As we step into fall, transformation is in the air— and nowhere is that spirit of change more vibrant than here at CIA.
In this issue of Link, you’ll see just how powerfully our community is shaping the future of art, design and beyond. From a faculty member earning a prestigious Fulbright Scholar Award to a recent graduate winning the coveted Windgate-Lamar Fellowship for excellence in craft, talented CIA artists and designers are making their mark.
We also soft-launched our Interactive Media Lab (IML) with Operation: Blast-Off, an energizing celebration of innovation and collaborative imagination—and we officially open the IML this fall. And this year, we’ll dive deeper into technoethics—examining the evolving relationship between
Editor’s Note
First and foremost, thank you for reading Link ! If you do so regularly, you might notice that this issue is larger than most. That’s because we’re moving to two issues per year instead of three or four. Rest assured, we aim to provide the same amount of quality storytelling
emerging technologies and the ethical role of the artist and designer.
In classrooms, studios and beyond, CIA is buzzing with purpose. We’re advancing the final phase of our 2020–27 Strategic Plan and have already raised more than $30 million toward our $35 million comprehensive campaign. This support directly fuels student scholarships, teaching and learning, technological innovation, and more.
And with the IML “officially” opening in September, we’re stepping boldly into a new era of impact—shaping not only the future of art and design but also serving as a creative catalyst for the innovation economy locally and nationally.
All of this is done with an eye toward fulfilling CIA’s mission to cultivate creative leaders, advance our College and strengthen our community—a mission that’s helped make CIA a leader in Northeast Ohio for generations.
We’re all part of something truly special here at CIA. So, here’s to a year ahead that’s full of promise—fueled by purpose, driven by curiosity, and brightened by supporters like you.
Kathryn J. Heidemann President + CEO
you’ve come to expect from Link, we’ll just be doing so in fewer issues. We appreciate your understanding—as well as your continued support and engagement with CIA.
Michael C. Butz, Director of College Communications + External Relations
On the cover: Annie O’Brien ’25 earned a prestigious Windgate-Lamar Fellowship thanks to work such as “Awarding Female Dominance” (12 x 12 x 38 inches; blown glass, woodworked base,
Read more about O’Brien and CIA’s other Windgate-Lamar awardees on Page 14. Submitted
Fall–Winter 2025 Vol. 29, Issue 1
Helping alumni and friends of Cleveland Institute of Art remain informed of campus, faculty and alumni news. CIA publishes Link two times a year.
Malou Monago Vice President of Institutional Advancement + External Relations
Michael C. Butz Director of College Communications + External Relations
Rachel Zinram Director of Alumni Relations + Scholarships
Stephanie Zolton Publication + Communication Design Specialist
Submit ideas and updates for Link: Mail Cleveland Institute of Art 11610 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44106
Email link@cia.edu
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metal plaque; 2024).
photo.
BRIEFS
Compiled by Michael C. Butz
CIA welcomes Class of 2029 during Convocation
The CIA community extended a warm welcome to the Class of 2029 during the 2025 Convocation ceremony. This tradition-rich event, which also celebrates the start of a new academic year, included remarks by President + CEO Kathryn Heidemann; Board of Directors Chair Cynthia Prior Gascoigne; Student Leadership Council President Lane Grigson ’26; Dean of Students Amanda Fronek, PhD; Director of Alumni Relations + Scholarships Rachel Zinram; and Liberal Arts Senior Professor of Practice Scott Lax, who received the 2025 Dan Tranberg Award for Teaching Excellence.
Students, alumni, faculty and CIA receive awards
Several CIA artists have received big accolades for their creative work. The international Rookie Awards named Agent Dunstone ’25 its Rookie of the Year in the Product & Industrial Design category. His design for the GMC Suspence, a futuristic off-road rally/baja sport truck built for novice drivers, earned him the award.
In addition, Estefany Bosques-Hernadez ’24 and Sasha Wootten ’24 each won a Student Production Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Central Great Lakes Chapter for their BFA animations. Emmett Tsai-McCarthy ’24 and Jason Lucas ’24 were also nominated.
It was “game over” for the competition as students and faculty earned top recognition at the Cleveland Gaming Classic. Animation assistant professor Robert Lauer ’17 won the Best Art category and Game Design adjunct professor Susan Shaffer won the Best Visuals category. Also, two Game Design students—Abigail Quintana ’26 and Madison Smith ’26 were awarded scholarships for their dedication to game design.
Lastly, at Greater Cleveland Partnership’s 19th Annual Best of Tech Awards, CIA earned recognition in two categories— Education, Training, and Accessibility as well as Organizations Supporting Tech Company—for cultivating creative leaders in art and design, and through the new Interactive Media Lab, driving growth in Northeast Ohio’s tech economy.
CIA welcomes new full-time faculty for 2025–26
As the new academic year began, CIA added several new full-time faculty members to its ranks. Zoe Brester-Pennings, an interdisciplinary artist whose work ranges from print and sculpture to video art, is a professor of practice in Printmaking. Chen Gao, a Chinese interdisciplinary artist, designer and educator, is an assistant professor in Graphic Design. Mei Kazama, a New York City artist and educator who joins CIA through an Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) post-graduate fellowship program aimed at increasing racial and ethnic diversity in art school faculty, teaches in Foundation. Robert Lauer ’17, a multidisciplinary artist in game development, 3D art and interactive media, is an assistant professor in Animation. Margaret Li ’16, a visual artist who specializes in illustration, is a professor of practice in Animation. Troy Neptune, an amphibian ecologist and artist, is a professor of practice in Liberal Arts. Rachel Suzanne Smith, an artist, metalsmith and educator, is a professor of practice in both Craft + Design and Foundation. Brester-Pennings, Lauer, Li, Neptune and Smith all previously taught at CIA either as visiting professors or adjunct faculty.
Howard ’86 receives Lifetime Achievement Award Sculptor, painter, muralist and textile artist Mark E. Howard ’86 recently received Cleveland Arts Prize’s Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his illustrious career, which has included brightening and energizing public spaces such as Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Cleveland Public Library’s Main Branch in downtown Cleveland. His work is also held in the collection at Cleveland Museum of Art.
Howard joins 57 other CIA artists—alumni and faculty— who’ve been recognized by Cleveland Arts Prize over the years. He’ll accept his award during the 65th Annual Awards Event in October.
Gund remembered for generous support of CIA Agnes Gund—a world-renowned supporter of the arts and philanthropist—died in September. She established CIA’s George Clements Endowed Scholarship Fund, which supports students studying abroad—thus following her aunt, also Agnes Gund, who supports CIA’s President’s Traveling Scholarships.
In Memoriam
Dona Rosenblatt ’73 earned a BFA in Fiber + Material Studies and died September 2. Peter Kaniaris ’74 majored in Painting and passed away June 10. Albert Lenz ’75 studied Ceramics and died August 25. Robert Novak ’77 majored in Commercial Design/Art and died May 2. John Herrington ’98 studied Industrial Design and died April 9. Jeremy Powell ’07 earned a BFA in Industrial Design and passed away August 23.
First-year students celebrate at 2025 Convocation. Photo by Leah Trznadel ’19.
Mark Howard ’86. Photo by Robert Muller ’87.
CIA to explore ethics surrounding technology, AI and art this year
By Amanda Koehn
The ethics of technological innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) as they relate to art and creative work will be a major focus of Cleveland Institute of Art programming this academic year. The timing couldn’t be more crucial. Artists and designers everywhere are grappling with what such advancements could mean for them, especially in rapidly changing creative-career fields.
At CIA, faculty and staff are already working diligently to put—and keep—the College at the forefront of these issues.
For example, last year, CIA faculty participated in the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ inaugural Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum to learn about and confront
the challenges and opportunities AI could create for the College’s curricula.
The College’s efforts are ramping up this fall semester with a full slate of technoethics programming designed to facilitate questions and seek answers to challenging topics—environmental impact, copyright concerns, workforce implications—in a community setting.
“These conversations are complicated. We need to continue them,” says Kari Weaver, director of CIA’s Jane B. Nord Center for Teaching + Learning. “Our mission is about cultivating creative leaders—not just having people who can utilize technology. We want innovative, ethical, thoughtful leaders— and I think that takes a really specific approach.”
Weaver and Nikki Woods ’12, CIA’s director of exhibitions and galleries, are leading the College’s technoethics public programming, which so far includes a Reinberger Gallery exhibition, lecture and panel discussion. The through line is that participants will hear, share and experience diverse viewpoints.
Discussion topics
CIA students are concerned about the environmental impact of AI—notably the increased electricity demand and water consumption the computer servers require, Weaver explained. However, they also worry about what it means for the value of their education and potential career opportunities.
Stimulation Driven Rowing Games, a rowing machine-style game created by CIA adjunct professors Matthew Beckwith ’06 and Tony Calabro ’06 that serves as a physical therapy tool for paraplegics, will be part of FREE PLAY: Innovative Ohio Game Design this fall in Reinberger Gallery. Image courtesy of XRtistry.
And like students across the world, they want to feel encouraged that their academic institution is equipped to lead them in the right direction. A goal of this year’s technoethics programming is to create cross-institutional dialogue through a collaborative AI initiative with the Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design, which Weaver is heading. Thus, through CIA’s leadership, students and employees from AICAD’s 36 institutions can confront real-time concerns, questions and interests together.
“We want students to be able to choose their own ethical positions,” Weaver says. “We want to foreground that, but you don’t want to endanger their workforce preparedness. We want to open up as many choices for them as possible.”
Students are also concerned about copyright rights of their artistic work and potential exploitation from AI, Woods says. That’s also why CIA wants to spearhead such learning, “so we can be knowledgeable about the technology and not be used by the technology.”
Technoethics programming
Though not related to AI, Reinberger Gallery’s fall exhibition, FREE PLAY: Innovative Ohio Game Design, will help
provide some of that knowledge by demonstrating positive uses of technology on creativity. The exhibition explores video games not only as a source for entertainment, but as powerful media for critical inquiry, experiential learning and creative exploration. Opening November 7, FREE PLAY will be the first of CIA’s public events under the technoethics theme.
“It’s really important that the gallery serves as an experimental testing site to explore ideas that are really relevant to our students, to contemporary art and to the moment,” says Woods, adding that FREE PLAY will include video games created by game developers not affiliated with the College as well as games CIA faculty helped create.
For example, XRtistry, an XR/VR production company created by CIA adjunct professors Matthew Beckwith ’06 and Tony Calabro ’06, will show its rowing machine-style Stimulation Driven Rowing Games, created in consultation with a veterans medical center as a physical therapy tool for paraplegics. Animation faculty member Robert Lauer ’17 and Game Design professor and division chair Steven Gutierrez also contributed to the game.
To complement the exhibition, Reinberger Gallery will host a Lunch on Fridays panel discussion November 7 featuring several of the game developers represented in the exhibition. It will be moderated by Lauer, an accomplished game designer who organized Free Play with Woods.
In addition, an AI + Ethics panel discussion moderated by Liberal Arts professor and division chair Zachary Savich will take place December 4 at CIA. Panelists include David Foster from Kent State University; Shannon French from Case Western Reserve University; Kevin Mowrer ’80, founder of Mowrer Meta-story; and Ashlei Watson from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
The panel will provide a “broad knowledge base of the social, political and ethical concerns surrounding AI that we should all be thinking about,” Woods says. It aims to highlight innovators and educators who contribute diverse and thoughtful perspectives on issues like balancing industry pressures with opportunities and navigating personal agency when it comes to using technology.
Inspiring community
Weaver noted that Mowrer, a CIA alum, is an example of an entertainment industry leader who, like many in College’s community, has high hopes for AI but also wants to address ethical concerns with care. He and other panelists will demonstrate how creators can identify and implement their own values-driven stances toward emerging technologies, she says.
“I want our students and our community to see that there’s a very thoughtful and hopeful way forward,” Weaver says. “I think we need a sense of community and a sense of hope and empowerment that our actions can contribute to the future that we want.
“A lot of times, I think we try and make sense of these things on our own and feel alone in it and feel overwhelmed,” she continues. “I think when we spend time with others in conversation, we lose that feeling of aloneness and overwhelm. That’s really an uplifting aspect.”
ARWell PRO—an augmented reality exercise tool for health care providers to motivate, monitor and prescribe immersive exercise programs—will be part of FREE PLAY: Innovative Ohio Game Design this fall in Reinberger Gallery. Image courtesy of Augment Therapy.
Operation: Blast-Off launches learning, creating at CIA’s IML
By Kennedi Combs
Ayoung girl peers through a telescope with her mother by her side, when suddenly, the world transforms and our heroine is transported to outer space. She bravely pilots a futuristic spaceship through an asteroid field and around other planets, soaring through a faraway galaxy. Slowly, her intergalactic journey comes to an end as her spaceship returns her safely to her mother’s side on Earth.
This didn’t actually happen in outer space, of course—nor did it happen in Hollywood, as one might expect. Instead, this cosmic adventure unfolded in Cleveland and was powered by the immersive technology at the Cleveland Institute of Art’s new Interactive Media Lab (IML).
It was all part of a sci-fi short, Operation: Blast-Off, a months-long collaboration between CIA’s Industrial Design, Animation, Game Design and Creative Writing programs. It was filmed in the IML’s XR Studio, where an expansive
36-foot-wide LED wall and inlaid LED floor provided an other-worldly backdrop for the adventure. Tech and tools like those are new to CIA. Operation: Blast-Off was significant in how it helped students, alumni and faculty learn how to use them together.
Launching a collaboration
Operation: Blast-Off started as Project XR, a faculty-led initiative in 2024 to discover the cross-collaborative ways the IML could be used for CIA’s curriculum. Industrial Design professor Dan Cuffaro ’91 was instrumental, serving on the IML Advisory Board, authoring the IML’s business plan and creating a 3D rendering of the lab to visualize the space before construction was complete.
Originally scheduled to film in the XR Studio over the 2024–25 academic year, Project XR was postponed as participants weighed the challenges of time and logistics against the scope of the project.
The young protagonist of Operation: Blast-Off sits on set in a spaceship produced by CIA Industrial Design and Animation students and faculty. Photo by Dmytro Hunchak ’26.
During that time, Cuffaro and Animation assistant professor Jeff Simonetta participated in virtual production training. Their goal: ensure they were well-versed in the IML’s cutting-edge technology before instructing students. However, training alone wasn’t enough. A deep comprehension of virtual production, they believed, required hands-on experience.
“We realized that the only way we were going to learn this is by doing it,” Cuffaro says. “And so, we said, ‘Let’s do a one-semester version of Project XR,’ and that’s how Operation: Blast-Off was born.”
Telling the story
To take on a project of this scale in half the time, Simonetta proposed integrating it into Animation’s Community Projects course, where students animate and provide art and production services for individual clients and organizations in a professional studio setting. The course emphasizes students’ development in problem solving, meeting client demands, communication skills, organization, effective time management and more.
“Since this class is usually with clients, I essentially became the client and brought the class this concept of a virtual production project,” Cuffaro says. “There were seven Animation students and then I recruited two Industrial Design students who were very interested in film, animation, production and design.”
This new approach allowed Animation students to gain an intimate understanding of the expansive ways they can amplify stories.
“In Animation, we don’t view ourselves like we’re animators— we’re more storytellers,” Simonetta explains. “Animation is just a medium within filmmaking. So, [the XR Studio] is just an extended tool of being able to tell new stories a different way. In this one, we have a giant LED wall that could bring real actors and performers into a virtual space and record it all on camera.”
Students crafted and proposed stories to showcase the XR Studio’s full potential. Following a vote, Animation major and Creative Writing minor Jess Reichwein’s immersive tale told through a child’s imagination—that child being her 6-year-old daughter—was selected.
“Every time I write something, I always have my children in mind,” Reichwein says. “I’m a non-traditional student; I’m 31. I have two kids and they love space. So, I thought, how cool would it be if I could bring something that’s in my life to life for everyone else.”
Working together
Operation: Blast-Off blended the real with the imaginary. While Simonetta and the Animation students created the imaginary cosmos, Cuffaro and the Industrial Design students built a life-size version of the spaceship.
They began by sketching modular concepts for a child-friendly spaceship, focusing on scale, movement and camera angles. A full-size foamcore mock-up helped test layout and interaction while computer-aided design models were created and used to produce a precise final product from fiberboard.
As the project progressed, Animation students actively joined the build process, contributing to assembly, painting, sanding and detailing. Together, the team designed control panels with laser-cut, 3D-printed and ordered parts, added lighting systems and created modular components that could be rearranged and filmed at different angles.
“They wanted to get their hands dirty,” Simonetta says. “[Animation students] have been sitting in front of the computer for all of their other classes. It was a highlight of the project to see people going out of their comfort zones and learning different fields that they might never have thought of when they first came to CIA.”
“[Operation: Blast-Off ] touched so many parts of the institution and was really an all-hands-on-deck situation,” says Cuffaro, noting CIA’s Digital Output Center, Fabrication Studios and Reinberger Gallery also contributed. “The staff’s support made it a really amazing experience.”
Looking ahead
Using what he learned during Operation: Blast-Off, Simonetta is already factoring virtual production into Animation’s two-semester Narrative Production course. He sees a bright future and is excited about how the IML will expand what CIA offers to students. Case in point: The College recently launched a Virtual + Augmented Reality minor that provides students with a strong foundation in designing immersive experiences and understanding interactive media.
Cuffaro is also excited about what the IML means for lesson planning and student outcomes.
“If we had talked about designing for film 20 or 30 years ago, people would have been like ‘What? Are you crazy? Why? That only happens in Hollywood,’” Cuffaro says. “Now it can happen anywhere, and that allows us to teach these tremendous opportunities through our coursework.”
In between scenes, Industrial Design professor Dan Cuffaro ’91 and Rayn Colbourne ’25 make adjustments to the Operation: Blast-Off spaceship while asteroids float by on the XR Studio’s 36-foot LED wall.
Liberal Arts faculty member earns Fulbright for ecology research
By Kennedi Combs
How can one strike a balance between artistic creativity and scientific precision? That’s a potentially career-defining question that Troy Neptune—a Liberal Arts professor of practice at Cleveland Institute of Art who recently earned his PhD in Biology from Case Western Reserve University—has faced before. And, he has a good handle on it.
“I’m a creative individual, and that informs my work as a scientist,” Neptune says. “Coming up with research questions and thinking creatively and critically about science is so, so important. It’s the same way with my artistic practice. My background in science makes me methodical and regimented, making my approach to art very intentional. It goes both ways, like they inform each other.”
Not only has Neptune struck the right balance, but his methodical artistic practice and creative scientific reasoning were instrumental in him earning a Fulbright U.S. Scholar
Program Postdoctoral Award for his research investigating how artificial light at night affects amphibians.
The Fulbright Program is an international, educational and cultural exchange designed to establish lasting connections between the people of the United States and people of other countries by working together on common goals.
CIA President + CEO Kathryn Heidemann emphasized the broader impact of Neptune’s achievement.
“Having grown up abroad (Australia, Venezuela, Germany), I have seen firsthand the value of cross-cultural experiences in building bridges, fostering mutual understanding and cultural diplomacy,” Heidemann says. “I am thrilled that Troy will be representing CIA internationally through this prestigious fellowship, and look forward to the new ideas, perspectives and knowledge he will bring back to our community.”
CIA Liberal Arts faculty member Troy Neptune uses a metal minnow trap to sample for adult salamanders as part of a monitoring project related to his post-doctoral work at Case Western Reserve University. Photo by Michael Benard.
Crucial amphibian research
Neptune’s Fulbright-supported research focuses on a timely and often overlooked environmental issue: the impact of artificial light at night on amphibians, specifically within the context of climate change. His work explores how exposure to unnatural lighting disrupts amphibian behavior, physiology, and ecosystems—an area of growing concern as urbanization expands.
Neptune, an amphibian ecologist, will travel to Seville, Spain to work alongside other scientists at the renowned Doñana Biological Station. The public research institute, known for its dedication to the conservation of biodiversity, will include Neptune’s work as part of a growing body of research focusing on how light pollution—increasing globally by 10 percent each year—poses an existential threat to all wildlife.
“Essentially, when the [artificial] lights are on—like street lights, façade lighting on buildings, car lights—all of those correlate and disrupt how organisms are perceiving their circadian rhythms, or light and dark cycles,” Neptune says. “So, I will be putting frogs under 24 hours of light and seeing if they develop in a bad way or have sort of negative or deleterious impacts on their health and growth trajectory.”
Classroom impact at CIA Neptune’s ability to bridge the worlds of science and art doesn’t just define his research, it also shapes his impact in the classroom. At CIA, he brings this interdisciplinary mindset to the Liberal Arts curriculum, encouraging students to explore the intersections between creative expression and scientific inquiry.
Zach Savich, Liberal Arts professor and division chair, says Neptune has played a pivotal role in CIA’s new curriculum in the Natural Sciences. His main contributions have been in Visualizing Global Change and The Spectrum of Sex courses.
“Troy’s courses help show what the Natural Sciences can be at a school of art and design,” Savich says. “He teaches in a way that pulls in science, contemporary culture, some pop culture, and a range of media sources that are really accessible and help students understand what these topics can offer their work.”
Neptune, who studied science and studio art as an undergraduate at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio,
seamlessly integrates these disciplines in a way that traditional secondary schools don’t often provide.
“My students come in saying ‘I don’t do science’ and ‘I didn’t like biology in high school,’ and I’m like, ‘Well we’re going to have a good time, and you’re going to see why I love science, and you’ll see all the connections with art making and your practice,’” Neptune says. “And that’s part of my perspective on how I teach my classes. Yes, we’re learning science, but it’s through a lens of artistic practice that connects with the students, resonates with them—and is authentic. It’s my world view of science and the process of art-making. It’s all very intertwined.”
Looking ahead, Neptune hopes to build on the connections he forges in Spain to develop a cross-disciplinary travel course in Seville—an ideal location given the city’s rich artistic history. By blending scientific exploration with artistic immersion, the course would offer students a rare opportunity to experience firsthand how creativity and research can inform and elevate each other.
For Neptune, it’s not just about studying amphibians under Spanish skies—it’s about inspiring the next generation of artists and scientists to see the world, and by extension their work, through a more interconnected lens.
CIA’s previous Fulbright Scholars
Liberal Arts professor of practice Troy Neptune is CIA’s third faculty member to be named a Fulbright Scholar. Then-Liberal Arts faculty member Maureen Kiernan was awarded in both 1998 and 1999 for her work, “Faculty Exchange and Distance Learning in Art Curriculum Development,” with the department of English at the University of Tunis in Tunisia.
And in 2021, then-Printmaking faculty member Aimee Lee— considered North America’s leading researcher of hanji, or Korean paper—received a Fulbright to research and document traditional techniques for making bal, the fine bamboo screens needed to make hanji, at the Center for Intangible Cultural Studies at Jeonbuk National University in South Korea.
Troy Neptune pauses while monitoring for green frog egg laying activity in a pond at Case Western Reserve University’s University Farm in Moreland Hills, Ohio. Submitted photo.
A class all its own: REUNION show brings together ’80, other alums
By Carlo Wolff
When Mary Urbas put together REUNION, an exhibition of the work of graduates from the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Class of 1980, it proved two things. One is that 45 years after they graduated, these artists are still creating provocative, vibrant work. The second is that the community built among CIA cohorts thrives long after students depart.
“You always hear that an artist never retires,” Urbas says. “Being an artist is a frame of mind. This may sound pretentious, but we exist on a different astral plane.”
Subtitled “Celebrating the Class of 1980,” the show was on view over
the summer and featured the work of 40 artists from all over the country, including a piece by Urbas, a familiar figure in the Cleveland arts scene. Also represented: invited alumni from other graduation years and Urbas’ mentors, including her high school teachers. It was presented by the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in the Bostwick Design Partnership Gallery in Cleveland.
While the show was deeply nostalgic, the art was fresh and relevant. It also reflected Urbas, a Textile Design and Weaving graduate with a minor in Printmaking who conceived it as a way to honor her class. In a way, it also was a coming-out party for her as an artist, not just a curator.
“Mary curated a personal snapshot of her time at school with the artwork of her peers and mentors,” says Judith Salomon, who taught Urbas ceramics at CIA. “She credits them all with her trajectory as a teacher, curator and gallery director, with warmth and gratitude.”
Persistence pays off
The show was a long time coming. In 2020, Urbas proposed to stage it at the gallery she ran at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio. COVID killed that. And shortly after she suggested it for this summer, Lakeland eliminated her position—after 20 years—and closed its gallery.
Participarting artists in REUNION—almost exclusively CIA alums—gather for a group photo during the exhibition’s opening reception. Mary Urbas ’80, center, curated the show. Submitted photo.
The third time was the charm, and Urbas didn’t want to wait. She and most of her classmates are in their late 60s, and their teachers are in their 80s. Salomon was surprised by all the gray hair she saw at the opening reception.
“How could that have happened when I am still a 25-year-old new teacher at CIA in my mind?” she joked. “My hair is now gray and it was lucky I had my name tag on.”
The CIA edge
All the pieces in REUNION, no matter the medium, attest to the refinement CIA instills in its graduates, says Urbas, who includes the work of CIA graduates in every show she curates. She considers that presence a guarantee of quality.
“I know that when I’m showing work from Cleveland Institute of Art graduates, there is a level of excellence,” she says. “There’s a level of completion of thought, of integrating the idea to the technique and the presentation.” Her professors “taught us that it’s not just the front of the painting, it’s how you wrap it around, how you finish it. It’s the complete package.”
REUNION included a “Hotpads” triptych of pot holders by Urbas; a bright acrylic “Wall Flower” by her friend and classmate Lori Bolt ’80; “The Covid Effect,” an eerie Sumi ink painting by Salvador Dali devotee Joe Stavec ’80; four LGBTQ+-themed digital prints by visual artist David Lee Csicsko ’80; and Salomon’s “Vase on Base,” a wood-fired porcelain. A suspended, multifaceted dress by Juli Edberg ’76 adorned the lobby.
These just scratch the surface of this show of some 100 works. Each room of the Bostwick galleries was a testament to who the artists have become over the decades and the grounding they received as CIA students.
Catching up to today
Csicsko couldn’t attend the opening reception so Urbas hosted an evening for him to visit with fellow “art pals” who also spent most of 1975 to 1980 at CIA. He describes his younger self as a “quirky student interested in everything.”
“At the time, the school was thought of as the closest American version of Germany’s Bauhaus School,” Csicsko says. “I loved it. Loved the teachers and the art students. I’ve been fortunate
to have a broad art career, from poster design and book illustration to designing large-scale stained-glass windows and public art mosaics. Back in 2012, I was the featured artist designing the look of Christmas at the Obama White House. The pieces I sent off to Mary’s exhibit are fresh and could not be more current.”
What Stavec particularly liked about his time at CIA was its anything-goes atmosphere. The undergraduate degree program in which he enrolled in 1975 still operated on a five-year schedule and the school had just acquired the former Ford factory that is now its core structure.
At the dawn of the ’80s, “the factory building was open all the time, 24 hours a day,” Stavec recalls. “It was just a raw space. ... And it was a nice sense of freedom.”
That sense coursed through REUNION, which honored artists who are still fully engaged and love what they do.
“Here’s to Mary Urbas, who brought together some amazing artists who were all just good art kids—and are now just older art kids,” Csicsko says.
CIA’s Class of 1980 gathers for a class photo in front of the College’s original Gund building on East Boulevard. Submitted photo.
Beloved former CIA professor Cintron celebrates 104th birthday
By Michael C. Butz
Birthdays are joyous occasions. When you’re celebrating a century, that joy grows, well, 100-fold. That was certainly the case for longtime Cleveland Institute of Art faculty member José Cintron, who recently celebrated his 104th birthday surrounded by four generations of family, from son David Cintron and daughter Vicki Pandrea to great-granddaughter Marie.
Cintron’s joy grew even greater at the mention of CIA. After all, not only did he graduate from the College in 1954 (when it was still known as Cleveland School of Art), he spent 50 years teaching at CIA from 1956 to 2006—along the way earning a prestigious Viktor Schreckengost Teaching Excellence Award.
Cintron’s face lit up as he waxed nostalgic about his time at CIA. He reminisced about the old buildings, but his fondest memories were reserved for his former students.
“I loved teaching—being able to bring out the talent of my students and seeing them progressing by following my teaching,” Cintron says. “It takes good students to make a good teacher, and I had a lot of good students who make me—I hope—a good teacher. I got inspired by them.”
Present-day CIA professor Lane Cooper taught alongside Cintron in the Painting Department from when she started in 2001 until Cintron’s retirement in 2006.
“Everyone at the school knew him. He was a legend,” Cooper says. “Students loved studying with him, and his classes were always very popular.
“José was a monument to the love of making,” Cooper continues. “The students really respected him for his commitment and passion for his craft. He modeled what it means to love what you do and to be committed to a
Longtime CIA faculty member José Cintron, center, is surrounded by family during his 104th birthday party at Danbury Senior Living in Broadview Heights, Ohio.
practice. There are literally generations of CIA alums who saw firsthand, in José, how to translate their abstract idea of becoming an artist into being an artist in an ongoing committed fashion.”
Many of Cintron’s former students agree that he had a significant impact. When CIA first shared news of his 104th birthday on social media in early August, many responded. Enjoy some of those responses.
Lessons still treasured
Happiest birthday to José! I was one of his students in 1983, I do believe. I ended up carrying 21 credit hours just so I wouldn’t miss being able to take his class as he was going to be on sabbatical my last year! I learned invaluable lessons about drawing and light from him that I still treasure to this day. (What) an amazing man and so grateful the Earth has had him for 104 years!
Lynn Gaines ’84
Illustration
Hooked on portraits
For me, CIA was José Cintron. I had a portrait or life drawing class with him for every one of my five years there. My very first class at CIA was Freshman Life Drawing. His gesture drawing lessons were mind-blowing, and I just felt like this is where I belong and this is what I want to do. This was also my first drawing class with a nude model … which I loved … no clothes to draw. At the end of that first seven-hour drawing day, he asked us to put our better drawings into a pile, which he then separated into three piles. Since I was very new to
gesture drawings, I didn’t know what was good or not, so I wasn’t sure whether the pile mine were in was the “best,” “good” or “needs improvement” pile. I was thrilled that he had put my drawing into the “best” pile and was hooked for ever after. Painting people would be what I do. When I paint, I still hear Mr. Cintron’s voice saying things like, “Freshen the color,” “heaven in the halftones,” “for every drawing you do, you develop; for every drawing you don’t do, you don’t develop.” I have lots of these gems written on the drawing board from art school that I still have today.
Judy Takács ’86
Illustration
Meaningful and inspirational
I remember his class as a magical place. Jose would speak meaningful exhortations and inspirational lines while insisting on quiet diligence, observation and effort.
Scott Bowen ’90
Painting
Great teachers inspire
José Cintron was so inspiring. So much so, when he spoke about the masters, and how daVinci would draw cadavers to learn the human anatomy, a few of us first-year students decided to sneak into the cadaver room at the CWRU medical school with sketchbooks. Yes, we got caught and were banned from setting foot on the premises. I tell this story often—not to brag of how dumb we were in college, but how a great teacher inspires. Happy birthday!
Arnel Reynon ’93
Illustration
Impactful and profound
José Cintron was one of the best professors I’ve ever had the honor of studying with. He truly impacted my way of thinking about art in a profound way. Sending my best to Professor Cintron!
Susan Danko ’98
Painting
Most influential teacher
Happy to see this! Happy birthday to Mr. Cintron. He is the most influential teacher I had at CIA. Every day I think about his encouragement to draw something every day—and keep up the Art Spirit! Anytime I told classmates that he was my Drawing I teacher, they would tell me that I was lucky. At graduation, he gave me this note that I cherish in my graduation photo album.
Desiree Oza Zajacz ’03
Graphic Design
Amazing and inspirational
Best teacher I ever had. I always looked forward to his class. What an amazing and inspirational teacher and artist.
Rachel Colosimo ’06
Industrial Design
José Cintron ’54 poses with Dana Schutz ’00 during the 2004 ceremony at which he received the Viktor Schreckengost Teaching Excellence Award.
CIA artists launched careers with coveted Windgate-Lamar awards
By Karen Sandstrom ’12
When the Center for Craft announced this year’s cohort of Windgate-Lamar Fellows in May, glass artist Annie O’Brien ’25 was among them.
That made O’Brien the second Cleveland Institute of Art alum in a row to be honored with the prize, which provides $15,000 in unrestricted funds to help emerging artists make the transition from student to professional. Last year’s class of fellows included ceramicist El Arvizu ’24.
Since its inception in 2006, the program has awarded $3 million in grants. Windgate-Lamar is highly competitive, drawing the best students from more than 100 colleges and universities across the United States, says Benjamin Johnson, associate professor of Craft + Design at CIA.
“To have our students receive this recognition consecutively— from such a large pool of high-achieving nominees—is a testament to our comprehensive education in the Craft + Design major,” says Johnson. “For our students to be recognized for excellence in their studio practice repeatedly and be leaving CIA with financial support not only helps them but it continues to build a solid network of professional practicing studio artists from the Cleveland Institute of Art.”
Johnson should know. As a glass artist newly graduated from Kent State University in 2006, he was a member of the inaugural cohort of Windgate-Lamar Fellows—right along with Mark Reigelman, who had just graduated from CIA ready to launch an international career making large-scale art installations in public spaces. Three years later, jewelry and metals artist Elizabeth Staiger ’09 won the fellowship; she says she is still reaping its benefits.
Breaking The Glass Goblet: A Reclamation of Venetian Glass, the BFA project of Annie O’Brien ’25, included this table setting. Photo by Leah Trznadel ’19.
In addition to its fellowship program, the Center for Craft supports artists in myriad other ways, including awards for teaching, research and internships. In 2010, CIA glass artist Robert Coby ’11 received a $5,000 Windgate Museum Internship stipend for his work at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How the fellowship will inform the long-term future for O’Brien and Arvizu is yet to be seen, but already it is allowing them to continue making work and establishing their studio practice, Johnson says.
“The ability to know you have money to spend on what you have already invested heavily in through your education is a gift that encourages further growth and a sustainable beginning to being an independent working artist,” he says. “Traveling and making work are at the core of both recipients’ goals for this fellowship. I am looking forward to seeing what new work they can achieve through this support that is giving them a competitive advantage at the beginning of their studio careers.”
With that in mind, we asked CIA artists about the impact of the experience of winning their Windgate-Lamar Fellowships. Here’s what they said.
Annie O’Brien ’25 Venetian glass-blowing techniques meld with O’Brien’s performance inclinations in work she says is meant to “rebel against the patriarchy.”
“Venetian glass is predominantly male and has consistently excluded women from participating in this art form because of its ‘difficulty’ and ‘masculine’ nature,” she explains in a statement for the Center for Craft’s website, where photos of her artwork include high-color images of her posing with the objects. “I am challenging this by creating feminine objects with these techniques, including myself in this contemporary era of glassmaking. I make these objects feminine in form, bright in color, and oversized, and I apply found material to go against the norms of craft.”
A competitive dancer since age 2, O’Brien says she joined her high school’s four-year art program and “fell in love with the visual and performing arts.” She attended Baldwin Wallace University for two years before transferring to CIA, where she happened into a Glass elective.
“The wonderful students I met adopted me into their world, along with my professor and studio manager, giving me everything I needed to succeed,” she says.
O’Brien learned about the Windgate-Lamar through CIA’s Craft + Design curriculum and found encouragement from faculty members.
“I got a lot of help from my professors at CIA in the application process, as it was a lot of writing and work to complete,” she says. And, she adds, “I would do it all over again with these people by my side.”
Currently, thanks to the fellowship, she is making new work, applying for residencies and planning a trip to Australia, where she hopes to work with Mel Douglas and other glass artists. She feels grateful for the fellowship, not just for the opportunities it affords her, but because it affirms the dedication she invested into her work during her time at CIA.
“I would not trade this experience for the world,” O’Brien says, “as it showed me that I am capable of excelling in the glass world.”
Top: Annie O’Brien ’25 works in the CIA Glass Studio during her junior year.
Above: O’Brien takes questions from her BFA committee in May in the Ann and Norman Roulet Student + Alumni Gallery.
El Arvizu ’24
For Arvizu, winning the Windgate-Lamar Fellowship was essential in two ways. First, it helped provide much-needed financial support during his first year after college. Second, it funded a monthlong trip to Mexico and paved a path to a deeper understanding of his family’s heritage, which plays a role in his work.
“I got to give myself an even larger education in Mexican ceramics and about the anthropology of Mexico, which had been neglected by my mother’s education in Mexico and my education here in America,” Arvizu says. “I get to continue my artistic practice without having to be so monetarily insecure at this time, and to cherish the images and experiences I had while I was in Oaxaca, Yucatán, and Rosarito, Mexico for an entire month. I got to see my family, who I hadn’t seen for seven years. It helped confirm that I want to return to stay in Mexico and continue my studies and artistic expression there.”
The initial push to apply came from Craft + Design faculty member Kathy Buszkiewicz, but Arvizu says he was “prodded out of resistance” by others on faculty as well. “It’s hard arguing with a bunch of folks who know better for you.
He was also supported by CIA’s Writing + Learning Center, where coordinator Alyssa Perry helped him in developing a concise plan of what he intended to do with the fellowship if he won one.
“I want to mention Alyssa Perry’s curiosity and enthusiasm to write boldly when expressing oneself in writing,” he notes, “and how to effectively describe ceramics in a general way that helped my audience understand my romanticization of it.”
Above: El Arvizu ’24, left, used his Windgate-Lamar Fellowship in part to travel to Mexico and gain a deeper understanding of his family’s heritage, which plays a role in his work. Here, he visits Monte Albán with his aunt Martha. Below: “Al Decay” by El Arvizu, 14 x 7 x 8 inches; Paper clay, underglazes (2023). Submitted photos.
“Al Decay” by El Arvizu, 14 x 7 x 8 inches; Paper clay, underglazes (2023). Submitted photo.
Ultimately, putting in the work made sense to Arvizu, because he knew he wanted “to walk away from my undergraduate program with a sense of accomplishment that would help me extend my career as a first-generation artist.”
These days, Arvizu splits his time between a restaurant job and the art practice that happens “all within the confines of my roommate’s kitchen table — a shared studio space, if you will,” he says. “I don’t have a goal in mind for my art practice currently, since I work full time. I try my best to include myself in things that encourage my love for art education or just keep my hands busy when I’m available to do so.”
Elizabeth Staiger ’09
The year that jewelry artist Staiger won her Windgate-Lamar Fellowship, she had planned to visit London for research. The best-laid plans didn’t have a chance against a volcano eruption in Iceland, however, which happened at the very time she was to fly abroad.
Instead, she took a cross-country trip to attend the Society of North American Goldsmiths Conference and the SOFA Chicago show, and—eventually—made it to London, where she studied at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
She also bought equipment essential to setting up her own studio. Staiger squeezed every possibility out of her $15,000 award.
“I’m the type of jeweler and metalsmith who likes to do every single process. So, the ability to purchase equipment quickly really helped me to be able to continue to make work right off
the bat,” Staiger says. “It let me buy a whole vacuum casting setup, and a lot of the hammers that I still use all the time were part of that fellowship.”
These days she uses those tools and more at Byrd & Co., the studio space and retail shop in downtown Wadsworth, Ohio, she opened last year. The space represents the realization of a long-held dream.
“I own the building, and it’s been about five years’ worth of deconstruction and construction, mainly myself and my father doing the bulk of the work,” she says. “It was like another education. I could plumb under the sink now. I could do drywall, I could do just about anything, which was, for me, part of a dream of having a commercial/residential space.”
Within the retail space, Staiger sells work by local artists, her parents (who are both artists), CIA alumni, and, of course, herself. She occasionally clears space to make room for workshops as well.
“Part of what I would like to influence in the community is basically working with your hands and your brain rather than being on your phone,” she says.
The original push to apply for the fellowship, like it did for Arvizu, came from Buszkiewicz. Then Staiger enlisted “just about everybody” to read and critique her application including other faculty members, her boyfriend and parents.
“Whoever would read that thing, I would have them make suggestions. That was helpful as a confirmation that my
Elizabeth Staiger ’09 used her Windgate-Lamar Fellowship to purchase equipment that launched her practice. Today, many of those tools are used at Byrd & Co., the studio space and retail shop in downtown Wadsworth, Ohio, she opened last year. Submitted photos.
thoughts were clear and that, even down to the timeline and budget, that everything made sense.”
The results were worth it.
“It honestly was a really wonderful jumping-off point from having just graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art to getting my own studio sorted out,” she says. “I truly believe it helped me land in this beautiful studio art gallery that I have today. And I am very excited that I actually have been able to get to this point. And as part of it, to help inspire the public along with me to be creative.”
Mark A. Reigelman II ’06
Reigelman’s public art installations can be found from downtown Cleveland and Columbus to New York and throughout cities across the United States. He’s been featured in countless magazines and newspapers, won numerous awards and delivered lectures and panel presentations.
And he gives lots of credit to his 2006 Windgate-Lamar Fellowship, which led to his first big post-college project, Stair Squares (2007)—a series of bright blue boxes that function as little tables for people who tended to sit on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York.
“In the summer before my senior year, I spent a design internship in New York City at Studio Dror and used my free time to observe the city’s dynamic civic interactions, particularly the step-sitting culture,” Reigelman says. “During this time, I drafted initial sketches for Stair Squares.
“Stair Squares was my first full-scale, legally installed public art project,” he adds. “It was an exciting yet challenging crash course in the complexities of developing, approving and installing public artwork. The fellowship provided me with the opportunity to bring this project to life and played a pivotal role in launching my career in public art.”
Reigelman adds a “fun fact” to the story.
“Once Stair Squares was fully developed and prototyped, I began searching for an appropriate staircase to install it,” he says. “After months of emails and phone calls, I made no progress. Then, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were giving a lecture at Severance Hall, which I attended with my Stair Squares project binder. After their inspiring talk, I briefly introduced my project in the signing line. Christo looked at me in shock, possibly due to the speed at which I spoke (I speak very fast when excited), but Jeanne-Claude wrote down their fax number and said, ‘Fax me your project, and we’ll help you find a site.’
Mark A. Reigelman II ’06 used his Windgate-Lamar Fellowship to produce Stair Squares, a series of bright blue boxes that function as little tables for people who tended to sit on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York. Submitted photo.
“A few days later, I was connected to curators at The Met, and within weeks, I secured a site at Brooklyn Borough Hall, a historic building defined by its monumental staircase.”
In 2015, Reigelman received another Windgate award—a project grant this time. He used it to create his mobile public art project, Smökers, which recently was exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum.
Benjamin Johnson, Faculty
In addition to his work on faculty in CIA’s Craft + Design department, Johnson pursues a studio glass career that he says investigates texture and pattern in blown glass “to explore life experiences, micro- and macro-curiosities, and visualize textures related to computer coding, textiles and rhythms in nature.”
The Windgate-Lamar Fellowship helped him establish a professional foundation for that work. After graduating from Kent State, Johnson continued his education through a summer workshop at Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle. The award money helped him fund application fees, shipping and booth fees to exhibit his work at juried art shows, craft shows and invitational exhibitions.
“The financial support allowed me to establish my own craft business making and traveling to various states to sell my work at craft shows and exhibitions,” he says. “The fellowship allowed me to jumpstart my craft career by allowing me to invest in the tools and supplies necessary to establish a viable craft business. This investment is still allowing me to make glass work today, and when I am blowing glass, I am still working with tools I purchased through the fellowship.”
Above: Craft + Design associate professor Benjamin Johnson works with Brent Kee Young, Professor Emeritus in Glass, in CIA’s Glass Studio in 2023.
Below: “Flooded Field” by Benjamin Johnson; 15.5” H x 11” W x 11” D, blown and engraved glass. Submitted photo of artwork.
Recent CIA alumni understand that gifts of all sizes have impact
By Karen Sandstrom ’12
When Cleveland Institute of Art alumni Davon Brantley ‘18 and Daly Horton ‘24 were students at CIA, both were active participants in the College’s giveand-take ecosystem. They took full advantage of open-studio hours, sought critical feedback about their work, and found every opportunity to broaden their experiences as artists. Through their work as student ambassadors, they gave back as well.
That give-and-take remains important to them even now.
Today, Brantley balances his practice as a painter and gallerist with his work as a senior admissions counselor for CIA. He works alongside fellow counselor Horton, a painter and life sciences illustrator.
Each fall, the two travel to scores of high schools across the country to share a passionate enthusiasm for their alma mater with thousands of potential students to recruit the next CIA cohort.
“I had an excellent experience at CIA, loved doing what I was doing during school, trying all the things, doing all
things,” says Horton. “And I wanted to encourage other students to do the same.”
Brantley says his work in recruitment is an extension of what he was doing naturally after graduating from CIA— mentoring younger artists through portfolio reviews.
“I was just really involved with wanting to help young artists get an understanding about the arts,” he says. Now, he gets paid to “do what I love to do anyway with a college where I had a great experience.”
Davon Brantley ’18 reviews a Pre-College student’s work during the Pizza + Portfolios event held this past summer at CIA. Every summer, high school students from across the country participate in CIA’s Pre-College program, which introduces them to art school and allows them to earn college credit.
Practicing artists
In the studio, Brantley makes oil paintings that focus on the human condition.
“Typically, my work revolves around depicting a mental landscape that pinpoints certain emotions and situations that we go through in everyday life that we try to box in and that would be considered taboo if we spoke outwardly about it,” he says.
In addition to stints as a guest gallerist and curator, his recent work has included a residency at Akron Soul Train, where his solo exhibition focused on the grief he experienced after the death of his grandmother. He also has shown work at Cyrus Framing Art Gallery in Canton, Ohio; painted a mural at the 934 Fest in Columbus Ohio; and exhibited at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve’s show, NewNow 2025
Horton works in both fine art painting and drawing and medical illustration. She recently completed work for
an international medical journal and has shown work in exhibitions across Northeast Ohio, including The Groundhog Show in Akron and Love, Sex & the Body in Cleveland, which was curated by Liana Gonzalez ’22.
A commitment to giving As young alums who also work at the College, Horton and Brantley both credit their colleague Rachel Zinram, CIA Director of Alumni Relations + Scholarships, for helping widen their perspective on donating money as an additional way to feed the ecosystem.
Zinram has helped Horton better understand not only what it takes to keep a college going, but also how CIA strives to support students with scholarships so they can make the most of their art education.
“I worked a little bit during school, but really it was minimal,” Horton says. “It’s a huge privilege to be able to focus so much time on studio practice while you’re in school, and every little bit of
Make a gift. Double your impact!
Every alumni gift made before December 31, 2025 will be matched dollar for dollar by Kimberly Chapman ’17. If you’re ready to give, visit cia.edu/donate or contact Director of Annual Giving + Stewardship Beth Gresh at bggresh@cia.edu or 216.421.7957.
money counts toward that experience for students.”
Most students need some level of financial support, she adds.
“And they’re awesome kids. They’re wonderful and they inspire me and it’s super exciting to be able to interact with those students,” Horton says. “So, I literally donated $20. That’s what I could donate this year.”
Brantley says he used to be fearful of the very concept of donating because he assumed only large contributions mattered. “Knowing that every little bit counts and that it is appreciated no matter if it’s $10 or $20 or $50 or $100— that was a big thing for me.”
The two also have come to understand that alumni giving doesn’t always have to mean money. Investments of time and earned wisdom are important, too. He cites as an example “all the advice I got while I was a student.
“I have pages and pages of notes from my visits with (faculty members) David Hart, Lane Cooper and Sarah Kabot, and even alumni, that are still in my studio and that I refer to just because I appreciated those comments and those topics that they were talking about,” he says. “So even little stuff like that helps a lot.”
Daly Horton ’24, front, joins CIA student volunteers and fellow staff members in welcoming first-year students and their families to the Uptown Residence Hall during 2025 Move-In Day in August.
NOTES
Compiled by Rachel Zinram
Clara Driscoll 1880s* was featured in the article “Author’s book details NE Ohio woman’s creation of Tiffany lamps” by cleveland.com.
Julian Stanczak ’54* had a solo show, Julian Stanczak: Early Masterworks, at the Diane Rosenstein Gallery in Los Angeles. He had work in a group show, Kandinsky’s Universe: Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century, at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. He also had work displayed by the Mayer Gallery of London during The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, Netherlands.
Robert Mangold ’60 had a solo show, Pentagons and Folded Space, at Pace Gallery in New York.
Ron Testa ’65 had work in an art auction fundraiser, 6x6, hosted by the Rochester Contemporary Art Center.
Douglas Unger ’65, Jose Quinones ’77, Bob Bruch ’94 and Dawn Petrill ’95 had work in the 79th Annual Ohio Exhibition at the Zanesville Museum of Art in Zanesville, Ohio.
David Deming ’67 had his statue of Superman and his creators—Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster and Joanne Siegel— unveiled during the opening of the Superman Tribute Plaza outside Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland.
Debrah Butler ’74 had work in a group show, Membership Exhibition, at the
Cuyahoga Valley Art Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Butler also had work in a group exhibition, 54th Annual Gates Mills Art Show, at Gates Mills Community House in Gates Mills, Ohio.
Julianne Edberg ’76, Alan Mintz ’80, Barbara Bachtell ’81, Catherine Butler ’81, Susan Squires ’83, Judy Takács ’86, Eric Tuck-Macalla ’86, Steven Mastroianni ’88, Deborah Pinter ’88, Andrea LeBlond ’95, Kimberly Engel ’02 , Jacqueline Miller ’09, Daniel Smith ’09, Natalie Grieshammer Patrick ’13, Omid Tavakoli ’15, Davon Brantley ’18 and Joseph Goergen ’18, have work in the 2025 NewNow exhibition on view through October 9 at Cuyahoga Community College’s Gallery East in Highland Hills, Ohio.
David Deming ’67
David Lee Csicsko ’80 held a meetand-greet at the REUNION exhibition, curated by Mary Urbas ’80, at Bostwick Design Partnership Gallery in Cleveland.
William Root ’80 had work in a group exhibition, One Gallery, Two Exhibitions, at the Yavapai College Prescott Art Gallery in Prescott, Arizona.
Marsha Sweet ’81 had work in the Wood Engravers Network 5th Triennial Exhibition on view at several locations: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Emile H. Mathis Gallery in Milwaukee; Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville, Maryland; and Frederick Book Arts Center in Frederick, Maryland.
Charles Szabla ’81 had work in the Ohio Artist Registry 2025 Juried Exhibition at the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Patrick Losinski Gallery in Columbus, Ohio.
Ted Kucklick ’84 is part of the cofounding and development team for Inner Cosmos, a BCI (brain-computer interface) product that is a minimally invasive treatment for drug-resistant depression. Inner Cosmos was recently profiled in an article, “Psychiatric BCI Gears Up For Prime Time,” in Forbes
William Moore ’84 was featured in two international art publications: Circle Quarterly Art Review Magazine (Issue 11, June 2025) and Masterful Minds Digital Magazine (Volume 8, December 2025), through the Circle Foundation for the Arts in Lyon, France. Moore had work in a group exhibition, We’re Doing It ALL Wrong, at the Edward A. Dixon Gallery in Dayton, Ohio. He also won first place for two sculptures featured in the 72nd International Online Art Contest with Artavita & World Wide Art Books online.
Mark Howard ’86 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cleveland Arts Prize. Howard will also be in an exhibition, Get The Picture?, from September 17 through October 25 at HEDGE Gallery in Cleveland.
Mike Mikula ’87 has a solo exhibition, Building Skyward, on view through February 15 at Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass in Neenah, Wisconsin.
Kevin Geiger ’89 pitched the animated sci-fi anthology BLISS: BEYOND THE EDGE OF TIME in the Taiwan Spotlight session of the 2025 Annecy Festival in Annecy, France.
Clay Parker ’90 had work in a group show, Stormy Weather, at HEDGE Gallery in Cleveland.
Barbara Stanczak ’90 joined a panel for The Visionaries of Optical Art, hosted by Cleveland Arts Prize at the MidTown Collaboration Center in Cleveland. This event honored Richard Anuszkiewicz ’53*, Julian Stanczak ’54* and Edwin Mieczkowski ’57 *
Bob Bruch ’94 had work featured in a juried exhibition, Best of Ohio 2025, at the Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus, Ohio. Bruch also had work in the 15th Workhouse Clay International at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia and in a group show, New Appalachia 2025, at Oglebay Institute Stifel Fine Arts Center in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Kevin Snipes ’94 had a solo show, a cure for pain, at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. Snipes also hosted a workshop at John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis, California.
Jerome White ’94, Leigh Brooklyn ’11, Alicia Vasquez ’11 and Alyssa Lizzini ’22 had work in a public art project, The Stories of Us, at Mall C in Cleveland.
Troy Blum ’97 will be participating with Lakewood Art League in the 2025 Ingenuity Festival happening September 26–28 in Cleveland.
Jenniffer Omaitz ’02 hosted a workshop, Marbling: Beginning to Intermediate, at Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland. Omaitz also had work featured in BridgeWorks in Kent, Ohio.
John Sloboda ’03 was featured in the article “How the Country Music Hall of Fame compares to the Rock Hall” by Axios Cleveland.
ALUMNI
Clay Parker ’90
NOTES
Karl Anderson ’09, Natalie Grieshammer Patrick ’13, Ryan Cermak ’20, Maeve Billings ’21, Violet Maimbourg ’21, Max McMillen ’21, Liana Gonzalez ’22 , Sebastian Schenz ’22 , Oliver Chapman ’23, Ryan Kreitzer ’23, Marshall Pecora ’23, Ian Rapp ’23, Jordi Rowe ’23, El Arvizu ’24, Grace Gielink ’24, Layla Harris ’24, Anna Heeres ’24, Daly Horton ’24, Nat Lenington ’24, Tumnus Rex ’24, Jamie Brinker ’25, Emmy Corsaro ’25 and Casey Wehrman ’25 were featured in The Groundhog Show in Akron, Ohio.
Amanda Miller (Fouchs) ’11 was accepted into Urban Land Institute’s Center for Leadership Class of 2026 in Atlanta.
Katy Richards ’11 and Valerie Grossman ’12 were featured in a show, In Bloom, at BRICK Ceramic + Design Studio’s Mortar Gallery in Cleveland.
Clotilde Jiménez ’13 has a solo show, Shapeshift, on view through January 4 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland.
Leah Hustak ’15 had their project, “Star Formation from the Carina Nebula to the Cosmic Cliffs,” showcased as the closing animation during the Centennial of the Planetarium closing ceremony hosted by the International Planetarium Society and the Gesellschaft Deutschsprachiger Planetarien e.V. (GDP) virtually.
Justin Woody ’15 (aka Onya Nurve) will star as Lola in the touring company of Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots, launching November 19 in Elmira, New York.
Kim Chapman ’17 has a solo show, Eighty-Six Reasons for Asylum Admission, on view through February 28 at the University at Buffalo’s Anderson Gallery in Buffalo, New York.
Kelly Pontoni ’19 had a solo show, Many Pieces Together, at Loganberry Books in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Erykah Townsend ’20 has a solo show, “Happy” Holidays, on view through January 4 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland.
Chi Wong ’20 had a mural, Bellflower Salon, on display in collaboration with LAND studio at Public Square in Cleveland.
Maeve Billings ’21 and Jordi Rowe ’23 had a two-person exhibition, The JXM Show, at their new studio, JXM Studio, in Beachwood, Ohio.
Liam Darby ’21 had work in The Montgomery Photo Festival 2025 at Stonehenge Gallery in Montgomery, Alabama and Tory University’s Huo Bao Zhu Gallery in Troy, Alabama.
Destyni Green ’21 was named a Rising Arts Leader as part of Summit Artspace’s 2025 Arts Alive Awards in Akron, Ohio. Green is also pursuing a PhD in Arts Administration this fall at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
Mandy Schulien ’24
Kaitlyn McKanna ’21 had a solo show, Drawing Curiously, at Fairmount Center for the Arts in Russell Township, Ohio.
Thao Nguyen ’21 was featured on WJW-TV Fox 8’s New Day Cleveland as an illustrator and artist.
Maxmillian Peralta ’21 had a solo show, Flat Affect, in Massillon Museum’s Studio M Gallery in Massillon, Ohio.
Riley Rist ’21 graduated this spring with an MA in Art (Ceramics/Printmaking) and received the Blethen Fine Arts Award from Minnesota State University, Mankato in Mankato, Minnesota. Rist
will pursue an MFA in Ceramics at The Ohio State University through a fellowship this fall in Columbus, Ohio.
Sam Schneider ’21 had work in the Fine Arts Exhibition during the Ohio State Fair at the Cox Fine Arts Center in Columbus, Ohio.
Chey Sprinkle ’21 worked as a set decoration intern for the 20th Century Studios film Eenie Meanie on Disney+ and Hulu.
Alyssa Lizzini ’22 and Julissa Bruno ’25 were named residents for the upcoming year at feverdream, co-led Maxmillian Peralta ’21, in Cleveland.
Meg Lubey ’22 co-curated an exhibition, What We Hold, at Cuyahoga Community College’s Gallery East in Highland Hills, Ohio.
Erjon Hajnaj ’23 had a solo show, My Light & Shadow, at BAYarts in Bay Village, Ohio.
Crystal Miller ’23 was featured in a group show, Pink Smoke Rising, hosted by feverdream, co-led by Maxmillian Peralta ’21, at LAND Studio in Cleveland.
Estefany Bosques-Hernandez ’24, Jason Lucas ’24, Emmet TsaiMcCarthy ’24 and Sasha Wootten ’24 were nominated for a Student Production Award from the NATAS Central Great Lakes Chapter (Regional Emmys) in the Animation/Graphics/ Special Effects category for their 2024 BFA films, with Bosques-Hernandez and Wootten receiving the award.
Mandy Schulien ’24 was featured in a group show, Immortality of Grief, at Future Ink Graphics in Cleveland.
Emily Fontana ’25 had work in a group exhibition, Down the Rabbit Hole, at White Rabbit Galleries in Barberton, Ohio. Fontana also had work in the 4th Annual Emerging Young Artists Exhibition at Valley Art Center in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
ALUMNI
Emily Fontana ’25
NOTES
Compiled by Michael C. Butz
Lincoln Adams ’98 (Animation) served as storyboard artist for four episodes (including the Season 1 finale cliffhanger) of Lil Kev, a BET+ series that premiered in February.
Conor Bracken (Liberal Arts) had poems published by Sixth Finch and Cleveland Review of Books. He also received a fellowship to attend a residency at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. His translation of The Burial and Other Short Prose, 1963-1994 by Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine will be published this spring by University of Virginia Press.
Zoe Brester-Pennings (Printmaking) has been featured in Sixty Square Inches XXI at Purdue University Gallery West Lafayette, Indiana and the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition at Arkansas State University’s Bradbury Art Museum in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where she received the MaryRoss Taylor Merit Award. She curated a pink-themed print exchange, Pinkmaking 2025, which brought together works from printmakers throughout the U.S. and was featured in a pop-up exhibition at Zygote Press in Cleveland. She also held a residency at Elf School of the Arts in Hayesville, North Carolina.
William Brouillard (Emeritus) was the Ceramic Heritage Award winner at the 79th Ohio Annual Exhibition, delivered a gallery talk as part of that recognition at the Zanesville Museum of Art in Zanesville, Ohio.
Colby Chamberlain (Liberal Arts) published the article “Writing Art History After Occupy” (co-authored with Lindsay Caplan and Nadaj Millner-Larsen) in the journal October and continued to give lectures on his recently published book Fluxus Administration: George Maciunas and the Art of Paperwork (University of Chicago, 2024).
Steve Ciampaglia (Liberal Arts) co-presented The Street Arcade: Creating Social Justice Videogames as a Platform for Dialogue at the PAX West
2025 gaming culture conference in Seattle.
Nicole Condon-Shih (Foundation) presented a solo spotlight exhibition, Symbioverse, at Heights Arts in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. This fall, she will chair the panel Fluxing Through Realities at the Flux / Flow SECAC Conference in Cincinnati.
Maggie Denk-Leigh (Printmaking) had prints included in two publications, Experiencing Veterans and Artists Collaborations and Letters to Our Children. She also participated in the Screen-Print with Paper Pulp Workshop at the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland.
Steven Gutierrez (Game Design) created “Happy Dog Equals Happy Dog,” a playful sculpture of a pit bull terrier jumping to fetch a red Frisbee. Installed at the Cleveland Kennel, the sculpture aims to help shift the reputation of pit bulls. He also designed “Gazebones” (Gazebo + bone-shaped canopy), two bone-shaped shelters
where volunteers can relax and potential dog adopters can sit with their future pet.
Benjamin Johnson (Craft + Design) earned the Award for Excellence in Glass at the 79th Ohio Annual Exhibition at the Zanesville Museum of Art in Zanesville, Ohio. He also had work in: QUERENCIA at Sandusky Cultural Center in Sandusky, Ohio; Highlights 2025 at Kittrell/Riffkind Art Glass in Dallas; Wichita National All Crafts Media at Mark Arts in Wichita, Kansas; and the 49th Annual Fairmount Art Exhibition at Fairmount Center for the Arts in Russell Township, Ohio.
Amber Kempthorn (Drawing) was recently commissioned by curator Kathy Barrie of the Putnam Collection at Case Western Reserve University to complete a large installation for CWRU’s newly built Student Residential Village, Noyes and Sykes Halls. Also, she and fellow Drawing faculty member Sarah Kabot had work selected for Buddy System at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati. The exhibition included “paired works of art
Steven Gutierrez
by artists who share mutual respect and participate in a peer support system.”
Jimmy Kuehnle (Sculpture + Expanded Media) has work in the Balloon Museum’s Pop Air, a traveling exhibition that will be on view from November 8 through April 15, 2026 at The Houston Warehouse in Houston. He also had work in Kato + Kuehnle at Tri-Star Arts in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Scott Lax (Liberal Arts) was the subject of an Alumni Highlight published by Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio.
Nancy Lick (Illustration) received First Place in Graphics and Honorable Mention in Painting at the 4 9th Annual Fairmount Art Exhibition at Fairmount Center for the Arts in Russell Township, Ohio. Her work was also accepted into NewNow 2025, organized by Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland.
Adam Lucas (Graphic Design), as Specific Ideas, exhibited at the Multiple Formats / Boston Art Book Fair, where he debuted FREE Banned Books!, an ongoing publication series consisting of the re-design, re-printing and redistribution of copyright-expired books that, in today’s cultural and political climate, run the risk of being banned from schools and libraries. The first three books of the series were also exhibited in CIA’s 2025 Faculty Exhibition, along with three new artist
books that were collaborations between Lucas and Portland, Oregon-based artist Jackson Ferber.
Malou Monago (Institutional Advancement) was recognized as a Notable Leader in Philanthropy by Crain’s Cleveland Business.
Seth Nagelberg (Craft + Design) received a Quick Grant from Ohio Designer Craftsmen to assist with documentation and promotion of his work. Nagelberg is included in NewNow 2025, organized by Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland.
Troy Neptune (Liberal Arts) had a manuscript, Freeze-tolerant frogs accumulate cryoprotectants using photoperiod: A potential ecological trap, published by the Journal of Animal Ecology. He also has work in the Ohio Art League’s 2025 Fall Juried Exhibition at The Shot Tower Gallery in Columbus, Ohio.
Thomas Nowacki (Life Sciences Illustration) was elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Governors for the Association of Medical Illustrators.
Sarah Paul (Sculpture + Expanded Media) had work selected for the Sylvia L. Rosen Craft Art Biennial at Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York. Also, her work will be the subject of a
curatorial talk delivered by Véronique Côté at University Galleries at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.
Linda Post (Photography) has interactive video work on view through September 27 as part of Terms of Engagement at UNDERSTORY in Cleveland.
Zach Savich (Liberal Arts) served as visiting faculty with the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City, Iowa and the PhD in Creativity at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. His short play The Taxidermy Derby was featured at the Flow Chart Foundation’s Kenneth Koch Centennial in Hudson, New York. A limited-edition collection of poetry, Clothespins Tarps & Co., was published by Antiphony Press.
Rachel Suzanne Smith (Craft + Design and Foundation) exhibited new works in a two-person exhibition, Survey | Surround, at Baltimore Jewelry Center in Baltimore. Smith will take part in New York City Jewelry Week, showing work in a three-person exhibition, Tending Time: Jewelry as a Living Practice
Meghan Wagner (Liberal Arts) had a short story, Thought Experiments, published in the Summer 2025 issue of Colorado Review
Ariel Wills (Illustration and Foundation) is a second-year recipient of the AICAD Teaching Fellowship. This November, she will co-host the panel Ecology as a Verb at the AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship Celebration Symposium at Pratt Institute in New York City. Her portrait honoring oral historian Marta Martínez will be featured in an upcoming exhibition, Founders and Inventors Who Shaped Our World, at @Gather_RI in Providence, Rhode Island. Wills’ illustrations will also appear in an upcoming issue of Goya Journal, an Indian food publication, as part of the 1000 Kitchens Project that documents heirloom South Asian recipes.
Brent Kee Young (Emeritus) participated in GLA53 – The 53rd Annual International Glass Invitational Award Exhibition at Habatat in Royal Oak, Michigan.
FACULTY+STAFF
Amber Kempthorn
Cleveland Institute of Art alumni who exhibited in the 2025 Alumni Exhibition, Holding Up the Mirror, gathered with CIA staff and friends for a group photo during the opening reception in Reinberger Gallery. Photo by Leah Trznadel ’19.
