A Note from Judith Hamera Chair, Lewis Center for the Arts
Welcome to the 2025 Lewis Center for the Arts Class Day: our recognition and celebration of our graduating seniors’ achievements during their time with us. Class of ’25, you have been curious and inspiring students, bold and ambitious creators, conscientious collaborators, and excellent models of the LCA’s contributions to the intellectual life of Princeton. I hope your time with us, including your performances, exhibitions, and writings, and your big, fearless questions, stays with you. I hope it informs the ways you approach whatever you do next, and I hope it impels you to be unflagging advocates for the important work the arts do in the wo rld. We need you. On behalf of the entire LCA, most enthusiastic congratulations and thank you.
Land Acknowledgement
The Lewis Center for the Arts is working to create a living land acknowledgement, one that is embodied in its consideration of—and engagement with—the past, present, and future. As we continue this work, we acknowledge that this building sits on land considered part of the ancient homelands of the Lenni-Lenape peoples and that this campus was built on this land with no recorded consultation with the Lenni-Lenape peoples. We acknowledge that learning about history and making this statement isn’t enough. Equally important is our ongoing work to understand past harms; build awareness in present relationships and actions; and bring imagination, creative problemsolving, and community-building to the future of our programs. We are taking actions towards these goals within our curriculum, pedagogy, and programming. We invite you to learn more about the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton: indigenous.princeton.edu.
Emanuelle Sivan Wirtschafter Sippy, Daniel Viorica, Bracklinn Williams, Layla Williams
Andrew Zacks, Audrey Zhang
Senior Awards
Presented by: Patricia Smith, Professor of Creative Writing
Theodore H. Holmes ’51 and Bernice Holmes Poetry Prize
Established as part of a charitable trust created in 1999 by Bernice Holmes, this prize is in memory of her brother Theodore H. Holmes ’51. Presented each year to a single talented poet who is also an undergraduate student of Princeton University.
Emanuelle Sivan Wirtschafter Sippy
Outstanding Work by a Senior Award
This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Creative Writing.
Youngseo Lee
Samuel Shellabarger Memorial Prize in Creative Writing
This fund is awarded annually to a senior who, in fulfillment of the senior thesis requirement, shows great promise of future literary excellence.
Charles Nuermberger
Joyce Carol Oates Award
This prize was established in 2014 in the name of Joyce Carol Oates, Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus; Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus. The prize is awarded annually to a promising young fiction writer or, in exceptional circumstances, a poet. Rosemary Dietz
James Richardson Award
This prize was established in 2023 in the name of James Richardson, Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus. The prize is awarded annually to a student whose poetry speaks to Professor James Richardson’s work and to the spirit of his legendary course entitled “Life Is Short, Art Is Really Short.”
Thia Bian
2025
PROGRAM IN DANCE
Congratulations Class of 2025 Minor Students!
Moses Abrahamson, Ethan Arrington, Adam Littman Davis, Tierra Lewis, Sophie Main, Seyi Oderinde, Madison Qualls, Paige Lorna Sherman, Elitsa Reinglass Sklar, Kate Stewart, Daniel Tajes, Clara Toujas, Faith Mary Wangermann, Kiara Marie Wassoodew
Senior Awards
Presented by: Susan Marshall, Professor and Director of the Program in Dance
Francis LeMoyne Page Class of 1922 Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative Arts
This award was established in 1972 by the Trustees of the LeMoyne Page Foundation in memory of Francis LeMoyne Page, Class of 1922. Awarded annually to one or more members of the junior or senior class to honor distinctive achievement in the Creative Arts.
Ethan Arrington, Moses Abrahamson, Madison Qualls
Outstanding Senior Independent Project Award
This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Dance.
Clara Toujas, Sophie Main, Tierra Lewis, Faith Mary Wangermann
Ze’eva Cohen Senior Award
This award established in 2014 honors the Founding Director of the Program in Dance and is awarded to a student who began the study of dance in college and underwent an extraordinary transformation as an artist while contributing to the Dance Program.
Elitsa Reinglass Sklar
Sustained Community Achievement Award
This award deeply thanks seniors who have consistently invested in and generously supported the dance program community through dancing in other students’ theses, collaborating in other student led program work, serving as Student Advisors, and giving time to the Dance Program or Lewis Center through community actions that extend dance opportunities beyond the Princeton community.
Adam Littman Davis and Paige Lorna Sherman
Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
PROGRAM IN THEATER & MUSIC THEATER
Congratulations Class of 2025 Theater Minor Students!
Khalil Benjamin, Aleena Brown, Jeffery Chen, Stephenie Chen, Avi Chesler, Matthew Ciccone, Jehiyah Coles, Dominic Dominguez, Andrew Duke, Caitlin Durkin, Vincent Gerardi, Molly Lopkin, Katharine McLaughlin, Oriana Nelson, Violet Prete, Lev Ricanati, Charlie Roth, Wasif Sami, Alison Silldorff, Tevin Singei, Alex Slisher, Kate Stewart, John Venegas Juarez, Daniel Viorica, John Wallar, Faith Mary Wangermann, Chloe Webster, Le’Naya Wilkerson, Layla Williams
Senior Awards
Presented by: Jane Cox, Professor of the Practice and Director of the Program in Theater & Music Theater
Francis LeMoyne Page Class of 1922 Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative Arts
This award was established in 1972 by the Trustees of the LeMoyne Page Foundation in memory of Francis LeMoyne Page, Class of 1922. Awarded annually to one or more members of the junior or senior class to honor distinctive achievement in the Creative Arts.
Layla Williams
Innovation in Theater Making Award
Dominic Dominguez
Outstanding Contribution to Theater
Excellence in creative contributions to our theater season and to course work, measured over the course of the student’s time as a certificate student.
Avi Chesler, Vincent Gerardi, Molly Lopkin, and Alex Slisher
Creative and Community Leadership Award
Excellence in leadership of the LCA theater community over the course of the student’s time as a certificate student, with particular priority given to leadership inclusive of historically excluded portions of our theater community.
Aleena Brown
Outstanding Work by a Senior in Theater
Stephenie Chen
Outstanding Contribution to Music Theater
Jeffery Chen
Tim Vasen Award for Talent and Citizenship
Le’Naya Wilkerson
PROGRAM IN VISUAL ARTS
Congratulations Class of 2025 Minor Students!
Stella Amyot, Nathalie Barnes, Lea Casano-Boris, Kelsey Champeau, Tiffany Deane, Rodrigo Galindo-Tejeda, Noreen Hosny, Azi Jones, Isadora Alsadir Knutsen, Schuyler Saint-Phard, Corey Segal, Marie Sirenko, Lily Turri, Magnus von Ziegesar, Jasper Waldman, Caroline Weaver
Congratulations Class of 2025 Practice of Art (PoA) Students!
Dana Corbo, Sophie Main, Paige Morton, Kate Stewart, Audrey Zhang
Senior Awards
Presented by: Jeff Whetstone, Director; Professor of Visual Arts
Lucas Award in Visual Arts
This award was established in 1998 by Herbert L. Lucas, Class of 1950 and was amended in 2004 to recognize excellence and the quality of a body of work by graduating seniors in painting, sculpture, photography, film, and media.
Paige Morton, Tiffany Deane, Stella Amyot, Magnus Von Ziegesar, Schuyler SaintPhard, Corey Segal, Isadora Knutsen, Marie Sirenko, Lea Casano-Boris, Jasper Waldman, Sophie Main, Azariah Jones, Nathalie Barnes, Kelsey Champeau, Rodrigo Galindo -Tejeda, Audrey Zhang
Jim Seawright Award in Visual Arts
Established in 2009 in honor of Jim Seawright, Professor of Visual Arts, Emeritus, this award is presented annually to a student whose work exemplifies exceptional originality or innovation in any media in the Program in Visual Arts.
Dana Corbo
Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
LEWIS CENTER STUDENT AWARDS
Presented by: Judith Hamera, Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts; Professor of Dance
Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts
The prize is presented annually to one or more graduating seniors who have demonstrated excellence or the highest standard of proficiency, in performance or execution or in the field of composition in the following general areas: music, theater, dance, painting, sculpture or photography.
Kasey Shao
Wasif Sami
Toni Morrison Prize
This prize that honors Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize Laureate and Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, goes to one or more graduating seniors whose individual or collaborative artistic practice has pushed the boundaries and enlarged the scope of our understanding of issues of race. This prize honors work in any form that, in the spirit of Morrison’s, is “characterized by visionary force and poetic import.”
Schuyler Saint-Phard
Rahma Elsheikh
Action Based Community Engagement Award
The prize is awarded to the student or students whose contributions to the Lewis Center embody a commitment to “interrogating that which is accepted or understood in an attempt to break into the territory of the unknown or under-explored.”
Nathalie Barnes
Oriana Nelson
LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Chair
Judith Hamera
Executive Director
Marion Friedman Young
LEWIS CENTER PROGRAM DIRECTORS
Paul Muldoon, Director, Princeton Atelier
Yiyun Li, Director, Program in Creative Writing
Susan Marshall, Director, Program in Dance
Rebecca Lazier, Associate Director, Program in Dance
Jane Cox, Director, Program in Theater and Music Theater
Stacy Wolf, Director of Fellowships
Jeff Whetstone, Director, Program in Visual Arts
Pam Lins, Associate Director, Program in Visual Arts
For more information about the Lewis Center for the Arts or upcoming events, visit: arts.princeton.edu
