Twenty-four Cornell students and three Cornell staff members have been awarded grants from the Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA). The grants are used to support art projects that will be presented this academic year.
The artistic endeavors awarded, according to Anna Geske, CCA executive director, vary from design and visual arts to media and performing arts. The grants, she said, are based on artistic ability, potential to complete the project with distinction and the merit of the project itself.
Projects presented this fall reflect the diversity of awarded arts projects: Mark Gaertner's (M.F.A. '97) "Doll Houses" is a conceptual sculpture of the built environment -- a house or a box which transforms to reveal what is inside; architecture student Chris King '99 similarly redefines space, but space transformed by the tourist, in the exhibition "The Suitcase: Postcards and Paraphernalia." The film "Moonwalk" by senior Chris Spurgin was screened by Cornell Cinema.
Two M.F.A. candidates are holding exhibitions this month: Emily Trespas in Hartell Gallery presented "Family Heirlooms -- an installation of souvenirs, collage and artist books"; and Mary Bianchi, in an exhibit at Willard Straight Art Gallery, is presenting "Green Cross," which creates an environment using natural materials to make "paintings."
Staff members who received grants are Loralyn Light, events manager in the Department of Music, to present a voice recital; Warren Bunn, curator in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, to complete and exhibit monoprints and acrylic paintings; and Warren Cross, technical projects manager in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance, to mount a performance using electronic music, dance, lighting and sound design.
Awards for creative writing projects went to Daniel Donaghy, M.F.A. '96, and junior government major Jessica Troy. Grants for apparel design projects, to be shown in the spring Design League Show, were awarded to seniors Kristin Boekhoff, Nathan Demarest, Karina Terakura and sophomores Joyce Fung and Melanie Nice. For visual arts projects, grants went to seniors Colleen Cox, Yasmin Hernandez, Amelia Bookstein and Sam Godin, junior Eniko Hangay, and master's degree candidates Sara Sherwin, Jeffrey Whittle, Sabrina Raaf, Michele Palmer and Shari Stratton. Exhibitions in Hartell and Willard Straight galleries will be announced in Events in the Creative and Performing Arts.
Peter Savli's (D.M.A. '99) composition Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra will be performed March 29, 1997. Films by seniors Arun Chaudhary and Pablo Garcia will be screened as part of the IFMAC annual film festival in spring 1997.
Projects are eligible for the juried exhibition of individual grants held in the Johnson Museum every three years. The exhibition scheduled for Jan. 11 to Feb. 9, 1997, will feature nine artists who received grants between 1992 and 1995.
Some of the projects created by grant recipients will be selected for an exhibition of CCA grant works at the Johnson Museum. The exhibition will run from Jan. 11 to Feb. 9.