Excellence in the Arts Awards to be presented at Johnson Museum, April 28

The Cornell University Council's Committee on the Arts and the Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA) will present the 2003-2004 Excellence in the Arts Awards at a ceremony in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Wednesday, April 28, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Artschwager

Sculptor Richard Artschwager '44 will receive the Cornell University Distinguished Alumni Artist Award, and Benjamin Shiffrin '03, a theater arts major, will receive an Undergraduate Student Artist Award.

Born in 1923, Artschwager, the son of Ernst Artschwager '18, graduated from Cornell with a degree in the physical sciences. He went on to pursue a highly successful career as an artist. Considered equally adept at painting, sculpture and drawing, he creates works that often are a synthesis of science and art and have influenced the art world for five decades.

At the ceremony, Artschwager will be presented with "The Class of '56 Tower," a sculpted glass replica of McGraw Tower created by noted glass artist Eric Hilton.

The Distinguished Alumni Artist Award was established in 1997 by the Committee on the Arts and the CCA in cooperation with Cornell's art department and various programs. The annual award honors an alumnus who has achieved national or international success in the arts, and it recognizes the artist's work.

Artschwager's "Pyramidal Object" (1967), a Formica and wood sculpture from the Johnson Museum's permanent collection, will be on view in the museum lobby Tuesday, April 27, through Sunday, May 2.

Shiffrin was chosen for the CCA's student artist award in spring 2003, but the official recognition is coming this year. He now is working as a production assistant on the Vadim Perelman-directed film "The Talisman," in Los Angeles.

The annual CCA award is presented to an undergraduate student who has demonstrated notable ability and achievement in one artistic discipline or more, and for excellence and exceptional activity in the arts. The CCA selects the student for the award.

The eighth student to receive the CCA award, Shiffrin played numerous roles as a theater arts undergraduate and appeared in several Cornell productions. As an exemplary student in the department's Advanced Undergraduate Theatre Program, he also directed Good 'n' Plenty, one of the Cornell Schwartz Center's main stage productions, a rare feat for any undergraduate.

Shiffrin's work in the theater program as well as his work in the department's Advanced Undergraduate Film Program, led to his nomination for the CCA award by Department of Theatre, Film and Dance faculty.