A Note from Judith Hamera Chair, Lewis Center for the Arts
Welcome to the 2026 Lewis Center for the Arts Class Day, celebrating our graduating seniors’ work during their time with us. And what work it was: ambitious, courageous, generous, moving, and original, in and across multiple mediums! Along with the work itself, we celebrate the ways you made it. You collaborated and critiqued, thought, wrote, built, and moved, argued, struggled, and kept going individually and together. You did hard things, beautiful things, and important things. I hope your pride in both what you made and how you made it stays with you. I hope it reminds you of what art can do in turbulent times, and of what you can do with the vision and energy you’ve so amply demonstrated over your time at Princeton. On behalf of the entire LCA, most enthusiastic congratulations and thank you. We can’t wait to hear what you’ll do next.
Land Acknowledgement
The Princeton University campus stands on part of the ancient homeland and traditional territory of the Lenape people. Learn more about the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton.
Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
PROGRAM IN CREATIVE WRITING
Congratulations Class of 2026 Minor Students!
Ina Aram, Pia Bhatia, Wyatt Browne, Mariana Castillo, Athena Sophia Chu, Melanie Garcia, Avery Gendler, Harry Gorman, Teodor Grosu, Tacy Guest, Destine Harrison-Williams, Kelly Kim, Amy Liu, Roya Reese, Helena Richardson, Sofiia Shapovalova, Alden Stafford, George Tidmore, Emma Tsoglin, Jessica Wang, Avery Danae Williams, Catherine Xie, Kayla Xu
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.
George Tidmore
Outstanding Work by a Senior Award
This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Creative Writing.
Pia Bhatia, Ridge A Jaco, Helena Richardson
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.
Alden Stafford
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. Sofiia Shapovalova
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.”
Kelly Kim
2026
Edmund Keeley Literary Translation Award
This prize was established in 2016 in the name of Edmund Keeley, Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English, Emeritus, and Professor of English and Creative Writing, Emeritus. The prize is awarded to a promising young translator.
Talia Czuchlewski
Theodore Weiss Award
The award was established in 2004 in memory of Professor Weiss, distinguished poet, co-founder and co-editor of the Quarterly Review of Literature with his wife Renée Weiss, and Professor of English and Creative Writing. Presented annually to a promising young poet, or in exceptional circumstances, fiction writer.
Emma Tsoglin
PROGRAM IN DANCE
Congratulations Class of 2026 Minor Students!
Mary Burdick, Ella Colby, Honor Johnson, Olivia Kasule, Victoria Koretsky, Ava Caroline Kronman, Pippa LaMacchia, Madalyn Mejia, Sally Menaker, Tasman Moskowitz, Helena Richardson, Maya Sessions, Braeh Simon
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.
Ella Colby
Outstanding Senior Independent Project Award
This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Dance.
Olivia Kasule, Madalyn Mejia, Maya Sessions, Braeh Simon
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.
Honor Johnson
Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
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.
Pippa LaMacchia, Helena Richardson
PROGRAM IN THEATER & MUSIC THEATER
Congratulations Class of 2026 Theater Minor Students!
Nadine Allache, Ashley Baudelaire, Radon Belarmino, Kimberlynn Bjurstrom, Vivian Bui, Myrah Charles, Sahaf Chowdhury, Matthew Cooperberg, Rachel Edelstein, Vera Fei, Destine Harrison-Williams, Cynthia Jacobson, Olivia Kasule, Victoria Koretsky, Ava Kronman, Angela Kwon, Jonathan Leadingham, Zach Lee, Orion Lopez-Ramirez, Elena Milliken, Alexander Picoult, Jeanna Raphael, Tiffany Rawlston, Annalise Schuck, Kristen Tan, Grace Wang, Emily Yang, Moses Yang
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.
Destine Harrison-Williams, Alex Picoult
Outstanding New Play that Most Contributes to Cultural History
Nadine Allache
Innovation in Theater Making Award
Ash Baudelaire
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.
Myrah Charles
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.
Orion Lopez-Ramirez
Outstanding Work by a Senior in Theater
Vivian Bui, Grace Wang
Outstanding Contribution to Music Theater
Rachel Edelstein, Radon Belarmino
Tim Vasen Award for Talent and Citizenship
Emily Yang
PROGRAM IN VISUAL ARTS
Congratulations Class of 2026 Minor Students!
Nsebong Adah, Alvaro Machado Basso, Kellen Ducey, Zavier Foster, Zehma Herring, Simone Kirkevold, Yiling Li, Mary Ma, Joe McCauley, Charlotte Pfenning, Deniz Sezgin, Boya Shi, Michelle Tang, Josephine Tsai, Aysu Turkay, Dane Utley, Jadi Wang, Hans-Frederick Watanabe, László Wenk, Tyler Wilson, Trace Zhang
Congratulations Class of 2026 Practice of Art (PoA) Students!
Presented by: Pam Lins, Senior Lecturer and Interim Director of the Program in 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.
Sahaf Chowdhury, Kellen Ducey, Zavier Foster, Zehma Herring, Simone Kirkevold, Yiling Li, Mary Ma, Julianna Martin, Joe McCauley, Tessa Mudd, Joey Nartker, Summer Pierson, Deniz Sezgin, Boya Shi, Michelle Tang, Josephine Tsai, Aysu Turkay, Dane Utley, Jadi Wang, Hans-Frederick Watanabe, László Wenk, Tyler Wilson, Trace Zhang
Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
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.
Madison Davis
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.
Elena Milliken
Sally Menaker
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.”
Nsebong (Nse) Adah
Melanie Garcia
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.”
Ava Kronman
Charlotte Pfenning
LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Chair
Judith Hamera
Executive Director
Marion Friedman Young
LEWIS CENTER PROGRAM DIRECTORS
Tina Campt, Director, Princeton Atelier
Ilya Kaminsky, Director, Program in Creative Writing
Susan Marshall, Director, Program in Dance
Tina Fehlandt, Interim Associate Director, Program in Dance
Jane Cox, Director, Program in Theater and Music Theater
Tess James, Associate Director, Program in Theater and Music Theater
Stacy Wolf, Director of Fellowships
Pam Lins, Interim Director, Program in Visual Arts
Colleen Asper, Associate Director, Program in Visual Arts
For more information about the Lewis Center for the Arts or upcoming events, visit: arts.princeton.edu
