Alfred University faculty, students, alumni to take part in ‘Current,’ the 2023 NCECA Conference
The 2023 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference will be held March 15-18 in Cincinnati, OH. As always, Alfred University will be well represented. More than 50 Alfred University alumni, along with a number of faculty and students, are taking part in the four-day event, which typically draws nearly 5,000 people.
The 2023 NCECA Conference, “Current,” is being held at various venues in Cincinnati, OH, and features a large number of exhibitions, panel discussions, presentations, podcasts and more.
The conference’s annual exhibition, “I Contain Multitudes,” is curated by Garth Johnson, the Paul Phillips and Sharon Sullivan Curator of Ceramics at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY. Johnson earned an MFA degree from Alfred University in 2000. The exhibition includes work by Alfred University alumni Eliza Au (MFA 2009), Jeremy Brooks (MFA 2001), Cory Brown (MFA 2017), Uriel Caspi (MFA 2021), Stephanie Rozene (BFA), Judith Salomon (MFA 1977), Virginia Scotchie (MFA 1985), Tina Gebhart (MFA 2001), Kirstin Willders (MFA 2020), and ChengOu Yu (MFA 2020).
One of the conference’s other annual exhibition. “NCECA Juried Student Exhibition” includes work by Alfred students Javaria Ahmad (MFA 2023), Julianna Dougherty (BFA 2022), and Shushank Shrestha (MFA 2023).
On Wednesday, March 15, the University will present five scholarships at the reception of the 26th Annual National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition. Each year, Alfred University awards five scholarships to participants in the exhibition, including the Val Cushing Memorial Scholarship, which provides full tuition. The other four—the Wallace C. Higgins Memorial Scholarship, Marion L. Fosdick Memorial Scholarship, Theodore A. Randall Memorial Scholarship, and William D. Parry Memorial Scholarship—provide 90 percent of tuition.
The K-12 Ceramic Exhibition—the premier annual juried ceramic competition for Kindergarten through Grade 12 students in the United States—is designed to highlight outstanding creativity with clay by school aged youth. Bob Feder, founder and president of the K-12 Ceramic Exhibition Foundation wrote recently, “I need to include the great debt of gratitude we all share to Alfred leaders, Dick Wukich (MFA ’69) and Mark Zupan, who made this all possible. Dick Wukich has given us a permanent benefit grounded in his commitment to everything we work to achieve annually and forever.”
Assistant Professor of Sculpture Joey Quinones and Visiting Assistant Professor Adero Willard (BFA ’96) are each featured in numerous exhibitions and panel discussions including the exhibitions “Clay Holds Water, Water Holds Memory,” which also includes Alfred University alumni Shea Burke (BFA ’17), Chelsea McMaster (MFA ’24), Sana Musasama (MFA ’87), Lydia Thompson (MFA ’85), and Victoria Walton (MFA ’23).
Other notable exhibitions featuring several Alfred University alumni include the Archie Bray resident artist exhibition and an exhibition of residents at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, and “Here and There: Navigating the Cultural in-between” with Hoon Lee (MFA ’01), Sunkoo Yuh (MFA ’97), Kyungmin Park (BFA ’08), Soojin Choi (MFA ’18) and Audrey An (BFA ’17).
In addition to two fellowship winners from Alfred University—Chelsea McMaster (MFA ’24, Graduate Fellowship) and Rose Schreiber (MFA ’23, Environmental Sustainability Fellowship)—two alumni are also being honored. Bruce Dehnert (MFA ’91) will receive an Excellence in Teaching Award and Julia Galloway (BFA ’88) will become a Fellow of the Council.