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Why New Paltz?: Student Success

Ceramics

Our alumni have entered and sustained a broad range of successful careers as ceramic sculptors, studio potters, designers, independent studio artists, educators, and writers in the field. They exhibit and publish their work nationally and internationally and have received awards from international exhibition forums such as the Yingge Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, the Korean Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, and NCECA National exhibitions. Their work and writing is regularly featured in Studio Potter, Ceramics Art and Perception, Ceramics Technical, Ceramics Monthly, and many Lark Published books. Our alumni teach at highly regarded national and international institutions including Emily Carr, KyungHee University, Suwon University, Konkuk University in Korea, the National College of Art in Lahore, Pakistan, Skidmore College, Marymount Manhattan College, as well as community colleges and ceramics programs in prominent public and private schools. Many of our alumni direct programs in art centers sector such as Women’s Studio Workshop, Fall Kill Clay Works, Cornell Creative Studios, and Studio Potter. Our graduates have received competitive fellowships and residencies including at the Museum of Arts and Design; The Archie Bray Foundation; Anderson Ranch; The International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary; and the Arctic Circle Expeditionary Residency.

Metal

Metal students and alumni are highly productive artists. They contribute to the richness of this field in meaningful ways by actively building a critical and productive community through their energetic, creative professional work. Alumni have recently exhibited in the highly competitive Schmuck and Talente exhibitions, and students have received scholarships from the Society of North American Goldsmiths. Alumni have earned professorships at prestigious institutions such as RISD, University of Wisconsin, University of Oregon, University of Georgia, and the Maine College of Art. They direct and teach in the jewelry program at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Alumni founded Brooklyn Metal Works—a very active community workshop and gallery space that hosts international artists. In 2014 the Metal students and alumni were invited to mount an exhibition at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany: the exhibition, Staring in Hindsight was on view in conjunction with the International Handwerk exposition.

Painting & Drawing

Our graduates exhibit nationally and internationally; venues include: The Armory Show in NYC, Art Basel Miami Beach, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, The Arts Club of London, and Harvard University. Former students are on the staff at the Aldrich Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Our graduates have secured teaching positions at the University of Rochester, California State Long Beach, RISD, Massachusetts College of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Manhattanville College, Hong Ik University and Gyeongsang National University in South Korea, and SUNY Buffalo.

Graduate honors include: the NYFA Fellowship, the Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, the Thayer Fellowship in the Arts, Vermont Studio Center Residencies, Civitella Ranieri Fellowship in Italy, World Views Residency Fellowship, MacDowell Colony Residency, Whitney Independent Study Program Fellowship, Cooper Union Artist Residency, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award nomination, and artist books in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Photography & Related Media

Our graduates are innovative thinkers and cultural practitioners who have entered into and have sustained a broad range of successful careers. Many are actively exhibiting artists who show their work prestigious venues such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and Yossi Milo Gallery in NYC. Others have entered careers in documentary photography, photojournalism, commercial studio photography, or college teaching. Our graduates have received competitive fellowships and awards such as the Jerome Foundation grant, the NYFA grant, or the Photographer’s Fellowship Award from the Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY. They have engaged in residencies with organizations such as the Cooper Union Artist Residency, the Vermont Studio Center Residency, El Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City, the LightWork Residency in Syracuse, and the El Museo del Barrio Artist Residency Program in New York City. Their work has been published by  NYU Press, the Center for Documentary Studies, Daylight Books, Steidl, and others. Their artworks are in collections worldwide including the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Printmaking

EXHIBITIONS: Our alumni are invited to exhibit at top venues around the world, including the Venice Biennial, SMTG Krakow Triennial, Tallinn Triennial, Oldenburg Triennial, Graphica Creativa Triennial, Douro Biennial, and many museums, universities and galleries.

AWARDS: Alumni awards include the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Printmaking, Drawing, and Artists Books; Fulbright Award; Southern Graphics Council International MFA Award. Several recent alumni were awarded internships at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NYC; two have also gone on to work as the Studio Technician there. Other residencies and internships alumni received: Lower East Side Printshop, NYC; Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY; and Artist in Residence at The Arctic Circle, Svalbard, Norway. Our alumni are also awarded public and privately commissioned projects.

EMPLOYMENT: In addition to working as actively practicing artists, many of our alumni are professors, studio technicians, artists’ assistants, printers for leading fine art printing publishers, and exhibition specialists at universities and art venues around the world. Some recent alumni have founded their own print studios, paper studios and publishing companies, completed the Tamarind Professional Printer Program and co-founded an international art book fair.

Sculpture

Our graduates have entered into and sustained a broad range of successful careers including as practicing professional artists, highly-skilled art fabricators, illustrators, small business entrepreneurs, art handlers, nonprofit leaders, famous taxidermists, gallery and museum personnel, and art teachers and college faculty. Our students have been honored with the prestigious Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Society five times (3 winners, 2 honorable mentions) in the last 10 years. In addition, they have been awarded the Windgate Fellowship, the Artist Trust Project Grant, and the AIM Fellowship. They have exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (Brooklyn, NY), Bronx Museum of the Arts (Bronx, NY), Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (Peekskill, NY), Wave Hill Art Center (Bronx, NY), El Museo Del Barrio (NYC), La Luz de Jesus Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), SITE Santa Fe (NM), and Yvon Lambert (NYC/Paris), Zwirner & Wirth (NYC) and Mike Weiss Gallery (NYC).

Our students have been awarded artist residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space, Vermont Studio Center, Franconia Sculpture Park, Center for Photography in Woodstock, Salem Art Works, Snug Harbor, Fountainhead, Dyson’s Artist Residency at Pace University, Gallery Aferro, and SOMA Mexico City. Lastly, New Paltz Sculpture Alumni have also been featured on the TV shows: Oddities, Odd Folks Home and American Ninja Warriors.