Distinguished Legacy Award
Awarded to FAA alumni who have attained outstanding success and national or international distinction in their chosen profession or life’s work and whose accomplishments reflect admirably on, or bring honor to, the College of Fine and Applied Arts and the University of Illinois.
Ernest F. Cirangle (BS '71 Architectural Studies)
Ernest F. Cirangle (BS ’71 Architectural Studies)
Ernest F. Cirangle, FAIA, LEED AP, joined HOK in San Francisco, becoming the Design Principal for the HOK Hong Kong office from 1990 through 1999 and then the HOK Los Angeles Design Principal from 1999 through 2020. During his 38-year tenure at HOK he served on both the Design Board and Board of Directors, helping to guide the direction of HOK’s global architectural practice. Cirangle’s design approach seeks inspired solutions that integrate complex programs, being responsive to environmental conditions, while tailoring his designs to the unique needs and culture of each client. His international work includes Japan’s Tokyo Telecom Center Headquarters, Sendai International Airport Terminal, Chubu International Airport Terminal, Singapore’s Jurong Town Center Headquarters, the Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai, and the Embassy House Residential Tower in Beijing. His domestic work includes the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center, the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, the Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion at Cedars-Sinai Los Angeles, the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla California, the Long Beach Airport Terminal modernization, the Phoenix International Airport SkyTrain 44th Street People Mover Station, and the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center. His work has received multiple design awards from the American Institute of Architects, been published in Architectural Record, and featured on the Discovery Channel. Cirangle was elevated to Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2014. In 2020, he retired from his full-time position at HOK. Cirangle continues to do design consulting, serves as a planning commissioner where he resides in Mill Valley California, remains a guest lecturer and student adviser at the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California, and continues to travel to the many memorable places that inspired and enriched his perspective on life.
Barbara Patricia Hill Moore (MS '69 Music Education)
Barbara Patricia Hill Moore (MS ’69 Music Education)
Barbara Hill Moore, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Meadows Foundation Distinguished Professor of Voice at Southern Methodist University (SMU), has had an esteemed teaching career. She taught in the St. Louis public and archdiocese schools (1965–1969), at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois (1969–1974), and began at SMU in 1974. She served 16 years as chair of the voice department and currently directs the study abroad program in South Africa. As an artist/teacher, Moore has performed in concert, oratorio, and opera across America, Europe, and Asia. Notable performances include Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Brahms’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, and Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the Dallas Symphony and the Meadows Symphony Orchestra. Symphony and the Meadows Symphony Orchestra. In Germany, she is acclaimed for her role as Jenny in Kurt Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper, which she performed over 50 times in Berlin and Cologne, and later with the Pittsburgh Opera. The Gershwin Foundation invited her to sing Serena in the 50th Anniversary productions of Porgy and Bess in Charleston, South Carolina. She also performed roles in Le nozze di Figaro, Dido and Aeneas, Die Zauberflöte, and premiered several works, including Le Diable amoureux by Robert Xavier Rodriguez. In her 59-year teaching career, including 50 years at SMU, Moore has received numerous awards. These include the M Award at SMU, The Meadows Foundation Distinguished Professor of Voice (2005), SMU Distinguished University Citizen (2009–10), 2022 Faculty Career Achievement Award, National Opera Association’s Lift Every Voice: Legacy Award (2022), and the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s Barbara Hill Moore Award for Emerging Teaching Artists (2023). In May 2023, she received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Lincoln University, her alma mater.
Jenette Jurczyk (MBA ’13, BFA ’96 Studio Acting)
Jenette Jurczyk (MBA ’13, BFA ’96 Studio Acting)
Jenette Jurczyk is the National Director of The She Said Project, where she produces live shows called “That’s What She Said.” Jurczyk believes that everyone has a story that can impact the world, and she shares her theatre talents to empower real women to find their voice and share their stories live on stage. Under Jurczyk’s vision, “That’s What She Said” has expanded beyond its flagship community of Champaign-Urbana into a dozen cities, with many more on the horizon. Jurczyk is also the producer and cohost of The She Said Project Podcast and created the youth empowerment program “That’s What Teens Say.” Through her company Key Light Consulting, Jurczyk is a nationally recognized motivational speaker. She has a BFA and MBA from the University of Illinois and worked in New York and Los Angeles as a performer, director, and producer, before building a life in Champaign with her rocket scientist husband and two young daughters. She has served on numerous boards, such as the Junior League of Champaign-Urbana and Executive Club of Champaign County. She serves as President of The Family Room, the nonprofit she cofounded to provide resources and comfort to foster children and families in her community. In 2024, Jenette Jurczyk was recognized as Nexstar Media Group’s “Remarkable Woman” from Champaign-Urbana and shared her story onstage in TEDx Normal.
Warren I. Smith (BME '57 Music Education)
Warren I. Smith (BME ’57 Music Education)
For nearly 70 years, Warren I. Smith has been an enormous contributor to the American jazz and music scene, as well as an activist and mentor to generations of jazz artists. In addition to his own extensive musical endeavors and collaborations, he has always been a first call by many of the most prominent composers of the second half of the 20th century due to his combination of rhythmic precision, high creativity, and sensitivity to the composers’ intent. Percussionist, composer, educator, and archivist, Smith is known as a founding member of Max Roach’s M’boom ensemble; leader of the Composer’s Workshop Ensemble (Strata-East); and director of Studio WIS, a New York City loft that acted as a performing and recording space for many young New York jazz musicians of the 1970s and 1980s. Smith grew up in Chicago, Illinois. His father played saxophone and clarinet with Noble Sissle and Jimmie Noone, and his mother was a harpist and pianist. Warren found work in Broadway pit bands starting in the 1950s and has been in high demand as a concert and session musician for the past 70 years. His credits include work with Gil Evans, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Lloyd Price, Nat King Cole, Sam Rivers, Janis Joplin, King Curtis, Max Roach and M’Boom, Andrew White, Julius Hemphill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Nancy Wilson, Quincy Jones, Count Basie, Carmen McRae, Anthony Braxton, Charles Mingus, Henry Threadgill, John Cage, Harry Partch, Van Morrison, and Joe Zawinul. Smith lives in Harlem, New York.
Emerging Legacy Award
Recognizes FAA alumni early in their careers who have made outstanding professional contributions to their field since graduating.
Taekyeom Lee
Taekyeom Lee (MFA ’14 Graphic Design)
Taekyeom Lee is an interdisciplinary graphic designer and educator known for integrating emerging technologies into visual communication. He is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Indiana University Bloomington, holding an MFA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor’s degree from Keimyung University in South Korea. Lee’s work in Tangible Graphic Design revolutionizes design education by showcasing how digital fabrication and alternative materials transform design practices. During his MFA studies, he turned vision-related health challenges into creative opportunities, leading to projects using materials like 3D printable plastics, metals, and ceramics. His DIY ceramic 3D printer project went viral, inspiring many to explore digital fabrication. Lee has taught at institutions such as Appalachian State University, Illinois State University, Iowa State University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has delivered talks and workshops globally and presented at major conferences, including AIGA, SEGD, CAA, UCDA, Design Incubation, ISEA, IEEE VIS, ATypI, TypeCon, and NCECA. His work earned accolades like a judge’s choice award and honorable mention from the STA 100 in 2022, and the Scholarship: Creative Work Award from Design Incubation in 2022. Dedicated to inclusive design education, Lee’s experiences as a first-generation college student and foreign-born designer drive his commitment to diversity. His research project “Graphic Design for Accessibility” focuses on improving experiences for individuals with low vision and vision impairments and is integrated into his teaching to promote responsible innovation. Professor Taekyeom Lee’s research, resilience, and dedication to expanding graphic design boundaries make him a leading figure, continually inspiring the next generation of designers and educators.
Illinois Arts Legacy Award
Recognizes volunteers, staff, loyal performers, affiliated artists, etc. who are not necessarily graduates of FAA but whose contributions have made a significant impact in the arts at Illinois.
Omar Lamar Francis (BFA ’94 Photography)
Omar Lamar Francis (BFA ’94 Photography)
Omar Lamar Francis is a 2nd degree instructor in the Urasenke Tradition of Chadō (Japanese Way of Tea). During his time at the University of Illinois, Francis enrolled in Professor Kimiko Gunji’s (MS ’71, MA ’79) class on chanoyu (the Japanese tea ceremony). After graduation, he moved to Chicago to continue work in the commercial photography industry, building on experience gained from internships under Douglas Bush (BFA ’74) and Big Deal studios. While working in this field, Francis continued his weekly studies of the Urasenke Tradition of Chadō under Joyce Kubose in Chicago. This led to an intentional yearlong break from work to enroll in the Midorikai program in Kyoto, Japan. Midorikai is the intensive full-time program of the Urasenke Tea Tradition for non-Japanese students. Days were filled with lectures, kimono wearing, Japanese traditional culture, and a most serious study of the Way of Tea. Since returning, Francis has been a longtime member of the Urasenke Chicago Association, including 16 years as Vice-President of the organization. In 2008, he was granted the prestigious level of instructor and given the name Sōbin by the Urasenke Grandmaster Sen Sōshitsu XVI. Due to his many activities spreading tea culture, Omar Francis was awarded the Cultural Achievement Award by The Japanese America Society of Chicago in 2017. Most recently, he has also been teaching a course at the University of Illinois: ARTJ 397 Zen, Tea, and Power. This course uncovers how the mutually beneficial relationships of religion, war, politics, and the arts gave rise to the tea ceremony in Japan. Currently Omar Francis is one of only three instructors of the Urasenke Tradition of Chadō in the Chicagoland area. Going on ten years, he continues to teach regular classes at the Japanese Culture Center
Kenneth Carls (BFA '72 Graphic Design)
Kenneth Carls (BFA ’72 Graphic Design)
Ken Carls earned a BFA in Graphic Design at UIUC and an MA in Graphic Design from Kent State University. He began his career as a packaging designer in Chicago before taking a teaching position in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During his tenure at UIUC, he headed the Graphic Design program, and before ending his academic career in 2005, he served three years as the school’s interim director and one year as associate director. As a resident in the arts community of Saugatuck-Douglas, Michigan, Carls has been deeply committed to the advancement of that area’s arts and cultural not-for-profits. He has served on the boards of Saugatuck Center for the Arts, the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society, and Ox-Bow, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s century-old summer art school on the shore of Lake Michigan at Saugatuck. He has served as grants reviewer for the Ohio Arts Council and has juried exhibitions for the Holland Area Arts Council and the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at Michigan State University. Although Carls’s professional focus throughout his career was graphic design, since leaving academia he has concentrated on art making. Several extended periods of living in Europe and the continuing urban/rural contrasts created by his Illinois farm upbringing and maintaining residences in both Southern California and West Michigan have shaped his unique perspective and vision—and his varied artistic expression. Carls’s work has been shown in exhibitions in Illinois, Michigan, and California, and he has received numerous awards. Upon his retirement, he established the Kenneth R. Carls Endowment which will in perpetuity provide support for international travel for undergraduate students in the School of Art and Design.
Past recipients
The Legacy Award recipients from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, and 2018, can be found here.