Assistant Professor of Art Danielle Mysliwiec and her Brainstormers collective are making waves—politely—in a New York City exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, regarded as the birth of the gay rights movement.

Check out a welcome letter from Dean Kurt Daw, sent Aug. 13 to new SF State Creative Arts students. “No matter your major, creativity is an integral part of the university experience, giving you and edge in the classroom, in the studio or on stage and in the professional realm,” Daw writes. “It seems that not a day goes by without SF State alumni contributions to arts and popular culture coming to our attention. So many Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony nominees attended SF State—people like Danny Glover, Annette Bening, Kent Nagano, Jeffrey Tambor, Delroy Lindo, Alex Borstein and Paul Gemignani. Will you be the next?“

Check out the August 2009 edition of the Creative Arts E-Lert, the official e-mail newsletter of the SF State College of Creative Arts. This issue highlights the upcoming exhibition “ComuniCarte: Art, Education, Environment and Community in Central America.” The newsletter also includes news on a student documentary traveling to Africa with the U.S. Department of State, alumnus and Pixar film producer Jonas Rivera, reflections from notable alumni on their SF State experience and more.

Thousands in the the Bay Area know Peter Finch’s voice as the longtime news director at KFOG-FM. Now they are getting to know the Radio and Television alum’s voice in a much different way, through his plays. Finch wrote “Aaron Trotter and the Incident at Bikini Beach,” now playing at the Exit Theatre in San Francisco.

SF State now has at least two connections to Sarah Palin. One of her last acts as Alaska governor was appointing Design and Industry alumnus Mark Vinsel to the Alaska Board of Forestry.