---

Sports Journalist Chris Mannix hosted by Center for Sports Communication

Mannix, a Sports Illustratedwriter and NBC Sports host, will talk and answer questions about his experiences covering sports and offer advice to aspiring sports media professionals. The event is free and open to the public. Mannix is perhaps best known for his insider coverage of the NBA and professional boxing, covering both sports for Sports Illustrated, where he has worked since 2003. He is also the host of the Chris Mannix Show on NBC Sports Radio and is the ringside reporter for Fight Night on NBC and NBC Sports Network. Mannix has been a frequent guest on sports talk programs such as The Dan Patrick Show and ESPN’s Outside the Lines.

Mannix has also become well known for his writing about first-person experiences with athletes. He played guard in the NBA D-league, enrolled in bull riding school, and most famously sparred against boxer Juan Manuel Marquez. Growing up in Boston, Mannix started working in sports as a teenager as a locker room attendant for the Boston Celtics and by covering high school sports for The Boston Globe. He continued those roles while earning his undergraduate degree in English from Boston College. For more information about the event or the Marist College Center for Sports Communication, please visit its website at sportscomm.marist.edu.

Fashion Capstone in Paris

It was a “fashion first.” With the launch of a new semester abroad program with French partner ModˡSpè Paris Institut Supérieur Spécialisé de la Mode, came the exciting new opportunity of a Fashion Merchandising capstone project that crossed the Atlantic. In the first international project for graduating fashion merchandising majors, students rose to the challenge of creating a business expansion plan for Griproix, a long-standing name in French fashion luxury.

In mid-December a team of three students – Samantha Duke, Megan Walsh and Victoria Nolan – along with capstone instructor Jodi Hartmann and fashion program director Radley Cramer left for a visit to Paris. The students were there to present the outcome of many months of research and dedication to the owner of Griproix, the luxury jewelry company that is closely tied to the finest names of French haute couture.

Gripoix, founded in 1869 in Paris, is a foremost maker of bijoux de couture, or premier costume jewelry. Using a process of glass manipulation called pate de verre (poured glass) the company has been linked to the jewelry seen on the French haute couture runways. When Chanel brought costume jewelry to the forefront of French fashion in the 1920s, she worked with Gripoix. Other famously chic names followed, including Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, and others. 

Today, Gripoix is owned by chic French socialite Marie Keslassy, who attended the student presentation at ModˡSpé, as did Jane Peck of the internationally known communications firm Fraiche with offices in Paris and New York City. Also in attendance were a select group of French and international students currently studying at ModˡSpé Paris.

Madame Keslassy listened attentively as the Marist students presented their project comprised of an extensive business and promotional plan to assist Gripoix in expanding to the US market. The project was rich with creative and business ideas, including buyer’s information packets, promotional plans, a functional website, Pinterest site complete with followers, and promotional video. Madame Keslassy described the experience as “truly amazing!” According to student Samantha Duke, ”Our group made incredible progress contacting buyers and showrooms in the US in such a relatively short time, being in meetings in New York one week, and presenting feedback in Paris the next week has made it quite a whirlwind, but one I would not trade for anything. I know I will take so much of what I have learned throughout the process into my first job and future career.” In fact, Samantha has just accepted her first post-college job as a product developer for Macy’s.

Meghan Walsh, another presenting student said, “It was amazing to know that we may have had an effect on the way this company will conduct international business in the future. It was a wonderful experience to present such an in-depth project, and answer real-world questions from the owner of the company, as well as French students. This will be an experience that I will never forget.” Student Victoria Nolan added, following the group’s visit to the Gripoix atelier in Paris, “I could have never imagined how breathtaking it would be to see the products we have worked to promote in America being created one by one, by hand. We were thrilled to present our recommendations to Marie Keslassy.”

As so often happens in fashion one thing leads to another. During their promotional work for Gripoix the students connected with Cameron Silver, author of the much-praised new title in fashion, Decades. Mr. Silver is a highly respected fashion authority from Los Angeles, and a fan of vintage Gripoix jewelry. The students were invited to attend his New York City book signing event just prior to their Paris travels, and continued to stay connected with a breakfast meeting the following morning. In addition to being an author and respected retailer, Mr. Silver will be the host of a forthcoming television series on the Bravo network.

Small world, great connections, and wonderful things ahead for these Marist Fashion Program students.

 

Bryant Gumbel Visits

Journalist, Sportscaster and host of HBO's Real Sports Bryant Gumbel participated in a Q&A in the Nelly Goletti Theater on Thursday November 29, 2012 at 12:30 pm.  Gumbel has previously hosted the Today Show and currently is in his 18th season as the host of Real Sports.

 

 

 

Actor Michael Gaston Visits

Professional actor Michael Gaston visited Marist on November 28 to coach students in Professor Jeff Bass's Media Performance class.  Gaston, a resident of New Paltz, has appeared in numerous films including Inception and Ransom, and has played recurring characters on The Sopranos, Ally McBeal, and The West Wing.

He is currently on hiatus from filming episodes of ABC's Last Resort.Gaston met Bass met last June when Bass took a team of Marist students to the 24-hour filmmaking competition, "Sleepless in Lake Placid", part of the annual Lake Placid Film Forum. Gaston was a celebrity guest of the forum and judge for the competition. Bass invited Gaston to lend his experience and talent as an actor to the Media Performance class, and he graciously accepted.

Gaston's next project will be to appear in the Broadway production of Nora Ephron's The Lucky Guy starring Tom Hanks.

 

NY Daily News Film Critic gives Inaugural Address

On Monday, November 12, Marist College hosted former NY Daily News film critic Kathleen Carroll, the inaugural events in the new theatre of the Lowell Thomas Communication Center. Ms. Carroll gave two presentations; the first entitled “My Memories of Lowell Thomas,” in which she shared her childhood recollections of having the legendary broadcaster and filmmaker as a family friend. She read from letters written between Lowell Thomas and her father, who were close friends, and screened the film “High Adventure” about Thomas’s famous trip to Tibet in 1949. At the conclusion, Ms. Carroll presented the letters to John Ainsley, curator of special collections at the Marist Library, who will add them to the Lowell Thomas collection.

The evening presentation was on Ms. Carroll’s nearly thirty-year career as a film critic. From the late 60s to the early 90s, she interviewed nearly every major actor or director including Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, Federico Fellini, Jane Fonda, and Robert Redford. In some cases, she interviewed the same celebrity many times, and a friendship evolved. She told a story of inviting Clint Eastwood to screen a film he had just made to students she was teaching at St. John’s University. The students’ subdued reaction was a big disappointment to Eastwood, until they all lined up to ask for his autograph. Ms. Carroll also remembered visiting the set of “Jaws” and sitting comfortably on a floating barge with director Steven Spielberg, while actors Richard Dreyfus, Roy Schieder, and Robert Shaw were soaked to the skin filming a shark attack scene.

Kathleen Carroll is currently co-founder and artistic director of the Lake Placid Film Forum.

Sports Illustrated’s Christ Mannix to speak on campus

The Marist College Center for Sports Communication will host a presentation by Sports Illustrated writer Chris Mannix on Wednesday November 28th, at 7p.m., at the Nelly Goletti Theatre in the Student Center. Mannix has covered the NBA since 2003 and currently writes the magazine's weekly notes column. Mannix also writes about boxing and once sparred against professional boxer Juan Manuel Marquez. The event is free and open to the public.

 

Ronald Freyberger presents "Marie Antoinette in America"

 

On Friday November 2 in Donnelly 225 from 2-3 pm Mr. Ronald Freyberger will present his highly acclaimed illustrative lecture, "Marie Antoinette in America: Her Royal Treasures in the New World." The highly illustrated presentation features 53 impressive works, now in 14 museums in the United States, that originally adorned Marie-Antoinette's apartments at Versailles, Fontainebleau, the Tuileries, Saint-Cloud and other royal residences before the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Prior to the presentation Mr. Freyberger will host a private luncheon with select students and faculty in the art and fashion programs.

 

Ronald Freyberger in a highly accomplished art historian, researcher, author, and lecturer with expertise in 18th century French decorative arts, European decorative arts, the history of collections, and collecting and the art market. Mr. Freyberger has lectured and given gallery talks in some of the most impressive museums and galleries in the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum, L.A., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the University of Edinburgh, UK. Mr. Freyberger also serves as an art historical consultant for Christie's, Sotheby's (both in London, Monaco, & New York. Mr. Freyberger is also an accomplished author, with articles appearing in Apollo, The Magazine Antiques, Christie's Review of the Year, and Christie's International Magazine. A member of The French Porcelain Society, a Samuel H. Kress Fellow, and a Fellow of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Ronald Freyberger resides in New York City.

 

PR Faculty Named to Sprout Creek Farm Board of Directors

Jennie Donohue, professional lecturer of public relations in the School of Communication and the Arts at Marist College, has been named to the board of directors of Sprout Creek Farm, Inc., a local non-profit educational center, working farm and retail market.