Announcing the 2024 Student Project Award Winners!

A painting of a table scene with black and red

Kady Whynott, '24 BFA Painting. Time is Fed, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 40" x 30"

Campus News
Academic Affairs

05/02/2024

Congratulations to the 200+ undergraduate and graduate students receiving departmental, All School Show, and SGA Service awards this year!

A few of these awards are open to undergraduate students across disciplines, juried by faculty and staff. On behalf of the selection committee members, we are honored to announce this year’s winners of the Donis A. Dondis Travel Fellowship Award, the Morton R. Godine Travel Award, the Richard Aronowitz Senior Project Award, and the George Nick Prize.

All of these year end awards are made possible by generous funding from our donors. Thank you to the faculty and staff who served on juries, and to Academic Affairs and Institutional Advancement for their work in making them possible.

Rania Abdalla

Winner: Donis A. Dondis Travel Fellowship

Textile artwork depicting a face with the quilted text

Painting of a dark silhouetted figure with glowing pale blue eyes wearing a black dress with pink trim, set against a mauve background with faint text.

Cyanotype print on fabric showing the outline of a patterned jacket or blouse with faint text layered beneath the image.

Mixed-media painting on a purple canvas featuring two figures in a moonlit green field, framed by a pink circular glow and draped with crocheted leaf garlands and beads.

Painting of a symmetrical purple and pink starburst shape on a yellow background with the words

Rania Abdalla will be attending the R.A.R.O Barcelona residency. This program provides invaluable time and resources to delve into a diverse artistic practice, encompassing writing, trapunto quilting, and image-making. Using the narrative of three sisters navigating the turmoil of war-torn Khartoum, Rania’s work aims to confront racist misconceptions about Sudanese plight, while amplifying underrepresented Afro-Arab voices in international artistic discourse. With steadfast determination, Rania aims not only to hone their craft but also to inspire empathy and global understanding with their artwork.Rania Abdalla is a Fibers major. Rania will be receiving $5,000 to fund this vision! Congratulations!

Ingrid Sampaio

Winner: Morton R. Godine Travel Award

Black and white photograph of people standing along a tall metal border wall on a beach, peering through gaps in the fence.

Black and white photograph of an American flag on a pole standing in a fluorescent-lit institutional hallway with vertical blinds.

Black and white photograph of a tall border fence topped with razor wire stretching into the distance along a barren, dusty landscape.

Black and white photograph of a group of people walking in a line toward a bus at night, some carrying backpacks and emergency blankets.

Since 2023, Ingrid Sampaio has been dedicated to “Our Journey,” a project that delves into the lives of immigrants, particularly those journeying from various countries to the United States. This initiative aims to shed light on their stories, offering a platform to those unheard and overlooked, revealing the realities behind their decisions to live, oftentimes, outside the legal frameworks. “Our Journey” explores immigrants’ motives and the cultural richness they bring to our society, and fosters empathy for their diverse experiences. This new phase of the project will trace the initial steps of immigrants, focusing on the border areas, notably Yuma, California, to capture the essence of their beginnings in the United States.Ingrid Sampaio is a Photography and History of Art major. Ingrid will be receiving $5,000 in support of this endeavor! Congratulations!

Eric Rieth

Winner: Richard Aronowitz Senior Project Award

Wooden sculpture of a whimsical figure assembled from scrap lumber and branches, with a round face, outstretched arms, and a heart carved into its chest, standing against a brick wall.

Ceramic sculpture of a squat, stocky bulldog painted yellow and blue with a weathered, distressed surface.

Ceramic sculpture of a turtle with its head and front legs partially retracted into a textured brown shell.

Eric Rieth’s senior project, titled “Effigy Series” or “Messengers that go up” will focus on constructing a series of wooden figures to act as a vessel for messages, keepsakes, or mementos, then to be set on fire and burnt until the figure is ashes. The flames will cause the figures to function as messengers, symbolically “rising” or “flying” up to carry those messages and objects inside of them into the air. It is the intent that these figures will be communal pieces in which an individual can store their worries in and then set them free.

Eric Rieth is a Sculpture major. Eric will be receiving $1,000 to pursue his proposal! Congratulations!

Benjamin Henson, Amelia McDonnell, Behnaz Monzavi, Francesca Santiago, Kady Whynott

Winners: The George Nick Prize

Oil painting portrait of two people sitting side by side on a mustard-colored couch, one in a patterned red shirt and the other in a blue jacket, both gazing directly at the viewer.

Benjamin Henson, BFA Painting ’24
Ben and Isabel, Oil on canvas, 26″ x 38″

Three vertical black and white panels depicting tree trunks and branches in a forest, rendered in high-contrast ink with detailed bark textures.

Amelia McDonnell, BFA Printmaking & Ceramics ’25
Forest Triptych, Drawing using Sumi Ink, 22″ x 10″ each

Layered print collage featuring overlapping images of birds, flowers, and a faint figure, composed in muted black, gray, and gold tones.

Behnaz Monzavi, MFA FA2D ’25
Emancipation Wings, Woodcut Printmaking on Eastern paper, 25″ x 37″

Painting of a woman in a white dress lying in a bathtub with her dark hair spread out and her hands crossed over her chest, gazing upward.

Francesca Santiago, BFA Painting & Fibers ’25
Fall: Baptism, Oil on canvas, 4′ x 7′

Painting of a family gathered around a crowded dinner table wearing paper crowns, with bold red tones, dishes of food, and dark windows in the background.

Kady Whynott, BFA Painting ’24
Time is Fed, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 40″ x 30″

The George Nick Prize is a juried award given on the basis of merit and selected by a blind jury, led by MassArt Professor Emeritus George Nick. The competition is open to all current undergraduate, graduate, and PCE students, but is restricted to original works done in drawing, painting, and printmaking.

The purpose of the George Nick Prize is to encourage emerging artists who create two-dimensional works — through observational abilities, drawing skills, and the understanding of the role of tone and color — that can be recognized in terms of subject and an emphasis on forms of realism. The total prize amount is approximately $12,000, to be split equally between the selected winners.