VCU news

By Cassie Williams Jones

Two Virginia Commonwealth University professors in the School of the Arts have recently been named 2013 recipients of the Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the top awards available to artists in the United States and Canada.

Sonali Gulati, associate professor in the Department of Photography and Film, and Siemon Allen, assistant professor in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, were selected for the prestigious award.

“I speak for the entire School of the Arts when I say how proud we are to have two of our faculty reach one of the most prestigious markers of success in their fields,” said Joseph Seipel, dean of the VCU School of the Arts. “The filmmaker Sonali Gulati and artist Siemon Allen, through their research and creative expression, are emblematic of the quality and high expectation of the School of the Arts. These two artists have captured the attention of their professional colleagues and serve our students as role models and teachers of the highest caliber. We congratulate them and thank them for their contributions.”

Gulati is a filmmaker and educator who grew up in New Delhi, India, and has made films that have screened at more than 300 film festivals worldwide, including at venues such as the Hirshhorn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and at film festivals such as the Margaret Mead Film Festival, the Black Maria Film Festival and the Slamdance Film Festival.

Gulati’s most recent film “I Am” has won 13 awards and continues to exhibit extensively in the film festival circuit. She has won awards, grants and fellowships from the Third Wave Foundation, World Studio Foundation, the Robert Giard Memorial Fellowship, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship, the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), VCU School of the Arts Faculty Award of Excellence and a grant from the Creative Capital Foundation.

Allen, a South African artist, was awarded a 12-month fellowship beginning in August 2013 to work with institutions and individuals to further his documentation of South African material, adding digital images to a Web-based database he has developed and expanding the visual archive and discography of South African material.

“I am honored to have been selected as a Guggenheim fellow, and am deeply appreciative of the support this award gives me to continue my research,” said Allen. “I have a profound commitment to making whatever contribution I can to affirm the historical importance of South Africa’s audio history.”

While in South Africa, Allen was a founding member of the FLAT gallery, an artist’s initiative that operated in Durban from 1993 to 1995. His work was included in the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale as part of the exhibition Graft and also in the Vita 93 and Vita 98 exhibitions. His work has been presented at the Renaissance Society in Chicago; Artists Space in New York City; the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum in New York City; the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis; Art Positions at Basel: Miami Beach; The Project in Los Angeles; The Contemporary Museum in Baltimore; and at Momenta in Brooklyn.

Twelve VCU professors and alumni have received Guggenheim Fellowships since 2002, including past recipients Kathleen Graber, assistant professor of English (2012); David Wojahn, professor of English (2003); Brian Ulrich, assistant professor of photography (2009); Elizabeth King, professor of sculpture (2002); Teresita Fernandez (2003) and Bonnie Collura (2005), both alumni of the sculpture department; Hilary Wilder, assistant professor in the Department of Painting and Printmaking (2006); Michael Jones McKean, assistant professor of sculpture (2010); Corin Hewitt, assistant professor of sculpture (2011); and Stephen Vitiello, associate professor of kinetic imaging (2011).

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded 175 fellowships this month to artists, scientists and scholars. The foundation received almost 3,000 applications for the awards. Fellows receive grants of varying amounts that provide financial support for a period of between six and 12 months. The financial awards are intended to allow fellows to work with as much creative freedom as possible.

Fellowships are awarded to men and women who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Since its establishment in 1925, the Foundation has granted over $306 million in fellowships to more than 17,500 individuals.