UCA faculty members receive fellowships from arts council

By Carol Rolf

Photo by submitted photo

Robin Becker, left, and Huixia Lu, faculty members at the University of Central Arkansas, are recipients of Individual Artist Fellowships from the Arkansas Arts Council. They received their awards Oct. 6 during the 2009 Governor’s Arts Awards and Individual Artist Fellowship Recipient Recognition luncheon at the Hot Springs Convention Center.

ADVERSTISMENT

RIVER VALLEY and OZARK AREA — Two University of Central Arkansas faculty members have received Individual Artist Fellowships from the Arkansas Arts Council.

Huixia Lu and Robin Baker each received the $4,000 award during the 2009 Governor’s Arts Awards luncheon Oct. 6 at the Hot Springs Convention Center. Three artistic disciplines are selected each year as categories for the awards, which are given in recognition of artistic abilities. This year’s categories were contemporary and traditional crafts, film and video, and short stories.

Lu is a filmmaker and Baker, a writer.

Lu is an assistant professor of mass communication and teaches digital filmmaking at UCA, where she has been an instructor for five years. A native of China, she has been in the United States for nine years. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in filmmaking from Temple University in Philadelphia and a Bachelor of Science degree in English from the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China.

“This is my first teaching job,” she said. “I came to UCA right out of graduate school.”

Lu said she worked as a TV journalist and filmmaker in China before coming to the United States. Since she has been in Arkansas, she has worked on a number of films that have been shown at film festivals in both Hot Springs and Little Rock. She was director of photography forIs You Is, a feature-length documentary on the African-American musician and Arkansas native Louis Jordan, which was included in the 2008 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

“Filmmaking is really growing, not only at UCA, but across Arkansas,” she said. “I feel very lucky to be able to teach in such a setting.”

Lu said she had to apply for the fellowship. She submitted her narrative film When I Was Young, which was shot on super 16 millimeter film.

“I was not so surprised that I won,” she said with a smile. “I thought my film was a good thing. We have a lot of wonderful filmmakers in Arkansas. I am happy to be a part of it, to be a part of America. I am happy to be finding out the history and culture of people and to incorporate this into my filmmaking.”

Lu said she planned to use her $4,000 “to make morefilms.”

Becker is a writing instructor at UCA, where she has been on staff for the last three years. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in English and creative writing from Louisiana StateUniversity in Baton Rogue and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin.

“I’m a Southern girl,” she said with a smile as she talked about her academic background.

Becker, who was born in Hackensack, N.J., taught a wide range of courses in Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri before coming to UCA. She served as poetry editor for the New Delta Review at LSU and received the Superior Instructor Award and a Teaching Fellowship Award at LSU.

She submitted a short story about Conway’s Stuck on a Truck contest, which is part of the annual Toad Suck Daze Festival.

“I love that contest,” she said. “I’ve never been in it but I like to attend it and watch.” (The winner of the contest is the last one who keeps his or her hands on the truck.)

Becker has just finished a novel, Brains: A Zomoir, whichis to be published by Harper-Collins.

“It’s the memoirs of a zombie,” she explained.

She has also written a collection of short stories about roller coasters and theme parks.

Becker said she was “pleased and surprised” when she learned of her award. She plans to use part of her fellowship award to purchase a new laptop computer, “so I can write more.” - crolf@ arkansasonline.com

River Valley Ozark, Pages 152 on 11/08/2009