Bios
B. Stephen Carpenter II
B. Stephen Carpenter II, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State since January 2020, is a professor of art education and African American studies.
Carpenter, who earned two degrees at Penn State, joined the college’s School of Visual Arts faculty in 2011. He began serving as interim director of the school in August 2018. He is co-director of the Studio for Sustainability and Social Action, which received a Penn State Strategic Initiative Seed Grant for 2019–21. He is also chief executive artist for Reservoir Studio and co-director of the Summer Institute on Contemporary Art, a professional development workshop for pre-K–12 teachers.
As dean, Carpenter serves as the college’s principal academic and administrative officer, reporting directly to the executive vice president and provost of the University. He oversees the college’s academic programs in music, theatre, visual arts, art education, graphic design, art history, architecture, and landscape architecture.
The college is home to approximately 1,225 undergraduate and 265 graduate students, 200 full-time and 60 part-time faculty, and 120 full-time staff. The college is committed to artistic and scholarly creativity, research, and the preparation of specialized practitioners in all of the arts and design disciplines, along with community engagement in its programs.
The college also includes the Center for the Performing Arts, Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State Centre Stage, and Penn’s Woods Music Festival, which serve as important cultural resources providing educational outreach programs for Penn State and surrounding communities.
In addition, it is home to several research centers and institutes that help to foster a vibrant culture of inquiry that promotes excellence within the arts and design disciplines, while leveraging the potential of a comprehensive research university.
Carpenter previously had tenure-track faculty positions in art and art education at Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth, and Old Dominion universities. His research interests are in curriculum theory; professional development through art for pre-K–12 educators; public pedagogy and participatory art practices; critical art education studies; and the global water crisis as curriculum. His mixed-media assemblages, installations, and performance artworks aim to confront and disrupt social, historical, cultural, and political constructs.
He has authored, co-authored, and edited more than 100 scholarly publications, and presented at national and international conferences on art education, visual culture, and curriculum theory.
He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in visual art from Slippery Rock University in 1987, and master of education and doctoral degrees in art education from Penn State in 1989 and 1996, respectively.
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Michael Mwenso
Michael Mwenso was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, but moved to London as a child. He spent his teen years hanging out at the legendary jazz club Ronnie Scott’s, where he was exposed to musicians such as Benny Carter, Elvin Jones, Ray Brown, and Billy Higgins.
He had already started honing his talents as a trombonist, singer, and performer, playing in jump bands, reggae and Afrobeat horn sections, and at hard-bop sessions. Mwenso’s talent as a performer caught the attention of many, which lead him to meet James Brown. The funk legend became a mentor and allotted space for him to sing and dance at his London shows.
In 2012, friend and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis brought Mwenso to New York City to serve as curator and programming associate at Jazz at Lincoln Center, where he also booked nightly sets at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. Over the next few years, Mwenso booked and performed with the likes of Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jon Batiste, Aaron Diehl, Sullivan Fortner, and Jamison Ross.
Through the performances, at Dizzy’s, Mwenso began to collaborate with a variety of Juilliard-trained musicians, a collective that soon became known as The Shakes. This unique group of global artists present music that merges entertainment and artistry with a formidable timeline of jazz and blues through African and Afro-American music. The group has toured extensively through the United States and has received high praise from the debut release Emergence.
Visit Mwenso and the Shakes to learn more.