A Florida State University graduate student has been selected for a competitive arts fellowship that will support the development of a project that maps archival photos, poetry and oral histories onto neighborhoods, highlighting their historical impacts.

Christell Victoria Roach, a creative writing doctoral student in the Department of English, has been named a fellow of YoungArts, the National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists. The fellowship includes a $30,000 grant that will allow Roach to further develop her project, an augmented-reality application called OTOWN, and streamline its software.

“By merging digital humanities with community-based research, this project reimagines historical neighborhoods as interactive digital museums,” Roach said. “This project transforms specific locations into exhibits through the app’s lens. I come from a community with a rich history, and I wanted to create a space for that community to tell its own story.”

“This project transforms specific locations into exhibits through the app’s lens. I come from a community with a rich history, and I wanted to create a space for that community to tell its own story.”

— Christell Victoria Roach, creative writing doctoral student

Each year, thousands of artists from across the U.S. apply for YoungArts’ competitive grants, scholarships and fellowships, which have supported scholars through mentorship and funding since 1981. In addition to the monetary grant, fellows also have access to studio space and public presentation opportunities. This award comes just over a decade after Roach earned a YoungArts writing award, and she is the only literary arts specialist in this year’s cohort of five YoungArts fellows.

“Earning a YoungArts fellowship is a significant accomplishment that highlights the strength of Christell’s voice and the impact of her literary work,” said Keith McCall, assistant director of the FSU Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards. “It’s an honor to have a YoungArts fellow at FSU and a reflection of the exceptional talent within the creative writing program.”

OTOWN was inspired by Roach’s hometown of Overtown, a Miami neighborhood that was once considered the “Harlem of the South,” where African American celebrities, athletes and activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Sam Cooke performed, spoke and competed.

“Since they weren’t permitted to sleep in the hotels they performed in on South Beach, as it was during a segregated period, they went ‘over to the town’ to be celebrated and to rest,” Roach said. “In OTOWN, I take on the role of curator and narrator to create space for these stories that started long before me.”

Through the app, users move through the Overtown neighborhood, encountering location-specific stories: They’ll hear a poem on one corner, see a historic photograph on another, and listen to oral histories connected to the ground beneath their feet. While the project initially centered around Overtown, Roach has invented a model that can be used to preserve community histories in neighborhoods across the globe.

“I’m perfecting this work to present a replicable model for engagement with personal and shared histories,” Roach said. “Through collaboration with undergraduate research assistants, the project has already expanded to other historic towns in Florida, including Tallahassee, with an exhibit near FAMU’s campus titled, ‘South of Monroe.’”

Before coming to FSU in 2024, Roach earned multiple awards for her writing. In 2022, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work in collaboration with South Florida’s WLRN Public Media on the duet poem “The Breaths of Our Skin,” where Roach imagines and performs a poetic conversation between writers Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes.

“Christell’s writing invites us to think seriously about homeland, legacy, record-keeping and truth,” said Christopher Okonkwo, one of Roach’s doctoral advisers and an professor in the FSU Department of English. “The questions she contemplates in her work transcend academia. They touch and connect us all while allowing us to rediscover our own history.”

Roach has been published widely, with recent work featured by organizations and in literary publications such as Poetry Magazine, the Academy of American Poets, The Atlantic and Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora.

“I’m doing the work I want people to learn about, and I’m creating a model that shows people how to engage their history,” Roach said. “I hope this work inspires others, and I hope foregrounding love, community, creativity and connection when engaging history creates a way of witness and testimony we once thought lost to time.”

To learn more about writing and research through the FSU Department of English, visit english.fsu.edu.

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A Florida State University student is one of 16 talented undergraduate artists from across the nation selected for NASA’s Psyche Inspired program.  

Julia Stephens, a third-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art and a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing, has produced a series of artworks relating to a current NASA mission as part of this prestigious internship.

Established in 2017, Psyche Inspired is a program that brings undergraduate students from any discipline or major together to share the excitement and innovation of NASA’s mission to visit, map and collect data on Psyche, a metal-rich asteroid roughly the same size as the state of Florida. Stephens and her fellow interns use their artistic skills to showcase scientific and engineering content with the public in creative new ways.

According to the agency’s mission overview, exploring the asteroid could help provide valuable information about the history of our solar system and even Earth’s own core. A van-sized probe launched as part of the mission in 2023 is currently en route to enter Psyche’s orbit in August 2029.

Stephens brings a lifelong interest in space and passion for science to her work as an artist and writer. As a Psyche Inspired intern, she is helping NASA tell the mission’s story and communicate complex ideas to the public.

 “I think connecting this research into artistic practices is very important, and it’s something that I want to keep doing within my personal art practice,” she said. “Being a part of something greater than myself — making art with other people that contributes to a greater whole — is one of the best parts of Psyche.”

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Florida State University School of Dance associate professor nia love has received a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography for her work “Floating Metal: UNDERcurrents in My Father’s Garden.”  

“Receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship is a significant national recognition and a meaningful acknowledgment of the impact of nia love’s creative work,” said James Frazier, dean of the College of Fine Arts. “This award is among the most prestigious honors that an artist may receive during their career. Her selection reflects both her individual excellence and the strength of the arts at Florida State University.” 

love’s ties to FSU and the College of Fine Arts run deep. Since receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree from FSU in 1992, she has built a career as a highly regarded artist and choreographer in New York City. She has been recognized with three Bessie Awards, a Fullbright Fellowship and a Herb Alpert Award, among many other honors. In 2024, she returned to FSU as a faculty member, following in the footsteps of her father, Ed Love, a renowned sculptor and 1987 Guggenheim Fellow, who served as an FSU Visual Arts professor from 1990 until his passing in 1999.  

For the artist, dance has long been a way to maintain a connection with her father, and this relationship stands at the center of her work.  

“Dance has been a way to breathe in unbreathable spaces, a way to be held by people who are no longer here, whispering states of unconditional love,” she said. “I remember when I was 5, my favorite place to improvise my dancing moves was down the grocery store aisles. It was there, under my father’s gaze that he first told me to ‘do the dance.’ Now here without him 27 years later, I continue to ‘do the dance.’”   

“Floating Metal: UNDERcurrents in My Father’s Garden” is an expansive project that is personal for the artist and explores her connection to her father through their art, examining inheritance and memory and reflecting on the still-lingering impacts of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage.  

Part of this Guggenheim-winning work will be a large-scale exhibition, scheduled to open in August at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts. It will encompass three galleries and feature a dialogue between love’s performance work and her father’s sculptures, paintings and photographs.  

love was selected as part of the 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows from among more than 5,000 applicants. She joins 223 artists, scholars and scientists, representing 55 distinct fields. She is the third current FSU School of Dance faculty member to achieve this honor, joining colleagues Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (2009 Fellow) and Gwen Welliver (2025 Fellow).   

For more information about the FSU School of Dance, visit dance.fsu.edu.  

To learn more about upcoming exhibitions at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts, including “Floating Metal: UNDERcurrents in My Father’s Garden,” visit MoFA.fsu.edu or follow the museum on Instagram, at @fsumofa.  

Editor’s Note: Per the artist’s request, the name nia love should appear in all lowercase letters. 

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Florida State University’s Art in STEM event returns for its 12th annual exhibition showcasing the artwork of FSU students conducting research in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines.

The FSU community is invited to enjoy an opening reception from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday, April 21, at the Dirac Science Library, and vote in person or online for their favorite piece. The people’s choice award winner will be announced the following day.

This year’s edition of the annual exhibition, which can be viewed at the Dirac Library and accessed online in a digital gallery, is a collaboration among FSU’s Graduate Women in STEM (GWIS) organization, Art in the Library, and the FSU College of Arts and Sciences. It features 30 artworks created by students representing environmental science, geology, microscopic biology, neuroscience, physical chemistry, astrophysics, ecology, chemical engineering and more.

“The Art in STEM exhibition shows another side of students whose interests or majors are in STEM fields,” said Kaylie Green, 2025-2026 GWIS president and third-year biomathematics doctoral student. “We want viewers to connect with STEM topics through the artwork they see.”

Artists drew inspiration for their creations from their work in the field, lab and classroom, using microscopes, cameras, watercolor and acrylic paints, screen printing and more to capture the artistic side of science and bring their research to life.

“This event demonstrates that art can be found everywhere — even in cells viewed under a microscope,” Green said.

“This event demonstrates that art can be found everywhere — even in cells viewed under a microscope.”

— Kaylie Green, 2025-2026 GWIS president and third-year biomathematics doctoral student

Jennifer Scheckowitz, an undergraduate majoring in physical science in the Department of Physics, is among this year’s featured artists. Her piece, “Heart in Malachite,” highlights the hidden beauty of geological microscopy — analyzing rock, mineral and soil samples to understand geological processes, environmental history and fluid interactions.

Using the depth composition feature on a Keyence VHX-7000 digital microscope, Scheckowitz captured multiple photos of the malachite crystal at different focal points and stitched the images together to produce one cohesive photograph, highlighting the shape of a heart appearing in the light-green stone.

“When I first got the opportunity to explore different forms of microscopy, I was immediately captivated by how rocks and minerals looked under a microscope,” said Scheckowitz, who also participated in the Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. “I spent a lot of time taking pictures of the microscopic surfaces of many different geological specimens, but the malachite was by far the most interesting to me.”

Scheckowitz’s research was conducted through the Microscopic BioArt research project under the Nanobio Materials and Robotics group led by Jamel Ali, associate professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, and based at the FSU-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

Beyond its artistic appeal, geological microscopy is an effective and valuable learning tool for students and amateur geologists, preparing Scheckowitz for future research in physical science and chemical engineering. Her additional artworks in the exhibit, “Biotite Schist under UV Light” and “Sodalite Crystal,” showcase the range and beauty of photomicroscopy.

“While many geological subjects may look identical to the naked eye, employing a microscope reveals fascinating new structures and hidden differences between them,” Scheckowitz said. “It highlights structural features that often go unnoticed, revealing a whole new world just on the surface of a rock.”

Art in STEM encourages the FSU community to engage with various scientific topics, providing an aesthetic entry point for viewers to learn about the innovative research conducted by undergraduate and graduate students across programs.

“This exhibition seamlessly connects art and science,” Scheckowitz said. “I believe that art fosters innovation — the two are intertwined. Artistic experimentation mirrors scientific development, and it’s important to highlight the similarities between the two.”

For more information or to view the 2026 Art in STEM digital exhibition, visit  artinstem.create.fsu.edu. The exhibition will remain in the Dirac Science Library through the summer.

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The Florida State University School of Dance will present its annual “Days of Dance” performances this month, featuring two distinct programs, each with a collection of works choreographed and performed by students and faculty.   

For more than 50 years, “Days of Dance” has been a hallmark of the season for FSU Dance, offering the Tallahassee community an opportunity to experience the breadth and caliber of work being created and performed in the studios and on the stages of Montgomery Hall.  

“We are incredibly excited to share our 2026 Days of Dance performances,” said Helanius J. Wilkins, Chair of the School of Dance. “The incredible range of the programming, including Tap, Ballet, African-Diasporic and Contemporary works, showcases the multitude of voices and perspectives that make up our School of Dance. There’s something for everyone who loves dance, so please come join us, and enjoy both programs if you’re able.”      

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The Florida State University Department of Art will host an opening reception for its annual Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition on April 17, celebrating the work of graduating students in the BFA Studio Art Program.

The collaborative exhibition, entitled “A New Paradigm,” features artwork by eight graduating BFA students: Alex Davidoff, Addison Ellis, Audrey Femia, Audrey Lendvay, Antonia Pretelt, Joanna Godfrey, Leah Linkogle and Mari Mitchell.

Each student’s artistic practice uses a variety of media, including ceramics, digital fabrication, drawing, installation, painting, papermaking, photography, printmaking and sculpture. The exhibition considers the shifting societal frameworks the students see within the present day. The title describes the culmination of their journey at FSU as they embark on their careers.

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The Florida State University School of Theatre presents “The Play That Goes Wrong,” a comedy by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, opening Friday at The Richard G. Fallon Theatre.

The show follows a troupe of actors who prove that even when their play unravels into a theatrical symphony of disasters, the show must go on.

“The School of Theatre ends the season with a bang … or in this case, perhaps a well-timed thud … as ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ leans wholeheartedly into its delightfully chaotic spirit,” says Brad Brock, director of the School of Theatre. “The show’s charm is undeniable. Everything just clicks — the writing is sharp, the set ‘mishaps’ are a puzzle the audience gets to enjoy and the cast brings such energy that you can’t help but get swept up in it. We want people to laugh so hard they leave with happy tears.”

The cast features FSU students Jacob Ost (Chris), Gabriel Martinez (Jonathan), Onyekachi Anyagaligbo (Roberta), Camryn Overstreet (Denise), Amanda Holton (Sandra), Adam Fuller (Max), Mckenna Brooke Noel (Annie) and Steffen Lawrence Robinson (Trevor).

The production is directed by Joz Vammer, with scenic design by Sophie Smrcka, lighting design by Naiomy Pérez Del Valle, sound design by Alroy Harry and costume design by Makenzie Vaughan.

Performances will run Friday, April 10, through Sunday, April 19, at the Richard G. Fallon Theatre.

Tickets are available at tickets.theatre.fsu.edu. For more information on the FSU School of Theatre’s 2026-2027 season and academic programs, visit theatre.fsu.edu.

“The Play That Goes Wrong” is presented by arrangement with Dramatists Play Service under license from Mischief Worldwide Ltd.

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The life’s work of one of America’s most decorated composers and a cornerstone of the Florida State University College of Music has found a permanent home in the nation’s capital. 

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1983, Marie Krafft Distinguished Professor of Composition and two-time FSU Alumnus, has donated her comprehensive personal archive to the Library of Congress. 

The collection was recently named one of the top five music acquisitions of 2025 by the Library’s Music Division, placing Zwilich’s legacy alongside titans of American music such as Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Stephen Sondheim. 

“The inclusion of Professor Zwilich’s archives in the Library of Congress is a magnificent tribute to a lifetime of musical innovation and excellence,” said Todd Queen, dean of the College of Music. “As both a legendary alumna and a devoted faculty member, her legacy continues to be a guiding light for the next generation of composers here at Florida State.” 

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The Florida State University Department of Art and Museum of Fine Arts will open an exhibition this April showcasing the work of the department’s ten graduating MFA studio art students. “Decentered Reframed” offers a collection of contemporary artworks spanning installation, sculpture, print, video and performance projects.

The exhibition represents the professional debut of these artists following their time in the Department of Art’s MFA in studio art. As an intensive three-year program, it is designed to offer the students the discipline, training and artistic understanding required for life as a practicing artist and professional.

“In my 13 years at FSU, I have witnessed the evolution of our Studio Art MFA program and its students’ culminating exhibitions,” said Rob Duarte, associate professor and director of the graduate program. “The work in this year’s show represents some of the most thoughtful, considered and engaging artwork that has been produced through our program. The artists have worked extraordinarily hard to arrive at this point, and I can’t wait to share in this final celebration of their efforts as MFA candidates.”

The show highlights the growth and development of these featured artists throughout the three-year MFA program. In this collaborative exhibition, Alexia Benavent-Rivera, Ysabel Flores, Hannah Glaser, Moey Hewitt, Kea Kamiya, Amarachi Odimba, Keilicia Parker, Kyle Smith, J Woltz and Jay Yue each examine the power structures that shape our culture, environment and relationships.

The exhibit will run from April 10 through May 2, with an opening reception April 10 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The artists also invite the public to a meet-and-greet followed by a series of artist talks from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Museum of Fine Arts. Additionally, there will be artist-led workshops available to the public.

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The Florida State University School of Dance will launch a one-of-a-kind certificate program this fall, providing formal training for musicians interested in working in the dance field.

Created in partnership with the College of Music, the new Dance Accompanying Certificate is designed to develop the skills, experience and musical adaptability needed to work alongside performers and choreographers in academic institutions, conservatories and professional studios.

“This certificate offers students a rare hands-on opportunity to develop both the musical and collaborative skills needed to work with dancers,” said Daniel Smith, School of Dance assistant professor and director of the certificate program. “Dance accompanying is a sophisticated musical practice that requires creativity, artistic awareness and a deep sensitivity to movement.”

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Students at Florida State University fused human creativity with modern technology during a recent 24-hour Create-a-thon. The design sprint, hosted by FSU’s Innovation Hub, challenged participants to celebrate Tallahassee’s community spirit by building interactive experiences that cultivate a lasting sense of belonging and connection.

The event served as a feature of the 2026 Festival of the Creative Arts (FCA), an initiative led by the FSU Office of Research that highlights the voices and talents of students and faculty across the university.

“Events like this Create-a-thon provide our students with a space where creativity is the primary driver of discovery,” said Ken Baldauf, founding director of the Innovation Hub. “When we bring together dancers, engineers, musicians, writers and scientists, we aren’t just making art, we are developing a universal language for problem solving that leverages the latest technologies.”

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Florida State University’s Department of Classics recently celebrated a banner night at the Archaeological Institute of America’s (AIA) Annual Meeting in San Francisco.  

Nancy de Grummond, the M. Lynette Thompson Professor of Classics and Distinguished Research Professor and director of Excavations and Research at the Cetamura del Chianti archaeological site in Tuscany, was recognized with the 2026 Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement.  

Two FSU graduates and alumni of the FSU Archaeological Field School at Cetamura del Chianti were also honored at the ceremony. 

“The AIA awards dinner in San Francisco offered a snapshot of what FSU Classics is all about: a department filled with pathbreaking and influential professors who inspire excellence in their students, who in turn become pathbreaking and influential scholars, thus ensuring that the field remains at the forefront of the humanities,” said Tim Stover, chair of the Department of Classics.  

The AIA supports archaeologists, their research and its dissemination, and the ethical practice of archaeology while promoting archaeological inquiry and public understanding of the material record of the human past to foster an appreciation of cultures and shared humanity. The Gold Medal, awarded to one archaeologist each year, recognizes distinguished contributions to the discipline through research and fieldwork. It’s considered analogous to a lifetime achievement award. 

De Grummond has served as director of Excavations and Research at Cetamura since 1983, leading generations of FSU students to the site each summer. The site was discovered in 1964 by Italian archaeologist Alvaro Tracchi, and students from FSU’s Department of Classics started excavating the site in 1973 after the FSU Florence program obtained a permit from the Italian government.  

Now known as the Archaeology in Tuscany Program, FSU students live in a Chianti hill town close to the site and excavate artifacts, study stratigraphy and learn how to process their finds while taking courses examining a variety of approaches to archaeology in the field, the lab and the museum. It is administered by International Programs.  

“It is hard to describe the joy and satisfaction that comes with this kind of recognition,” de Grummond said. “In addition, the thrill of receiving the award was magnified when I found out that two of my students were sharing the podium at the ceremony. We are all so fortunate to have had the FSU International Programs and Department of Classics create the environment where our potential was nurtured.” 

Two FSU alumni were also honored at the AIA’s Annual Meeting. Melanie Godsey (B.A. ‘13) was recognized for her contributions to the book, “Households in Context: Dwelling in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt” (Cornell University Press, 2023), which focuses on the daily lives of families in Egypt, moving beyond elite narratives. The book won the 2026 James R. Wiseman Book Award from AIA, which honors an outstanding academic book in archaeology published within the past four years that advances the field through original research and synthesis. Godsey earned her bachelor’s degree in Classical Archaeology from FSU in 2013 and is an assistant professor of Classical Studies at Trinity University in San Antonio.  

Taylor Cwikla (B.A. ‘19, M.A. ‘22) received the inaugural Gold Public Engagement Award from AIA, which recognizes members who make archaeology accessible to a broad range of non-specialist audiences. Cwikla earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Classical Archaeology from FSU and serves as a museum educator at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, building educational resources that educators worldwide can access for free.  

During their time at FSU, Godsey and Cwikla both spent time at Cetamura. Cwikla served as a field archaeologist and research assistant in 2016 and as an excavation supervisor in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Godsey was a field archaeologist and research assistant at Cetamura in 2010 and has also worked at sites in Egypt and Greece.  

Discoveries by FSU at Cetamura have unearthed a long and diverse history that encompasses successive settlements by the Etruscans (7th-1st centuries BCE), the Romans (1st century BCE-4th century CE), and Medieval Italians (11th-12th century CE). In 2023, FSU celebrated 50 years of discoveries at Cetamura with the inauguration of the new Civic Museum at the Origins of Chianti. Located 9 kilometers from the archaeological site, the museum collection highlights the archeological discoveries at Cetamura, including Etruscan and Roman artifacts. 

“The research de Grummond has done on the material found at Cetamura has helped revolutionize our understanding of the Etruscans,” Stover said. “She has been an influential, inspirational and generous scholar, one whose work has not only changed the way we think about ancient Italy but has positively impacted the lives of countless students. Two of those students, Taylor Cwikla and Melanie Godsey, have gone on to have amazing careers, so it is no surprise that they too have been recognized by the AIA.” 

For more information about FSU’s Department of Classics, visit classics.fsu.edu. To learn more about the Archaeology in Tuscany program, visit the International Programs website.  

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