AVERY DENNISON HONORS SIX STUDENTS IN ART COMPETITION Works Added to Company’s Permanent Collection
Six Cleveland Institute of Art students competed to win cash prizes from Avery Dennison Corporation, which sponsored a student art competition last semester. Seven awards — ranging from a $1,500 first prize to three honorable mentions of $250 — were presented and the winning pieces were professionally installed throughout the Fortune 500 company’s gleaming new 215,000-square-foot building in Mentor, Ohio. “The work that was submitted was very good and is evidence that the Institute is attracting some tremendous talent,” said Christian Simcic, an Avery Dennison vice president, in announcing the awards at the November ceremony. The winning works are not the first Cleveland Institute of Art pieces in the company’s permanent collection. Last year, Institute President David L. Deming ’67 sculpted a relief bust of company founder R. Stanton Avery, which is displayed at the company’s Mentor building. “We have a great deal of space to fill in our new office building and we have decided to have a heavy emphasis on local and regional artists,” said John Wurzberger, vice president and general manager. The company pledged to host a student art competition again next year and officials encouraged Institute students to again participate.
Deming told the gathering of company officials, Institute staff members, students, their families and friends, “Part of the mission of The Cleveland Institute of Art is to ensure that our students are connected to the rest of the community and that means providing opportunities for them to have their work exhibited and evaluated outside of the Institute. We are grateful to Avery Dennison for providing our students with just such an opportunity and we hope their employees enjoy the artwork now on view here.” Best known for its office products, Avery Dennison also manufactures self-adhesive materials; peel-andstick postage stamps; reflective highway safety products; labels for automotive, industrial and durable goods applications; specialty tapes and polymers. The company employs nearly 30,000 people in 57 countries and reported sales of $5.6 billion in 2006.
And the winners are…
First place in the student design competition went to film, video and photographic arts major Laura Bell ’08 for her photograph, “Lake Erie at Night” (above). Bell was surprised and delighted. “I think that sometimes as an art student it is hard to imagine your work having a life beyond a studio critique,” she said. “Knowing that my photograph will be part of so many people's daily lives is an incredible honor.”
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Industrial design major Justin Gargasz ’09 won second place for an untitled oil painting. Third place went to painting major Nicholas Moenich ’08 for his painting, “Into the Void.” Communication design major Nick Adorni ’09 won fourth place for a sculptural work, “A Temporary Endpoint,” and honorable mention for a series of photographs of that piece titled “An Exploratory State.” Film, video and photographic arts major Jerry Birchfield ’09 won honorable mention for his photograph, “Wall.” Drawing major Erin Robinson ’08 won honorable mention for “The Travel,” a digital photograph she printed on handmade paper. ABOVE LEFT: AVERY DENNISON EXECUTIVES JOHN WURZBERGER (FAR LEFT) AND CHRISTIAN SIMCIC (FAR RIGHT) WITH (LEFT TO RIGHT) NICHOLAS MOENICH ’08, JERRY BIRCHFIELD ’09, LAURA BELL ’08, ERIN ROBINSON ’08, JUSTIN GARGASZ ’09, NICK ADORNI ’09 AND CIA PRESIDENT DAVID DEMING ’67
ABOVE RIGHT: “LAKE ERIE AT NIGHT,” AWARD-WINNING PHOTOGRAPH BY LAURA BELL ’08
BUILDING A FURNACE, BUILDING SKILLS FOR LIFE AS GLASS ARTISTS
Glass majors added a new set of skills to their portfolios last semester when they built a •
new, high-tech glass furnace in a series of weekly all-hands-on workshops. “Glass artists often end up building their own furnaces,” said Professor and Glass Department Head Brent Kee Young. “By working together on this project, my students gained a better understanding of the equipment they rely on; so it was a very practical learning experience they would not get at most other schools.” Young has long encouraged his students to develop skills in maintaining the department’s furnaces; but actually building a furnace from scratch this year took that skillset to the next level. It wasn’t an unprecedented leap, however. Slate Grove ’06, helped build a furnace at the Corning Museum of Glass during his internship there in 2005. “One of the mainstays of studying in the CIA Craft Environment is learning how to function as an independent artist in the world, not just how to use the materials,” said Grove, who is now teaching glass at Urban Glass and 160 Glass, both in New York City. Glass major Uri Davillier ’08 is photographing the furnacebuilding project for a DVD that Young says will extend the learning experience to future years. Technical Assistant Chadd Lacy is spearheading the construction and design of the unit and coordinating the effort, which began three weeks into the fall semester and was scheduled to be complete by the start of the spring semester. The results: for the $20,000 cost of materials, the department now has a highly efficient new furnace worth $35,000 that should last six to 10 years; the students learned valuable skills; and, says Young, “There was some nice team building with this project.”
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The Institute is one of only four member institutions of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design that offers a major in glass leading to a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) degree and has the distinction of being the only AICAD school in the Midwest with this degree. www.cia.edu/glass LEFT: PROFESSOR AND GLASS DEPARTMENT HEAD BRENT YOUNG DISCUSSES THE NEW FURNACE WITH GLASS MAJOR GILLIAN PRESTON ’09 AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANT CHADD LACY
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