June 7, 2005

VCU artists earn two-thirds of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts fellowships

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By Michael Ford
University News Services

More than two-thirds of the Virginia artists and art students recognized for excellence this year by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts have a connection to Virginia Commonwealth University’s top-ranked School of the Arts.

The 2005 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowships has awarded a total of $200,000 to 36 entrants and 24 of the recipients are VCU faculty, alumni or art students.

“It's amazing for our students and alums to get 24 of these awards,” said Richard E. Toscan, vice provost for International Affairs & dean of the VCU School of the Arts. “It just shows that getting a national reputation means keeping your eye on what you do locally.”

Since 1940, when the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts began presenting fellowships, the museum has awarded more than $3.2 million to 930 professional and student artists who are permanent residents of Virginia.

“VMFA Fellowships provide essential support for artists who wish to advance their careers or further their education,” said Michael Brand, Ph.D., director of the museum.

Money for the fellowships comes from a privately endowed fund administered by the VMFA. John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg, husband of Lillian Pratt, who donated the museum’s Faberge collection, initiated the fund in 1940. In the years since, the fund has been supplemented by gifts from the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation and the J. Warwick McClintic Jr. Scholarship Fund, with additional support from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Foundation.

Twelve professional artists won 2005 awards of $8,000 each. Ten are affiliated with VCU, listed below by name, discipline and hometown.

  • Judith Baumann, M.F.A., printmaking, Richmond, VCU, 2005
  • Vittorio Colaizzi, Ph.D., painting, Richmond, VCU, 2005
  • Matthew Gamble, M.F.A., painting, Glen Allen, VCU, 2005
  • Emily Hall, M.F.A., mixed media, Richmond, VCU, 2005
  • Joel Holmberg, B.F.A, film/video, Richmond, VCU, 2005
  • Ward Howarth, film/video, Richmond, VCU graduate student
  • Danielle Riede, mixed media, Richmond, VCU graduate student
  • Fiona Ross, M.F.A., drawing, Richmond, VCU 2001
  • David Williams, M.F.A., film/video, Richmond, VCU, 1985, current film faculty
  • Melissa Worthington, M.F.A., photography, Richmond, VCU, 2003, former adjunct faculty

Five VCU graduate students won graduate fellowships. Eight fellowships were presented worth $6,000 each.

  • Saul Becker, painting, Richmond
  • Benjamin Jones, crafts, Richmond
  • Colleen Ostrander, sculpture, Richmond
  • Charles Roberts, sculpture, Richmond
  • Deniz Tirpanci, B. F.A, crafts, Burke, VCU, 2004

A dozen undergraduate awards worth $4,000 were presented. Half were to VCU art students.

  • Jordan Bruner, film/video, Richmond
  • Laurel Dankos, photography, Mechanicsville
  • Nic DeSantis, film/video, Midlothian
  • Michael Ellyson, sculpture, Richmond
  • Emilie Ferran, photography, Stafford
  • Kendall Wylie, photography, Richmond

VCU art students also won three of four fellowship awards worth $2,000.

  • Phil Bowne, photography, Richmond
  • Crystal Lyle, crafts, Richmond
  • Michael Seal, photography, Richmond

The juror for the professional awards was Ingrid Schaffner, senior curator of the Institute for Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The jurors for the graduate and undergraduate awards were artist Sheila Giolitti of Norfolk; Jay Phyfer, professor of photography and digital imaging at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol; Paul Ryan, associate professor of art at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton; and Evie Terrono, assistant professor of art history at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland.