PFW’s Music Therapy Program Brings Students, Instructors, Alumni, and the Community Together

for a Heartwarming Holiday Celebration

The undergraduate and graduate music therapy students came together to support the YWCA of Northeast Indiana's annual "Holiday Hugs" party for children and families during their stay at the Y this past December. CVPA would like to extend a special thank you to Charlene Delaney, MMT, MT-BC, a recent graduate of our Masters program in Music Therapy and the first music therapist employed at the YWCA, for helping to make this event possible.

You can learn more about our Music Therapy program and experience the joy of seeing our students, therapists, and clients perform together when you attend our Music Therapy Client Recital on Saturday, February 14 at 2:30 p.m. in Rhinehart Recital Hall! The recital will be preceded by a special lecture on topics in music therapy by our new program director, Dr. Daniel Evans, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. in the Music Center, Room 122. Both events are free and all ages are welcome to attend! 

Dean John O'Connell is retiring on June 30, 2026, after 19 years at Purdue Fort Wayne and 14 years as dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. To show our appreciation and send him off in the style he deserves, we're planning a rollicking retirement party!

Thursday, April 30

4:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Walb Student Union International Ballroom

Expect delightful live entertainment, buffet appetizers and desserts, many laughs, and maybe just a few tears as we gather to wish him well in his upcoming retirement. No RSVPs required, and everyone is invited. Come as you are, and bring friends!

As we prepare for the party, we would love to hear from John's current and former colleagues, students, family, and friends near and far. Please consider submitting a memory or photo for our presentation, or volunteering for a toast! 

Interested in participating or sharing memories?

Please respond via this form by April 16, 2026.



Community Arts Academy Receives Grant from Associated Chamber Music Players

Community Arts Academy has received a $1,000 grant from the Associated Chamber Music Players (ACMP) to fund the Summer Chamber Music Academy’s second year. Thanks to ACMP’s generosity, this popular camp will now have the capacity to include adult, amateur players who will participate in this experience alongside our high school musicians. 

The mission of ACMP is to stimulate and expand the playing of chamber music for pleasure among musicians worldwide, of all backgrounds, ages and skill levels, by connecting people and supporting chamber music activities for individuals, groups and institutions. Learn more about the grant and ACMP here.

Author Employs PFW Student Illustrators for Meaningful Picture Book

Author Tonalee Shinabery-King spent over 30 years as an educator before publishing her first children’s book, More Than a Mushroom Hunt, available now. Perhaps that is why she has a deep respect for education and a desire to give students the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in the arts. For the illustrations in More Than a Mushroom Hunt, she employed four PFW Art and Design students as well as one student from Huntington University.

On a cold December morning, Shinabery-King and all five student illustrators gathered in PFW’s Visual Arts Gallery for a series of promotional interviews for Fort Wayne’s 21Alive. From left to right: Raynaldo “Ray” Luckett III, studying graphic design; Emily Karcher, a film student from Huntington University; Cadence Reed, studying interior design; Kaitlyn Gulley, studying graphic design; author Tonalee Shinabery-King; Ryan Costello from 21Alive; and Esther Richhart, studying art education.

To learn more about Shinabery-King, the student illustrators, and to purchase the book, visit Tales by Tonalee.

Watch the 21Alive segments here, here, here, and here. 

John Hrehov, professor of drawing and painting, had two paintings selected for the 127th Annual Exhibition of Indiana and Ohio Artists at the Richmond Art Museum in Richmond, IN. The exhibition ran from November 6, 2025, to January 10, 2026. Hrehov’s included paintings are titled “Morning Nancy (Indianola)” (right) and “New Message” (upper left).

Additionally, Hrehov’s painting, “Neighbor Flowers,” (upper right) is included in Artlink’s current exhibition, Midwest Regional Exhibit, on display now through February 8, 2026. 

Dr. John Romey Wins Prestigious Nancy Lyman Roelker Prize

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Musicology Dr. John Romey, who has won the 2025 Nancy Lyman Roelker Prize. Awarded by the Sixteenth Century Society, this honor recognizes his outstanding article on Philippe-Emmanuel de Coulanges, song games, and operatic culture in 17th-century Paris. Titled ‘The pieces that are in the hands of everyone belong to the public’: Philippe-Emmanuel de Coulanges, Song Games and Operatic Artefacts in Seventeenth-Century Paris’, and published in Volume 36 Issue 3 of the Cambridge Opera Journal, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in Early Modern France and its empire (1450–1750). Read the article and learn more about the prize here.

For the Birds

Several pieces by metalsmithing artist and lecturer Robert Schroeder have been selected for a prestigious jewelry show at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in Miami, Florida. The exhibition celebrates jewelry by artists who are not jewelers by trade or tradition. Cast in bronze or sterling silver, his fabulous flamingo brooches are lightweight and wearable due to their hollow design. The gauntlet featured is part of a series of irreverent bracelets satirizing well-known, historic paintings. This one is based on “The Oath of the Horati” and is fashioned from painted, electroformed copper. 

Thank You for Bringing Us Home for the Holidays

Did you attend our annual Home for the Holidays concert? If so, you might be interested in reading about the herculean effort required to successfully create a concert of this magnitude. The lineup featured the University and Community Orchestra, University Jazz Band, Chamber Treble Singers, Choral Union, University Singers, and a variety of student chamber ensembles performing timeless holiday tunes.

In this thoughtful feature by Blake Sebring for PFW News, he interviews Dr. Kevin McMahon (above) and Dr. William Sauerland (right), conductors of the orchestra and choirs, respectively, on what it takes to bring this beloved tradition to Purdue University Fort Wayne each December.

Mixed media artist and lecturer Dana Caldera has been awarded a Work In Progress: Micro-Support Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission for her studio work for two upcoming local exhibitions.

The exhibitions are Picnic, a two-person presentation at Weatherhead Gallery at the University of Saint Francis, in March 2026, and Family Linens, a solo presentation at Artlink to be exhibited in September 2026.

Above: I Cross the Ties Behind Your Back and Bring Them to the Front to Tie them in a Bow, As I Do With Mine



Handmade paper made from pulp with found paper, virgin cotton, and dryer lint, with torn apron ties and quilting thread inclusions

30 x 22 inches approx

Dana Caldera, 2025 

CVPA Bragging Rights

Number of Students on the Fall 2025 Dean's List

200

Fall 2025 to Spring 2026 Student Retention Rate

90%

To make the Dean's List, students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.50 and a minimum semester GPA of 3.00.

Ceramics student Teagan Koble has become an internet sensation since she began combining her experience in baking with her passion for pottery. In this special feature by Blake Sebring for PFW News, Koble shares her journey and her goal to become a professor like her mentor, Associate Professor of Ceramics Seth Green.

Follow Koble on Instagram: @teagan.a.art

CVPA Students Win Big at the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Inc. (NATS) Awards

Anna Ousley

2nd place: 2nd Year Classical Treble

2nd place: 2nd Year Musical Theatre Treble

Alina Brinker

3rd place: 3rd Year Musical Theatre Treble

Congratulations to graduating Art & Design student Miranda Thomas (left) who recently presented her senior project, Faces of the Front: Stories from Fort Wayne’s Storefronts at the Fall 2025 Honors Program Showcase.

Thomas was mentored by Professor James Gabbard (right) throughout the documentary and photography project, which highlights the history, people, and cultural impact of Fort Wayne’s shifting independent business scene. 

Rocking Out at NAMM

Commercial Music students Hailee Richmond and Reece Hunt traveled to Anaheim, California on January 19 to the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) convention. This excursion was sponsored by the PFW Honors Program, Dean O’Connell's discretionary scholarship funds, and NAMM’s Lamond Next Generation Scholarship.

Richmond and Hunt, who are both juniors with double concentrations in Recording & Production and Songwriting & Performance, traveled to this convention to gain a deeper understanding of the music industry that is tied into their Honors classes. While at the five-day trade show, the largest convention of its kind in the world, Richmond focused on marketing seminars and networking with students and industry professionals.

Her Honors project will explore the power dynamic between women and men in the music industry and the current pivotal point where this is changing. Hunt focused on songwriting, AI seminars, and networking with professional musicians. His Honors project will discuss the future of music, specifically the creativity of songwriting, and what it could look like in the future as technology evolves. Both students will use their research in their senior Honors projects.

“Not only did I learn valuable lessons about the music industry in these five days," Richmond said, "but I realized how great the education is that I am receiving at PFW. So many other students were asking questions that I knew the answers to because of my professors.”

Two PFW students recently placed in Honeywell Arts & Entertainment’s Next Generation: University Art Competition.

Hailey Little

3rd place: 3-D category

Isaac Burns

Honorable Mention

Fresh off graduating with honors and presenting her final project (see above!), December 2025 Art & Design graduate Miranda Thomas has accepted an exciting new position as a graphic designer for Fill-Rite, a company that specializes in pumps, meters, and fueling equipment for leaders in industries like agriculture and construction. 

We wish Miranda and all of our December graduates the best of luck in their future careers!

Thanks, Blake!

The College of Visual and Performing Arts would like to wish Blake Sebring the best of luck in his retirement from the PFW News Center, and thank him for his many wonderful stories about our students and faculty.