New Paltz professor receives USA Fellowship

NEW PALTZ – The State University of New York at New Paltz is pleased to announce that Professor Myra Mimlitsch-Gray is the recipient of the 2012 United States Artists (USA) Fellowship. The honor carries with it an award of $50,000 in unrestricted grant funds.

Mimlitsch-Gray received the award in the category of Crafts and Traditional Arts.

Mimlitsch-Gray is a renowned metalsmith who has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1994 and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Prize in 1995. Her artwork is included in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, and New Paltz’s Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.

United States Artists selects 50 artist fellows each year in the disciplines of architecture and design; crafts and traditional arts; dance; literature; media; music ; theater arts; and visual arts. Selections are based on the artists’ skills, education or training, income-based application of skills, and history of engaging creatively with the public. All USA Fellows have proven extraordinary talent and commitment to their craft.

Mary Hafeli, dean of the College’s School of Fine and Performing Arts, commented on the award: “USA Fellowships are at the top of all honors bestowed on those working in the visual, performing, and literary arts, so to be recognized in this way is an undeniably stellar accomplishment. Myra is most deserving of this honor. Her work is widely recognized to be at the leading edge of contemporary art that challenges assumed boundaries between craft, design, art, and function. The USA Fellowship, in so publicly acknowledging this impact and offering substantial financial support, will afford Myra the means to ‘dream big’ as she takes on projects and creates new work going forward.”

Mimlitsch-Gray is a co-director, with Professor Jamie Bennett, of the Metal graduate program at New Paltz. The program is consistently among the highest ranked in the country. In 2009, it was ranked #1 in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report list of America’s best graduate schools. In its 2013 rankings, U.S. News & World Report named New Paltz among the top 100 Best Graduate Schools for Fine Arts.