Loyce L. Arthur, an emeritus associate professor at the University of Iowa, received a Fulbright grant to teach at Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) Denpasar.
She has designed costumes for over 100 productions over the course of her career. She is fascinated with costumes, masks, and puppets far beyond a traditional theater stage. She was the lead designer for the Iowa City Carnival Community Parade at the Iowa Arts Festival, where 400+ Iowans became works of art. For 16 years, she has been a guest artist at award-winning Carnival designer Clary Salandy’s Mahogany workshop in London, UK, in June 2022 and for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee parade.
Writing includes “Big Chief Darryl Montana of the New Orleans Black Indian Tribe Yellow Pocahontas: 50+ years making suits and serving his community “, The Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance, Kathy A. Perkins, Sandra L. Richards, Renée Alexander Craft, and Thomas F. DeFrantz, eds. Routledge, 2019, p376-379; “Contemporary Carnivals: From Street Masquerades to Playing Mas” Masquerade: Essays on Tradition and Innovation Worldwide, Deborah Bell, ed., McFarland & Co., Inc. 2015.
Talks include “Intersections between Carnival and Theatre Design,” Design for Performance Symposium, The Academy for the Performing Arts at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, 2018; “The Historical and social influences of Carnival and the cultural traditions influencing contemporary expressions of Caribbean Carnival.” TCAP’s Back Theatre Initiative Webinar Series. Southern Counties California Arts Project. San Diego State University-School of Music and Dance, 2021.
She has presented research on Carnival in Santiago de Cuba, Toronto, Canada, Cartagena Columbia, and Trinidad and Tobago and researched the art form in Leeds, UK, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Netherlands, Grenada, WI, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland; and the US.
She received the 2023 Hubbard-Walder Award For Excellence in Teaching and the 2019 CLAS Outstanding Outreach and Public Engagement Award.
