School Notes: School of Art
May/June 2023

Public art and social impact

In February, the School of Art hosted a public conversation between Tavares Strachan ’06MFA and Clara Wu Tsai, the founder of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation. With questions posed by Dean Kymberly Pinder, the pair discussed a project they collaborated on together: Strachan’s permanent public art installation, Belong / Brooklyn, a text-based sculpture that sits atop the subway entrance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Installed in 2021, the sculpture activates the site of protests that took place on the streets after the murder of George Floyd. Strachan said that in creating this piece, he used the tools of the artist to “negotiate those feelings” of not belonging. “We anticipate,” he shared, “that we will be constantly in the struggle.”

Faculty and alumni awards

In January the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation announced 20 winners of its 2022 biennial grants, of which ten are Yale/School of Art alums: Farah Al-Qasimi ’12, ’17MFA; Hector Dionicio Mendoza ’09MFA; Nikita Gale ’06; Mark Thomas Gibson ’13MFA, former lecturer in painting/printmaking; Pao Houa Her ’12MFA, critic in photo; Lisa Kereszi ’00MFA, director of undergraduate studies and senior critic in photography; Matvey Levenstein ’87MFA; Ronny Quevedo ’12MFA; Anna Tsouhlarakis ’02MFA; and Didier William ’09MFA.

Natalie Ball ’18MFA is one of 45 creatives to receive a 2023 United States Artists Fellowship. And Maria De Los Angeles ’15MFA, critic and assistant director in painting/printmaking, is the winner of the 2023 William Aguilar Cultural Arts Award, given annually by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education to individuals who have contributed significantly to the understanding of the national Latino community and culture through the fine, creative, and performing arts.

Elle Pérez ’15MFA, critic in photography, is beginning a residency in Rome as the winner of the 2023–23 Abigail Cohen Rome Prize.