Faculty

Ralph Blasting, PhD, Professor of Creative Arts (Theater) and Dean of Liberal Arts
rblasting@siena.edu

Ralph Blasting became Dean of Liberal Arts at Siena College in July 2004. Prior to that he taught theater history for fifteen years at Towson University in Baltimore, where he also served as department chair. Dean Blasting completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in scene design and a BA in German at Wayne State University in Detroit; an MA in Theater History at the University of Michigan; and his PhD at the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama at the University of Toronto. His area of specialization is medieval drama, and he is one of the few people in the world to have participated in the production of all four of the existing English Medieval Mystery plays. He has published on German medieval drama, has conducted leadership seminars for faculty, and has served as presenter or panel member in sessions on campus construction, student outcomes assessment, and various subjects in contemporary theatre. He lives in Niskayuna with his wife, Laurie Detenbeck, and their daughter Hannah.

Liz Blum, Visiting Assistant Professor (Studio Art)
eblum@siena.edu
As a visual artist my image base is reality at large, its past/present and future conditions. My interest lies in the deconstruction and manipulation of the readymade visual, as appropriation, material that is accessible to the general audience, and to make visible the unseen, or unknown, by reinventing content and meaning through storytelling, parody play and humor and to illicit response and reaction as one of pleasure and entertainment, bemusement and ambiguity. This can be as fact or the selective transforming of reality, the twisting of it to bring out its essence, fiction.

Terry Conrad, Lecturer in Creative Arts
tconrad@siena.edu
Terry Conrad is an artist working in a range of processes and materials within print media and sculpture. Recent work has been shown at IPCNY, Art Chicago, and Vox Populi in Philadelphia. Recent residencies have included Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Conrad received a MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and his BFA from Alfred University.

Steve Fletcher, Lecturer in Creative Arts
sfletcher@siena.edu

Steve Fletcher has been an adjunct professor at Siena College since 1998. His classes have included Acting One, Acting Two, Introduction to the Theatre, and Voice and Movement for the Stage. His directing credits at Siena include Godspell, The Servant of Two Masters, and Rumors. Acting credits include a nine year run as Brad Vernon on ABC's daytime drama One Life to Live. He recently starred in Curtain Call Theatre's production of Rabbit Hole and Love Letters and can be currently seen in the movie Dorian Blues, and the upcoming movie The Skeptic. Regional theatre credits include Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sergeant Toomey in Biloxi Blues, Sky in Guys and Dolls, Mack the Knife in The Threepenny Opera, Quentin in After the Fall, McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac and Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew. He earned his BFA and MFA from the Goodman School of Drama i nChicago and was a founding member of the Wisdom Bridge Theatre Company and the Free Street Theatre Company. He is also an avid painter, passionate dancer and, during the summer months, Sailing Director at Camp Chingachgook, Lake George, New York.

Scott Foster, MFA, Assistant Professor of Creative Arts (Studio Art)
sfoster@siena.edu
http://scottnelsonfoster.com/index.htm

Scott received his BA in painting, drawing, and printmaking from Northwest Nazarene University, and his MFA in painting and drawing from Utah State University. He has worked in a variety of two dimensional media including glue and egg temperas, watercolor, oil, and serigraphy. His interest in esoteric and unusual artistic practices has allowed him opportunities to work with iconographers, fresco painters, performance artists, and alchemists. An avid experimenter, Scott uses both ancient and contemporary materials to create nuanced images of the suburban and urban landscape which he has exhibited in solo and juried shows in the western United States. Scott comes to Siena College from Utah State University, where he has served as the Exhibitions and Visiting Artist Program Coordinator, and as a Lecturer in the department of art. Mr. Foster has also taught watercolor and plein air workshops amid the scenic beauty of Utah and Idaho. Scott currently teaches drawing and painting at Siena.

Amanda Green, MFA, Assistant Professor of Creative Arts (Studio Art)
agreen@siena.edu

Amanda Green is an interdisciplinary artist who has created pieces involving video, installation, music, light, shadow, dance, sculpture, drawing, and painting. Her solo and collaborative visual works and musical performances have been exhibited and performed primarily in New England, the Los Angeles and Tampa Bay areas, Europe and Asia. She is currently working on a book of original images combining traditional and digital media as well as a series of experimental videos. Amanda holds a BA in Literature from Bennington College, an MA in English from The Claremont Graduate University, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College. She currently teaches digital photography, experimental video, new art forms and contemporary critique.

Mark Grimm, Lecturer in Creative Arts
mark@markgrimm.com

Mark Grimm, an adjunct journalism professor, is a former TV news anchor who has conducted one-on-one interviews with two US presidents. He has appeared on the Phil Donahue show and the CBS national news. He founded Mark Grimm Communications in 2002. It is a media relations and public speaking training firm in Guilderland (www.markgrimm.com). Mark, a 1978 Siena grad, is the executive producer/host of the Siena AlumniConnection on WVCR, 88.3 The Saint. It airs Saturday at 10 am and again on Sunday at 6 pm. Professor Grimm was a Conlin Scholar as an English major at Siena and has a master's degree in communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

Ken Jubie,Lecturer in Creative Arts

Ken Jubie has a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University’s New House School of Public Communications and works with Time Warner Cable, serving as a sideline reporter for college and high school sportscasts. Before returning to work at Siena, which is his alma mater, Ken was a reporter, anchor and sports anchor at YNN, Time Warner Cable's 24-hour news channel in Albany, New York. He also served as an associate producer and assignment editor at YNN's sister station in Syracuse.

Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, SED, Professor of Creative Arts (Theatre)
mhakak@siena.edu

Office Hours

Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, Artistic Director of Mahak International Artists Inc., is a poet, theatre director and filmmaker. He has written, produced, directed, designed and/or acted in over 50 stage and screen productions in the US, Europe and his native Iran, and is the recipient of three international awards. His literary credits include five plays, two books of poetry, several translations from and into Persian and numerous articles and interviews both in English and Persian. Karimi-Hakak has taught at CUNY, Towson and Southern Methodist universities in the US, and universities in Belgium and Iran.

Paul Konye, PhD, Associate Professor of Creative Arts (Music)
pkonye@siena.edu

Office Hours
Dr. Paul Konye earned his PhD in Musicology from the University of Kentucky School of Music. In addition, Dr. Konye studied music theory with Joel Lester at City College of New York, composition with Joe Baber at the University of Kentucky, chamber music with Ms. Rogell at the New England Conservatory, conducting with Vincent LaSelva at the Juilliard School. His latest composition Migrations: A Global Portrait is on Vol. 14 on ERM label. Dr. Konye frequently participates in chamber music performances. As a conductor, Paul Konye has conducted college, community, and professional orchestras. He is presently Assistant Professor of Music at Siena College where he teaches a variety of courses in music and conducts the Siena Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Konye was also the conductor of the Clifton Park Community, and Muson Symphony Orchestra.

Brian Massman, Lecturer in Creative Arts
bmassman@siena.edu

Brian Massman holds an MFA in Media Arts from the University of Montana. He has worked professionally as a stage actor for many years, touring across the U.S. and Canada in dramas, comedies, musicals and Shakespeare. In Montana, Brian was the creator/host of his own one-man television variety program: TVI, which he wrote, directed, photographed, edited, scored and performed every role in himself. He has also designed media projections for several stage productions.

Denise Massman (Chair), MFA, Assistant Professor of Creative Arts (Theatre)
dmassman@siena.edu

Office Hours
Denise Massman, specializing in stage design, designed professionally for the stage for over 25 years before coming to teaching in 2004. She has designed for all the major theatre companies in Montana, including the Montana Repertory Theatre and Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. She taught at the University of Montana and at Lawrence University in Wisconsin before coming to Siena. Denise received her M.F.A from the University of Montana in Costume Design and Technology with a secondary emphasis in Set Design. She earned her B.A. in Studio Art from Montana State University with a minor in Art History. She designs sets, costumes and lighting regularly for Siena College's Creative Arts department. Her latest professional work includes costumes for Commotion in Motion, an educational dance piece about the laws of physics for the MoTran's Dance Company. The dance was featured at the National Dance Association's conference in Saratoga Springs in the summer of 2007. Professor Massman currently serves as chair of the Creative Arts Department.

Timothy Reno, DMA, Assistant Professor of Creative Arts (Music)
treno@siena.edu

Office Hours

Timothy Reno teaches choral and vocal music at Siena College. Dr. Reno is in high demand as a conductor, clinician, singer, and keyboardist. While earning MM and DMA degrees in choral conducting at the University of Maryland, Tim directed every performing ensemble and taught classroom vocal pedagogy and conducting. In 2010 he was a conducting fellow at the Philadelphia Bach Institute with Helmuth Rilling. He holds a BM in music education and vocal performance from Ithaca College. Tim has appeared as a tenor soloist and professional ensemble singer in the DC area, CT, and Germany. He lives in Albany with his wife Andrea, their son Liam, and Seamus the eccentric beagle.

Paul Ricciardi, MFA, Assistant Professor of Creative Arts (Theatre)
pricciardi@siena.edu
Office Hours
Paul Ricciardi currently teaches Acting and Voice and Movement at Siena; he also serves as the resident voice, speech and dialect coach for the Theater Program. As an actor and award winning solo performer, Paul has worked extensively throughout New York City and regionally. Recent regional theater credits include Hamlet at Saratoga Shakespeare Company, Love Song at Chester Theater Company, The New Play Festival at Proctor's Theatre, and Take Me Out at Boston's Speakeasy Stage (IRNE Award, best ensemble). Paul is currently earning his Linklater Teacher Designation and is an active participant with the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival where he was awarded the 2009 National Teaching Artist Grant. He earned is MFA in Acting from Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI.

Leah Rico, Lecturer in Creative Arts
lrico@siena.edu
Leah Rico is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores language as its subject matter. Leah uses sound installation, experimental audio, drawing, print and design work to examine the embodiment of voices as words and gestures, and language as a metaphor for worldly experience. Leah received an MFA in Visual Studies and BFA in Painting and Printmaking from SUNY Buffalo. She has exhibited sound work in traditional gallery spaces and at non-traditional sites on the east and west coasts, including Princeton University, the Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, The Gwen Frostic School of Art in Michigan, the Karpeles Manuscript Library in Buffalo, and the Soundwalk Festival in Long Beach, CA

Margo Stavros, Lecturer in Creative Arts
mstavros@siena.edu

Margo Stavros received her BA in art history from the University of Michigan, MA in art history from Indiana University, and PhD in art history from Pennsylvania State University. She came to Siena in 2003 as the Convivium Teaching Fellow. She teaches Foundations, Medieval Studies, and art history courses in Late Antique and Early Byzantine art and architecture, Medieval art and architecture, and the surveys of art and architecture. Prior to this, she taught the history of art and architecture, Italian and modern Greek languages, and was assistant to the director of the Center for Medieval Studies at Penn State. She was the assistant to the curator of ancient art at the Indiana University Art Museum. Her current research interest is in precious metal jewelry from Byzantium and the Medieval Balkans.

Rebecca Taylor, JD, Assistant Professor of Creative Arts (Journalism)
retaylor@siena.edu

Office Hours
Professor Rebecca Taylor is an award-winning journalist and lawyer with a background in print and broadcast news. She has written for daily newspapers and worked as a reporter and anchor for major talk radio and television news stations. A former trial attorney, she has served as a legal affairs analyst on high-profile court cases. Taylor teaches all aspects of news writing and reporting with an emphasis on media law and First Amendment theory.

Edward Ticson, Lecturer in Creative Arts
eticson@siena.edu

Edward Ticson, after receiving his BS from Siena College, worked as a freelance commercial artist illustrating for textbooks before attending graduate school. He received his MFA from the University of Albany in May 1999, where he taught both drawing and painting. Since graduating, Edward has taught at the College of St. Rose and is currently teaching at Siena College. His work has appeared in both regional and national shows.

Patricia Trutty-Coohill, PhD, Professor of Creative Arts (Art History)
ptrutty@siena.edu
Office Hours
http://web.me.com/ptrutty/Site/Welcome.html

Patricia Trutty-Coohill received her Ph.D. in Art History at Penn State in 1982, and has been at Siena since 2000. She teaches art history courses in World Art, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern art, as well as seminars on Leonardo da Vinci. Her primary research interests are Leonardo da Vinci and his followers, Michelangelo, and the phenomenological criticism of contemporary art. Dr. Trutty-Coohill was a recipient of Siena's Raymond Kennedy Award for Scholarship in 2004.