VCU news

By Tom Gresham

Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts graduate Tara Donovan, a sculptor, was named a winner of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, becoming the third former VCU student to win the award in the last five years.

Donovan, who received her M.F.A. in sculpture at VCU in 1999, was one of 25 MacArthur Fellows named Tuesday. Each grant winner will receive $500,000 over the course of five years with no obligations on how the money is spent, providing honorees with a large measure of freedom to advance their work.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowships are awarded annually to individuals from a variety of fields. Fellows are selected for their “creativity, originality and potential.” The award is often referred to as the “Genius Grant.”
 
Donovan follows in the footsteps of fellow sculptors and VCU alumni Teresita Fernandez and Daisy Youngblood, who received MacArthur Fellowships in 2005 and 2003, respectively. Fernandez received her M.F.A. from VCU in 1992, and Youngblood studied at VCU in the 1960s.

“We are very proud of Tara Donovan and her wonderful work,” said Richard Toscan, dean of the VCU School of the Arts. “She is deserving of this incredible honor.”

Donovan was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City last year and will soon open a major exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Her work also has appeared in solo and group exhibitions at the UCLA Hammer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, the 2000 Whitney Biennial and the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond.

In awarding a fellowship to Donovan, the MacArthur Foundation noted that she “is an inventive young sculptor whose installations bring wonder to the most common objects of everyday life. Donovan’s site-specific, sculptural works transform ordinary accumulated materials into intriguing visual and physical installations.”