Ceramics student earns prestigious Windgate Fellowship
SUNY New Paltz is proud to announce that Breana Hendricks ’17 (Ceramics), from Bronx, N.Y., has become the College’s fourth Windgate Fellow, joining previous winners Kaitlin Dunn ’15 (Metal), Jeremy Holmes ’07 (Sculpture) and Amelia Toelke ’05 (Metal).
For each of the last 12 years, the Center for Craft, Creativity & Design’s (CCCD) has supported emerging craft artists through the Windgate Fellowship, which is given annually to 10 graduating college seniors and includes a $15,000 prize, one of the largest awards available to art students in the United States.
“I learned about winning the Windgate Fellowship on a crowded New York City subway,” Hendricks said. “I’m pretty sure I made a few funny faces, but it was all worth it! I felt excitement, relief and complete shock all at once, and I’m excited to prepare for a new adventure.”
Hendricks intends to use the Fellowship support on a project designed to bridge the gap between artistic communities in the U.S. and in the Caribbean.
“The Windgate Fellowship will allow me to travel, expanding my historical research, while further developing my skills in making,” she said. “I aim to find authenticity in a voice that comes from this extraordinary experience. I will visit craft schools and communities in the United States and Jamaica to learn strategies in making volumetric forms. I am excited and grateful to be given the opportunity to connect and have conversations with people in the ceramics community whom I look up to, and learn the value in my voice and my culture at the same time.”
[Additional examples of Hendricks’ work are available on her website]
Hendricks was selected from among an exclusive pool of just 110 invited nominees. She becomes the first SUNY New Paltz ceramics major to claim a Windgate Fellowship.
“As is evident from the list of students from this and previous years, these awards go to nationally prominent art and design schools,” said Assistant Professor of Art Bryan Czibesz. “The Ceramics program and the Art Department as a whole are proud to be able to identify SUNY New Paltz among such schools, and in particular to have our talented students receive this kind of support and recognition. We are exceptionally proud of Breana, and are excited to see the work that she does in the future!”
Follow this link to learn more about Ceramics at SUNY New Paltz.
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR CRAFT, CREATIVITY & DESIGN (CCCD)
Established in 1996, the Center for Craft, Creativity & Design is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the field of craft through fostering new ideas, funding craft scholarship, and backing the next generation of makers, curators and critics. CCCD has developed a strong national reputation as a significant resource for artists, museums, academic researchers, university students and arts organizations. Each year, CCCD administers over a quarter million dollars in grants to those working in the craft field.