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Syracuse, NY - March 7, 2008: Syracuse University Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric F. Spina today announced the appointment of Ann Clarke as dean of SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA), effective immediately. Clarke succeeds Carole Brzozowski, who was named University performing arts presenter by SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor in January.

“It became clear in the search process that Ann has the strong confidence of VPA students, faculty and staff,” says Spina. “I know that Ann will have their support, along with that of the central administration, and that she will be an outstanding dean.”

“I am honored to be named dean of VPA,” says Clarke. “In my 10 years at Syracuse I have had the pleasure of working with the faculty, staff and students—as well as local community members—on many projects and initiatives that promote creative development and the importance of the arts and art education. I look forward to continuing this work as dean and further promoting the college as a center of bold, insightful creative activity.”

Clarke has served as the college’s associate dean of the visual arts since 2007. She joined the faculty of the School of Art and Design in 1998, serving as coordinator of the fiber arts/material studies program in the Department of Art. From 2005–07, she served as chair of the Department of Art.

As associate dean, Clarke worked extensively on the creation of the college’s new Center for Multidisciplinary Design. She also re-evaluated curricula in the School of Art and Design and consulted with the administration and faculty on the reallocation of space and facilities within the college.

Clarke’s work as a faculty member included numerous collaborative projects in the Syracuse community that focused on the creative development of children through art-making. She worked with children with learning disabilities in the Dreamworks program of the Learning Disabilities Association of the Mohawk Valley and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute’s Museum of Art in Utica, N.Y. She also established a program in Syracuse with the Learning Disabilities Association of Central New York Inc. and the Everson Museum of Art, for which she received a Vision Fund grant from SU. The project involved an interdisciplinary group of SU students and culminated in a poster exhibition.

She has also led SU students in collaborative art projects at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse and worked with students in the Syracuse City School District and families from the Down Syndrome Association of Central New York Inc. She has received grants for her community projects from Partners for Arts Education and the Cultural Resources Council, both of Syracuse; the New York State Council on the Arts; and New York State Sen. John A. DeFrancisco’s arts and cultural grants program.

As a professional artist, she has exhibited her work internationally, including at the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville, N.J.; gallery gen in New York City; Dongshin University in the Republic of Korea; and the Everson Museum of Art. She has lectured and given workshops internationally, most recently at the Textile Study Group of New York in New York City. She is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in crafts and a special opportunity stipend from the Upper Catskill County Community Council of the Arts.

In her studio, Two Sticks Knitting, she creates one-of-a-kind art to wear, including coats, hats and wall hangings. Her work is featured in many private collections and has been published extensively. She is represented by Julie Artisans’ Gallery in New York City; Gayle Wilson Gallery in Southampton, N.Y.; Katie Gingrass Gallery in Milwaukee; Peters Valley Craft Center Gallery in Layton, N.J.; and Eureka Crafts Gallery in Syracuse. Her professional affiliations include the College Art Association, Fiber Arts International and the American Craft Council.

She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and printmaking from the University of Michigan and a master of fine arts degree in textiles from the Rhode Island School of Design.

The College of Visual and Performing Arts is the creative center of Syracuse University. It is dedicated to providing a nurturing environment where the faculty help students develop their creative and scholarly abilities. The college is home to the School of Art and Design; the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies; the Department of Drama; the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music; and the Department of Transmedia. Together, students and faculty play a vital role in the academic and cultural life of the University as well as the Syracuse community.

From 1972 to 1978, Ms. Pleshette played a marital partner who was the equal of Newhart's psychologist Bob Hartley in every respect, including laugh lines. Her sexy, sophisticated, whiskey voice made Emily a perfect foil to the comedian's balding, hesitant, stammering spouse. The actress' portrayal marked a decided break from the television wives played by the likes of Donna Reed and Barbara Billingsley in the '50s and '60s. Ms. Pleshette was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on the sitcom.

Suzanne Pleshette was born Jan. 31, 1937, in Brooklyn Heights, to Eugene and Gloria Pleshette. Her father managed the Paramount and Brooklyn Paramount theaters, and her mother was a former dancer. She claimed to have possessed her trademark husky voice as early as the age of four; callers would mistake her for her father when she answered the phone. She aimed toward a career in the arts early on, attending the New York High School of Performing Arts, then Syracuse University and Finch College, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She took acting lessons at Stanford Meisner's Acting School.

She made her Broadway debut in 1957 in Compulsion, a drama about the Leopold and Loeb murder case, which starred Roddy McDowell and Dean Stockwell. She followed that up with a 1959 S.N. Behrman play called The Cold Wind and the Warm, directed by Harold Clurman. It ran for four months.

After another brief run in an Abe Burrows-directed play called Golden Fleecing, she achieved a breakthrough, replacing Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan in William Gibson's Helen Keller drama, The Miracle Worker. She received good reviews and later toured with the show.

By the late '50s, Ms. Pleshette had a busy, if not particularly A-list, film career. She was in the Jerry Lewis comedy "The Geisha Boy," and appeared in two films with teen idol Troy Donahue, "Rome Adventure" and "A Distant Trumpet." She later married the actor, though the marriage lasted only eight months, with Ms. Pleshette complaining of mental cruelty. She also appeared in countless television series. (One of her most memorable series was the one that never was: She was the first choice to play Catwoman in the 1960s series "Batman.") The best film role of her career came in 1963, when Alfred Hitchcock cast her as Tippi Hedren's competition for Rod Taylor's affections in the thriller classic "The Birds." In the role, Ms. Pleshette exuded her usual warmth and common sense, even in the face of an onslaught of murderous birds.

Her most significant late-career role was as hotelier Leona Helmsley in the 1990 television movie "The Queen of Mean." The part won her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. In recent years, she returned in force to television as a kind of elder master of the form, playing salty characters in "Will & Grace," "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" and "Good Morning, Miami."

Aside from Mr. Donahue, she was married two other times. A union with Texas oilman Tom Gallagher lasted from 1968 until his death in 2000. In 2001, she married her sometime "Bob Newhart" co-star, Tom Poston. The two had met on Golden Fleecing and had a brief fling. He died in 2007.

Late in life, Ms. Pleshette suggested that her long career was due to a work ethic and a lack of vanity. "I'm an actress, and that's why I'm still here," she said. "Anybody who has the illusion that you can have a career as long as I have and be a star is kidding themselves."

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