Parkland Students Win Art and Design Awards
Parkland Collge proudly announces the scholarship and award winners of the 56th Annual Juried Student Art and Design Exhibition
The Giertz Gallery at Parkland College proudly announces the scholarship and award winners of its 56th Annual Juried Student Art and Design Exhibition, on display in the gallery through May 4.
The exhibition comprises student works produced within the last year in Parkland Art and Design classes including photography, painting, drawing, metals, three-dimensional and two-dimensional design, color theory, graphic design, figure drawing, and ceramics. Members of Parkland’s art faculty selected the exhibiting works from submissions and the exhibit includes close to 200 works of art. The public is invited to view the strength and quality of Parkland’s Art & Design program through these artworks.
A reception honoring the participants was held on Thursday, April 11. During the celebration, students received several awards and art scholarships.
Scholarship recipients included Xie Qilin (Urbana), who received the Underwood-Alger Art Scholarship; Gigi Raila (Champaign), who received the Don Lake Art Scholarship; and Israel Nguvu (Champaign), who received the Juanita Gammon Graphic Design Scholarship.
Monetary awards for the Art and Design program include the Parkland President's Award for Art, given to Julie McCleery (Champaign); the Blair Kling Memorial Award, given to Olivia Bresnahan (Champaign); the Arts, Media, and Social Sciences Department Chair Award for Excellence for Art, given to Abigail McNamara (Mahomet); the Arts, Media, and Social Sciences Chair Award for Excellence for Design, given to Victor Smith (Champaign); the Art & Design Faculty Award, given to Winter Wolford (Champaign); the Metals Award of Artistic Distinction, given to Connor Altan (Monticello); The Chris Berti Award for Excellence, given to Honoka Adachi (Champaign); The Art Coop Award for Sustained Studio Excellence, given to Raegan Young (St. Joseph); Melissa’s Gift Comrades in Art Award, one given to Ciaran Carr (Urbana ) and one given to Lauren Cooke (Sidney); Melissa’s Gift Comrades in Art Award in Memory of Jenny Barrett, given to Holly Lewis (Paxton); and The David M. and Shirley A. Jones Student Award for Art and Design, given to Jasmine Ebes (Champaign).
Purchase awards for artwork to be included in the Parkland College Collection went to: Ceil Baptiste (Urbana), Cupid Keiper (Champaign), Holly Lewis (Paxton), Ethan Simpson-Palmer (Champaign), Anahi Villa Cambron (Champaign).
Merit Awards for outstanding work went to the following students: Chao-Wen Chen (Champaign), Ian Clapper (Champaign), Eva Cottrell (Savoy), Arden Cusick (Urbana), Zoey Gerard (Champaign), Taylor Huls (Mahomet), Sandra Hynds (Champaign), Stephen Kaufman (Urbana), Jenni Nugent (Urbana), Gigi Raila (Champaign), Christian Schluter (Royal), Sara Taber (Champaign).
Also mentioned at the Awards Ceremony were several Parkland College Art and Design students who were accepted into 2024 Illinois Community College Juried Exhibition at Governors State University. Participating Parkland students included Connor Altan, Saxon Burns, Cupid Keiper, Julie McCleery, Abby McNamara, and Meadow Perkins.
The following art students are completing the requirements for a degree during the 2023-2024 academic year. They include Honoka Adachi, Connor Altan, Arush Bansal, Cambden Blair, Truc Do, Ceselie Eagan, Elyse Larsen (Summer), Lily Lawrence, Israel Nguvu, Eva Pearce-Shields, Nathan Potter, Douceur Samu, Kiah Thompson, and Alexis Watkins have completed the requirements for an Associates of Fine Arts degrees in Art and Design. Julie McCleery and Danielle Wheatley have each completed an Associates of Fine Arts degree in Art Education.
The following is a full list of students with art in the juried exhibition, listed by hometown:
Arthur: Kailee Otto
Atwood: Piper Johnson
Bellflower: Camille Buchanan
Bloomington: Ethan Cutler, Judy Lopez
Champaign: Honoka Adachi, Riya Agrawal, Miguel Blankley, Olivia Bresnahan, Chao-Wen Chen, Ian Clapper, Garrett Daly, Jasmine Ebes, Brooke Eggers, Elva Fini, James Gallagher, Sohan Gandhi, Zoey Gerard, Charlene Huang, Mitchell Hynds, Sandra Hynds, Chris Johns, Eunjoo Kang, Rashmi Kapoor, Cupid Keiper, Andrew Parker, Ruth Mambo, Julie McCleery, Anne McIntyre, Cassidy McQueen, Sophie Morgan, Summer Nagele, Israel Nguvu, John Nine, Blessing Omoniyi, Eva Pearce-Shields, Gigi Raila, Cody Rummenie, Andrew Russell, Ethan Simpson-Palmer, Sara Taber, Michael Thavis, Henri Turner, Anahi Villa Cambron, Winter Wolford, Addison Fisher, Charlene Huang, Sandra Hynds, Elyse Larsen, Victor Smith, Frank Wittkamp, Wanjia Yang, Priscilla Zabala
Chicago: Alan Chan
Durand: Canyon Richardson
Farmer City: Heather Graning
Fisher: Hanna Laible-Seif
Mahomet: Jameson Drinkwalter, Taylor Huls, Mason McGregor, Abigail McNamara, Elaina Shoaf, Katherine Spafford
Milford: Cameron Scott
Monticello: Connor Altan, Cole Harper
Muncie: Nicole Powell
Paxton: Holly Lewis, Amyrah Spenard
Philo: Patricia Guthrie
Rantoul: Charlotte Thompson
Royal: Christian Schluter
Sadorus: Erin Rogers
Saint Joseph: Shreya Patel
Savoy: Sophia Bengtson, Siarah Brown, Violetta Buravleva, Eva Cottrell, Hiroko Ito, Ethan Osmundson, Deep Patel
Seymour: Beth Chasco
Sidney: Lauren Cooke
Springfield: Alyssa Andrea Melocoton
St. Joseph: Raegan Young
Tolono: Maria Buffo, Mia Denney
Urbana: Nirvana Arroyo, David Baker, Ciel Baptiste, Saxon Burns, Amy Byrum, William Campo, Ciaran Carr, Ariana Chambers, Ivan Connor-Ridgeway, Arden Cusick, Morgan Frush, Xavier Geigner, Renee Hildreth, Stephen Kaufman, Melissa Merli, Vontice Minneman, Saturn Moore, Jenni Nugent, Hannah Null, Noah/Tate Ruffner, Cora Welch, Sharon Wenda, Qilin Xie
Villa Grove: Wayne James, Kaytelin Richey
All events in the accessible gallery are free and open to the public. Parkland is a section 504/ADA-compliant institution. For accommodation, call 217/353-2338 or accessibilityservices@parkland.edu.
Gallery hours are Monday – Wednesday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10a.m. – 7p.m., and Saturday, 12 – 2 p.m. To find the gallery during construction, we suggest using the B7 parking lot at the south end of campus. Enter through door X2 and turn left. Take the first uphill ramp on your right and then the two ramps directly north of the library stairs to the highest point on the first floor, where the gallery is located.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. For more information, call Lisa Costello, Giertz Gallery at Parkland College director, at 217/351-2485.
[Pictured: Gigi Raila, winner of the 2024 Don Lake Art Scholarship]