VCU sculpture student to receive top graduate fellowship

By Malorie Burkett

RICHMOND, Va. – Alessandra Torres, 23, a second year student in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Sculpture program, has been awarded the Jacob K. Javits scholarship award for demonstrating superior achievements in the arts.

Torres’ honors come shortly after VCU’s graduate Sculpture program was named the number one program in the nation ahead of Yale University and the Art Institute of Chicago, which ranked second and third, respectively in U.S. News & World Report.

“The Javits fellowship is one of the most prestigious graduate awards in the country, so we’re extremely pleased with what Alessandra has accomplished,” said Richard Toscan, Ph.D., dean of VCU’s School of The Arts. “Her accomplishment is yet another fine example of the success and dedication coming from our Sculpture program.”

Torres applied for the fellowship during her senior year as an undergraduate. The application process, which continued into most of her first semester at VCU, involved letters of recommendation from instructors, artist statements, plans for the use of the award, her resume and sample works.

“It fills me with great joy to know that the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Foundation has so much faith in me and I plan to work as hard as possible to live up to their, and my own, great expectations,” said Torres.

Torres will receive $29,000, which will cover the cost of a portion of her graduate study as well as many of her materials. In addition, the award will give Torres the opportunity to create works that can be exhibited in larger areas, such as galleries or other big spaces. 

Her works include a broad range of materials including steel, glass, porcelain, rubber, plaster and latex. She says many of her sculptures, which resemble movie or stage sets where viewers are able to enter a different three-dimensional world, are highly influenced by her instructors and other students in the program.

“The diverse faculty and graduate students at Virginia Commonwealth University come together to form a community which has served to both support and challenge my work,” said Torres. “We all share great respect for one another and are as interested in and devoted to the development and success of each others work as we are to our own.”

The Javits Fellowship is a scholarship awarded to students who have demonstrated superior achievement and exceptional promise and plan to pursue graduate study leading to a doctoral or master's degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The Javits Fellowship Program was originally designated the National Graduate Fellowship Program (NGFP), when former New York senator Jacob K. Javits, known for his support of education and the arts during his 24 years in the Senate, introduced NGFP into law. Upon his death in 1986, Javits’ Congressional colleagues honored him that year by re-designating the NGFP the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program.

A resident of Millersville, Md., Torres received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture from The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. When she graduates from VCU, she says she is interested in planning an alternative arts center, and hopes to locate herself within a thriving art community where she can be surrounded with artists who challenge and support each other. Torres will graduate from VCU’s MFA Sculpture program in May 2004.