Parkland College students win design and art awards

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - The Giertz Gallery at Parkland College announced the scholarship and award winners of its 56th Annual Juried Student Art and Design Exhibition, on display in the gallery through May 4.

The exhibition showcases student works produced within the last year in Parkland Art and Design classes including photography, painting, drawing, metals, three-dimensional and two-dimensional design, color theory, graphic design, figure drawing, and ceramics.

Members of Parkland’s art faculty chose the exhibiting works from submissions and the exhibit includes close to 200 works of art.

A reception honoring the participants was held on Thursday, April 11, during which students received awards and art scholarships.

Scholarship recipients included Xie Qilin (Urbana), who received the Underwood-Alger Art Scholarship; Gigi Raila (Champaign), who received the Don Lake Art Scholarship; and Israel Nguvu (Champaign), who received the Juanita Gammon Graphic Design Scholarship.

Monetary awards for the Art and Design program include the Parkland President's Award for Art, given to Julie McCleery (Champaign); the Blair Kling Memorial Award, given to Olivia Bresnahan (Champaign); the Arts, Media, and Social Sciences Department Chair Award for Excellence for Art, given to Abigail McNamara (Mahomet); the Arts, Media, and Social Sciences Chair Award for Excellence for Design, given to Victor Smith (Champaign); the Art & Design Faculty Award, given to Winter Wolford (Champaign); the Metals Award of Artistic Distinction, given to Connor Altan (Monticello); The Chris Berti Award for Excellence, given to Honoka Adachi (Champaign); The Art Coop Award for Sustained Studio Excellence, given to Raegan Young (St. Joseph); Melissa’s Gift Comrades in Art Award, one given to Ciaran Carr (Urbana ) and one given to Lauren Cooke (Sidney); Melissa’s Gift Comrades in Art Award in Memory of Jenny Barrett, given to Holly Lewis (Paxton); and The David M. and Shirley A. Jones Student Award for Art and Design, given to Jasmine Ebes (Champaign).

Purchase awards for artwork to be included in the Parkland College Collection went to: Ceil Baptiste (Urbana), Cupid Keiper (Champaign), Holly Lewis (Paxton), Ethan Simpson-Palmer (Champaign), Anahi Villa Cambron (Champaign).

Merit Awards for outstanding work went to the following students: Chao-Wen Chen (Champaign), Ian Clapper (Champaign), Eva Cottrell (Savoy), Arden Cusick (Urbana), Zoey Gerard (Champaign), Taylor Hulls (Mahomet), Sandra Hynds (Champaign), Stephen Kaufman (Urbana), Jenni Nugent (Urbana), Gigi Raila (Champaign), Christian Schluter (Royal), Sara Taber (Champaign).

Also mentioned at the Awards Ceremony were several Parkland College Art and Design students who were accepted into 2024 Illinois Community College Juried Exhibition at Governors State University. Participating Parkland students included Connor Altan, Saxon Burns, Cupid Keiper, Julie McCleery, Abby McNamara, and Meadow Perkins.

The following art students are completing the requirements for a degree during the 2023-2024 academic year. They include Honoka Adachi, Connor Altan, Arush Bansal, Cambden Blair, Truc Do, Ceselie Eagan, Elyse Larsen (Summer), Lily Lawrence, Israel Nguvu, Eva Pearce-Shields, Nathan Potter, Douceur Samu, Kiah Thompson, and Alexis Watkins have completed the requirements for an Associates of Fine Arts degrees in Art and Design. Julie McCleery and Danielle Wheatley have each completed an Associates of Fine Arts degree in Art Education.

The following is a full list of students with art in the juried exhibition, listed by hometown:

Arthur: Kailee Otto

Atwood: Piper Johnson

Bellflower: Camille Buchanan

Bloomington: Ethan Cutler, Judy Lopez

Champaign: Honoka Adachi, Riya Agrawal, Miguel Blankley, Olivia Bresnahan, Chao-Wen Chen, Ian Clapper, Garrett Daly, Jasmine Ebes, Brooke Eggers, Elva Fini, James Gallagher, Sohan Gandhi, Zoey Gerard, Charlene Huang, Mitchell Hynds, Sandra Hynds, Chris Johns, Eunjoo Kang, Rashmi Kapoor, Cupid Keiper, Andrew Parker, Ruth Mambo, Julie McCleery, Anne McIntyre, Cassidy McQueen, Sophie Morgan, Summer Nagele, Israel Nguvu, John Nine, Blessing Omoniyi, Eva Pearce-Shields, Gigi Raila, Cody Rummenie, Andrew Russell, Ethan Simpson-Palmer, Sara Taber, Michael Thavis, Henri Turner, Anahi Villa Cambron, Winter Wolford, Addison Fisher, Charlene Huang, Sandra Hynds, Elyse Larsen, Victor Smith, Frank Wittkamp, Wanjia Yang, Priscilla Zabala

Chicago: Alan Chan

Durand: Canyon Richardson

Farmer City: Heather Graning

Fisher: Hanna Laible-Seif

Mahomet: Jameson Drinkwalter, Taylor Huls, Mason McGregor, Abigail McNamara, Elaina Shoaf, Katherine Spafford

Milford: Cameron Scott

Monticello: Connor Altan, Cole Harper

Muncie: Nicole Powell

Paxton: Holly Lewis, Amyrah Spenard

Philo: Patricia Guthrie

Rantoul: Charlotte Thompson

Royal: Christian Schluter

Sadorus: Erin Rogers

Saint Joseph: Shreya Patel

Savoy: Sophia Bengtson, Siarah Brown, Violetta Buravleva, Eva Cottrell, Hiroko Ito, Ethan Osmundson, Deep Patel

Seymour: Beth Chasco

Sidney: Lauren Cooke

Springfield: Alyssa Andrea Melocoton

St. Joseph: Raegan Young

Tolono: Maria Buffo, Mia Denney

Urbana: Nirvana Arroyo, David Baker, Ciel Baptiste, Saxon Burns, Amy Byrum, William Campo, Ciaran Carr, Ariana Chambers, Ivan Connor-Ridgeway, Arden Cusick, Morgan Frush, Xavier Geigner, Renee Hildreth, Stephen Kaufman, Melissa Merli, Vontice Minneman, Saturn Moore, Jenni Nugent, Hannah Null, Noah/Tate Ruffner, Cora Welch, Sharon Wenda, Qilin Xie

Villa Grove: Wayne James, Kaytelin Richey

All events in the accessible gallery are free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are Monday – Wednesday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10a.m. – 7p.m., and Saturday, 12 – 2 p.m. To find the gallery during construction, we suggest using the B7 parking lot at the south end of campus. Enter through door X2 and turn left. Take the first uphill ramp on your right and then the two ramps directly north of the library stairs to the highest point on the first floor, where the gallery is located.