Faculty Spotlight Archives - Academy of Make Up Arts

02

Oct

Events, Faculty Spotlight, General, students at workamua, halloween

October Newsletter – Spooky Season is Upon Us

It's the most wonderful time of the year for makeup artists, wig makers, and costume designers: Spooky Season. And with how hard our students work, we won't pull any punches this October! So, read on to see what we're up to this month, and also find out how you can book a student or alumni for your Halloween makeup this year. Zombie Camp This two day camp during Nashville’s Fall Break is a perfect time to learn all the techniques High Schoolers need to know to turn themselves into the creepiest of zombies for Halloween. Zombie campers will creep away…

01

Apr

By Claire Mints

Faculty Spotlight, General, students at workacademy of make up arts, amua

April Newsletter – halfway there!

It's hard to believe we're halfway through another semester here at AMUA! Time flies when you're learning all things film and theatre. Our students enjoyed a spring break and came back refreshed and ready to finish the semester strong! USITT Last month AMUA students got the chance to take a little break from school and enjoy their spring break! We can't say the same for our instructors who can't stop won't stop. Stefanie, Michael, and Ben all traveled to St. Louis to be a part of USITT 2023! USITT, or the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, connects performing arts…

01

Feb

By Claire Mints

Alumni Stories, Faculty Spotlight, Generalalumni stories, battle of the brushes

February Newsletter – Hitting the Ground Running

What's not to love about the AMUA? We have amazing students, incredible instructors, and a support system around Nashville that keeps us all busy! So to spread the love, we're making everyone our Valentine this February. It's not a question... Be our Valentine. Needless to say, the beginning of this new semester started off busy! From blood rigs at Belmont to flying to LA for IMATS Battle of the Brushes and so much more. Read on to see what our students have going on this semester because it's going to be a good one! IMATS Battle of the Brushes Karlee…

12

May

By Claire Mints

Alumni Spotlight, Alumni Stories, Faculty Spotlight, Generalacademy of make up arts, alumni spotlight, amua alumni

AMUA Alumni Take Over the Big Apple

We're so proud to announce that five from our Tribe have made their way to New York City! Not only that but they're fully booked up! Look out, Big Apple, here we come! Morgan Morgan Gilmore took our complete track with Advanced Makeup, Art of Wig and Hair Design, and Special Effects and completed the programs in December of 2018. She immediately knew she "needed to get out and use all the amazing things [she] learned." So, by January of 2019, she was in New York for an apprenticeship with Paul Huntley. While working with Paul Huntley before he passed…

30

Aug

By Maggie Burrows

Alumni Spotlight, Faculty Spotlight, Generalamua blog, amua life

Recapping the Best of August 2019

We've compiled AMUA's August highlights for you! We're sharing behind the scenes photos of our classroom, what our alumni and faculty have been up to, and upcoming events that we think you will find interesting. Congratulations to Kevin St. James on his promotion to Program Director of our Makeup for TV & Film Program! Kevin has been with us for six years and it's time to revamp the program. We'll be taking a close look at student feedback, graduate outcomes, and getting input from makeup department heads from New York to Atlanta to Los Angeles to carefully re-craft our beauty…

26

Jul

By Maggie Burrows

Faculty Spotlight, General, Wig and Hair Design

Faculty Stories – Michael Meyer

This week on the blog, we are highlighting Michael Meyer, AMUA’s Director of Wig & Hair Design, who has been in the makeup industry as a working artist for 30+ years! He started his makeup journey with a 3-year Cosmetology Apprenticeship and a 2 year Makeup Artist Apprenticeship in Europe. He has worked as a wigmaker, makeup artist, SPFX makeup artist, and animatronics and puppet artist. Michael worked as the #1 assistant wigmaker in the San Francisco Opera before he started teaching as a guest artist at the University of North Carolina School of Arts in 2000. He was the…

22

Jul

By Maggie Burrows

Faculty Spotlight, General

Faculty Stories – Kevin St James

We obviously love hearing about the exciting projects our alumni are working on, but we can't disregard the amazing stories of our faculty! So this week, we are highlighting Kevin St James, who is a Beauty/Makeup instructor at AMUA. Kevin began his makeup journey in Theatre at Ball State University. From there, he worked professionally in multiple theatre and film positions - both on stage and behind the scenes. He has toured with multiple theatre productions all over the world. When he moved to Nashville in 2001 he worked in the music video production community for many years, not only…

26

Feb

By Kevin

Faculty Spotlight, General

Why I Love Teaching Make Up

By Kevin St James The first thing that I remember being obsessed with when I was really young was monster makeup. There was a book at my neighborhood library about old Hollywood movie stars like Bela Legosi and Lon Chaney, two actors who portrayed Dracula, Frankenstein and the Werewolf. The book focused on the makeup techniques and even had directions to do a Frankenstein makeup with a brown paper bag and paper maché. I made several attempts to do this makeup in the bathroom, much to my mother's dismay. I was quiet messy with it. But my makeup journey really…

10

Jan

By admin

Announcements, Faculty Spotlightcustom wig making, hair design, michael meyer, wig alterations, wig construction, wig design, wig making program, wig styling

Welcome Michael Meyer to Academy of Make Up Arts

Academy of Make Up Arts is very excited to introduce the newest member of our team, Michael C. Meyer. Michael is currently the Director of Wig and Makeup at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He will bid UNC farewell this summer in order to launch a wig design program here at AMUA this fall. Our newest program is designed entirely by Michael, who is a professionally qualified wig maker having over 30 years experience with wig design, period accurate wig styling, custom wig making, wig alterations, wig construction for film and stage, full lace wig making, custom switch making, and…

24

Sep

By admin

Faculty Spotlight, General

AMUA SFX Instructor Ben Rittenhouse Featured on the Huffington Post!

Our very own Ben Rittenhouse was featured on the Huffington Post Recently. Read it here: "After 20 years as a makeup effects artist in Los Angeles, Emmy Award-winning Ben Rittenhouse (The Pacific 2010) relocated to Nashville, Tenn. where he now teaches at the Academy of Makeup Arts. A quick glance at his IMBD profile is impressive, with films like Men in Black and Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2. With such a successful resumé, what's behind the move to Tennessee? "I was working out of town a lot," said Rittenhouse, "when my sons Lucas and Issac were born. I really loved what I was doing,…

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