- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Krain’s Work in New Photography Exhibit Opening April 4

John Hill — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 13:05:18 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a new photography exhibit by photojournalist Ben Krain from April 4 to May 6. Krain’s exhibit, “Encounters,” will be on display in the Focus Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art and Design. The Focus Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, and 2-5 p.m. Sunday. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Krain, the university’s photographer and a former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette photographer, has 20 years of experience photographing events, sports, disasters, and wars. In some instances, he is the eyes of the world and goes to places where most people don’t want to go. The more challenging are those of everyday life. The simple exploration of nothing. The content is not about news, it’s about the human spirit. These are the photographs in this exhibit. A graduate of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Krain has won numerous state and national awards. His work has been featured in publications like Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times. For more information, contact Focus Gallery Director Joli Livaudais at jklivaudais@ualr.edu.

Arkansas Arts Council Selects Yamada for Individual Artist Fellowship

John Hill — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 14:27:59 +0000

The and the Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism has selected Kensuke Yamada, an assistant professor of ceramics at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, as a recipient of the 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship Award. Individual Artist Fellowship awards are unconditional, non-matching awards made directly to individual Arkansas artists. An independent panel annually selects nine artists in rotating categories to receive fellowships of $4,000 each. “Being selected for the Arkansas Arts Council fellowship is an absolute honor,” Yamada said. “I’ve spent about seven years working and living in Arkansas. This fellowship makes me feel like I’m a part of the Arkansas arts community, and that’s a wonderful thing.” This year, artists from around the state submitted applications for the fellowships in three categories: cinematic arts, poetry and contemporary crafts. Yamada, of Little Rock, earned a fellowship for contemporary crafts. The Arkansas Arts Council honored the fellowship recipients during a virtual evening program on Oct. 6 in conjunction with ArtLinks 2021, the virtual, statewide arts conference sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council. “Arkansas Arts Council fellowships showcase the wide range of arts our state has to offer,” said Stacy Hurst, secretary of the department. “From music and dancing to painting and sculpture, art is a driving economic force in Arkansas, and we take pride in knowing that these grants help artists pursue their projects, which in turn enhance the lives of all of us.” A native of Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, Yamada earned a bachelor’s degree in studio art at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and a master’s degree in studio art at University of Montana, Missoula. Originally, Yamada took a very different path from art.

Professor Kensuke Yamada is surrounded by his artwork.

“When I was in Japan, I studied speech pathology, and I did a residency at a hospital for a year,” Yamada said. “I was so young to commit my life to one job, and I came to America to try to find what I liked to do. I took a ceramic class, and I had a great teacher, and I got hooked. I used to be the kind of person who didn’t want to wake up to go to school in the morning. With ceramics, I feel like I found something. From the very first time, I felt like I was so excited that I just wanted to create.” Before joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2018, Yamada previously worked as a visiting artist at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and Center College in Danville, Kentucky. He has exhibited his work extensively throughout the United States. He has participated in artist residency programs at The Archie Bray Foundation, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Oregon College of Art and Craft, and was an invited guest to make a sculpture at Chihuly, Inc. and Ox-Bow. His most recent exhibit, “Collectively Alone,” was displayed earlier this year at Historic Arkansas Museum. The work of Yamada and ��Vlog��ý Little Rock photographer Ben Krain converged around the artists’ observations and thoughts surrounding the loneliness of creating during the COVID-19 era. Yamada is currently working on a ceramic sculpture for the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Massachusetts that will be completed in summer 2022.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock student entrepreneurs come out on top at Arkansas Governor’s Cup

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 20:44:12 +0000

A dream team of student entrepreneurs from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has won two of the top honors at the Arkansas Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition, a statewide business plan competition for college and graduate students sponsored by Arkansas Capital Corporation. The Vascugenix team won first place in the Winrock Automotive Undergraduate Division and a $25,000 prize. The team also captured first place and a prize of $5,000 in the undergraduate Innovate Arkansas Innovation Division for a total of $30,000 in prize money. Team members include ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students Noah Asher, senior finance and economics major and Donaghey Scholar; Abigail Resendiz, senior international business and management major and Donaghey Scholar; and Zach Cochran, senior economics major. Martial Trigeaud, a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock adjunct professor and business consultant at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, serves as the team’s mentor. “I am very proud of the team,” Trigeaud said. “The Arkansas Governor’s Cup is an amazing event with amazing judges, and we are very proud to be the winners of the 2019 undergraduate division and innovation division competitions.” The group collaborated with and Baptist Health Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit Nurse Anna Helm to commercialize a medical device invented by Chrisman. The device, the Speed-Torque, is a medical torque device used by surgeons in minimally invasive heart surgery. In addition to the Arkansas Governor’s Cup awards, the team was named a semifinalist in the Rice Business Plan Competition Aug. 4-6 and plans to launch its medical startup company after raising a significant amount in funding from investors. MBA student Gabriella De Lima also joined Vascugenix for the Rice competition. When Trigeaud first suggested the students enter the prestigious Rice Business Plan Competition, Asher thought it was a waste of time.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Team Vascugenix won first place in the Winrock Automotive Undergraduate Division and first place in the undergraduate Innovate Arkansas Innovation Division at the Arkansas Governor’s Cup.

“This is the largest and richest student startup venture competition in the world,” Asher said. “Only 42 teams from 400 applications from the top universities are chosen. It would take an act of God for an undergraduate team to get selected.” “The hard work in Martial Trigeaud’s business boot camps paid off, and we made it,” Resendiz added. As one of 15 teams to make it to the semifinalist round, the students took home a $2,000 prize. One of the allures of competing in the Rice Business Plan Competition is the ability to pitch and network with hundreds of judges consisting of investors, venture capitalists, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and corporations who are looking to invest in the next big idea. “You’re sitting in a room with a sea of millionaires who are looking to invest in your company,” Cochran said. “That is just from people who came up to us at the competition and saw our pitch. We have a significant amount of people who are interested in investing in our company.” Asher believes their company is appealing to investors because they already have a mature business plan with a viable product that can be launched relatively quickly. “One of the reasons I think we did so well raising money is that we are a mature startup company,” he said. “We have a very simple but needed product that fits in a niche market that we can dominate. It can give investors a quick return on their investment.” The students say the experience they have gained pitching in front of investors is invaluable. “I can now say that I’ve successfully pitched in front of ventures capitalists, and that is a cool thing to say in front of potential employers,” Resendiz said. “Competing at the same level of master’s and Ph.D. students and people who have 15 plus years of experience in their fields and still being able to surpass them is an excellent feeling.” After an eventful week of competitions, Team Vascugenix isn’t resting on its laurels. The students left the Arkansas Governor’s Cup and immediately headed to the airport to compete in the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota April 11-13. Funded by the , the challenge is the largest undergraduate-only venture pitch competition in North America in terms of cash prizes with a top prize of $75,000 and $250,000 in total prizes awarded.

Team Vascugenix competes at the Rice Business Plan Competition at Rice University on April 4. Team members include, from left to right, Abigail Resendiz, Zach Cochran, Martial Trigeaud, Noah Asher, and Gabriella De Lima.

“We wouldn’t have made it into this competition without the help of the university’s photographer, Ben Krain, who shot a seven-minute video we needed to enter this competition,” Resendiz said. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s team is one of 25 finalists selected from more than 100 entries representing 61 colleges and universities across America. Students will participate in a “pitch slam” elevator pitch event and an innovation challenge. Teams also will be awarded for outstanding potential to have social and global impact. Student teams also will be networking with top entrepreneurs from around the country, including Richard M. Schulze, founder of Best Buy. The students would like to thank Trigeaud; Dr. Jane Wayland, Stephen Harrow Smith Dean of Business; Laura Fine, director of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center; and Dr. Mark Funk, chair of the Department of Economics and Finance, for their assistance in developing their startup company and participating in competitions. Once the competition season is over, Vascugenix will move forward with plans to develop the Speed-Torque for a commercial release. “We’ll look for the investors who fit the best with our company culture and vision for the future,” said Asher. “We want investors with the right networks of contacts who can help us succeed.” They are also in talks with health technology accelerators to conduct pre-market clinical trials through Baptist Health and possibly the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “After our clinical trial, we will be ready to begin selling in the market. We will target the South and Midwest based out of Little Rock,” Asher said. In the upper right photo, a team of business students (Zach Cochran, bottom left, Noah Asher, center, and Abigail Resendiz, bottom right) from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock have won first place in the Winrock Automotive Undergraduate Division and first place in the undergraduate Innovate Arkansas Innovation Division at the Arkansas Governor’s Cup. The students collaborated with Arkansas Cardiology Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Dwight Christman, back left, Baptist Health Cardiovascular Nurse Anna Helm, center left, and Martial Trigeaud, back right, to commercialize a medical device invented by Chrisman to help cardiologists perform heart surgery with greater safety and efficiency. Photo by Ben Krain.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Krain’s Work in New Photography Exhibit Opening April 4

Arkansas Arts Council Selects Yamada for Individual Artist Fellowship

����Vlog��ý Little Rock student entrepreneurs come out on top at Arkansas Governor’s Cup

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Krain’s Work in New Photography Exhibit Opening April 4

��Vlog��ý Little Rock student entrepreneurs come out on top at Arkansas Governor’s Cup