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Winners chosen in art history competition By Andrew M. Nedd The art history department at Savannah College of Art and Design is proud to announce the sixth annual Art History Paper Competition and Symposium. The competition is an annual event that provides students with the chance to present their work in a professional setting and to be recognized for the outstanding work completed in their art history classes. Professor Marie Timberlake, who is organizing this year’s symposium, said she feels that this event is “a valuable opportunity for the art history department to showcase examples of excellence in research and writing.” Students from every major were invited to submit research papers that they wrote for art history classes within the last academic year. All topics and lengths were considered with separate categories for graduate and undergraduate submissions. A committee of professors read the papers and judged them based on their originality, clarity, content and style. The paper selection committee was chaired by Timberlake and included professors Jeffrey Hamilton, Gregory Minissale and Andrew Nedd. The competition drew many entries from students of diverse majors, and committee members said they had a difficult time selecting the winners. Ultimately, two graduate and two undergraduate papers were chosen. The four winners of the competition will read their papers during the symposium, which will be held in the Oglethorpe House ballroom May 7 at 4 p.m. the event is free and open to the public. In the undergraduate category, Brian Ellis took first prize for a paper titled “Orlan: Social Ugliness and the Necessity for Beauty.” Ellis, a senior majoring in computer art, wrote his winning paper for a class taught by professor Margy Betz. Ellis was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and came to SCAD as a transfer student. He said he considers Lansing, Mich., his hometown. Ellis says he was introduced to Orlan’s work in professor Steven Myers’ 20th Century Art History class and jumped on the chance to explore her work in greater depth. Erin Rehil, a senior in illustration, took second prize in the undergraduate category. Rehil wrote “Form Follows Function: Drawing Connections Between Style and Content in the Work of Pinaree Sanpitak” for professor Cynda Benson’s Women in Art class. In her essay Rehil explores the work of a Thai artist whose sculptures and installations employ a wide range of media (photographs, dyed paper, acrylic and charcoal). Rehil argues that Sanpitak’s choice of materials results in a message that is increasingly versatile and universal while addressing the themes of “inner strength, gender discrimination and spirituality.” In the graduate category, Nicholas Malewski won first place for “Sleeping with Tracey Emin.” His paper was written for professor Margy Betz. Malewski is from Kansas City but has also lived in California, Oregon, New York, Alabama and North Carolina. He is an art history graduate student who has a particular interest in contemporary art, and he plans to go into museum work. He writes regular gallery reviews for District and is interning in SCAD’s exhibitions department. He chose Tracey Emin as a topic because, as Malewski said, “There hasn’t been much critical scholarship done on her work.” Malewski’s paper deals with Enmin’s “Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995,” an autobiographical installation that evokes the notion of fabric and its “effectiveness as a medium with the capacity to communicate a sense of psychological presence.” Second prize in the graduate category was awarded to Margaret Heiner, who wrote “Winslow Homer’s ‘Bridal Path, White Mountain’” for a seminar taught by professor Cynda Benson. Heiner is a graduate student in art history. She grew up in Charlottesville, Va., and attended Washington and Lee University. After graduating from college she moved to New York and enrolled in the Sotheby’s American Arts Course, worked as a gallery assistant at C&M Arts and then as the special events coordinator at The Children’s Museum of the Arts in SoHo. Heiner’s paper explores the concept of “transition” in terms of both the American landscape and Victorian womanhood. Nedd is an art history professor and also was one of the judges for the competition. |
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