express emotions.” Through music, he thinks students can express themselves in ways they couldn't otherwise.

Dr. Duitman along with the GVSU orchestra will be featured in the Fall Arts Celebration: Dance event. He encourages the Laker community to seize the opportunity this year; to experience “great, live performance of music that doesn’t cost a thing” at #GVFallArts.

Even if a student’s major has nothing to do with the arts, Dr. Duitman thinks that they will be transformed by being exposed to the arts. “Strong experience with great performances will change a student’s outlook on their major,” he added.

Catch Dr. Duitman and his orchestra at #GVFallArts: Dance. 

“I use a robust definition of art and if I were to narrow it down to a granular level, it really is storytelling,” said Raquel Ramirez, Project Coordinator for the Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center.

For her, “storytelling is sharing my story… as a Hispanic individual living in Ottawa County,” and it can be done through a variety of art forms.

“As a child, I have always enjoyed dancing and going to the theatres,” Raquel added, “as I grew older, I realized that what I love about those things is the story that was communicated; the feelings that it left me with, or the questions that spurred in me.”

“I recognized that if the arts did those things to me, I could use the same thing to inspire that sort of attachment and change to others,” Raquel said.

Raquel’s stories are often about “perseverance, resilience, and accomplishment, they are also about finding, creating your own way,” She has used her stories to illustrate concepts like power, privilege, and oppression to Hispanic youths in her community.

Join Raquel at #GVFallArts this year and open your hearts to the story that the arts tell. 👉 https://www.gvsu.edu/fallarts/ See less